Thursday, March 23, 2006

"McCain" Edition Of BOC Pulled


Over the last few days a bit of a discord has arisen over the "McCain" edition of the Book of Concord. I first became aware of this nonsense over at TheologyGeekBlog. Orycteropus Afer over at Aardvark Alley has a much more detailed post here than I've got time to put together.

For those of you who are not Lutheran, the Book of Concord is what Lutherans confess and teach . From the confessions:"The Word of God is and should remain the sole rule and norm of all doctrine" (FC SD, Rule and Norm, 9). What the Bible asserts, God asserts. What the Bible commands, God commands. The authority of the Scriptures is complete, certain and final. The Scriptures are accepted by the Lutheran Confessions as the actual Word of God. The Lutheran Confessions urge us to believe the Scriptures for "they will not lie to you" (LC, V, 76) and cannot be "false and deceitful" (FC SD, VII, 96). The Bible is God's "pure, infallible, and unalterable Word" (Preface to the BOC). "

Lutherans are a little different from most Christians in the west as we actually wrote down what it is that we believe the Bible says. We do not believe it is up to the individual person to define for themselves what "I think the Bible says". So every time I refer to a confessional Lutheran, what I'm referring to is a person who subscribes unconditionally to the Lutheran Confessions because they are a pure exposition of the Word of God.

Again, please visit Orycteropus Afer for a more detailed post on the matter.

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