1917

“Rome has never acknowledged her errors nor admitted her moral defeat. The lessons of past history are wasted upon her… A recent Catholic writer correctly says: ‘There is no doubt that the religious problem today is still the Luther problem.

“Great men are the fire-pillars in this dark pilgrimage of mankind; they stand as heavenly signs, everlasting witnesses of what has been, prophetic tokens of what may still be, the revealed embodied possibilities of human nature.

“This book possesses distinction as one of very few systematic theologies written from the viewpoint of Scandinavian-American Lutheran pietism, a movement which combined the Norwegian/Haugean and the Swedish/Rosenian traditions. It has been observed that, in general, the four major earmarks of pietism are experiential Christianity, Biblical focus, holy living, and opposition to formalism.

“Without the Holy Scriptures nothing certain would be known concerning the future destiny of man and the world. No book gives us such assurance as the Bible does. In the light of the Bible the riddle of the universe is solved.

Eternal life contains a great deal more than the two words, life plus eternity. Eternal life is not merely endless existence. It means endless life in its highest possible state of existence.

Eternal death [is not] the eternal extinction of life, or the cessation of conscious existence. There are those who hold that in the future world the soul of the wicked shall die, just as the body does here, — that the time comes, sooner or later, when the soul ceases to act, to feel, to be; and that it will never be restored.

The Christian faith is not simply that there is to be a continuity of human life, but that the body is to be raised from the dead, reunited with its animating, controlling spirit; and thus, as a complete human being, not as soul only, but body and soul; continue to live on forever after the great awakening.

Faith, and faith alone, appropriates forgiveness. God loved the world, and gave His Son, that whosoever believeth in this Son, and the work He did, as the result of which He is able to forgive, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Who are the saints? What are the saints? What is meant by a communion of saints? Table of Contents 1. How It Is A Communion of Saints 2. Glorious Fellowship 32.

There is a great difference… between justification and sanctification. Justification is an instantaneous act of God, the results of which, however, endure forever, unless one proves a traitor to God. Sanctification, on the contrary, is a life-long process.

Justification is not the infusing of a new nature into man. It is a judicial declaration on God’s part concerning man’s relationship to Him. But it is more than a mere declaration.

The work of the Holy Spirit is an absolute necessity in the plan of salvation. Without this work no one can be saved. This is the unmistakable teaching of God’s Word.

“Our love for the Apostles’ Creed will stand in exact ratio to our intimate acquaintance with it, and our love for the great fundamental truths of the Gospel of which it is the synopsis.

When we say, “I believe in the Holy Ghost, it means, or should mean, that we understand the Holy Ghost to be a distinct person of the Godhead. This is the unmistakable teaching of God’s Word throughout.

When truly evangelical Christians speak of debts owed to God, it is never to be understood in this sense that we consider man capable of making an adequate return to God for what He has done for us.

The true children of God have nothing to fear so far as the great Judgment is concerned, for the Judge before whom they shall appear is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The kingship of Jesus! Men in all the ages have been looking for a king, one who could fight successfully their battles, bring them deliverance, prosperity, and peace. Sometimes, in certain quarters of the world, men have thought they had found the object of their quest; some one who was able to give them the present measure of their quest.

We think of the meekness and gentleness, the tenderness and humility, of Jesus, and we cannot think too frequently, or adoringly, of these qualities; but it is a serious fault to forget, or fail to stress, the strength and courage of Jesus, the daring back of His lowliness, or the fact that, though love was His weapon, He wielded it with a knightly soldier’s hand.

Recognizing the supreme importance of this doctrine to the whole fabric of our Christian faith, the enemies of the Gospel have ever been active in trying to undermine faith in the historicity of the resurrection.

With respect to the whole article concerning the descent into hell, we should bear in mind the advice of the great reformer, and our confessions generally, to the effect that we should not give way to idle curiosity, or be led into vain speculation.