We hold, moreover, that Christ sits in the body at the right hand of God the Father, but we do not hold that the right hand of the Father is actual place. For how could He that is uncircumscribed have a right hand limited by place? Right hands and left hands belong to what is circumscribed. But we understand the right hand of the Father to be the glory and honour of the Godhead in which the Son of God, who existed as God before the ages, and is of like essence to the Father, and in the end became flesh, has a seat in the body, His flesh sharing in the glory. For He along with His flesh is adored with one adoration by all creation.
- St. John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book IV, Chapter 2
(Compare to FC SD VIII:28)
Luther answered: “Indeed I have others, which you will hear after you have succeeded in taking this one away from me; since I have a sure word of God which no one can wrest from me, why should I let go of it and look about for another? Overthrow this argument, then you can expect to hear what additional arguments I have.”
ReplyDeleteTo this extent and no more, Zwingli and Oecolampadius presented testimony from the sacred Scripture; but they went ahead and tried to explore by the use of reason how a body could be in many places or even in no place. Luther did not want to permit this and said: “Reason, philosophy, and mathematics have no place here, for even if we concluded that a body must be only in one place, we would simply be saying that a body must be only in one place according to the common course of nature. However, it could never be the case that God’s almighty word would not have the power to do something other than occurs in ordinary nature. Therefore, this approach cannot serve the purpose here.” He offered, since this kind of argumentation is so important to them, to discuss the matter with them, apart from this disputation, for an hour or two, a day or two, or even a whole month. They asked where God had ever put or contained a body outside of a particular place. To this Luther replied: “God maintains the very greatest body, in which all other bodies are contained, namely, the whole world, outside of a place. Therefore, the world has no place in which it is.” In the face of this statement they all were silent. THAT IS ABSOLUTLY A THUNDERBOLT OUT OF THE MIND OF LUTHER! NO WONDER “THEY” were silent.
Consequently they did not introduce any further passages out of Scripture. We were very surprised at this and did not doubt that it happened because they knew what kind of an answer they would receive, namely, that it would bring more disgrace upon them than their silence.++++KEY HERE READ--- For if they would have brought up the Scripture passage, “he sits at the right hand of the Father” [cf. Mark 16:19], and other passages with which they have hoodwinked and misled the common man, they would have received a skillful reply because then we would have been consulted about the matter, and would thus have trapped them in their answers. This would have been of no advantage to them. However, they prevented this from happening and themselves confessed that the right hand of God was not in a particular place or locality but that it signified the omnipotence of God. From this it can certainly be seen just how conscientious they are in their negotiations.
Luther, M. 1999, c1971. Luther's works, vol. 38 : Word and Sacrament IV (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Vol. 38 (Vol. 38, Page 67-68). Fortress Press: Philadelphia.
Hi Pastor Weedon,
Hope all is well. Please Pray for Health and strength... I had to go to the hospitol on Tuesday and have surgery.Healing hurts but I think all is well.
Sal Pal
Sal,
ReplyDeleteGreat quotes. What were you in the hospital for? I've just added you to my prayer list, dude.