Christian Dogmatics, Vol. 1 Quotes

“Christian liberty consists in this, that Christians are freed from their own will and are now servants of God (Rom. 6:22). Likewise, doctrinal liberty consists in this, that Christian teachers are freed from human opinions and bound only by the Word of God. That is Christ’s own definition of the freedom of doctrine: “If ye continue in My word, then … ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31 f.). When the theologian accepts and regards as Christian doctrine what the human Ego, his own or that of other men, has produced, he has become the slave of men. Under the watchword “academic freedom” our age demands for the theologians freedom from the bondage of the Word, Holy Scripture, “submission to the letter,” “shameful academic coercion,” “legalism,” etc. But this is the liberty of the flesh, the license demanded by the “superman,” who sets himself above God’s Word and will.”
― Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics: Volume 1

“It is, of course, not our business to construct a perfectly logical system and harmonize the various doctrines to suit human reason. We take the doctrines as Scriptures present them. Under this method, gaps (lacunae) remain in this life for our human understanding. Take, for example, the Scripture doctrines of salvation sola Dei gratia and damnation sola hominum culpa, a matter we have already discussed. Both doctrines are clearly revealed in Scripture. But whoever attempts to harmonize these two doctrines in the interest of a logical system will adulterate either the one or the other and will become either a Calvinist or a synergist. The attempts to remove the contradiction which reason finds in the Scripture statements on the Trinity have led to monarchianism on the one hand and to tritheism on the other. Most modern theologians have tried to unify “rationally” what Scripture says concerning the person of Christ (verus Deus and verus homo). As a result they have rejected the “two-nature doctrine” and occupy a position extra ecclesiam. Whoever seeks to “unify” the theological knowledge over and beyond the revelation of Scripture forfeits eo ipso the knowledge which deserves the designation “theological.” In order to forestall any attempts on our part to supply these “gaps,” Paul reminds the theologians of all times that our knowledge of divine matters in this life is a fragmentary one: “We know in part, and we prophesy in part” (1 Cor. 13:9).”
― Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics: Volume 1

“If by “system” is meant the logical arrangement of certain laws which have been derived and deduced from one fundamental principle by pure thought, in disregard of the actual facts (speculative system), then theology certainly is not a system. Systems of that kind are in place only where one is not dealing with things as they actually exist but only with ideal things, as is the case in “pure” mathematics, as distinguished from “applied” mathematics. They are not in place in the field of natural science and history, much less in theology. To apply the methods of the speculative systematizer to science and history is not only unscientific, but also downright nonsensical, because it proceeds on the assumption that facts are obedient to human thinking. Philosophical idealism has been justly called a derangement of the human mind, in which man labors under the obsession that his thoughts (ideas) are the rule and measure of things. Edm. Hoppe remarks in Der Alte Glaube: “Nature” [and he might have added history] “is not so obliging as to follow the diagram of the textbook.”195 Much less may the speculative systematizer intrude into the field of theology, because the Christian doctrine is fixed by Scripture. It is a finished product, which no human thinking may or can change in the least. Here every addition and every subtraction is absolutely and expressly forbidden (Joshua 23:6; Matt. 5:17-19; John 10:35; 8:31; Gal. 1:6-9). It is not the business of the theologian to deduce, through a process of thought, the Christian doctrine from some one fundamental principle or from some one fact, e. g., from the fact of regeneration, nor to construct it from the so-called “whole of Scripture,” which is a logical monstrosity. His work is limited to drawing the Christian doctrine in all its parts directly from those Scripture statements that treat the respective doctrine (sedes doctrinae). When we arrange all the Scriptural statements concerning the various doctrines under the proper heads, we have that well-ordered system of Christian doctrine which we need in this life; and God will not have us ask for something better.”
― Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics: Volume 1

“1. Until the end of time the Christian Church has but one Teacher, Jesus Christ. “One is your Master (), even Christ, and all ye are brethren. One is your Master (), even Christ” (Matt. 23:8, 10). What He, Christ, has commanded His disciples, they are to teach all men to the end of time (Matt. 28:20). Even though Christ in the state of exaltation has withdrawn His visible presence from the Church, He is and remains the one Teacher of His Church; through His Word, which He gave the Church in the Word of His Apostles, He teaches the Church to the end of time (John 8:31-32; 17:20). The Apostles, too, declare that Christ is the sole Teacher of the Church. They bind the Christians to their doctrine (2 Thess. 2:13-15; Gal. 1:6-9), but do that only because they know that their word is Christ’s Word (1 Cor. 14:37: “… the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord”; 2 Cor. 13:3; 1 Tim. 6:3). And after the days of the Apostles all orthodox teachers of the Church viewed the situation in the same way. Luther: “If any man would preach, let him suppress his own words. He may speak them in the family and State. But here in the Church he must speak nothing but the Word of the rich Head of the family; else it is not the true Church. In the Church the rule should be: God is speaking.” (St. L. XII: 1413.) It is thus a monstrous thing when men who would be the teachers of Christendom demand “academic freedom.” Whoever demands doctrinal license places himself on a level with Christ and, eo ipso, in opposition to Christ. For that reason all false teachers are called antichrists (1 John 2:18): “Even now there are many antichrists.”
― Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics: Volume 1