On Good Friday, March 29 of the same year, Luther had completed his well-deserved coarse answer to Emser. Here he called the Holy Ghost the most lucid writer and speaker whose writings do not need the help of church and tradition in order to be under-stood correctly if they are only taken in their literal sense. (18–19)
*For additional information, source material, and details, please visit: Reading the Word of God – Introduction
Scripture is the primum principium; it is [Luther writes] “in itself the most certain, the most accessible, the most readily understandable (book) which interprets itself and approves, judges, and illumines all (words) of all.” It must “reign as queen.” (18)
*For additional information, source material, and details, please visit: Reading the Word of God – Introduction
In regard to the Church Luther says in the same writing: “The Church also has no power to establish new divine promises of grace, as some foolishly speak, that everything which the Church ordains is of no lesser authority than that which is ordained of God, since she is guided by the Holy Spirit. For the Church comes into being through the word of promise through faith … God’s Word stands incomparably high above the Church, in this Word she, as a creature, cannot resolve, order, or execute but can only be resolved, ordered, and carried out. For who generates his father, who has rst called his Creator into being?” (18)
*For additional information, source material, and details, please visit: Reading the Word of God – Introduction
In [Luther’s] writing, Concerning the Papacy at Rome against the most famous Romanist at Leipzig, which appeared toward the end of June [1520], we read: “I merely contend for two things, the rst, I will not permit men to posit new articles of faith and scold, defame, and judge all other Christians as heretics, renegades, in dels only because they do not submit to the Pope. It is enough that we let the Pope be Pope (in which sense this is to be understood he clearly states in the foregoing) … . The other, everything that the Pope claims, makes, and does will I receive in this wise that I will first examine it according to the Holy Scripture. It must remain under Christ and be judged by Scripture.” (18)
*For additional information, source material, and details, please visit: Reading the Word of God – Introduction
Let me mention at least a few testimonies from the year 1520. In June, Luther wrote to the same Dungersheim, “We wish to be judged by Scripture; you wish to judge it … If the Fathers are to be read without selection and judgment, the Scripture is taken away.” (17–18)
*For additional information, source material, and details, please visit: Reading the Word of God – Introduction
Luther again speaks of the infallibility of Scripture in Contra malignum J. Eckii judicium M. Lutheri Defensio, which left the press on September 30, 1519. In the preface he refers to the statement of Augustine, “I have learned to ascribe this honor (namely the infallibility) only to books which are termed canonical, so that I confidently believe that not one of their authors erred,” and continues, “but the other authors, no matter how distinguished by great sanctity and teaching, I read in this way, that I do not regard them as true because they themselves judged in this wise but in so far as they could convince me through the authority of the canonical writings or other clear deductions.” (17)
*For additional information, source material, and details, please visit: Reading the Word of God – Introduction
The disputation with Eck, 1519, especially led Luther even farther on this course. Now he also divorced himself from the authority of the Councils. When he denied their infallibility he advanced from their fallibility to the infallible Scripture as the sole decisive norm for everything that wanted to be accepted as divine truth, and thereby without more ado he identified Scripture and the Word of God. Thus in his Disputatio J. Eckii et Mart. Lutheri he applied the admonition of Paul, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good,” to the decrees of Popes and Councils and expressly said of them that they have erred, but that Holy Scripture is the inerrant Word of God (verbum Dei infallibile). (16)
*For additional information, source material, and details, please visit: Reading the Word of God – Introduction
In his Acta Augustana, 1518, Luther writes, “One thing should not be concealed from you, that in this disputation nothing is sought but the clear meaning of Scripture.” In a letter to Staupitz dated September 1, 1518, Luther expresses his joy over the fact that the young theologians are filled with zeal for the Holy Scriptures. In a writing, Concerning Freedom of the Sermon, Papal Indulgence, and Grace, June, 1518, we read, “Even though all saintly teachers had maintained this or that, it would mean nothing over against a single statement of Holy Scripture.” (15–16)
*For additional information, source material, and details, please visit: Reading the Word of God – Introduction
In general, there is evident in the sermons [of Luther] preached before the posting of the Theses, as far as they have been preserved, a strong emphasis on the Word as the Means of Grace. In the sermon of October 5, 1516, even this sentence is found, “faith surrenders itself captive to the Word of Christ”—surely a strong emphasis on the authority of Scripture. (15)
*For additional information, source material, and details, please visit: Reading the Word of God – Introduction
In his synodical sermon, which he wrote, not in 1512 as the Weimar Edition assumes, but in 1516 for the Provost of Leitzkau, he energetically declares that the work of pastors is the study and the preaching of Scripture. Here we read: “Therefore in this honorable meeting you may resolve many things and order everything well, but if you do not insist that it is commanded for priests, as the teachers of the people, to do away with all unauthentic legendary matter and to concentrate only on the holy Gospel and the holy exponents of the holy Gospel, to proclaim with a sacred reverence the Word of truth to the people and omit at last all speculations of men, or add them only in moderation, setting forth their difference, and thus faithfully labor for the birth from God—I say, if you will not devote yourselves to this with increasing zeal, then I say to you in all frankness everything else will be as nothing. For that is the chief thing that matters, that is the essence of a genuine reformation, that is the very soul of all piety. (15)
*For additional information, source material, and details, please visit: Reading the Word of God – Introduction
