My good friend Pastor Weedon made a comment on a Lutheran forum and a few of you have drawn it to my attention. So, I’m passing it along to the rest of you. I think Pr. Weedon is making a point that is lost on many Lutherans, or, to be more charitable about it, not clearly understood, neither by Lutherans or non-Lutherans. Lutherans are very hard for Calvinists, Evangelicals, Baptists, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthdoox to figure out. Just when they think they’ve got us nightly shut up tightly into our “denominational” box we go and say something, or do something, that jumbles their well ordered “systems.”

Here then is why this is so, as explained by Pr. Weedon:

We in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod do not accept denominationalism.  We do not believe in the “branch theory” of the Church.  We recognize that our practice of closed communion is exactly what would be appropriate for the entire visible Church on earth.  We believe that what we believe is precisely what every jurisdiction/communion should believe, because it is—we hold—nothing other than what the Scriptures teach.

In other words, we don’t regard those who hold to a different Confession as just “another denomination.”  We regard the other confessions to the extent they differ from ours to be falsifications of the truth.  As offensive and prideful as they may sound, it’s not intended to be anything less than what (until very recent times) everyone believed about their own confession.

So we act in our communion discipline as what we believe the Lutheran confession of the Faith actually is: the legitimate heir and successor to the Catholic Church of the West. That’s a self-understanding derived from our Lutheran Symbols.  We do not claim to be the only jurisdiction in this Catholic Church of the West, purified by the Gospel.  We recognize other particular churches around the globe in whom the same faith resides—from the churches of the Archbishop of Latvia, to the churches of the Archbishop of Kenya and the Bishop of Southern Africa and the President of the Lutheran Church—Canada, and a bunch of others.  Consequently the notion that our altars are closed to non-Missourians is actually not at all accurate.

In the corrupted state of the Church in which doctrine that we cannot but regard as false and dangerous is enshrined in the confessions of other jurisdictions, this leads invariably to acknowledging in them that while members of the Church Catholic may well reside in their midst (in fact, most certainly DO), nonetheless those Churches by the acceptance of various falsehoods alongside the truth of God, cannot be acknowledged as true sister churches on a par with our Synod.  Again, I know it sounds horrific to the ears of those who think denominationally, but if you think confessionally it makes perfect sense:  confessions can be entirely pure, somewhat corrupted, or totally destructive of the Christian faith.  We tend to put almost all the other confessions (Anglican, Reformed, Roman, Orthodox) as “somewhat corrupted.”  Totally destructive would be something like a Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness confession.

So back to the assumption that an LCMS person holds the pure confession – that IS the assumption we would make, unless the person in question gives evidence that his participation at our altars is in fact a lie – that he disagrees with our Lutheran confession of the Christian faith as expressed in our Lutheran Symbols.

I’ve probably offended all my ELCA friends and many of my Missouri ones by the above, but I think it’s clear that until we can get the differing ecclesiologies understood, there’s no hope of anyone understanding our practice of responsible communion (my preferred term), which takes seriously into account the nature of one’s public profession at a given altar.

 

I mentioned a few weeks ago a link that Pastor Harrison had sleuthed out in his never ending quest to find rare and wonderful first editions of Lutheran works. He had found a complete, full color, scanned version of the Book of Concord from a German library and I had failed to notice that not only can you have fun viewing it online, you can download the whole thing as a PDF file and explore it to your heart’s content off-line. Here’s the direct link to the PDF download. It is a large file, so if you have only dial-up or slower broadband, so be advised.

What is the purpose and spirit of the Lutheran Confessions?

We use the word “confession” in a variety of ways today. A young man confesses his love for his fiancee. A criminal confesses to a felony. Christians confess their sins to a fellow believer or at the appropriate time in the church service. The Lutheran Confessions are something quite different from all that. They are written, formal statements with which a group of Christians, or an individual, declare to the world their faith, their deepest and undaunted convictions.

The Lutheran Confessions represent the result of more than 50 years of earnest endeavor by Martin Luther and his followers to give Biblical and clear expression to their religious convictions. The important word in that definition is the word “convictions.” This word reveals the spirit in which the Lutheran Confessions were written, not a spirit of hesitation or doubt, but of deepest confidence that Lutherans, when they were writing and subscribing the Concessions and creeds, because their content was all drawn from the Word of God, Scripture, were affirming the truth, the saving truth.

Listen to what the Lutheran confessors say in the very last paragraph of the Book of Concord (FC SD, XII, 40), a statement that describes their assurance and their doctrinal certainty:

Therefore, it is our intent to give witness before God and all Christendom, among those who are alive today and those who will come after us, that the explanation here set forth regarding all the controversial articles of faith which we have addressed and explained—and no other explanation—is our teaching, faith, and confession. In it we shall appear before the judgment throne of Jesus Christ, by God’s grace, with fearless hearts and thus give account of our faith, and we will neither secretly nor publicly speak or write anything contrary to it. Instead, on the strength of God’s grace we intend to abide by this confession.

