StL12d: More benefits for pastors, lay people: Why Luther?

      This continues from Part 12c (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series on the St. Louis Edition (StL) of Luther's complete writings in English. — Stoeckhardt saw a need to renew and expand the interest within the Missouri Synod for acquiring this edition now that it was completed.

(From Der Lutheraner, vol. 66 p. 197-199 (No. 13, Jun. 28, 1910) [EN]:

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Luther's Works.

 [essay by Prof. George Stoeckhardt; continued from Part 12c]

Now that the work has been completed, however, it should gain more and more authority in our own synod house, not only in the pastors' study rooms, but also, where it can be made possible, in the families of the members of the congregation. So let us here again point out the main content and the unique value of the same. It is a motto of the Lutheran Church: “God's Word and Luther's Doctrine Pure, shall to eternity endure.” God's Word, the Holy Scriptures, is the greatest treasure of Christianity. The Holy Scriptures alone show us the way to salvation and are a power of God for salvation. But when Luther appeared, this treasure was buried under a mass of human statutes, papal decrees, satanic lies and errors. Luther pulled it out of the rubble and put the eternal Gospel, the Gospel of the grace and glory of God, back on the lampstand so that it shone brightly for miles around.  

When Luther began to preach, to teach, to write, find, as a contemporary says, Prophets and Apostles again rose from the dead. In his writings, indeed in all his writings, Luther interpreted the Holy Scriptures and introduced Christianity to the right understanding of the Scriptures like no other teacher of Christianity. Luther is the Reformer of the Church prophesied in the Scriptures [Rev. 14:6-7], the prophet of these last days sent by God. He warned Christendom against the powerful errors of the Pope and the fanatics [or swarming spirits], and these are the errors of these last days by which even now many are deceived. He was not inspired himself. But he was enlightened and seized by the Spirit of God to a very special degree, and so he expounded the salutary teaching of Scripture, whose core and star is Christ, in his writings so simply, plainly and purely, and testified to it with such fervor, power and certainty of victory that every simple-minded Christian can grasp and understand this teaching and is carried away by the spirit of this teacher. 

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In the next Part 12e, Melanchthon wonderfully summarizes Luther’s teaching at his funeral.