Unfortunately, my dear Hartmut, this is what the German nation has deserved for serving the pope at that fatal diet. They who today rant and are hardened are to blame for this, because at the time they were spinning the wheel and held the dice in their hand and imagined that Christ did not see them playing. O terrible and stern Judge, how mysterious, how dreadful are your judgments! How secure and safe Pharaoh always feels before he is drowned in the Red Sea! He does not see that his own sense of security is evidence of the real and earnest wrath of God over him. O how unbearable it is for God to see his precious word reviled! [It is so unbearable] that he expended the blood of his dearest Child [for his word’s sake]. Meanwhile men will sit and jest and smile as they condemn and persecute it. (Luther’s Works, v.43, p.66-67)
Picture: Art. VIII Das in d’ sichtbarlichen kirchen frome und heuchler gefundë werden.
“That it is well known in the visible church are found pious and hypocritical men.”
Matt. 7, v. 21 ; “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
2nd Tim. 2, v. 20 ; “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.”
[All of the pictures for this year’s posts are from an etching entitled “Augsburg Confession” by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) and found in the Royal Collection Trust.]