Here we observe that those who wrote and signed the Lutheran Confessions were not merely settling controversies, or expressing opinions, or devising new and clever doctrinal formulations. They were confessing their faith and expressing their determination never to depart from that confession. They take their stand as in the presence of God and stake their very salvation on the doctrine they confess. So confident are they of their position, so certain of their doctrine, that they dare bind not only themselves but also their posterity to it. And in another place they show their willingness to submit themselves not only to the content but to the very phrases of their confession: “We have determined not to depart even a finger’s breadth either from the subjects themselves, or from the phrases which are found in [the Confessions]” (Preface of the Book of Concord, quoted from Concordia Triglotta [St. Louis: Concordia, 1921], p. 23).

I am sure that such a profession seems like an impossible anachronism today, a mark of inflexible pride which can no longer be respected or emulated by enlightened people. But certainly with such expressions of certainty the Confessions have captured the spirit of Christ and the New Testament. Our Lord taught with authority and promised His disciples that they would “know the truth.” And how often does the inspired apostle Paul dogmatically affirm, “I know,” “I speak the truth … .. I am persuaded”!

The Lutheran confessors are convinced that Christians, basing their doctrine on Scripture and the promises of God, can be certain of their salvation and can formulate and confess true statements about God and all the articles of the Christian faith. It is this spirit in which all our Confessions were written and in which they so eloquently give witness to the Gospel of Christ. The Importance of Doctrine

According to the Lutheran Confessions, true doctrine, i. e., correct teaching about God and His activity toward us, is not some remote possibility but a marvelous fact, the result of God’s grace; and this doctrine is demonstrated in the Confessions themselves. Those who wrote our Confessions were convinced of this (FC SD, Rule and Norm, 13); but more than that, they were persuaded that true doctrine, theology (which means language about God), is of inestimable importance to the church and to individual Christians. Why?

It is first and foremost by pure doctrine that we honor God and hallow His name, as we pray in the First Petition of the Small Catechism. “For,” Luther says, “there is nothing he would rather hear than to have his glory and praise exalted above everything and his Word taught in its purity and cherished and treasured” (LC, 111, 48). It is by agreement in the pure doctrine that permanent concord and harmony can be achieved in the church. “In order to preserve the pure doctrine and to maintain a thorough, lasting, and God-pleasing concord within the church, it is essential not only to present the true and wholesome doctrine correctly, but also to accuse the adversaries who teach otherwise (1 Tim. 3:9; Titus 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:24; 3:16)” (FC SD, Rule and Norm, 14). Doctrine is important to Lutherans because they believe that Christian doctrine is not a human fabrication but originates in God. It is God’s revealed teaching about Himself and all He has done for us in Christ. Therefore Luther says confidently and joyfully: “The doctrine is not ours but God’s” (WA, 17 11, 233). And he will risk everything for the doctrine, for to compromise would do harm to God and to all the world. Luther’s spirit is echoed throughout our Confessions as they affirm that their doctrine is “drawn from and conformed to the Word of God” (FC SD, Rule and Norm, 5, 10). Pure Christian doctrine is important for our Lutheran Confessions because it brings eternal salvation. It “alone is our guide to salvation” (Preface to the Book of Concord, Concordia Triglotta, p. 11). For this reason our Confessions call it “heavenly doctrine” and they never fail to show and apply this saving aim of evangelical doctrine.

This emphasis on the importance of Christian doctrine is often not understood or appreciated in our day of relativism and indifference.

How often do modem church leaders declaim that the church will never achieve purity of doctrine; nor is it necessary! Therefore we should concentrate our efforts toward ministry to people in their needs. The longest article in our Confessions deals with good works and ministry to people in their needs (Ap, IV, 122-400) and insistently admonishes the church to follow such an enterprise. But this does not make doctrine less important! Today when people are leaving the church in droves and abandoning the faith, we must keep our priorities straight.

Luther says:

The great difference between doctrine and life is obvious, even as the difference between heaven and earth. Life may be unclean, sinful, and inconsistent; but doctrine must be pure, holy, sound, unchanging … not a tittle or letter may be omitted, however much life may fail to meet the requirements of doctrine. This is so because doctrine is God’s Word, and God’s truth alone, whereas life is partly our own doing…. God will have patience with man’s moral failings and imperfections and forgive them. But He cannot, will not, and shall not tolerate a man’s altering or abolishing doctrine itself. For doctrine involves His exalted, divine Majesty itself (WA, 30 111, 343 f.)

Strong words! But this is the spirit of confessional Lutheranism.

Again theologians remind us today that what matters for the Christian is his faith relation to Christ: Faith is directed toward Christ and not a body of doctrine. Of course! And how often do our Confessions stress just this point! But the Christ in whom we believe and live and hope is not a phantom or myth, but the very Son of God who became a man, who really lived and suffered and died as our Substitute, and who rose again for our justification. In short, He is the Christ of whom we can speak meaningfully and cognitively; and the minute we begin to speak about Him and confess Him, we are speaking doctrine.

