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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Jonathan saw in David a reflection of who he himself was. This recognition pulled him outside himself and bound him to another.
Instead of defining the true church in the way of the law, Augustine approaches the issue pastorally in the way of the gospel.
Jesus offer us this vision of violence not so we might be drawn into it but so we might be drawn through it to come closer to Him.
Friends are a gift from God, but all gifts flow from God to his children because of his love for us on account of Christ.
The following is an excerpt from“Where Two or Three Are Gathered” edited by Scott Keith (1517 Publishing, 2019).
The following is an excerpt from “Where Two or Three Are Gathered” edited by Scott Keith (1517 Publishing, 2019).
The more that we hear the law, the more we recognize others as those who, like us, are torn and tattered by the wounds of sin and brokenness.
It is only when individuals are bound together in community that they become fully human.
The word which typifies my understanding of what makes male friendships so central to the concept of masculinity is philia.
I have found that Gandalf’s words above ring true, not only in Middle-earth, but in our world as well.
Mutual Conversation and Consolation of the Brethren V — Some Examples from Rod Rosenbladt
"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." This should therefore be our starting place for understanding the basis of the doctrine.