One person said, "I cannot understand Mark 13, where God knows the day of His coming, but the Son does not."
I responded, "I do not understand the Incarnation. That is the ultimate miracle. The Word teaches the mysteries revealed by the Spirit, so we subordinate reason to the Scriptures."
I was not claiming to understand the Mark 13 reference, only saying that everything else is rather minor compared to God taking on human flesh and dwelling among us.
Mark 13
31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
The Gospel teaches us faith. The Holy Spirit plants faith in our hearts through the Word and nourishes that faith through the Word and Holy Sacraments - which are the visible Word.
Nothing is quite as satisfying as teaching and studying the statements and sermons of Jesus. If we are studious, whether as laity or clergy, then we are necessarily teaching someone, if that outreach is only limited to our own household. But that is unlikely, because so many false and and dangerous notions get brought up daily.
I often think of the victory of remaining a believer during a lifetime of spiritual assaults, diversions, betrayals, and temptations. To remain trusting in Christ - that is good and bound to have collateral effect - collateral damage to Satan and his minions.
Think of this - a baby is baptized into the Faith and nurtured in the Bible as he grows up. Then he reaches seminary where he learns - to his astonishment - that everyone in the world is already forgiven. Pastor Papenfus admitted that he never heard of UOJ until he reached seminary. Four years at Northwestern College and no UOJ? But he argued for this pernicious and infectious dogma at Kokomo.
Now this Halle University dogma is so embedded in clergy that they loathe Luther and the Book of Concord, honor the teaching of a syphilitic bishop - Walther's mentor - and wonder where all the members went.
