21 April 2007

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

We cannot confess what is true without rejecting what contradicts it. Kierkegaard observed that truth's quotation marks are polemical. And when here on earth the tragic case occurs, which happens again and again where the question of truth is earnestly engaged, that one confession of faith is set against another, conscience against conscience, then we must leave the decision to Him who in the Last Judgment will finally separate truth from error. We do not know God's judgments, and can and may not anticipate them. Also when we must speak the damnamus ("we condemn") against false teaching, God's forgiving grace may bring the erring sinner into the church triumphant, where there is no more untruth. On the other hand, this door may be shut to many a one who has done battle for the truth in perfect orthodoxy, but has forgotten that he too was only a poor sinner who lives only by forgiving grace. - Hermann Sasse, *We Confess: The Church* pp. 57,58

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