Again we are told that we are saved by Christ, not by pure doctrine. True! But does this make pure doctrine unimportant? We are not saved by good works or social concern either. But does that make social concern and works of love of no account? No, pure doctrine has its function. It enables us to glorify God with our lips, to teach and proclaim a pure and saving Gospel and not a false gospel, to bring poor sinners to know their true condition and to know God as He is, a wonderful and gracious Savior, and not to flounder seeking and chasing phantoms.

Let us take our Confessions seriously when they see pure doctrine as a wonderful gift and instrument for glorifying God and building His church. This was Paul’s conviction: “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee” (1 Tim. 4:16). 14 Confessional Subscription, an Evangelical Act

Lutherans have always held that creeds and confessions are necessary for the well-being of the church. Just as Christ’s church and all Christians are called upon to confess their faith (Matt. 10:32; Rom. 10:9; 1 Peter 3:15; 1 John 4:2), so the church, if it is to continue to proclaim the pure Gospel in season and out of season, must for many reasons construct formal and permanent symbols and confessions and require pastors and teachers to subscribe these confessions. It is impossible for the church to be a nonconfessional church, just as impossible as to be a nonconfessing church. And so today and ever since the Reformation Lutheran churches over the world have required their pastors to subscribe the Lutheran Confessions.

What does this mean? With her confessions the church is speaking to the world, but also to God, who has spoken to her in His Word-speaking to Him in total commitment, speaking to Him by an unequivocal, unconditional response in the spirit of, “We believe, teach, and confess” (FC Ep, Rule and Norm, 1). This response is Scriptural, taken from Scripture itself. How often do we read in our Confessions that the teaching presented is “grounded in God’s Word”! And so the Confessions are no more than a kind of “comprehensive summary, rule, and norm,” grounded in the Word of God, “according to which all doctrines should be judged and the errors which intruded should be explained and decided in a Christian way” (FC Ep, Heading). This would be an unbelievably arrogant position to take, were it not for the fact that all the doctrine of our Confessions is diligently and faithfully drawn from Scripture.

And so when the Lutheran pastor subscribes the Lutheran Confessions (and the confirmand or layman confesses his belief in the Catechism [LC, Preface, 19]), this is a primary way in which he willingly and joyfully and without reservation or qualification confesses his faith and proclaims to the world what his belief and doctrine and confession really are. Dr. C. F. W. Walther, the father of the Missouri Synod, long ago explained the meaning of confessional subscription, and his words are as cogent today as when they were first written:

An unconditional subscription is the solemn declaration which the individual who wants to serve the church makes under oath (1) that he accepts the doctrinal content of our Symbolical Books, because he recognizes the fact that it is in 15 full agreement with Scripture and does not militate against Scripture in any point, whether that point be of major or minor importance; (2) that he therefore heartily believes in this divine truth and is determined to preach this doctrine…. Whether the subject be dealt with expressly or only incidentally, an unconditional subscription refers to the whole content of the Symbols and does not allow the subscriber to make any mental reservation in any point. Nor will he exclude such doctrines as are discussed incidentally in support of other doctrines, because the fact that they are so stamps them as irrevocable articles of faith and demands their joyful acceptance by everyone who subscribes the Symbols.

This is precisely how the Confessions themselves understand subscription (FC Ep, Rule and Norm, 3, 5, 6; SD, Rule and Norm, 1, 2, 5).

Needless to say, confessional subscription in the nature of the case is binding and unconditional. A subscription with qualifications or reservations is a contradiction in terms and dishonest.

Today many Lutherans claim that such an unconditional subscription is legalistic. Sometimes they assert that such a position is pompous and not even honest.

We might respond: What can possibly be wrong about confessing our faith freely and taking our confession seriously? For it is the freest and most joyful act in the world for those of us who have searched these great confessional writings and found them to be Scriptural and evangelical to subscribe them. Of course, to force or bribe or wheedle a person into subscribing them would be an awful sin and a denial of what our Confessions are, namely symbols, standards around which Christians rally willingly and joyfully in all their Christian freedom. Confessions Are the Voice of the Church

When I was a boy my father told me a curious story about an occurrence in the 19th century. During the controversy among Lutherans concerning predestination, the old Norwegian Synod sided with the Missouri Synod. One member of the Norwegian Synod demurred vehemently and in his consternation said, “I am the Norwegian Synod.” That, of course, was an absurdity, just as it would be absurd for me to claim, “I am the church.” The church, as we shall see, 16 according to our Confessions is the total of all believers in Christ.

