"But if ordination be understood as applying to the ministry of the Word, we are not unwilling to call ordination a sacrament. For the ministry of the Word has God's command and glorious promises. Romans 1:16 The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Likewise, Isaiah 55:11: So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please...And it is of advantage, so far as can be done, to adorn the ministry of the Word with every kind of praise against fanatical men, who dream that the Holy Ghost is given not through the Word, but because of certain preparations of their own...." Apology Augsburg Confession, XIII. #11. Number/Use Sacraments, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 311. Tappert, p. 212. Heiser, p. 95. Romans 1:16; Isaiah 55:11.
3 comments:
The fourth sacrament, huh? Better than the two "sacraments" of Reformed ideology any day, which are a mockery to the Truth and the efficacy of the Word!
I like this quotation because pastors say they have a quia subscription and yet fight against justification by faith and ordination as a sacrament. I realize some people use ordination as a sacrament to turn themselves into Roman priests, but Mel is not saying that here. He is praising the ministry of the Word, and all the Confessors agreed with him about it.
Luther re ordination: "For because this ordination was instituted by the authority of the Scriptures and then by the example and decrees of the Apostles for this purpose, namely, that it would set in place (instituo) ministers of the Word, by which the mysteries of God are dispensed, ought to be instituted through sacred ordination, or the reality which of all things in the Church is the highest and greatest, in which the entire power of the Ecclesiastical power consists, since without the Word nothing exists in the Church and through the Word all things exist" (LW 40:11).
And I might add, the words Predigtamt (Preaching Office) and Ministerium (Ministry) as used in AC V are used by Melanchthon and Luther in other writings in the usual clerical sense, i.e. as a reference to the public office of the ministry, i.e. to pastors and those entrusted with oversight of the Keys.
Sorry MLC phy-ed teachers and preschool directors. That does not mean you.
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