Baptism: “Through
baptism [the individual] is bathed in the blood of Christ and is cleansed from
sins. For this reason
Baptism: “For
Baptism is useless without faith. It is
like a letter to which seals are attached but in which nothing has been
written. Therefore he who has the signs
(which we call Sacraments) and not faith has seals only, seals attached to a
letter without any writing.” [SL 11,
953f.] Mark 16:14-20
Baptism: “To be baptized again is unnecessary. Indeed, it is a grievous sin. For to allow oneself to be baptized again amounts to charging God that He does not want to keep what He had once promised to us… Whenever your heart wants to grow timid and fearful because of sins, call to mind the covenant which God had made with you in Baptism at the beginning of your life and cling to the Word and sacred Sacrament whereby God has certified this covenant to you.” [SL 13a, 1179f.]
Bible: “The entire Bible does nothing else than give a person to understand what he was, what he is now, what behooves hi, and what his works are. It informs him that he is completely undone… [but then it informs him what God has so graciously done to save him].” W 48, 272]
Bible: “It is
indeed true that some passages of Scripture are dark; however, they contain
nothing but precisely that which is found at other places in clear, open
passages. But now the heretics come on,
understand the dark passages according to their own mind, and contend with them
against the clear passages, the foundation of our faith. Then the fathers fought them with the clear
passages, threw light with these on the dark passages, and proved that the dark
passages taught precisely the same thing as the clear passages… whoever cannot
understand the dark passages should stay with the clear ones.” [SL 5, 335, 337f.] Psalm 37
Bible: “He who would read the Bible must carefully see to it that he does not err; for it is indeed possible to stretch and lead Scripture. But let no one lead it according to his personal inclination… This one thing preach: the wisdom of the cross, that is, that man is nothing and can do nothing and thus learns to despair of himself and hope in Christ.” [SL 12, 1706f.]
Bible: “The doctrine
of Scripture should be approved even if Herod presents it and commits nothing
but murder besides. Just so, on the
other hand, the doctrine of men should not be approved, even if St. Peter,
Paul, or an angel presents it and produces a cloudburst of miracles
besides.” [SL 11, 329] Matt. 2:1-12
Bible: “No mistake is more easily and commonly made in dealing with Scripture than bringing together Scripture passages that are different as if they were the same.” [SL 18, 1865f.]
Bible: “But pious Christians and their Lord Christ praise me; and I am too richly repaid if only a single Christian recognizes me as a faithful worker.” [SL 19, 977f.]
Books: “Oh, that God would have my and all teachers’ interpretations perish and every Christian would by himself take to studying merely the Scripture and the pure Word of God! … No one but such a calm, meditative spirit will grasp the meaning [of God’s Word].” [SL 11, 429]
Books: “Although all of us cannot be writers, nevertheless all of us want to be critics.” [SL 10, 1299]
Catechism: [directions on how to use the catechism] “Secondly, when they have well learned the text, teach them the sense also, that they may know what it means… Adhere to it without the change of a single syllable, as was said of the text; and take your time to it; for it is not necessary to take up all the parts at once, but take one after the other. When they well understand the First Commandment, proceed to the Second and thus continue; otherwise they will be overburdened and be able to retain nothing well.”
Catechism: “But I do not so glory in this gift [of practical knowledge and experience with Scripture] as not to join my children daily in prayerfully reciting the Catechism, that is, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer and meditating on them with an attentive heart.” [SL 4, 1905]
Catholic Church: “By His miraculous power God nonetheless preserved under the pope, first, Holy Baptism; then, in the pulpit, the text of the holy Gospel, … thirdly, the forgiveness of sins and absolution, … fourthly, the holy Sacrament of the Altar, … fifthly, the calling and ordaining to the pastorate, the ministry, or the care of souls, … finally, also prayer, the Psalter, the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments; likewise, many good hymns and songs, both Latin and German… Therefore, Christ with His Holy Spirit surely was with His own and sustained Christian faith in them, although all spiritual life was very weak, as in the time of Elijah, when seven thousand were preserved in such weakness that Elijah himself thought he alone was a Christian (1 Kings 19:14).” [SL 19, 1249f.]
