Luther neither removed the Apocrypha from the Bible nor discouraged its use. Rather, he received and preserved the ancient distinction inherited from the fathers: the Apocrypha is valuable, edifying, and worthy of reading, but it is not Holy Scripture and therefore cannot serve as the foundation of Christian doctrine.
The confessors at Augsburg remind us that every generation of Christians is called to bear witness to the gospel amid the challenges and pressures of its own age. As they confessed Christ before emperors and kingdoms, so the Church continues to confess Him before the world today.
When Jesus washes you with baptismal water, you can rest assured that the Lion of Judah is on the move.

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As long as the church teaches the gospel, it will suffer persecution.
Baptism is always valid because no unrighteousness or faithlessness on our part could ify God’s faithfulness.
It isn’t that God struggles to believe our repeated cries of “wolf.” Rather, we struggle to believe God when he repeatedly comes to us with forgiveness and mercy on his lips.
The Church is where God has instituted the office of the preacher of the gospel. And if you are let-down, the gospel is what you need to hear.
Jesus did not need a single act of mercy to get him started on the road to mercy, his essence was by nature merciful.
Christ strikes a blow first against the presumption of those who would storm their way into heaven by their good works.
The giver of life, the source of joy, stands weeping together with the human family as they grieve under the curse of sin.
The Christian sermon is Gospel preaching. We only preach the Gospel. Only the Gospel is the sermon, notwithstanding necessary admonishments of law and requisite exhortations toward sanctification.
The reformers were compelled to confess the true faith and challenge corrupt practices—this is what the Augsburg Confession is about.
Our certainty is of Christ, that mighty hero who overcame the Law, sin, death, and all evils.
The only one truly blessed of God, who in himself is God’s incarnate makarios, surrounds himself with a multitude of the accursed, the non-makarios.
It is not her sacrifices that define Jane's faith, but her belief in the one who sacrificed for her.