tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post3165416578392203085..comments2024-03-27T15:47:46.091-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: Not peace but a sword. . . Pastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-33391342775564016762017-07-05T08:05:44.721-05:002017-07-05T08:05:44.721-05:00“The world and its God cannot and will not bear th...“The world and its God cannot and will not bear the word of the true God: and the true God cannot and will not keep silence. While, therefore, these two gods are at war with each other, what can there be else in the whole world, but tumult?<br /><br />“Therefore, to wish to silence these tumults, is nothing else, than to wish to hinder the word of God, and to take it out of the way! For the word of God, wherever it comes, comes to change and to renew the world. And even heathen writers testify, that changes of things cannot take place, without commotion and tumult, nor even without blood. It therefore belongs to Christians, to expect and endure these things, with a stayed mind: as Christ says, “When ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be not dismayed, for these things must first come to pass, but the end is not yet,” Matt. xxiv. And as to myself, if I did not see these tumults, I should say the word of God was not in the world. But now, when I do see them, I rejoice from my heart, and fear them not....<br /><br />“I see indeed, my friend Erasmus, that you complain in many books of these tumults, and of the loss of peace and concord; and you attempt many means whereby to afford a remedy, and (as I am inclined to believe) with a good intention. But this gouty foot laughs at your doctoring hands. For here, in truth, as you say, you sail against the tide; nay, you put out fire with straw. Cease from complaining, cease from doctoring; this tumult proceeds, and is carried on, from above, and will not cease until it shall make all the adversaries of the word as the dirt of the streets."<br /><br />Excerpted from Martin Luther's <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4CkBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA43&f=false#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow"><i>Bondage of the Will</i></a> (pp. 43-4).Carl Vehsehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00348831096001668813noreply@blogger.com