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| At least the telephone wires stopped the train. |
When I look at the sources, I wonder how so many Lutheran leaders could be completely wrong and yet so proud and arrogant.
For example, the Book of Concord recommends Luther's Galatians for additional reading about Justification by Faith. That certainly makes sense, because Galatians is devoted to that topic, and Luther is the greatest expositor of the Bible.
Instead, Walther's papal pronouncements are featured as the final word on any topic. His approach was not to examine the Scriptures but to formulate his own ideas and cite some Scripture passages that have no relationship to the topic.
The best example of this method is the repeated exclamation of "Raised for our justification! (Romans 4:25)" and the strange thesis that "God has declared the entire world righteous." Both are found in the Brief Statement of 1932.
"Scripture teaches that God has already declared the whole world to be righteous in Christ, Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:18-21; Rom. 4:25..."
Brief Statement, 1932
The claim is preposterous; the Scriptures explicitly teach Justification by Faith. Arkansas has real diamonds, and they are discovered from time to time. The Brief Statement, more hallowed than the Bible, is claiming that a jagged piece of junkyard glass is a huge diamond. Yes, the WELS genius Zarling calls it a diamond - Objective Justification.