So it is, in a similar sense, with the Confessions. They do not belong to Luther or Melanchthon or those who, sometimes after great struggles, wrote them. They belong to those for whom they were written, the church. Princes subscribed the Augsburg Confession on behalf of their churches. Luther’s catechisms were finally subscribed because the lay people had already accepted them. Thousands of clergy subscribed the entire Book of Concord, and the only reason the laity did not do so was the length of the book. All this suggests two things.

First, that every Lutheran ought to be concerned with what is rightfully his and ought to agree with the doctrine of the Confessions. But it suggests also that, if the Confessions really belong to the entire church, then everyone in the church ought to be united in the evangelical doctrine of the Confessions. That was the case when the Book of Concord was compiled in 1580, and it ought to be the case today. Doctrinal Unanimity, a Blessing to the Church

The Church of the Reformation after the death of Luther in one respect resembled the congregation at Corinth in the first century: It was a church highly endowed with the gifts of the Spirit, but at the same time tragically confused and divided. To the Corinthian congregation Paul wrote: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10). Paul had no quarrel with the diversity of spiritual gifts he found in that congregation; he rejoiced in all that, provided it did not polarize the church. But there is only one Christ, he says, who is undivided; one Gospel; and all Christians are to be of the same mind and judgment, united in their faith and doctrine.

The Church of the Reformation took Paul’s admonition seriously when after Luther’s death doctrinal controversies arose and threatened to destroy its unity in the Gospel. The Lutheran churches recognized that the unity of the Spirit which Paul stressed could only be manifested when there was unanimity “in doctrine and in all its articles and … the right use of the holy sacraments” (FC SD, X, 31). Their program for 17 unity and concord in a troubled church went as follows: “The primary requirement for basic and permanent concord within the church is a summary formula and pattern, unanimously approved, in which the summarized doctrine commonly confessed by the churches of the pure Christian religion is drawn together out of the Word of God” (FC SD, Rule and Norm, 1).

What a remarkable statement! Here is not the cynical despairing of the possibility of doctrinal unity, so common to our relativistic age! not the sneering rejection of doctrinal unanimity as something inimical to man’s freedom and autonomy. No, here is a statement of confidence in the unifying power of the Word and Spirit of God. These old Lutherans were convinced that doctrinal controversies were an offense and doctrinal aberrations pernicious to believers and unbelievers alike. “The opinions of the erring party cannot be tolerated in the church of God,” they said, “much less be excused and defended” (FC SD, Intro., 9). But at the same time they maintained with Paul-like optimism that unity in doctrine and all its articles was not a remote possibility, not an impossible goal at the end of a rainbow, but a wonderful blessing that could be achieved by the church which would bow to the Word of God and allow the Spirit to rule in all its life.

And so the Lutheran confessors dare to produce a confession which all are asked to sign and which represents the unanimous declaration of all. They pledge themselves to the Book of Concord and confess: “We have from our hearts and with our mouths declared in mutual agreement that we shall neither prepare nor accept a different or a new confession of our faith. Rather, we pledge ourselves again to those public and well-known symbols or common confessions which have at all times and in all places been accepted in all the churches of the Augsburg Confession” (FC SD, Rule and Norm, 2). And they dare to maintain: “All doctrines should conform to the standards [the Lutheran Confessions] set forth above. Whatever is contrary to them should be rejected and condemned as opposed to the unanimous declaration of our faith” (FC Ep, Rule and Norm, 6). Do such statements reveal pride, cocksureness, narrowness? Not at all! But Pauline, Spirit-led confidence and optimism.

If only we could recapture this spirit today! Openness is an in-word today. And a “wholesome latitude” in doctrine is 18 considered by many Lutherans to be a positive blessing to the church. Not many years ago a Lutheran synod actually stated (but later modified, thank goodness): “We are firmly convinced that it is neither necessary nor possible to agree in all non-fundamental doctrines.” But where do the Scriptures or our Confessions say such a thing? Where are we ever told that we Christians need not agree on what Scripture affirms? Yes, let us be open to people’s desires and needs, to their diversity of gifts and opinions. But not to error. Let us rather give heed to Paul’s words and speak the same thing and be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment. Let us face up to doctrinal differences wherever they arise and impinge upon our unity. And let us seek and treasure the doctrinal unanimity of which our Confessions speak. Then we may call ourselves Lutherans.

Source: Getting into The Theology of Concord by Robert D. Preus (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1977), pgs. 7-29. Order a copy of this book

In recent years there have been some who have attempted to suggest that Chemnitz was not really so much on the side of Luther, or Melanchthon, but walked a middle road of his own. This is simply not true. And here is just a bit of proof. Oh, yes, in addition, this material nicely demonstrates that the second edition of the Apology, the Octavo, had been rejected for use in corpus doctrinae already in Melanchthon’s lifetime by Chemnitz and other Lutheran theologians. The “new thing” apparently in some circles is to extol Melanchthon’s talk about two kinds of righteousness. It has even been asserted, in a rather hamfisted manner, that this is a “better” way of explaining things than the distinction between Law and Gospel. Chemnitz and his fellow confessional theologians would have been appalled at such an assertion, for they knew who was the “chief teacher of the churches of the Augsburg Confession” and that was not Master Philipp!

