“If we begin with Scripture and abide by Scripture, we shall soon arrive at the heart of the Christian doctrine, namely, the doctrine of the remission of sin by faith in the incarnate Son of God, who is the Propitiation for our sin and that of the whole world.”  (F. Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Vol I, 155)

“The Christian certitude of salvation and the Christian certitude of the truth can be attained only if, with Luther, we rise ‘above ourselves’ or, in other words, find a footing outside the world.  And this is accomplished only if, in agreement with the order established by Christ, we continue through faith in His Word, as we have it in the Word of His Apostles and Prophets, in Holy Scripture.”  (F. Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Vol I, 149)

“It is certain that whoever does not rightly believe one article or refuses to accept it (after he has been admonished and instructed), certainly believes none sincerely and in true faith.  And whoever is so presumptuous as to dare to contradict God or call Him a liar in one word [of Scripture],  and does this willfully, persisting in it, though he has been admonished and instructed once or twice, he is ready (and he does it, too) to deny God and accuse Him of lying in all His words.  There are no two ways about it: either all and everything is believed, truly and fully, or nothing is believed.”  (Luther, quoted in F. Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Vol I, 147)

“The theologian is dealing with a fixed and unchangeable fact, the Word of God which Christ gave His Church through His Apostles and Prophets.  God’s Word is constant, as the laws of nature are constants.  As little as we can change those laws, but accept them as they are, so little can we alter the Word of Christ; the Church and its teachers must receive it as it is.  It is the business of the scientist to ‘observe the data.’  and the  ‘datum’ which the theologian ’observes’ is the Word of Christ.  There are no other ‘data.’”  (F. Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Vol I, 143)

“There is only one book in the world which possesses the quality of perfect unity, and that is the Bible.  Though its writers were men of widely different culture and a period of about 1,500 years separated the last from the first writer, the Bible owes its perfect and inerrant unity to the fact that it was written by the inspiration of God.  For that we have the authoritative declarations of Christ and His Apostles relative to both the New and the Old Testament in all their parts (John 10:35; 2 Tim. 3:16; 1 Pet. 1:10-11; 2 Pet. 1:21; John 17:14, 17; 8:31-32).”  (F. Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Vol I, 142)

Filed under: News ]]> http://alcplatteville.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/announcements-for-the-week-of-april-14-2013-2/feed/ 1 alcplatteville http://alcplatteville.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/announcements-for-the-week-of-april-14-2013/ http://alcplatteville.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/announcements-for-the-week-of-april-14-2013/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 01:50:17 +0000 Apostles Lutheran Church (LCMS)-Platteville, WI http://alcplatteville.wordpress.com/?p=2052 ]]> 13-04-07, Easter 2, BA-2013C

“Unless a man believes the article of justification, he actually does not believe any of the other articles of the Christian faith.  He may accept the articles…with a fides  humana (human faith), but he cannot accept them with the fides divina (divine faith), which the Holy Ghost produces, unless he believes in justification by faith, for only through faith in  justification does the Holy Spirit enter the heart (Gal. 3:1-3).”  (F. Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Vol I, 140)