THE CENTRAL SOLUTION

Thanks to President-Elect Matthew Harrison for this excellent except that clarifies the issue for the church, her pastors, and her people.

“An evangelical church that the views the teaching of the righteousness of faith as self-evident – but about which no one should trouble himself further because other issues are more important – has in principle robbed itself of the central solution by which other questions are illuminated.
Such a church will become increasingly more splintered and worn down.
If we take the article of justification out of the center very soon we will not know why we are evangelical Christians or should remain so. As a result, we will strive for the unity of the church and will sacrifice the purity of the gospel; we will have more confidence in church organization and church government and will promise more on the basis of the reform of Christian authority and church training than either can deliver. If we lose our center, we will court pietism and listen to other teachings and we will be in danger of being tolerant where we should be radical and radical where we should be tolerant. In short, the standards will be lowered and along with them everything that is necessary and correct in the reforms that we sing about will be incomprehensible”

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH ACCORDING TO LUTHER by Hans Joachim Iwand, p. 16
From Matt Harrison
Mercy Journeys with Pastor Harrison: The Central Solution
mercyjourney.blogspot.com