One of the predecessor documents that led to the Book of Concord were the various “body of doctrine” or Corpus Doctrinae that were prepared and adopted by various German territories. They were prepared, in several cases, in response to Philip Melanchthon’s own personal collection of confessions, which came to be known as the Corpus Doctrinae Philippicum. The Philippicum was received quite negatively, and this started the ball rolling toward formulating alternative collections. One of those documents was prepared by Moerlin and Chemnitz, in 1563. Writing later about the development of the Braunschweig Corpus Doctrinae, Chemnitz notes, “In 1561, because of the need and opportunity of their churches, the honorable cities of Saxony sent their political delegates and their leading theologians to Lueneburg where they prepared a number of Articles. And in order to preserve Christian tranquility and abiding unity in their churches, the honorable council of the noble city of Braunschweig gave orders to print its Church Order in a Corpus including the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, which was first sent to Charles V in 1530, and again in 1531 after its first printing.” So, already in 1561 the second edition of the Apology had been set aside for use in Corpus Doctrinae being prepared. And why is this? The Braunschweig City Council notes in its preface, which was written for the council by Chemnitz, “In recent years the proper and true sense of the Augsburg Confession was occasionally subjected to unusual and unforeseen disagreements. . . . The copies of that Confession (CA) and its subsequent Apology did not always remain precise in every detail, but were altered somewhat as new editions were published.” Chemnitz is highly critical of Melanchthon’s practice of treating church confession as his own private documents and wrote, “Such a Corpus Doctrinae dare not consist of private documents.” He stresses the fact that, “. . . the first CA edition of 1530 must be considered the most reliable and authentic version.” Chemnitz, who was a student of Melanchthon and respected the professional value of his writings, nonetheless regarded Luther as more important and established this principle: “Luther’s works dare not be understood or interpreted in the light of Philipp’s writings, but Philipp’s writings must be understood and interpreted in the light of Luther’s works.”

Source:
Inge Mager, The Doctrinal Confession (Corpus Doctrinae) of the City of Braunschweig in Relationship to Other Collections of Lower Saxon Doctrinal Documents
in
The Reformation in the City of Braunschweig
450th Anniversary Document
1528-1978
Published by the Braunschweig City-Church Association
1978
Unpublished translation by Everette W. Meier
May 1989

In the history of the printing of the Book of Concord, there is a unique edition which appeared in Leipzig in 1735, edited by Christian Reineccius. It provides the texts of the Book of Concord in both their official German edition (from 1580) and the official Latin edition (from 1584) set in two columns. You can see the whole book, digitally, from the State Library in Dresden, which continues to add titles to their fantastic online digital reproductions. It includes the Catalog of Testimonies and the Saxon Visitation Articles.

I can’t tell you how many times pastors and laypersons have told me how they have been reading the Book of Concord, often for the first time, in a long time, or just for the first time, period. It happened again just the other day. And, to a person, they express joy and even a bit of amazement about how relevant, timely, practical, personal and devotional the Book of Concord is. Here are some resources to help you read the Book of Concord, and to bring it to the attention of your congregation in a more intentional way.

Daily Readings from the Book of Concord is available on the Book of Concord website; it uses the table at the beginning of the Concordia edition to break the confessions up into daily reading segments. It will send you a link to the start of the reading for each day (M-F). You can pull out your Concordia Edition and read it there, or click on the link to read it online. To help promote reading the Book of Concord to your Facebook friends, go to http://bookofconcord.org/daily periodically and click on the “recommend” button.

Weekly Readings for the 3-year series is a bulletin insert tied to the readings of the day for your church to insert into their bulletins. This will provide a method to acquaint more church members with our confessions. These are prepared by Pastor Doug May each week.

Weekly Readings for the 1-year series is a similar bulletin insert for those churches that use the 1-year historic readings, prepared by Pastor Kurt Hering.

A friend of mine recently pointed out to me a fascinating rare book for sale in Germany, and upon closer inspection, we discovered the book is actually a handwritten transcript of a “colloquy” meeting involving the authors of the Formula of Concord and a group of theologians in Germany, apparently one of the many meetings held after the adoption of the Formula of Concord, in an effort to get as many German theologians “on board” before the Book of Concord was published. The meeting was held in 1578. Here is a photo of a spread from the mss, recording the conversation that took place concerning the Lord’s Supper. The Concordia Seminary library has purchased the manuscript, so it is good to know this piece of Lutheran history will not reside in the rare book collection there. As usual, click on the photo below, a new window will open and then click on the image again and the full size photo will be available to you. The notes are in German and Latin. Dr. Benjamin Mayes, my colleague here, explained to me that handwritten notes like this are much easier to read when they are in Latin, since they used a handwritten form of Latin that is more clear, than the handwriting they used when writing in German. You can see an example of that below, where, for example, the comments of Dr. Andreae, on the upper left portion of the pages are in Latin, and then you can see German above and below it. Fascinating stuff, no?

