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Spirit & Life
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version 4.0
•••"The
words I have spoken to you are spirit and life"
-- Jesus, John 6:63
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| Top Stories in ReligionStuff |
| A Finger's Breadth | | Date Created: 20 Jul, 2005, 11:40 AM |
| From the Preface to the Book of Concord, as rendered in the new Readers' Edition: |
| "In this work of concord, we have not at all wished to create something new or to depart from the truth of the heavenly doctrine, which our ancestors (renowned for their piety) as well as we ourselves, have acknowledged and professed. We mean the doctrine that, having been taken from the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures, is contained (a) in the three ancient Creeds; (b) in the Augsburg Confession, presented in the year 1530 to the Emporer Charles V (of excellent memory); (c) in the Apology, which was added to this; (d) in the Smalcald Articles; and lastly (e) in both the Catechisms of that excellent man, Dr. Luther. Therefore, we also determined not to depart even a finger's breadth either from the subjects themselves, or from the phrases that are found in them. But, the Spirit of the Lord aiding us, we intend to persevere constantly, with the greatest harmony, in this godly agreement. And we intend to examine all controversies according to this true norm and declaration of the pure doctrine." (par.23, emphasis added) |
At first glance, the sentence highlighted above doesn't seem like a matter of doctrine per se; after a closer look, one finds it is nothing else. Indeed, it apparently deals only with the pious attitudes and affections of the heart -- these most noble of intentions so bold to declare how they will not be moved either from the subjects nor the very phrasings of the Lutheran Symbols.
Small wonder then that some early and vehement critics of that strictly unconditional subscription to the Lutheran Confessions we of the Missouri Synod have required of our member congregations, pastors and churchworkers sometimes accused us of "Symbolatry," or idolatry of our own Lutheran Symbols. The unconditional subscription means that one subscribes, that is professes one's faith and pledges unconditionally to preach, teach and confess in accordance with the faith set forth in the Book of Concord *because* it is a faithful and true exposition of the Holy Scriptures.
The alternative was the 'conditional' subscription, wherein one accepted the Book of Concord only *insofar as* it agrees with Scripture or on some other conditional basis. In the end, every conditional subscription falls far short of the spirit and faith at work in those who wrote these words, so much so it is entirely doubtful whether any who would subscribe conditionally to the Lutheran Confessions even holds one and the same faith as they who said: |
Therefore, we also determined not to depart even a finger's breadth either from the subjects themselves, or from the phrases that are found in them. |
What an uncommon faith and spirit this, which not even a finger's breadth departs from the subjects and phrases therein! I wonder what result should be discerned with a survey of those who could identify from a list what subjects and which phrases might be found in the Lutheran Confessions? Who in our pews knows what these subjects are? Worse, how many in our pulpits and classrooms could even distinguish phrasings from the Book of Concord from those in the Book of Common Prayer?
For here we have arrived in a day when it's getting very hard to distinguish the phrasings of an Ablaze Lutheran from those of a Mormon?! I have to wonder is it not in part due to having long grown weary of those old subjects and tired phrasings to which we Lutherans once gladly pledged ourselves as more than a matter of formality or technicality, unconditionally.
God graciously renew that Spirit once poured out richly on our forefathers, even now in our day; and work in us a determination to teach nothing else and speak in the same manner as they about those same subjects again. Let dwell among us that Spirit who caused David to rejoice in Your Word, meditate on Your precepts, love Your Law, delight in Your commands, proclaim Your decrees, and abide forever in the confession of Your Name. Amen.
P.S. I noted earlier that it only seems at first glance that the highlighted sentence is not a matter of doctrine per se, but further considered it is nothing but. Read Psalm 119 and read that highlighted line again, asking whether it is, per se, a matter of Biblical doctrine... |
Addendum:
While sitting in the waiting room for my weekly allergy shots this afternoon, waiting as we aptly named 'patients' are wont to do (whether we really want to or not), I continued my reading of my favorite waiting room book of late, Hermann Sasse's We Confess Anthology where I came across this passage related to the above: "The attempts in our day at new confessional formulations, to be put beside or in place of the old, must face our reproof that they have not gathered but have scattered, that they have not served to clarify the faith but to confuse it, because they have not taken the claims of the old Confessions seriously enough. They have given up the consensus with the fathers through many centuries in favor of some hasty, modish consensus of the moment.
The old Confessions are indeed witnesses as to how 'Holy Scripture ... was understood and expounded by those living at that time.' But they are witnesses in a different sense than the exegetical and dogmatic works contemporary with them. For 'those living at that time' gave their confession with not only their contemporaries in view. They confessed their faith 'in the presence of God and of all Christendom among both our contemporaries and our posterity' -- and so before us too. In the old Confessions they speak to us today and call upon each of us to test their decisions and their doctrine by Holy Scripture." (We Confess Anthology, p.86) |
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