Author

C. F. W. Walther
​
Subject Matter

39 lectures given in 1884 and 1885 on the issue of marking the differences between the message of God's Law and the message of God's Gospel throughout the Scriptures. He makes much of how this affects the preacher and his rightly dividing the Word of truth.

Review

It is fitting that my first book review on this site should be this book.

It stands in my library as one of my five favorite books of all time.

Walther's treatment of this disturbingly misunderstood topic among modern day Christians is a remarkable light in the midst of the dim seated ignorance so many have with regards to this topic. How could one understand the Scriptures and its consistent message without it? How could one understand salvation?

Although heavy in its subject, Walther's treatment is appropriately friendly to the hearer and reader due to the nature of his delivery being close held Friday evening lectures with his students.

His knowledge on the subject is obviously forged in the depths of christian experience. There is simply no denying his stance or his argument as he makes full defense of both. And as is his habitual dedication to precision in areas of theology, he carries the reader to fuller understanding of Scripture with the perspective that this distinction affects every area of theology and biblical interpretation.


Recommendation

I can not recommend this book enough. It changed my entire perspective on Scripture and preaching. I am indebted to the author for this.


Click here to see this book on Amazon

The parable of the ten lepers in Luke 17 gifts us my favorite story regarding a person's response to the Lord's healing them. The way I heard it as a kid was that only one of the lepers was grateful, and so was saved. Well, I heard wrong. Let's check out this parable. 

Luke 17:11-19
On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

What it meant to be a leper in Ancient Israel is all but lost on us in today's healthy society. If you came down with leprosy, you lost your home, your family, and your friends. You were not allowed to be near others, and as such were cast out of town to live with other lepers. It is this situation that Jesus comes across these ten lepers.

Imagine the healing that takes place; it was not simply a restoration of health, but of life, family, society, and worship. Everything once lost was restored. Here's the question: Do you really think that the nine that did not return to say thanks weren't grateful? A man just approached them out of the blue and returned their lives back to them. Of course they were grateful!

The point of this parable has nothing to do with being grateful. It regards what you ought to do with your gratitude. 

The one leper left with the others. Then it dawns on him... Maybe I should give credit to whom it is owed. He returns praising God with a loud voice, falls at Jesus' feet and gives Him something. This is the picture I want you to take from this: picture gratitude as a coin. A coin that you may retain possession of, or give away. You see, I am certain that the other nine, who desired to be healed greatly, had gratitude. They possessed the coin that is gratitude. And while this is a good thing, it is not the end of the responsibility of the one healed. The one who returned, took that coin of gratitude and gave it to Jesus. This is what we mean by saying we owe a debt of gratitude.

The awesome part of the story is that the one who returned got a further lesson regarding what healed him. A lesson that the other nine missed out on: "your faith has made you well."

There is a direct correlation between one who does not acknowledge God in all his ways and give Him thanks, and struggling with faith and worry. If we fail to both remember God's faithfulness, or even fail in saying "thank you" for His faithfulness, we will quickly find ourselves loosing sight of what He is doing in the midst of difficulties.

Are you grateful for God's salvation? Are you grateful for His promise to present you faultless before the throne of grace? Are you grateful for good days? Bad days? Are you grateful for His Spirit forming you more and more into the image of Christ?

Say it.

All the time.

I tell you, truly, there is no more transformative prayer I pray than to give God the thanks I owe Him. 

1 Thessalonians 5:18
"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

~ Happy Thanksgiving to you all! ~

Imagine, for a moment, that you are part of an organization or movement whose vision statement and intention you resonate with very strongly. Imagine also that you are a part of this with others who are likeminded. Isn't it great? Now that you have this in your mind, I have a question for you to ponder:

How do you know that being a part of this is good? 

In our world of insanity, we have come to define that that which is popular is right, and that which is common is good. If something or someone is well accepted then it must be the proper response to admire or even respect such. And disagreeing with someone or something that is famous or popular is a very risky move indeed. 

"But I've overturned a new leaf!" You say, "I stand up for the bullied, and the underdog; I appreciate niche art and savor the glory that is my snowflake-like fellow man, fingerprints and all." I've got news for you. It is also popular (granted, to a different group of people) to like and support those things that aren't popular. The "new leaf" you've turned over is just a different light on the same leaf that mankind has been revelling in for millennia:

"As the masses go, so I go."

