Scripture Admits of No Compromise (Pasche)
"If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:31-32.
Even those who in doctrine declare the word of Scripture to be the Word of God are nevertheless in danger of disobeying the Word of God in practise. This is done by the making of com promises, that is, it is done when the Church maintains only so much of God’s Word as the world and worldly-minded Christians are willing to put up with, in other words, as human reason deems compatible with its ideas of what ought to be done or left undone. All the passages bearing upon this question inculcate upon all Chris tians the duty of abiding in the Word without making any com promise. God says: “ Ye shall not add unto the Word which I com mand you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it.” Deut. 4, 2.
While Luther was ever ready to sacrifice life and all for Christ’s sake, he was never willing to yield one jot or tittle of the Scriptures. And only those are Lutherans indeed who accept the whole Bible, — not only certain doctrines which appeal to certain groups of men, but everything that the Lord has commanded to teach and observe, — not the Law alone nor the Gospel alone, but the whole revelation of God; not only those parts which appeal to man’s fancy and whim, but also those books, chapters, and verses which transcend human reason; not only those parts which contain ar ticles of faith, but also those which contain historical, geographical, geological, astronomical, or any other scientific statements; in short, the whole Bible, unabridged, uncurtailed. For it behooves us to accept all the doctrines revealed to us by God in Holy Writ, also less prominent and less fundamental ones. It must be our earnest concern not to lose or vitiate any one of them. For the doctrines of the Bible form a united and connected whole; all the various parts of this divine unit are wonderfully interwoven, so that it is im- posible to restrict any of them without at the same time, in effect, corrupting and destroying the others. “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
