BWC1c: Scripture sufficient, Tradition not needed; Internal Testimony, TSSI, etc.; Apocrypha; Koran

      This continues from Part BWC1b in a series (Table of Contents in Part BWC1) presenting Walther's edition of Baier's Compendium of Positive Theology. — Continuing our…

Notable Quotes: (Italics follow the original. All quotes not from Baier were from Walther's additions.)

80: Quenstedt: "Holy Scripture is sufficient by itself to prove all the dogmas of faith, and there is no need to add to it either the Roman Pontiff or the consent and authority of the Church, or human reason, revelations and private visions."

82: Quenstedt: "This principle of the pontiffs: 'Whatever the Roman Pontiff determines is infallibly true', first of all cannot be, it is clear from this, because they try to prove it from another source, namely from the Scripture itself, St. Matthew 16:18."

85: Balduin: "When even the regenerate want to argue about matters of faith from the principles of reason, then their reason is said to be corrupted."

 87: Calixt: “There are two principles: the authority of the divine law, and the tradition of the Catholic Church [i.e. Tradition, the theme of Prof. Biermann. Calixt was known to be heterodox.]…To this Kahn says: “When Calixt spoke of two principles in the Church, Scripture and Tradition, this was evidently at the expense of the Protestant principle of Scripture and was once again an approximation to the Roman Church.” [Dr. Benjamin Mayes incredibly argued otherwise! See here, p. 295 ff.]

91: Von Hofmann and his "I" theology: "But where do I find the faith by which I interpret the Scripture, if not in myself?"

95: Baier: "not only the sublime things that surpass the grasp of human reason, but also all the other things contained in Scripture, were inspired by God…"

96: Augsburg Confession: "Why does Scripture so often forbid making and hearing traditions?"

101: Antithesis: R. F. Grau: "the Holy Scripture…did not originate in a purely divine manner, as if the Holy Spirit, as the sole author, had dictated to the human writers, as mere scribes or instruments, both the content and the very words".

100-105: Walther quotes, in addition to the earlier Calvin, many later German "Lutheran" theologians in Antithesis to Baier's teaching of divine inspiration: R. F. Grau, Kahnis, Thomasius, von Hofmann, Luthardt, Delitzsch, Kurtz, Dieckhoff, and Philippi.

107: Chemnitz: "And so that the people of God might be certain that this Scripture was not brought by Moses by human will, but was divinely inspired, God, by very many stupendous miracles, attested to Moses's authority both before, after, and during the very writing."

110: Luther: "But the Jews, most pestilential of men, frequently pervert the meaning of the prophets by their points and distinctions"

115: Baier: "the reading of Scripture was also granted and commended to all indiscriminately, and this by divine command (Deut. 6:6–7)"

116: Quenstedt: "2. In the so-called Inquisition, nothing is more heretical and capital than the reading of the Bible."

119: Baier: "Holy Scripture does not derive its authority from the Church, since the Church was not its author"

122: Baier: "Scripture does not use the blandishments of words and the coloring of secular eloquence, adapted to captivate the minds".

126: Baier: "that the Holy Scripture so clearly and distinctly shows the way of reconciling a sinful man to God, which no other religion or writing teaches."

130: Baier: "As for the Muhammedan religion, it is a mixture of various religions, which is self-contradictory and, when compared with Christianity, is forced to submit". (Walther then gives a long quote from the Koran.)

135: Baier: "This full assurance is the benefit of the Holy Spirit, who, as Augustine says, has a chair in heaven and teaches hearts from within". [The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit, or TSSI in Latin: see Pieper, C.D. I, 313; Noland, Scaer, Tepker deny this teaching, calling it Calvinistic.]

136: Quenstedt: "A demonstrative regress is when we proceed from a confused cognition to a distinct one. When we prove the authority and divinity of the Holy Scriptures from the intrinsic testimony of the Holy Spirit, and from the Holy Scriptures we prove the testimony of the Holy Spirit, we do not commit a circle, but it is a demonstrative regress." [Another Lutheran teaches TSSI.]

138: Baier: "the testimony of the Church alone does not suffice; rather, the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit, or His operation, efficacious through Scripture itself, must also here concur."

142: Kromayer: "We believe that this writing is inspired not because of the testimony, but through the testimony of the Church." [Against the Papists.]

144: Chemnitz: "Thus Origen says that he learned from the paradosis (παραδώσει, by tradition) that the four Gospels are undisputed in the universal Church". [The place for "Tradition" in the Church.]

146: Hollaz: "Cicero gravely says in his speech Pro Archia Poeta: 'Greek is read in almost all nations, while Latin is confined to its own borders, which are indeed narrow.'"

149: Baier: Apocrypha "are not to be brought forward when the canonical Scripture is required; although otherwise they are not to be completely hidden, but are to be read profitably"

152: Chemnitz: "the Council of Trent, in its fourth session, decrees as follows: 'If anyone does not receive the entire books, with all their parts, as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate edition, for sacred and canonical, let him be anathema.'"

NOTE: Gemini reports the following Papist doctrines supported by the Apocrypha: 1. Purgatory and Prayer for the Dead, 2. Intercession of Saints, 3. Almsgiving as a Penitential Act, etc.. See also Mark Surburg's blog post of 4 years ago > HERE <.

In the next Part BWC1d we conclude the Notable Quotes from Volume I, then present the full text.