Genesis 11:1-6
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

How are we to know if the building project was right or good? If there was a newspaper in that day, it would be rife with observations of how well everyone was working on the tower together, how much everyone was getting along, even descriptions of how much was being accomplished! That's a good thing, right? Right? After all, the goal for them was to build a tower, and they were shimmering examples of success! If you weren't a part of what they were doing, you were missing out.

Is knowing what is right and good really a question of agreement between all parties involved? Milestones achieved? Unity of vision? Charismatic leaders? 

Where does God fit into this determination?

Genesis 11:7-9
 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

God had already made it clear to the people what their job was: they were to worship Him and fill the Earth. Instead of that, the people chose self-exaltation and staying where they were. 

The sad part of this story of humanity is not so much that this is how the world is, but that the church follows close on its heels. We have been given the gospel and a mission to preach it to a dying world, but so many find that the gospel is not popular in the world and it is quickly pushed aside for less confrontational messages. 

How "church" is done begins to reflect this. Rather than the gospel being fully present in the life of the church, there is an emphasis on validating people in their sin, encouraging them with false hopes of God's love and approval. Rather than evangelism unto salvation, there is a focus on community outreach that has everything to do with 'getting them to come to our church.' Anything to swell our numbers, our presence, our selves. 

Sound familiar?


How do we protect our churches from spoiling the gospel with a rotting message that tickles the ears of dead men? How do we know what we are doing is good?  Ultimately it is a question of what authority we are appealing to.

Everyone has an authority, who is yours?

If you are a Christian today and you hold to the reliability, infallibility, and inerrancy of the Scriptures, then you are in the extreme minority. The amount of people, seemingly regardless of what poll you look at, that hold to the Bible being somewhat important, though not perfect, far outweighs those who hold to the Scriptures being perfect, preserved, and without error. It has become popular to assert one's opinion and tradition over and above the Scriptures.

Still, others hold that the Bible is simply the thoughts of people that wrote down their opinions with great intention, but that it is not inspired in any way. They take most of the Old Testament with suspicion and distrust, and much of the New Testament is explained away as archaic opinions that should really be rethought.

When it comes to the "fanciful tales" of the Old Testament, ignorant people tend to be quick to dismiss stories about people like Adam, Noah, or Jonah as pure myth. And stories like Sodom and Gomorrah? Just old time bigoted homophobia. Made up to teach a lesson, but should not be taken literally at all. 

Let's see what God thinks about all of this.

Matthew 19:3-6 
    And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

The remarkable bit about this passage is not the proof of the historicity of Adam and Eve (it is there, but this is not my focus), rather it is the very fact that when questioned about a current concern question, Jesus returns back to the authority of the Scriptures to sufficiently answer the question. "Haven't you read the Scriptures?"

Luke 17:26-30
    Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

Did Jesus think these two events, the flood and the destruction of the two cities, actually happen in history? That is a very simple question with a very simple answer, and you would have to do some severe theological gymnastics to get around the underlying assumption of Jesus here:

Genesis is history. 

That's what Jesus was assuming. Now, to state the obvious, this makes Him either right or wrong. If He's right then the claim is consistent with His claim to divinity. If He is wrong and simply a well-intentioned but misguided ancient, then His claim to divinity goes out the window with truth. You cannot have it both ways. Either He was right about the factual nature and historicity of the first chapters of the Bible, or He was wrong and is therefore not God.

But this isn't an article about the historicity of the Genesis accounts, it is an article about Jesus' view of the Scriptures. Let's return to the Gospels:

Matthew 22:23-33
The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. 

"Have you not read what was said to you by God?" After saying this, Jesus quotes from Exodus three. I want those words to sink into your ears. "Have you not read what was said to you by God?" Who was the author of Exodus? And I'm not speaking of the ridiculous JEPD theory, I'm speaking in the ultimate sense. Who does Jesus ascribe the authority behind what is recorded in Exodus' third chapter?

These are merely secondary proofs. Let's go to the primary ones. 

Mark 7:9-13
    And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)—then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

In directly referring to the retelling and quoting of Exodus 20, Jesus refers to such as "the word of God." It comes from God, with His authority. Men do not have the right to overturn it. Taking it further, Jesus also refers to the commandments of the Scriptures as being the commandments of God Himself:

Matthew 15:1-9
    Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

    “‘This people honors me with their lips,
        but their heart is far from me;
    in vain do they worship me,
        teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

I've saved my favorite for last. As it is one of the strongest exchanges regarding not only the source of the Scriptures, but also their preservation. 

