This continues from
Part 5 (Table of Contents in
Part 1) in a series presenting an English translation of C.F.W. Walther's major essay on the Inspiration of Holy Scripture in the Missouri Synod's chief theological journal,
Lehre und Wehre. — If there was one segment of this whole series to bookmark, I might pick this one because Walther cuts through all the fog of today's modern theology and presents the real Luther on Holy Scripture. Luther stood for all of Christianity...
on the Bible:
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Translation by BackToLuther; all highlighted text, text in square brackets [] and in red font are my additions. Underlining follows Walther.
(continued from Part 5)
Lehre und Wehre, vol. 32, February 1886,
p. 33-34: "Foreword" by C.F.W. Walther
Under other circumstances than the present, it would be an insult to our readers if our Lehre und Wehre first tried to prove that Luther, too, believed and taught the literal inspiration of all the canonical writings of the Old and New Testaments. This testifies to Luther's appearance and work, which is open to all eyes of the world, right up to his death, and every page of his works left behind. On this doctrine he stood, as on an immovable rock, personally present in Augsburg before Cajetan, in Leipzig opposite Eck, in Worms before Emperor and Empire, in Marburg opposite Zwingli and then the highlanders [Oberländern: Anabaptists? Regensburg?]; from this doctrine he went out on the lectern and in the pulpit; this doctrine shone forth upon him, as in his didactic, as well as his exegetical and polemical writings. On this doctrine he stood against whom ever the latter were directed, be it against the Papists, or against the Enthusiasts or against a rationalist as Erasmus, or against Jews and Turks.
It is precisely in this doctrine that no earlier and later Luther can be distinguished. In this he has remained completely the same through all periods of his life.
[1] Luther 's words of 1517, with which he concluded his 95 theses against the papal indulgence, and gave the public signal to the great Reformation struggle, without even knowing it: “Also I am not so foolish that I would let the divine word be placed behind the fables, those that human reason invented”;
[2] Luther’s word of 1521, with which he wrote his first personal confession before the whole world: “I can not do otherwise”;
[3] Luther's Word of 1530, which he, as his work hovered in the highest danger, sang joyfully and confidently into the whole of Christendom: “Thy Word they shall let remain”;
[4] Luther's Word of 1546, in which he with his Wittenbergers for (page 34) this life bid farewell: “I am willing to suffer all sorts of invectives, but not a finger’s breadth from the mouth which says: Hear this!” —
These four words of Luther from various times are four torches which stand on his life's way and will shine and testify to the Last Day that Luther believed that every word of the Holy Scripture was bound to the Word of the living God. If it is necessary to first prove that Luther believed in a God, it seems just as necessary to first prove that Luther believed and taught the divine inspiration of the whole Holy Scripture in the fullest sense of the word.
Unfortunately, dear God! but this proof has become all too necessary. The modern-believing theologians, who not only assert that not a few errors (hay, straw, wood, and stubble) are found in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles, but the learned theologians have also the task to assert the kernel of truth that here too at the same time Luther is their authority.
May Luther even so write (as Prof. Cremer is not afraid even to cite this passage): “A single letter, yes, a single tittle of Scripture is more and greater than heaven and earth. That is why we cannot suffer that they would be displaced in the least.” (Gr. Commentary on the Letter To the Galatians. VIII 2661.; [StL 9, 650 §126; LW 27, p. 41; WA 402, p. 52])
May Luther even so write: “It is therefore clear to me that every single passage makes the world too narrow.” (“That These Words of Christ, 'This is My Body' Still Stand Firm Against the Fanatics”, from the year 1527. XX, 982 [StL 20, p. 788, § 59; LW 37, p. 40 )
May Luther even so write: “I confess that if Dr. Carlstadt, or anyone else, could have convinced me five years ago that only bread and wine were in the sacrament he would have done me a great service. At that time I suffered such severe conflicts and inner strife and torment that I would gladly have been delivered from them. I realized that at this point I could have given the Papacy over as the greatest whorehouse [Puff]. There were two who then wrote me, with much more skill than Dr. Carlstadt has, and who did not torture the Word with their own preconceived notions. But I'm trapped, and can not get out; the text is too powerful and will not be torn from its meaning with words.” (Letter to the Christians at Strassburg in Opposition to the Fanatic Spirit, dated 1524. XV, 2448. f., § 10; StL 15, 2050 § 10; LW 40, p. 68)
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continued in Part 7 = = = = = = = = = = =
Walther presents two powerful series of brief quotes. These are taken from the early Luther to the latest Luther.
The Reformer is always the same. The beauty of Walther's compilations is that they can be easily memorized, or at least this blog post can be bookmarked, for a decisive answer to any
wiseacre who would attempt to put Luther with modern theology, a "theology" that cannot quite believe God at His Word, that in various degrees questions Holy Scripture. — In the next
Part 7, Walther answers the
wiseacre theologians who harp on the lack of any major article on the Inspiration of Scripture in the Lutheran Confessions...
