"We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort" - The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (Article XI) (Anglican/Church of England) "we are justified "freely" or "by grace" through … [Read more...]
Luther's Ecclesiology in the Genesis Commentary
From the little I've read so far, I've seen that Luther's ecclesiology was what one might call functional. The Church was neither an invisibile platonic form as the Reformed taught that each peculiar church agrees or disagrees with to some extent, neither was it the eschatologically present and glorified victorious church of Rome and the Papacy, or the holy flock of the … [Read more...]
Not What These Hands Have Done (Horatius Bonar)
Hymn 567 in the Lutheran Service Book was written by a Free Kirk Presbyterian by the name of Horatius Bonar. (This hymn is a great expression of the doctrine of justification which was taught by the Reformation, and hardly recognizable when compared to the Pelagian love songs one shudders at today. It's strange how the meaning of 'Free Church' changed from being more to less … [Read more...]
Ex'rcist Meal Time: What Can One Prayer Accomplish?
I've jokingly titled this post 'Ex'rcist Meal Time" because of the popular program (Epic Meal Time). Growing up in an Evangelical family the old German (Lutheran) meal time prayer 'Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, let this food to us be blessed, Amen'. It was the closest we got to liturgy. Whenever I heard it later in life I thought of it as a mindless and childish substitute … [Read more...]
Has God Promised Employment?
[on: "give us this day our daily bread"] "Behold, thus God wishes to indicate to us how He cares for us in all our need, and faithfully provides also for our temporal support. And although He abundantly grants and preserves these things even to the wicked and knaves, yet He wishes that we pray for them, in order that we may recognize that we receive them from His hand, and … [Read more...]