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.
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.
“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 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.
“Hymns are a most important part of our worship. They mold character and often shape the lives of those who sing them.”
“The writing of these pages was an accident and a pleasure.
Luther’s Little Instruction Book (Small Catechism) has been translated into many of the languages of the world. Williston Walker in his History of the Christian Church describes it as “one of the noblest monuments of the Reformation”.
“The Apology is more than a mere polemical treatise. It is a thorough discussion, in all its relations, of the cardinal doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, without Works; for whatever be the article treated, the discussion always reverts to this theme.
The Augsburg Confession is the first part of the Book of Concord, the Lutheran Confessions. The Saxon Visitation Articles were used by pastors to instruct their congregants and appeared in Saxon editions of the Book of Concord until the forced union of Lutheran and Reformed in the Nineteenth Century.
“The Formula of Concord is the result of controversies within the Lutheran Church after the breach with the Papacy had become complete… It required more than a single generation for the Evangelical faith in all its power to penetrate the minds and lives of even its staunchest adherents; and when we recall the deplorable condition into which the Church had fallen, and the deep ignorance not only of the people, but also of the ministry, described in the introductions to the Catechisms, we cannot wonder at the subsequent internal struggles, when the controversy with the Papists absorbed less attention…
“When a student at College, Charles P. Krauth was known to all to possess brilliant and versatile talents, and high hopes were entertained of the future years of his life… When Mr.
“The attentive reader… will see that the matters here treated are not antiquated or obsolescent, but enter most deeply into the issues of the hour.” — Henry Eyster Jacobs
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“I want you to understand that I have never preached opinions from this pulpit; it is not a question of opinion; I have absolutely no right to stand here and give you my opinion, for it is not worth any more than yours; we do not come to church to get opinions; I claim that I can back up every sermon I have preached, with the Word of God, and it is not my opinion nor yours, it is the eternal Word of God, and you will find it so on the Judgment day.