Part 2: The Roman Counter-Reformation (Pieper 1930 Eastern District); "For Rent"

      This continues from Part 1 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a short series publishing Franz Pieper's last convention essay in 1930 on the 3 Counter-Reformations. — In this segment, Pieper demonstrates the clear reasons why the Reformation had to happen – for the sake of the Gospel. Pieper begins with his most striking statement about the Vatican. From the 1930 Eastern District, pp. 21-28: 

I. The Roman Counter-Reformation.

Notable Quotations:

p. 21: "Suppose the doctrine of the Gospel were to come to general acceptance in the Church, the Pope could very soon place on the splendid buildings of the Vatican the advertisement, 'For Rent,' 'For Rent,' because of giving up the business."

22: "Both the ban imposed on Luther by the Pope… [and] by Emperor Charles … served to banish the Gospel from the Church and the world."

23: "Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg, one of those whose heart God had already opened to the Gospel, wrote in his diary: “Is Luther still alive, or have they murdered him?"

23: "At Worms …[in 1521] Luther stood alone before the emperor and the empire with his confession of Scripture"

23: "At Augsburg in 1530, seven Lutheran princes and two imperial cities stood behind the Augsburg Confession , which was a complete presentation of Luther's teachings based on Scripture."

24: "I, Doctor Martin Luther, evangelist unworthy of our Lord Jesus Christ, say that this article ‘Faith alone, without all works, makes righteous before God’"

24: "Rome demanded most resolutely that the forgiveness of sins or justification should also be based on the works of the Law. Everything that Rome has previously taught and done against the Gospel is 'codified and satanized', as it has been expressed, in the decisions of the Council of Trent"

25: "The doctrine that man is justified before God solely through faith in God's grace in Christ is also cursed"

25: On Rome: "the Church is so gracious that she throws the person who has fallen overboard a plank on which he can swim to eternal life under the direction of the Church. This vehicle for those who have fallen from baptismal grace is the penance prescribed by the Roman Church."

26: Luther: "for the ship (of baptism) is not broken, because, as I said, it is God's order and not ours."

26: Christians under the Papacy: "…there are souls in the pope's outer realm who, against the prohibition of the official church and without asking permission from the pope, cling to the gospel of the gracious forgiveness of sins solely for the sake of Christ's perfect merit"

26: "in the papal church there is still the text of the Gospels and Epistles, the same text that the Lutheran Church has taken over."

27: "a new order that provided the Pope with “front-line soldiers” or “shock troops” to fight the Gospel. This was the Jesuit Order"

27: "the [Jesuit] order, organized in the finest way, ruthlessly walks in the old paths of the old papal enmity against the Gospel."

27: "In our time, too, the Jesuit order provides the 'front-line soldiers' for the fight against the Gospel.… We in St. Louis have Jesuits in close proximity. [St. Louis University]"

28: Chemnitz: “I am often horrified that Luther … often repeated the word: ‘After my death this doctrine will again be brought into obscurity.’”

      In Part 3, "The Reformed Counter-Reformation."