“A fanatic is a person who won’t change his mind, and can’t change the subject.” – Winston Churchill

Yes, that’s pretty much me when I get going on the Book of Concord, which is often. I have to begin this post with an apology, to my friend, Myrtle, a dear sister in Christ who sent this to me, longer ago than I care to admit. She has been very patient waiting for me to share this resource with you. But, finally, here you go. Pastor Fisk’s great video on the Book of Concord reminded me of my forgetfullness.

Please do check out her fine work at assembling a nice little pamphlet on whyt he Book of Concord is so great. It is nice to see I’m not the only one who is nuts for the Book of Concord. There are a lot of us BOC Fanatics out there. Why?

OK, to repeat: Well, watch Rev. Fisk’s video and read Myrtle’s great little pamphlet. You can get it here.

Told you I can’t change the subject!

The young Jedi YouTuber, Pastor Fisk, has a nicely done explanation of what makes the Book of Concord such a wonderful book. Check out his, as always, entertaining and unique take on it:

<object width=”600″ height=”362″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/O2uk6xaKOYo?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/O2uk6xaKOYo?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”600″ height=”362″></embed></object>

“It so happens that the people who lived in the Age of the Reformation knew and understood certain truths which were later forgotten and had to be learned from them again. The loyalty of the Evangelical Lutheran Church is accounted for by these experiences. We are faithful to this church, not because it is the church of our Fathers, but because it is the church of the Gospel; not because it is the church of Luther, but because it is the church of Jesus Christ. If it became something else, if its teaching were something other than a correct exposition of the plain Word of God, it would no longer be our church.

“It is not the Lutheran liturgy that matters. The church can get along without it if it must. It is not the Symbolic Books that count. If it should ever be demonstrated that they contain essential errors, we would be the first ones to cast them into the fire, for our norma normans, the standard by which we judge doctrines, is the Bible alone. Nor is it the Evangelical Lutheran Church, as a separate church in Christendom, that matters. The moment it becomes anything else than the stand on which is put the lamp which alone is a light upon our path, it becomes a sect and must disappear. We would not be Lutherans if we did not believe this!”

From Here We Stand, Nature & Character of the Lutheran Faith (E.T. Theodore Tappert, rights assigned to Lutheran Publishing House, Adelaide, 1979)

I really enjoyed this blog post I bumped into the other day. I think you will too.

I was raised Lutheran. Baptized into the faith through water and the Word when I was 20 days old. Brought to Sunday School as a youth and after attending Confirmation class, I was confirmed in the Evangelical Lutheran Church when I was 4,866 days old.

During High School, I decided that I didn’t believe in Jesus or God His Father. I left the faith for a while, but by the grace of God, I was called back to saving faith by the Word in college. After again attending an LC–MS church for several years, I decided that I would attend seminary with the intention of serving God’s church as an under-shepherd (pastor).

Imagine my surprise when I discovered the Really Big Book (otherwise known as the Book of Concord of 1580). My surprise, by the way, was not that there was a really big book published 400+ years ago; no, my surprise was that there was a book which contains the official confession of the Lutheran Church. My surprise was that, in order to become a pastor in the Missouri Synod, I would have to read and agree with (subscribe unconditionally to ) everything in that book “because” it faithfully teaches what the Bible reveals.

Hmmm… interesting. How come I’ve never even heard of this?

And, wait a minute.

Everything? I have to agree with everything in that Really Big Book? You’re going to ask me at my ordination if I believe that the entirety of the Book of Concord of 1580 (that self-same Really Big Book) is a “true exposition of Holy Scripture and a correct exhibition of the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church?” (LC-MS Agenda). Not only that, but the answer I will be required to give is: “Yes, I make these Confessions my own because they are in accord with the Word of God”?

Wow. Here I don’t even know this book exists and now unconditional subscription to the content of that book is going to be a prerequisite to ordination? Not only that, but I need to be able to say openly, freely, and without reservation that what that book says is in fact my own confession— not the confession of those long-dead reforming saints, but MY OWN!

Truth be known, once I started to get over my shock, then I started to get angry. I was mad. “Don’t we just need the bible?!?”

Thanks be to God that I didn’t despair. I figured “it couldn’t hurt to read the stupid thing” and see what it says. After all, if this Book of Concord is the official confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church… if it is norm by which the Lutheran Church believes, teaches, and confesses what we believe the Bible says… I might as well give it a shot. Right?