Chasteness: “Now, if anyone wants to call people chaste because, while they play with words, they are chaste in action, as also their father Ovid lies: ‘Believe me, my morals differ from my poetry, My life is upright, my Muse jokes,’ then Christ stops their mouth by replying: ‘Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh’ (Matt. 12:34). As the tree, so the leaves.” [SL 3, 1304]
Children: “Proud jackasses develop out of the sons of heroes who boast of the virtue of their fathers but make no effort to imitate it, dreaming instead that they, too, are heroes because they were born of heroes.” [SL 2, 1369]
Wrath of God: “For
the devil has no other weapon with which to defeat us than picturing God as
ungracious and wrathful. When he strikes
the heart with that idea no man is joyful enough to be able to bear it.” [W 45, 604]
John 14:23-24
Youth: “Youth should not be sad; it should be hilarious and joyful. Adolescents should be in good spirits.” [W-T 5, NO. 5736]
Youth: “Experience
teaches us that youths reared with extreme strictness become much worse when
loosed from restraint than those who have not been so strictly reared. So utterly impossible it is to improve human
nature with commandments and punishments.”
[W 10 I, 1, 451] Gal. 3:23-29
Zeal: [commenting on the fact that there is often greater zeal among those who are not loyal to the Lord and His Word:] “There never was a holier and more religious disciplining than that of the false prophets. They let their children go through fire, they burned their dearest offspring, the fruit of their own bodies, without any compassion, in honor and in the worship of their god…
People show greater devotion and ardor in clinging to superstitions than in accepting and retaining the true doctrine and faith.”
[W 44, 782] Genesis
49:13
Absolution: “Listen,
pope,
Affliction: “God effects little among the godless with His plagues and blows. They become increasingly worse and are like stubborn horses. The more one beats them, the less one can get them to go on; they rather back up, as Isaiah says (as a warning for us): ‘This people has not turned to Him who struck it’ (1:5). [W 16, 121]
Affliction: “The
more terrible the sufferings are, the greater and more admirable are their
effects in the saints.” [W 44, 265] Heb. 12:6ff.
Affliction: “God
does not want us to seek and choose calamity.
Go on in faith and love. If the
cross comes, take it up; if it does not come, do not seek it… Paul has also
forbidden this in Col. 2:23, where he speaks of such saints as walk in
self-chosen spirituality and humility and spare not their bodies.” [W 12, 364f.]
1 Peter 1:6; 3:17
Angels: “Therefore
we should learn that our best and most loyal friends are invisible. They are the good angels, who by their
faithfulness and benevolence and by their many services of friendship greatly
excel our visible friends. Just so the
evil angels and devils, who are invisible, are enemies more bitter than our
visible foes. Whatever evil happens
comes to a far greater extent from them than from those whom we can see with
our eyes. On the other hand, if anything
good happens, it is brought about entirely through the good angels.” [W 43, 317]
Gen. 24:5-7
Anger: [The apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus says:] “‘The heart of fools is in their mouth; but the mouth of the wise is in their heart.’ … To have a heart in the mouth means to speak without thinking, as angry people usually do. To have the mouth in the heart means to speak carefully, as quiet and gentle people do.” [W 5, 113]
Antichrist: “One
antichrist fights against the person of Christ, another against the humanity, a
third against the divinity of Christ.
These are antichrists in part, as are the enthusiasts (Schwaermer). Another is against the entire Christ, and he
is the head of all, as in the papacy.
For the head of Christian doctrine is that Christ is our
Righteousness.” [W 20, 669] 1 Jn. 2:18
Apostasy: “[That
the church at times shows such great weakness and that one or another falls
away] causes great offense. But we must
absolutely close our eyes and say: Let
fall who will not stand and stand who stands; let him who will persecute the
Gospel persecute it, it is nonetheless the truth… What can I do if the pope and
the enthusiasts fall away from the Gospel and inflict great grief on us? My lot will be no better than that of my
Lord… It is said in Matthew 10:25: ‘If
they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they
call them of his household?’” [W 33,
247f.] John 6:59-60
Apostles: “There is a great difference between an apostle and a bishop (episcopus). An apostle is a person ordained by God without means and called with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But a bishop is a person elected by men for the proclamation of the ordination of ministers in certain places. Be it granted, therefore, that the apostles had authority. But the bishops may not claim it. Thus Elijah killed the false prophets (1 Kings 18:40), but no pastor is allowed to do the same thing.” [W-T 3, No. 3880]
Baptism: “Baptism is not merely a coat of arms and a token. God did not give it to be the color of His court. He Himself is there through His kindness and His love for men, because He desires to dwell in me. It is not an empty token; but the power of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost is there and does not merely mark me externally before men but makes a different person of me before God so that just as person is born of a woman in sin, so he is born of Baptism to righteousness and life eternal.” [W 45, 174]
Baptism: “I still maintain, as I have maintained in the Postil that the surest Baptism is infant Baptism. For an old person may deceive, may come to Christ as a Judas and permit himself to be baptized. But a child cannot deceive.” [W 26, 157]