“Luther taught that every true believer is a spiritual priest, is as near to the great Head of the Church as any official priest can be, and is equally entitled to the promise and gift of the Holy Ghost.
“Professor Jacobs is an exceptionally sympathetic and competent biographer… (He) has availed himself of all the latest sources of information, and done the needful work of selection and condensation with excellent judgment and skill.
“There are but two developed systems in the world that claim with any show of probability to be purely Biblical. These systems are the Lutheran and the Calvinistic. They possess a common basis in their recognition of the same rule of faith; their profession of the Old Catholic faith as set forth in the three General Creeds; in their acknowledgment of the doctrine of justification by faith and of its great associated doctrines; and they have vast interests, great stakes, mighty bonds of sympathy in common.
A Summary of the Christian Faith brings Hutter’s classic Compendium into a readable and easily accessible form. Henry Eyster Jacobs writes: “The book is not a mere compilation, but the matured expression of the convictions of the author, from the time when, as a child he was introduced to many of the problems treated, to the present.
“God has His own way of saving humanity and that His way of salvation is clearly marked out in His Word. Of this [The Reformed Christians] are sadly ignorant. It has not been explained to them.
“Unbelieving and unrighteous men do hate the old Church doctrines. Why? Because these old teachings as to sin, guilt, retribution, the fact and need of a divine-human vicarious atonement the need of sovereign grace, the need of the divinely instituted means and all that these fundamental teachings imply – these teachings are unwelcome to the reason of the natural man.
Theodore Schmauk’s exploration and defense of the Christian faith consists of five parts:
Historical Introduction Part 1: Are Confessions Necessary? Part 2: Confessions in the Church Part 3: Lutheran Confessions Part 4: The Church in America “This book is written in the belief that the one ultimate authority among men is truth.
“Why, a book of sermons on conversion? Because not all that has been written and preached on the subject is truth… Few subjects have been more abused, misrepresented and misunderstood. A veritable flood of ruinous error has emanated from pen and pulpit on this subject.
“Lutheranism clings to God’s Written Word. Her motto is the Word of God, the whole Word of God, and nothing but the Word of God, not as a prescriptive letter, but as the power of God unto salvation.
John Lehmanowsky was born in Warsaw in 1773 to a Jewish family, and as a young man he converted to Christianity. Through a series of events he became known to Napoleon, and took part in many campaigns including the destruction of the Inquisition at Madrid.
“The Life of Dr. Passavant should have been given to the Church at least a decade ago… Such lives are lived for others. They are not over when those who lived them are gone, but being dead they yet speak.
“Dr. Weidner was never affected by the wanderings and vagaries of liberal Theology. He stood four-square and firm on the old foundations of orthodox Lutheranism. He wanted every point proved by Scripture.
“I fear those ministers among us who seem to be terribly afraid of Pietism. They do not explain the distinction between a false and a true Pietism. To have ever a greater and deeper measure of the latter is surely one of our greatest needs.
“God is a Sovereign and a Judge as well as a Father; and there come crises when it would but be weakness in him not to be inflexible in severity. The safety of the universe throughout unceasing ages demands that God illustrate everlasting justice upon sinners, as well as that.
“These sermons were preached in the Church of the Holy Communion, Philadelphia, to a congregation consisting in part of University and college students. In preaching it was impossible to disassociate from my mind the struggles through which many of these young people were passing and the battles which I was asked to help them fight during the week.
“If ever any man was competent to write on true Christianity, that man was John Arndt. It had become his very life; it entered into the very center of his own experience; it was an essential part of his being, and hence it was only necessary to let the mouth utter that, of which the heart was full.
“Nor will the careful student ever recall Lincoln without recognizing the Gettysburg incident as condensing within itself all that he elsewhere spoke and wrote and accomplished. The meaning of what had transpired on the first three days of July, 1863, with the thousands of lives that had been sacrificed, and the tens of thousands that were enduring untold physical suffering, and the countless homes throughout the land that were darkened because they mourned loved ones, so filled his heart that he compressed the convictions of a lifetime and the anguish of the responsibilities he was then bearing, into a two minutes' address that has become the most highly cherished classic that America has produced.
“The book presents Christian doctrine and Christian character, as both are drawn from the words of the Bible. It sums up the Biblical teachings concerning divine truth and human life, and presents the principles of the Christian religion both for the guidance of faith and intellect and for the formation of character…
Henry Eyster Jacobs' Book of Concord in modern English is highly respected and has been widely used. It is now back in print and available in all formats. The Augsburg Confession, Apology, Small and Large Catechisms, and Formula are also available as separate books.
“The Father hath revealed Himself in Christ. He gave His only begotten Son to a life on earth, to suffering and death, that the alienated sons of men might be redeemed, and reconciled to Him, and brought back again into filial relationship with Himself, that in the true spirit of adoption they might look up to Him and call Him, Abba, Father.