So I started to read. And boy was I shocked! This Really Big Book was a treasure trove! It wasn’t a bunch of debatable opinions by a bunch of really dead guys… it was a faithful teaching of what God reveals in Scripture. I began to realize just how silly my question of “Don’t we just need the Bible?” was. The Book of Concord wasn’t a replacement for the Bible. By no means! Rather, it was a faithful speaking of God’s Word back again. And it was awesome! With the Book of Concord by my side, my Bible reading became the exciting adventure I never knew it could be. Before the Book of Concord, I was an intermittent Bible reader, after… I was a voracious reader, for the Bible had become for me that most delightful of feasts.

I still had some hard work to overcome a few things —like understanding the Bible’s teaching on the doctrine of Election (which is HUGE!) and learning to value Baptism (which is also HUGE!)— but it’s no exaggeration to say that my study of the Book of Concord transformed me. It opened my eyes to so much of what the Bible teaches. I went from being a life-long Lutheran who would have been comfortable joining your friendly Community Church down the street… to being a convicted Christian who would give his right hand before he’d let go of the theology confessed in the Lutheran confessions.

In the end, it’s not about “being Lutheran.” It’s about “Christ and Him crucified” for you (1 Cor. 2:2). It’s about God working through real Words and tangible Sacraments FOR YOU! It’s about a radical grace that flies in the face of everything that world teaches. And I learned it all through the Book of Concord.

The Lord Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41–42). God bless you as you continue to sit at Jesus’ feet!

SDG.

n.b. this post was partly inspired by a blog comment of Rev. Jonathan Fisk, whose journey in part mirrors my own. I even shamelessly stole some of his phrases! Thanks, Jonathan!

The Lutheran Confessions are Pastoral

The constant drum beat throughout them is the goal of comforting and caring for souls. The Lutheran Confessions are not theological speculations or abstractions. The times in which it was written called for pastoral care on a scale that could only be compared to a national emergency. Souls bruised and bullied by legalisms and demands placed on them outside of and beyond the Sacred Scriptures were healed by the healing and life-giving Gospel. Persons who were not hearing the comforting promises of the Holy Gospel, the free and full forgiveness of all salvation through Christ, received the mercy of God as they heard of the Savior who loved them and died and rose for them. The Lutheran Confessions speak to us today because they speak of the most important issues any of us ever face in our life. Who am I? What is life’s meaning? Who do I know God? Am I loved? How can I be sure? What am I do to with my life?

The Lutheran Confessions are Practical

They go right to the heart of the key issues and, even in spite of the length of some articles in them, never wander off on side paths. It is a book on a mission and that is to deliver the Gospel: purely, cleanly, correctly and practically, again, for the care of souls. They are not journal articles indulging in scholarly pursuits, or the pet interests of their authors in the pursuit of credibility and respect in the academic community. The Confessions are practical resources for people’s faith and life, as they live and especially, as they die. Why? Because the golden thread running throughout them is the chief and most important teaching of the Christian faith: justification by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, the teaching drawn from Scripture, alone: the Gospel.

The Lutheran Confessions are Personal

The Book of Concord was written by people who had deep and long first-hand experience with the various theological ills they are decrying and had first-hand knowledge of just how powerfully comforting and consoling the Gospel is. Therefore, for example, when you read about monasticism in this book, always behind these discussions stands the man who spent well over a decade of his life in this lifestyle, tortured and tormented no end by the lack of Gospel: Martin Luther. The book could almost be said to be a spiritual autobiography of all those who contributed to it. They are not dispassionate scientific essays. They are not mystical and obscure texts. They are personal statements of faith expressed on behalf of the Church, and for the Church, in order to gather more and more into the Church.

Those are three reasons why I am so passionate about the Book of Concord.

Reader, why do you like the Book of Concord? What have you found helpful in it? What do you keep coming back to in it that has been of particular help and meaning to you?

There is a powerful little statement made by a Lutheran theologian, who, in signing his agreement to one of the documents in the Lutheran Confessions, captured the very essence of what, precisely, the Lutheran Confessions are. He wrote: “I judge that all these agree with Holy Scripture and with the belief of the true and genuine catholic Church.” — John Brentz, Minister of Halle, Smalcald, 1537. The true and genuine catholic Church — this is that the Lutheran Confessions represent. Nothing more, nothing less.

A little detail almost always is overlooked when we talk about the Book of Concord:the “Lutheran” confessions really aren’t (just) “Lutheran!” It is important to highlight this in our relativistic, subjectivistic culture where everybody seems to have their truth — and so, why shouldn’t (some in) the Lutheran church have their Lutheran confessions (so long as the Reformed get to have their confessions and the Catholics their Council of Trent — and non-denominational groups their bible)? But that understates the ecumenical claim of the “Lutheran” Confessions. The “Lutheran” confessions are not interested in formulating some particular truths (really then: “truths”); they’re interested in reasserting the catholic, universal, Christian truths of Scripture. In other words, on the one hand, it does make sense to call the Book of Concord the “Lutheran Confessions” to distinguish them from the, say, Anglican Confession or the Reformed Confessions. Yet that only touches on one aspect.

