I've said it before and am about to say it again -- sometimes the difference between us and Rome is in what we do, if it contradicts the Gospel, but sometimes it is in WHY we do it, if THAT contradicts the Gospel.
Being a veteran, or maybe better put, a survivor, of Rome, as was Luther, it rings very clear to me when the difference is not so much in what we do, but in that we do it willingly out of love rather than commanded by Rome.
That is why continually the Confessions point re everything, doctrine as well as practice, that this is no new thing, but the SAME thing pared of what contradicts Scripture, the church's own book.
If this same sense of continuity and concord with Scripture is not enough, then let them be delivered to the Pope and his minions! I think I read something like that somewhere.
But I say too, if hankering after "evangelical" non-liturgical worship to fashion our own form of it violates this, so too equally does hankering after Vatican II's tinkering around with things to fashion our own form of THAT!
3 comments:
Excellent points. Nail meets hammer. The Confessions are very clear on this point.
These guys ought to have spent some time in Rome.
I've said it before and am about to say it again -- sometimes the difference between us and Rome is in what we do, if it contradicts the Gospel, but sometimes it is in WHY we do it, if THAT contradicts the Gospel.
Being a veteran, or maybe better put, a survivor, of Rome, as was Luther, it rings very clear to me when the difference is not so much in what we do, but in that we do it willingly out of love rather than commanded by Rome.
That is why continually the Confessions point re everything, doctrine as well as practice, that this is no new thing, but the SAME thing pared of what contradicts Scripture, the church's own book.
If this same sense of continuity and concord with Scripture is not enough, then let them be delivered to the Pope and his minions! I think I read something like that somewhere.
But I say too, if hankering after "evangelical" non-liturgical worship to fashion our own form of it violates this, so too equally does hankering after Vatican II's tinkering around with things to fashion our own form of THAT!
Why bother having our own publishing house, approving our own hymnal, if we are free to disregard them at will?
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