Lutheran Vocational Evangelism

(Foundation of the Authority of the Word of God)

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.” Martin Luther

Because humanity is capable of error and because erroneous and fallacious assertions have been made throughout history, many in the name of God let it be known that our foundation is the Word of God. Although God has and may in the future speak directly to anyone, that is not His usual means of coming to us; thus, we are assured that God speaks to us most certainly through His Word.

And His Word is the only and final authority for what we believe. We speak what His Word says, no more and no less. If we fail to understand, if we do not like the tension in which we are left at times by the Word, we refrain from imposing our own human logic or reason in order to resolve what the Word leaves unresolved because when we resolve what God leaves unresolved, that human, logical, reasoned resolve usually leaves us somewhere outside God’s Word.

Our foundation, then, is the very Word that God speaks. And when man speaks words in opposition to the Word of God, we understand that man got something wrong because God is never wrong.

As John tells us, there is a reason we have God’s Word, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). We are bound by the authority of God in His Holy Word. May God help us.

2 of 52    © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)