Even though it historically emerged out of inner-Lutheran arguments after Luther’s death in 1546, the 1580 Book of Concord was not originally entitled: Lutheran Book of Concord (then the Catholics would have won: “Ha! See? You Lutherans only run after Luther’s private opinions — the “ecumenical councils” are us!”).

It is entitled: Christian Book of Concord (as can be seen on the beautiful title page of the German Book of Concord: the German word “Christliche” (Christian) is the largest, most ornate word on that page — and that is so for a very good reason!). It gave an account of correct Christian, catholic, universal teaching of the Church precisely because it was drawn from the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures. Building on the three “ecumenical creeds,” the Book of Concord now formulates the standard of what is considered Christian in the Christian church. That is, at least, the assertion of the churches bearing Luther’s name. This claim is indeed controversial, as everybody can easily understand. But since we are now in the time of the church militant — which truth / interpretation of Scripture is really uncontroversial?

In fact, if there’s any reason for there being a distinct Lutheran church, then it can only be found in the catholicity of this church’s doctrine, once confessed in the Christian Book of Concord of 1580. So we’re really saying: even though it sounds very parochial and particular, this one confession defines what is Christian to this day because it correctly expounds Scripture, God’s word. Many, no doubt, will call this “sectarianism” (as opposed to the “ecumenical” denominationalism where every “denomination” is just a different, but equally valid denomination, kind of like different dollar bills in your wallet).

But in the church of the Crucified, truth is not found in generalizations and abstractions many can agree on “by their own reason or strength”. It is found in the in agreeing on what God’s word actually means.

How do we teach the faithful what it means to be a genuinely small-c “catholic” Christian who is pledged, at the very least, to Luther’s Small Catechism, and that their pastors and other church workers are pledged to the Book of Concord?

In what sense is the Book of Concord “Lutheran”? And in what sense is it “Christian”? What’s the difference? How do we avoid sectarianism while maintaining an unconditional subscription to the Lutheran Confessions?

I received this interesting message on Facebook, and am passing it along.

Greetings in Christ.I am a fellow LCMS pastor in the middle of Kansas (http://www.facebook.com/l/5651af2wgkm50czIjn1G7xOw-mg;stpaulsellsworth.info) Recently I posted on the LCMS Facebook group a video I made about the Augsburg Confession (http://www.facebook.com/l/5651a6ZW4ZiG-_qeP1Q59W6nW-Q;vimeo.com/12768698). One person in their comments said that they might listen to the confession if it was in an audio format they could take with them. Anyways, beginning with June 25th, I am going to post the Confession (triglotta text) in audio on my blog (http://www.facebook.com/l/5651aXzBRGMdYJpyL8ieR636Rxw;ihoppe.com/blog/), one article a day. With the preface and conclusion, it will last 30 days. The files will then be archived on the blog and at http://www.facebook.com/l/5651asBhpMXa09wUL4uDkSmuLqw;luthershare.com. I am writing to you because I know that you have a good following on the internet and am hoping you might direct your readers my way if you would value this effort. Again it will “go live” Friday morning.

Pastor Philip Hoppe

Bach composed Cantatas for the bicentennial anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, which was celebrated in Leipzig in 1730, since it was one of the last bastions of Lutheran Orthodoxy, before the evils of Pietism overran nearly all of orthodox Lutheranism in Germany. Here are the texts from his Cantatas. Sadly, the music has been lost, which was what Bach composed, but here are the texts he chose to go along with the music he had written. Apparently, it was a three day festival, so Bach wrote at least three Cantatas, one for each day.

BWV 190a Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied!

---

The Bicentennial of the Augsburg Confession.

Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander), Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte, Teil III (Leipzig, 1732); Facs: Neumann T, p. 333; Reprint: Sicul, Annales Lipsienses, Sectio XXXVII (1731) and Das Jubilierende Leipzig (1731).

1. Ps. 149:1, 150:4 and 6; Martin Luther, beginning of the German Te Deum, 1529 (Wackernagel, III, #31); 2. Martin Luther, the same text with interpolated recitative; 7. Martin Luther, verse 3 of “Es woll uns Gott genädig sein,” 1524 (Wackernagel, I, #189).

25 June 1730, Leipzig; Parody: 1, 2, 3, 5 <— BWV 190.

---

1. Chorus (= BWV 190/1.)

2. Chorale and Recit.

Lord God, we give thee praise,
God, that thou both our shield
And our redeemer art.
Lord God, we give thee thanks.
Triumphant shall we go forth
And seek now, Lord, thy countenance,
For thy dear grace extends
As far as heaven’s breadth,
And thine own truth sheds light
As far as clouds are ranging.
Lord God, we give thee praise
That still thy brilliant light
Within our land doth shine.
O God, how great is this thy kindness,
Which doth such faith to all thy children show!
Forget that loving disposition,
My Zion, yea, forget it not!
Lord God, we give thee praise.

Read more…