Protestant Reformation

“The main stress in the book… is upon the interpretation of its text… It is prefaced by a chapter with simple talks on confessional questions… The second part… tell(s) the story of the Confession in a readable way.

“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 is a highly readable, modern English version of the classic volume of Protestant Biblical theology. The translation of the Augsburg Confession is that of Charles P. Krauth, the Small Catechism by Charles F.

“Another quality that strikes us… is Luther’s unfailing sense of humor. Reformers are usually deficient in humor. Their earnestness seldom permits them to laugh. Luther was the most earnest man of his century, and lived in more earnest times than any Europe had witnessed since the close of the first century.

“Sincere believers of the truth revealed in Christ for man’s salvation have no reason to be ashamed of Luther, whom God sent to bring again to His people the precious truth in Jesus… The whole purpose of the book is practical.

“Formerly the whole Evangelical Lutheran Church was unanimous in the conviction that Luther was the divinely commissioned Reformer of the Church and the herald of divine truth. But now (many) deny him this honor.

Many people have opinions about Martin Luther, but few have actually read his words. This small volume includes what church scholars Henry Wace and C. A. Buchheim consider Luther’s three primary works.

“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.

“We can only estimate correctly the Reformation, when we rightly understand the state of things in the Church which called for it. If it was not necessary, it ought not to have taken place.

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.

“We have certainly great reason to be wide awake and watchful, if we would preserve the inheritance of the Lutheran Church Reformation. Strong are the delusions and temptations of these latter days, and you children and youthful Christians will doubtless see still more perilous times for the Church of Jesus Christ before you have grown old.

“The expositions of Daniel and Revelation in this Book are for the most part blendings of the eight great Historicist Expositors of the 19th and 20th Centuries, viz: Bickersteth, Elliott, Barnes, Prof.

“This book is not a book of one man’s ideas. It is a compendium of the teaching and interpretations of the Prophetic Scriptures by some of the greatest, most learned and spiritually minded men the Christian Church has produced.

What is going on in America? “Lock-downs”, riots in 100 cities, mass unemployment, the destruction of small businesses. This rare little book ties current events into the great chess game of history.

“The Reformation of the sixteenth century, which gave birth to Protestantism, was based on Scripture. It gave back to the world the Bible. It taught the Scriptures; it exposed the errors and corruptions of Rome by the use of the sword of the Spirit… We have suffered prophetic anti-papal truth to be too much forgotten.

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…