Luther: Doctrine and Defense, or Lehre und Wehre

      10 years before Walther started his great theological journal Lehre und Wehre in 1855, he inserted a blurb quoting Luther's memorable saying.  From Der Lutheraner, vol. 1 (May 3, 1845), p. 72 (see also Pastor Baseley's translation here:

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Doctrine and Defense.

 

A preacher must not only feed the sheep, so that he instructs them how to be true Christians, but also ward off the wolves, so that they do not attack the sheep and lead them astray with false doctrine and lead them into error. For the devil does not rest. Now you will find many people who will suffer you to preach the Gospel, if only you do not cry out against the wolves and preach against the prelates. But though I preach rightly, and feed and teach the sheep well, yet is it not yet enough to shepherd the sheep, and keep them, lest the wolves come and lead them away again. For what is built, if I throw up stones, and watch another throw them down again? The wolf can well suffer that the sheep have good pasture; he has them the better that they are fat; but he cannot suffer that the dogs bark in hostility. — Luther. Hall. IX. 818. 19.

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      This is one of the main characteristics of both Luther and Walther that sets them apart in the Lutheran Church.  But where are the defenders today??  That is why I put out this blog, to give my faith a defense against a mad world ...