“Receiving” in Article IV of The Apology of the Augsburg Confession

Article IV of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1531) uses the terms "receive" or "received" (etc.) well over thirty times (I lost count!). This is very significant because Article IV is on justification sola fide. I don't have time and space to explain all the details here and now, but this article uses the …

The Lutheran Confessions: Concordia

  (This is a re-blog from November 2009) Concordia is an outstanding Reformation resource.  It is handsome, sturdy, well-formatted, and easy to use.  The subtitle is correct: it is A Reader's Edition of the Book of Concord.  Editorial props go to Paul McCain, Edward Englebrecht, Robert Baker, and Gene Veith as well as Concordia Publishing House for a …

Church. State.

Here are a few great lines from article 28 of the 1530 Augsburg Confession. "...the Church's authority and the State's authority must not be confused.  The Church's authority has its own commission to teach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments [Matthew 28:19-20].  Let it not break into the office of another.  Let it not transfer the …

New Books of Note

Next week I'll be on a short sabbatical, so along with enjoying family time and a hike in the Snoqualmie national forest (fighting the snow?), I'll be spending time reading Bernard of Clairvaux, Blaise Pascal, Ralph Venning, and Marva Dawn; I'll probably just do a few blogs on Bernard and Blaise.  For now, I want to point out a some newer books …

By Faith Alone: The Formula of Concord (SD)

 This is brilliant, life-changing, and amazingly liberating. "[Faith] alone, and nothing else, is the means or instrument with and through which God's grace and Christ's merit in the Gospel promise are received, apprehended, applied to us, and appropriated.  Love and all other virtues or works are excluded from this office and property of such application …