John 10:31-39
    The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken--do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

"Scripture cannot be broken" Hmm.. Doesn't sound like He distrusts what He is reading. It doesn't sound like He approaches it with suspicion. Maybe (just go with me on this) maybe we should take the view of God incarnate regarding His own Scriptures. Maybe we should not find ourselves disagreeing with Jesus regarding the dependability and perspicuity (clarity) of His Word. 

The real problem with having a low view of the Scriptures is not "reason vs. faith". The real problem with having a low view of the Scriptures is assuming God is wrong and we get to determine what is right. The Bible calls this pride.

In a word, it is evil to take a view other than Christ's when it comes to any issue, and certainly when it comes to the nature and reliability of the Scriptures. 

In my ongoing effort to convince everyone I am heretical when it comes to Eschatology (the study of last things), I have chosen to begin this category with one of the most misunderstood areas of end times teachings (the supposed 'rapture' will have to wait for another post).

We've all heard it. Once the world is destroyed, God will remake all things (true) and bring down a literal city from heaven that is a nearly 1500 mile cube wherein we will live and rule the world (who is left in it again?) with Jesus. Inside this city are streets of gold and mansions aplenty, gates made of solid pearl, etc. 

I am unconvinced.

The teaching depends on a certain reading of the book of Revelations that assumes literal meaning to a prophetic and apocalyptic text. This is dangerous and leads to a multiplicity of problems, most of which derail our attention from the truth it is actually putting forth, which I will get to in a moment. First, let's look at the text. 

Revelation 21
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.


For the purposes of this discussion's brief intention, I am not including the references to the New Jerusalem that Ezekiel makes. That warrants it's own post later on. I would however, like you to keep another passage in mind as well.

Hebrews 12:18-24
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.



I find it fascinating that upon discussion of the New Jerusalem very few make mention of the passage in Hebrews 12, which makes direct reference to our active, previous and ongoing nature of having come to the heavenly Jerusalem. The picture is not unique to John in his writings, nor to the writer of the book of Hebrews, but it is present in a similar picture in Paul's writings. 

Ephesians 2:19-22
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.


There is not a commentator I can find that does not recognize the reference in Ephesians 2 as describing the church, and yet, once dimensions and measurements are given in the same picture of Revelation 21 we assume a literal building and city. Look at that reference in Revelation 21:2 wherein the city is expressed as being dressed up as a bride for her husband. Further in verses 9 and 10 the reference to the bride is undeniably the New Jerusalem itself. It bears repeating:

Revelation 21:9-10
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God


I cannot get around the clear references here to the city itself being the bride, nor can I get around the passage in Hebrews 12 that states we have already come to the New Jerusalem. And honestly, I have no reason to get around them. A plain reading of these texts shows that the New Jerusalem is a depiction of the Church, the bride of Christ, which is built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets. This is the reason for the descriptions of the twelve gates and twelve foundation stones being the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles respectively. A perfect metaphor that is understood in Ephesians 2 and 1 Peter 2, but is somehow lost when we read Revelation 21 and Hebrews 12.

The inconsistency with which the literal understanding of this city is understood leads us to a bizarre interpretation of the future state, confusion on why there are references to the existence of a temple and not a temple at the same time, and a false earth-based hope, rather than the true and real heavenly hope to which we already belong. 

In the end, WE are the New Jerusalem, WE are the bride adorned for her Husband, WE are built on the foundation of the apostles, WE are entering due to the message of the prophets of the twelves tribes, WE are the temple in which God resides, WE are a holy temple wherein acceptable sacrifices are to be made, WE are the priesthood also who lives in that temple, WE are worth even more than precious stones and rubies (see Proverbs 31:10), WE proclaim the excellencies of the One who has called us from darkness into His marvelous light, WE are the city, WE are the bride prepared for the Lamb, WE are bought by His blood, WE are filled with His righteousness, WE are living stones in the city that God is building, mortared in place by His grace so that none will be lost. WE wait for the day that the building is complete and we are all presented blameless before the presence of His glory with eternal joy.

Now, isn't that better than a fancy house?

This is merely an introduction to this topic, I will be dealing with this more as I post in the category of Eschatology. Stay tuned!