Necessary Roughness

Keelinnea Says:

As to the Confessions following Biblical teaching, is there truly a Christian religion that does? So many with different views on the same book.

The simple answer is yes, there is one Christian religion; it is what the Bible teaches, nothing more or less, by definition.

Our teaching of the Bible is errant due to our sinful nature. The Church has splintered into its denominations for various reasons.

Making matters worse are groups who claim to be Christian but are demonstrably not.

Others modify the Bible and provide their own translation to suit their chosen world views. Thomas Jefferson extracted the moral teachings of Jesus and compiled his own bible. Jehovah’s Witnesses created the New World Translation, where changes are made that completely change the context of what is written:
(emphases mine)

John 1:1
ESV	NWT
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.	In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. This one was in [the] beginning with God

Titus 2:13
ESV	NWT
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ	while we wait for the happy hope and glorious manifestation of the great God and of [the] Savior of us, Christ Jesus

The New World Translation turns the “God and Savior” of Titus 2:13 into two beings.

We set aside Mormonism, Deism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses as not Christian, though they use some portion of the Bible or add their doctrines with The Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. They deny that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, died to save sinners from eternal damnation.

Let’s now move from willful denial of God-made-man to simple error.

Just by my observation, there seem to be two consequences of an error: a consequence to the person making the error and a consequence made by the person making the error.

For example, some Christian denominations deny the practice of infant baptism. Their view is that it’s a ceremony of a person’s commitment to follow Christ.

The error: There’s no minimum age requirement specified in the Bible for a Baptism. Baptism now saves you, 1 Peter 3:21 reassures us. Acts 2:38-39 tells us that the “promise is for you and your children.” In Acts 16:15, a woman “was baptized, and her household as well”. Was the baptism from heaven or from man, to borrow from Mark 11:30? Baptism is a work of God, not of man. More information can be found in the Ask the Pastor series.

Consequence to the person baptized late: None. He’s baptized. There could have been consequences if he died prior to his baptism; he could have died in uncertainty. We don’t know if the thief on the cross (Luke 23:40-43) was baptized; playing the numbers game, he may not have been. Yet he was still saved. Since we don’t have that kind of interaction with the Savior, we should fulfill his commandment in Matthew 28:19-20 and baptize all nations.

Consequence by the person: Often they tell people baptized early that their baptism was insufficient. They throw a person’s salvation into doubt when it need not be so. They argue that the person needs to be baptized again or “correctly”.

As shown above, people with doctrine that differs from the Bible can be saved. Doctrine does matter, though: improper instruction leads to a decrease in the number of souls in heaven at the end, whether it is because we cause people to lose their faith, or whether we don’t bother to teach to the faithless.

Do the Lutheran Confessions follow Biblical teaching? I believe they do; anyone is welcome to explore them and see for themselves. When the authors attempted to reform the Roman Catholic church on the basis that certain practices weren’t Biblical, the reformers had extra incentive to make sure everything they wrote did not contradict Scripture; otherwise they would wallow in their own hypocrisy. The documents are replete with Biblical texts to support their views. The Bible is the inerrant Word of God. The Confessions are one human expression checked against the Word of God. There are indeed others, such as the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicean Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.

“Yea, as I Live, Jehovah Saith”
by Nikolaus Herman
Translated by Matthias Loy, 1828-1915

1. Yea, as I live, Jehovah saith,
I would not have the sinner’s death,
But that he turn from error’s ways,
Repent, and live through endless days.