When I referenced Phillip Cary's Sola Fide: Luther and Calvin paper yesterday, I misrepresented one particularly important point.

He presents two syllogisms: Protestantism (as represented by Calvin) and Lutheranism.

Protestantism
Major Premise: Whoever believes in Christ is saved.
Minor Premise: I believe in Christ.
Conclusion: I am saved.

Luther
Major Premise: Christ told me, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."
Minor Premise: Christ never lies but only tells the truth.
Conclusion: I am baptized (i.e., I have new life in Christ).


If you read the paper (which I highly recommend), you will see how following the first syllogism leads down the pernicious path of your faith actually depending on your own faith. My faith grows because I am believing more. My belief is more certain, so my faith is stronger.

The misrepresentation (because I was typing from memory) was that following Luther's syllogism leads to faith depending on Christ. Yes, that is true. But I believe that Cary purposely did not use Christ. He wrote that Luther believed that faith is dependent upon the Word.

By now you are used to my caveats that I will most likely bumble or butcher the following, but in this case, while I understand the difference, I am not sure that I can adequately convey so.

Something I have relished in this study of Lutherine doctrine is a reverence for Scripture that I have not found, frankly, outside the historical Christian fiction market. As I have written, the liturgy is literally steeped with Scripture. Aside from the ordinaries, taken from the bible, and prayers based on Scripture, each week there are not one, nor two, but three readings from the bible: one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, and one from the Holy Gospels. Verses upon verses upon verses. Certainly no apologies for lengthy reading would ever be heard in a Lutheran church! And if you were to study the lesson book on pastoral care, you would learn that it is the duty of the pastor to personally and regularly bring scripture to his flock, reading aloud to them so that they might hear God's Word, especially in times of distress, illness, or sorrow.

It is my decided opinion that for Luther, it is more accurate to say, as did Cary, that faith depends on the Word. The Word acknowledges the triune God, that Christ has always been, not merely a man born in a manger to die on a cross, that the Holy Spirit is given to us to so that we might hear and understand the Word. The Word acknowledges that God's message to His people is Christ, from the beginning of the world until the end times. That message has never changed. The Word acknowledges the Promised redemption of sin for all time by the only One who could accomplish such a defeat of death, of the devil. The Word acknowledges that scripture is the Living Word because Christ is our risen saviour. He was and is and will be. He is our messager. He is Truth. And He is alive.