|
There comes a
heathen and says, "I wish to become a Christian, but I know not whom to join: there is much fighting and faction among you,
much confusion: which doctrine am I to choose?" How shall we answer him? "Each of you" (says he) "asserts, 'I speak the truth.'"
No doubt: this is in our favor. For if we told you to be persuaded by arguments,
you might well be perplexed: but if we bid you believe the Scriptures, and these are simple and true, the decision is easy
for you. If any agree with the Scriptures, he is the Christian; if any fight against them, he is far from this rule.
-- St. John Chrysostom, (Homily 33 in Acts of the Apostles [NPNF 1,11:210-11; PG 60.243-44])
Because in this period in which heresy has taken possession
of the churches there can be no proof of true Christianity nor any other refuge for Christians who want to know the truth
of the faith except the divine Scriptures. Earlier we showed in many ways which is the church of Christ, and which heathenism.
But now there is for those who want to know which is the true church of Christ no way to know it except only through the Scriptures.
-- attributed St. John Chrysostom, Homily 49
on Matthew 24
[This is found in PG volume 56, page
908, 909 and apparently exists only in the Latin. Chemnitz knew the citation and included in it in his Examination of the
Council of Trent I:156.]
A COLLECTION OF RESOURCES CRITIQUING EASTERN ORTHODOXY, SHOWING THE CATHOLICITY OF THE CONFESSIONAL
LUTHERAN CHURCH... (more to come)
(PDF) "Where Were Lutherans Before Luther?" Patristic quotes compiled by Rev. William Weedon
Rev. Dr. Burnell F. Eckardt Jr - "On Temptations To Go East"
(PDF) Rev. David Fleming - "Invocation of the Saints in the Eastern Orthodox Church"
(PDF) Rev. James H. Blain - "The Church: A Comparison of Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox Doctrine"
(PDF) Rev. Benjamin T.G. Mayes - "Scripture and Tradition: The Differences Between Eastern Orthodox and Evangelical Lutheran
Doctrine"
(PDF) Rev. Tony Sikora - "Report on Faith and Works: Eastern Orthodoxy's Confusion of Law and Gospel"
(PDF) Rev. Dr. Albert Collver - "For Those Who Didn't Swim"
(PDF) Rev. Benjamin T.G. Mayes - Sermon on Bearing One Another's Burdens
(PDF) Rev. Benjamin T.G. Mayes - A Sermon on the True Church
(PDF) Melanchthon on the Authority of Scripture
Larry Peters - Form and Substance... (as applied to Lutherans who go to Rome or the East)
Rev. Rolf D. Preus - "The Centrality of the Central Article"
Luther on Isaiah 28:16:
...Christ is a tested stone, that is, distressed and afflicted, or He is a testing stone,
that is, a stone by whose shape all other stones are tested, so that we may be conformed to the image of the Son of God (Rom.
8:29). As Christ was polished, hewn, and squared by the promise, by death and the cross, so we, in His image, should become
well polished by such suffering and such a cross. Therefore it behooves all the godly to be thoroughly tested by cross and
persecution. For this reason the flesh which shrinks from the cross remains unpolished in its desires and unsuited to this
stone. Martin Luther, Luther's Works, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut Lehmann.
vol. 16, CD-ROM (Saint Louis: CPH, 1999).
AUDIO ABOVE
Eastern Orthodoxy: The Pelagian Controversy
Rev. David Jay Webber of Redeemer Lutheran Church-Scottsdale,
AZ & Sun of Righteousness Lutheran Church (ELS) - Queen Creek, AZ
AUDIO ABOVE
Eastern Orthodoxy: Orthodoxy Today
Rev. David Jay Webber of Redeemer Lutheran Church-Scottsdale,
AZ & Sun of Righteousness Lutheran Church-Queen Creek, AZ
AUDIO ABOVE
Eastern Orthodoxy: Strengths & Weaknesses
Rev. David Jay Webber of Redeemer Lutheran Church-Scottsdale,
AZ & Sun of Righteousness Lutheran Church-Queen Creek, AZ
Going East?
by Dr. Steven Hein
There is an important lesson to be learned when we hear of another faithful servant of the Word vacating his ordination
vow to join some heterodox communion. There is an unfortunate, but familiar pilgrimage that entirely too many have taken –
men who have offered strong confessional Lutheran service in the Gospel - but who then have doctrinally gone astray. How does
this happen? When the chief article of justification begins to wane in one’s thinking as the chief article; when it
becomes just one among all the other articles of faith, the Devil can use whatever articles make up one's doctrinal passion
(good in their own right) to replace it. Just because you are against the false teachers about whatever articles of faith
are near and dear to you; this is no guarantee that the Devil must thrown up his hands and raised the white flag in seeking
to separate you from a right faith and ministry in the righteousness of Christ. He has demonstrated ample ability to use your
passions, your commitments against the false teachers, and your zeal, to dethrone the central significance of the forgiveness
of sins in an all-sufficient cross of Christ.
Once dethroning the sufficiency of the righteousness of Christ as the
chief article, he then works to drive a wedge between those articles of faith and issues of praxis that stir your passions,
and the pure milk of the Gospel. When other heterodox traditions hold your views on your passionate articles of faith, the
Devil will be at work to have you view their doctrinal errors as not so bad . . . even when they involve false understandings
of justification, the central article of the Gospel.
Those who have been around a while have observed well how this
played out over time with many champions of an inspired and inerrant Bible in the 1960s and 70s. Tragically over time, many
of these faithful confessors sold out the pure Gospel in the name of passion and zeal for evangelism and the mission of outreach.
Let’s get on with the mission of the Church was their cry. And they believed that the Baptists, Campus Crusade, and
the church-growth authorities had what was needed to successfully undertake the Great Commission. Since these Protestants
had it right with mission and evangelism, it could be minimized that they had faulty understandings of how sinners are justified
before God. In the midst of their narrow-minded passions; the Church and her Ministry, the Means of Grace, the historic liturgy,
and a totally monergistic understanding of the saving work of Christ could be compromised for the sake of an all encompassing,
passionate vision of effectively saving souls.
But this is only the half of it. Many who entered the Ministry some
time after the Battle for the Bible and the compromise with Protestantism in the name of evangelistic mission - members of
the next generation – These men were especially nurtured to cherish the treasures of the Church, its Holy Ministry,
and its historic liturgy. And many through the teaching they received came to appreciate these articles and practices as confessional
Lutheranism historically retained and expressed them. But I believe that we are witnessing how the Devil can use a passion
for the catholicity of the Church, its historic liturgy, and the Holy Office of the apostolic Ministry, to rend asunder the
crown jewel of the Church - justification by grace through faith alone. The Devil can do it just as easily as he can use and
pervert passions for an inerrant, fully authoritative Bible. The point that Jesus makes about he who loves father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me (Matt.10:37) has application also for we who would hold and cherish the articles of faith
in the Gospel of our Lord. If we miss-order these articles, cherishing any article more than the chief work of the Savior
on the cross and in the Gospel; if we treat any other article of faith in our minds as the central article upon which the
Church stands or falls . . . then we become vulnerable to a form of doctrinal idolatry that the Devil can use to wrench the
righteousness of Christ from us and our ministry to others. Good Lord, deliver us!
|
