Thursday, August 23, 2007

I Believe in the Efficacy of God's Word


God's Word is the only foundation for the work of the Gospel. As Lenski and others once said, the Church is built upon one thing only - the Word of God.

The Word, preached and taught, brings the Gospel to people. The Word conveys the Savior to us. We call the Word a Means of Grace because God grants forgiveness only through the Word (visible and invisible, the Word and Sacraments).

When the Word is correctly taught, the positive affirmations are not left to hover in the air without contrasting them with the negatives (rejections).

If the Word is efficacious, then Reformed doctrine is wrong. Fuller be damned.

If the papacy is the Antichrist, a Roman Catholic bishop cannot march in a religious service with the faculty of Bethany Lutheran Seminary. A Roman Catholic archbishop (gay or straight) cannot teach the Word at Wisconsin Lutheran College. Those who arrange, cover up, and explain away such monstrous behavior must be disciplined or expelled.

If Holy Communion an expression of doctrinal unity, open communion is nothing less than a repudiation of Lutheran doctrine.