96. Brief Analysis

The scriptural quotation just above is what the one who sat on the throne, that is, the Lord, said to John when John saw the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. (The New Jerusalem means the new church, as the next point will demonstrate [§§99– 101].)

The reason why the falsities in the tenets of faith of the modern-day church have to be examined and rejected first before the truths in the tenets of the new church are revealed and accepted is that the two systems do not agree at any point or at any time. The tenets of the modern-day church are built on faith as their foundation, and yet no one knows whether anything essential to the church lies within that faith or not. The essential elements of the church, which are things that unite themselves to a faith in one God, are goodwill, good works, repentance, and a life in accordance with divine laws. Because these four, together with faith, affect and move both our will and our thoughts, they unite us to the Lord and the Lord to us. Since none of these essential elements plays any part in the faith espoused by the modern-day church at the moment when that faith comes into us — the moment referred to as “the act of justification” — it is completely impossible to know whether that faith is in us or not. Therefore it cannot even be known whether that faith is anything real or is just an idea. We are told that in the moment [of acquiring faith] we are like a stone or a block of wood and that when it comes to receiving faith, we are entirely unable to will, think, cooperate, or adapt or accommodate ourselves to it; see §15 c, d. None of us can even guess, then, let alone know, whether that faith exists within us or not. We do not know whether it is like a flower in a painting we own or like a flower in a field inside us. We do not know whether it is like a bird flying past us or like a bird nesting in us. We ask what signs and indications might lead us to the answers to these questions. The reply is that we may know this from the goodwill, good works, repentance, and following of the law that occur in us once we have faith. We have nevertheless also been told that there is no bond whatever between faith and these things. I leave it to the wise to investigate whether a lack of a bond can be a sign that testifies to anything! For example, our faith (we are told) is not preserved or maintained by the actions just listed; see §12 l, m.

The conclusion to be drawn is that nothing of the church has anything to do with the modern-day faith. Therefore the modern-day faith is not indeed anything; it is just a notion that there is such a thing. Given that this is the nature of that faith, it deserves to be rejected; in fact, since it contains not a single attribute of a church, it rejects itself.

15. Teachings from the Formula of Concord on free choice:

(a) Human beings are completely powerless in spiritual matters (pages 15, 18, 219, 318, 579, 656 and following; appendix, page 141).

(b) We human beings have been so deeply corrupted through the fall of our first parents that in spiritual matters concerning our conversion and salvation we are by nature blind. We regard the Word of God as foolishness. We are an enemy of God, and remain so until from pure grace without any cooperation on our part we are converted, given faith, regenerated, and renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word as it is preached and heard (pages 656, 657).

(c) We are utterly corrupt and dead to what is good, so that in our nature after the Fall but before our regeneration not the least spark of spiritual power remains that would enable us to prepare ourselves for the grace of God, or accept it once it was offered, or make room for it by ourselves or on our own. In spiritual matters, we are entirely unable to understand, believe, comprehend, think, will, start, finish, enact, work, or cooperate through our own natural powers, or adapt or accommodate ourselves to grace or contribute anything to our own conversion in whole or by half or to the least extent by acting on our own (pages 656, 658).

(d) In spiritual and divine matters, which concern the soul’s salvation, the human being is like a pillar of salt, like Lot’s wife, and indeed like a lifeless block of wood or a stone, which has no eyes or mouth or senses (pages 661, 662).

(e) Although people have the power to move their bodies and control their limbs and can attend public worship and hear the Word and the gospel, they nevertheless regard those things as foolishness in their silent thoughts. In this sense they are worse than a block of wood, if the Holy Spirit does not become active in them (pages 662, 671, 672, 673).

(f) As we undergo conversion, it happens not as a statue is formed in stone or a seal is pressed in wax; these things do not know or feel or will anything (pages 662, 681).

(g) In our conversion we are “purely passive” and not active at all (pages 662, 681).

(h) In our conversion, we do not cooperate with the Holy Spirit at all (pages 219, 579, 583, 672, 676; appendix, pages 143, 144).

(i) Since the Fall, human beings have retained and still possess earthly powers of knowledge, as well as free choice (to some extent at least) in choosing what is good on an earthly and civic level (pages 14, 218, 641, 664; appendix, page 142).

(j) Some ancient and modern teachers of the church have used expressions such as “God draws, but he draws the willing”; we hold that these expressions do not correspond to the form of sound teaching (pages 582, 583).

(k) Using power from the Holy Spirit, the reborn cooperate with him, though still in great weakness. This occurs on the basis of the new powers and gifts that the Holy Spirit initiated in us in conversion. This leading of the Holy Spirit is not a compulsion; rather, the converted person does good things spontaneously (pages 582 and following, 673, 674, 675; appendix, page 144).

(l) It is not just the gifts of God that reside in the reborn, but because of their faith, Christ too dwells in them as in his temple (pages 695, 697, 698; appendix, page 130).

(m) There is a great difference between baptized and unbaptized people. According to Paul’s teaching, “All those who have been baptized have put on Christ,” and are therefore truly reborn. They now have a “freed choice”; that is, as Christ says, “They have been made free again.” For this reason they not only hear the Word of God but are also able to assent to it and embrace it with faith — although in great weakness (page 675).

It is important to note that the preceding quotations were taken from the book called the Formula of Concord, which was written by people who endorsed the Augsburg Confession. Nevertheless, the same things regarding justification by faith alone are said and taught by Protestants in Britain and the Netherlands as well. Therefore the statements that follow are intended for all. See also §§17, 18 just below.