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quercuscontramalum (http://quercuscontramalum.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Paul McCain Found Someone Who Could Look Up to His...":
from Luther's Works, Lectures on Genesis
"Aristotle was a very sharp witted man. I like to compare him to Cicero. Nevertheless, I regard Aristotle as superior for the achievements of his genius, because Cicero's researches were hampered in no small measure by state affairs. But when Aristotle gives thought to the origin of mankind, his very reason constrains him to maintain that there is neither a first nor last human being. I hold that Plato did not discuss the problem seriously but wanted to poke fun at the philosophers of his time. Therefore I do not use evidence at this point.
" But if one should follow the opinion of Aristotle, who gave serious thought to these matters, what absurd conclusion will follow! In the first place, it will follow with inevitable consequence that the soul is mortal; for philosophy does not recognize anything that is potentially infinite but simply maintains that more than one infinite is an impossibility, as are a vacuum and the reciprocal penetration of contained bodies. It recognizes that actually infinite, as when we observe human beings passing away and others coming into being during a long succession of years, which Aristotle considers as being potentially infinite. This is the wisdom our reason supplies, with the result that we know nothing about the origin if the Word is lacking.
...
"Of this wretched state, that is, of our awful blindness, we are reminded by the passage before us, which gives us instruction about things that are unknown to the whole world. What do we have about the very best part of the second world besides words, not mention the first one, which antedated the Flood? The Greeks wanted to have the account of their activities preserved, the Romans likewise; but how insignificant this is in comparison with the earlier time, concerning which Moses has drawn up a list of names in the passage [Genesis], not of deeds!
"Hence one must consider this chapter of Genesis a mirror in which to discern what we human beings are, namely, creatures so marred by sin that we have no knowledge of our own origin, not even of God Himself, our Creator, unless the Word of God reveals these sparks of divine light to us from afar. That what is more futile than boasting of one's own wisdom, riches, power, and other things that pass away completely?
" Therefore we have reason to regard the Holy Bible highly and to consider it a most precious treasure. This very chapter [Genesis 10], even though it is considered full of dead words, has in it the thread that is drawn from the first world to the middle and to the end of all things. From Adam the promise concerning Christ is passed on to Seth; from Seth to Noah; from Noah to Shem; and from Shem to this Eber, from the whom the Hebrew nation received its name as the heir from whom the promise about the Christ was intended in preference to all other peoples of the whole world. This knowledge the Holy Scriptures reveal to us. Those who are without them live in error, uncertainty, and boundless ungodliness; for they have no knowledge about who they are and whence they came."
'/end quote/'
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GJ - I appreciate this Luther quotation, which expresses why we must depart from modern theology. Very few in academic theology are willing concede all authority to the Scriptures alone. That is also true of the SynCon Lutherans, who either start with Fuller and their own delusions or with Rome and the pope's fantasies.
In all those cases, their writings, speeches, and sermons float somewhere above the text, plucking useful words while feathering their nests and praising one another, from one to another.
Needless to say, these theological frauds despise faith, so the SynCons are united with the mainlines (Episcopal, ELCA) in their mockery of justification by faith, their prayerful pleas for unity with their Father Below.
