Who said this? (hint at end of quote)
“All upright sacred books agree on one thing, that they all collectively preach and promote Christ. Likewise, the true criterion for criticizing all books is to see whether they promote Christ or not, since all scripture manifests Christ. Whatever does not teach Christ is not apostolic, even if Peter and Paul should teach it. On the other hand, whatever preaches Christ is apostolic, even if Judas, Annas, Pilate, and Herod should do it!” (LW 35:396)
To pull out the text of Scripture, without pulling Christ out of it, is biblicism, and should be avoided. It can lead you away from Christ and back to yourself. I’m not sure about you, but that is the last place that I need to go.
Yesterday’s pastor’s class taught by Pastor Anderson, dealt specifically with this problem, that is so prevalent in many Protestant churches and Lutheran churches, as well.
click here > The-Danger-of-Biblicism
We mustn’t forget, however, that God’s Word is both the Law, and the Gospel. Many liberal churches, including many within my own denomination have forgotten this and have thrown God’s Law out the window in favor of a reasonable, generous view that allows for our own inclinations to self. This does not promote Christ, either.
As always, your comments pro or con, are welcome.
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Thanks to flickr and Disco Cat for the photo
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Filed under: Biblicism, Pastor Mark Anderson |
The Old Adam Lives! 
“To pull out the text of Scripture, without pulling Christ out of it, is biblicism, and should be avoided. It can lead you away from Christ and back to yourself.” This is a quote worth keeping! Thanks for the post and link! The quote is Luther, right. Blessings!
Petra,
You are exactly right! Luther said it, and for good reason. So much of preaching and teaching is just spiritual navel gazing and self-improvement under the guise of the gospel.
Blessings to you!
As an atheist, I have difficulty believing anything in the bible. Do you have evidence that what you are saying is in any way true? If so, I would like to hear it. btw, I was directed here from Huffington Post.
regards
808
Hello Jack,
I can only tell you that I was a non-believer (and still want to be), but Christ Jesus has grabbed a hold of me and made a believer out of me, against my “better” ideas.
He loves me and forgives me all my sin. He also forgives you your sins and has prepared a place for you, too, Jack. A place where sadness death cannot reach.
He was real person who went to the cross. Many did. But unlike the untold thousands or millons of others, He went willingly in the place of others. He bore their sin on his guiltless body and was killed. But, He was raised again to new life.
That’s what He wants for us.
No hard evidence other than many saw Him after He was raised and went to their deaths before denying Him.
Let me leave you with this, Jack. ALL of your sin is forgiven for Jesus’ sake. He wants you to know the peace and forgiveness that He has for you.
Thanks, my freind.
When I step back from my faith for a moment and look at it more from the outside or critically, or ask my self “Am I praying to the lampshade?” there are several things that occur to me.
One of them is that I notice that I believe in the Trinity. That is first of all I believe that the world has a maker, evolution yes or no (and evolution has many problems), this world did not just happen. Sorry, there is no way. My intellect will not be convinced otherwise.
Secondly, I note that I do believe in the Son of God. If there is a Maker, a God, a Fate, a Spirituality, a Force… there has to be some kind of impact. And if I have to choose between following a bunch of steps or laws for me to reach up or having a merciful God who came down, I find I believe in the merciful God who came down. On top of that, there is plenty of historical evidence for the events recounted in the Bible. I find the documents trustworthy.
This is where this kerygmatic criticism comes in. If someone teaches incorrectly, it will be where man has to pull himself up. This does not work. I’ve tried it. So this criticism based on Christ being the foundation, makes total sense to me.
Thirdly, I find that I believe in the Holy Spirit. That there is a word and a communion and community that lives off this witness of God’s mercy in Christ. It has reached my ears, and the ears of others, and we have heard it and we have been forgiven and we love each other.
So, there.