Erhalt Uns Herr bei Deinem Wort

This blog is dedicated to the proposition that true Christian teaching is knowable and is based in the clearest possible reading of God's Word in Scripture. This is not always to mean the literal reading; in approaching the Scriptures, we have to be aware of common modes of speaking and writing at the time they were written. The prophets and apostles wrote what the Holy Spirit moved them to write, but they generally did so in their own language or, when they quoted someone, in the language used by the speaker or writer quoted.

To be rejected is any teaching that denies the Bible's truth, or that asserts something that cannot be shown clearly from Scripture. This includes the "minimalists" who claim that the story of early Israel is at best a fable, at worst a lie. It includes the Marxists who turn the Israelites' conquest of Canaan into a Canaanite peasant's uprising and Jesus into a social revolutionary. It includes any historical-critical scholarship that proceeds on the basis that the scholar knows better than the writers of Scripture, as von Ranke said, "wie es eigentlich geschehen ist" (how it really happened).

Also to be rejected is any practice in the Church that is contrary to the Scriptures. The placement of women in the office of ministry is plainly contrary to 1 Tim. 2:12 and 3:2 and to Titus 1:6. Preaching that fails rightly to divide the Word into Law and Gospel (more on this below) is necessarily rejected, as the result is either Law-oriented "how to" sermons or Gospel sermons that tell you that you are saved but fail to tell you from what or why you need salvation.

On 2 Tim. 2:15. The King James Version says "rightly dividing" the word. This is consistent with Luther, who has it "recht teilen." More modern translations prefer "handling". The word in question is "orthotomeo"--literally, to cut rightly. To cut is not to handle--it is to divide. This is a case where "the best modern scholarship" is not the best scholarship; the best scholarship was that of the 16th and 17th centuries.

This is one of those cases where the division of Biblical scholarship from dogmatics has not been helpful. The Law-Gospel distinction, fundamental to Lutheran theology and, originally, to Reformed theology as well, is controversial with those who would, with the antinomians and modern liberals, abolish the Law, and those who would make the Gospel a new Law, with new commands for us. This "right division" of the Word is plainly St. Paul's meaning, when one reads it with his other writings in mind. It is this distinction that is the principal subject of Galatians and one of the chief subjects of Romans.

To remain steadfast in His Word requires us to handle it properly, to honor its truthfulness, and to recognize its distinctions. In the words of Luther's old hymn

Lord, keep us steadfast in thy Word
Curb those who fain with craft and sword
Would wrest the kingdom from thy Son
And set at naught all He hath done.