#51 The Christian Church Has the True and Pure Word of God

It is thus the will of the Lord that we should cleave to the Word and not suffer ourselves to be led astray. Whatever is in opposition to the Word we are to hate and flee from as from the devil himself. For this reason we should never be secure or fall asleep. And as has been said before, wherever the Word is in its purity, wolves will not stay away, but will surely come. This is to be seen first of all in the Church, then also in the civil government and in the family. Everywhere the wolf will interfere and try to lead us away from the Word and do us harm. The Christian Church has the true and pure Word of God; this the devil hates to see, and therefore introduces all kinds of fanatics who bring in new and strange doctrines concerning Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the person of Christ, thereby to confuse and mislead the people. And when such fanatics arise, we wicked and inquisitive people have the bad habit, which sticks to us like the plague, to run after them as soon as we hear their novelties, and fall away from the Word. (Luther’s House Postil, Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity, Volume 3, p. 727)

Posted in 2023 Doctrine & Practice.