Five Minutes Daily with Luther - December 17

(Reprinted with permission from Five Minutes Daily with Luther: Daily Lessons from the Writings of Martin Luther, by John Theodore Mueller.)

“Thy word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path. . . . I have inherited Thy testimonies forever, For they are the joy of my heart” Psalm 119:105,111.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I prove that the Bible is the Word of God as follows; All things that have been and now are in the world, including how things now stand and transpire in the world, these things were written in some detail at the beginning, in the first Book of Moses concerning the Creation. And just as God made and created it, even so it was, and even so it stands to this present day. And although King Alexander the Great, the kingdom of Egypt, the empire of Babel, the Persian, Grecian, and Roman monarchs, the Emperors Julius and Augustus, most fiercely raged and swelled against this book, utterly to suppress and destroy it; yet notwithstanding, they could not prevail at all: they are all gone and vanished; but this Book has remained throughout time, and will remain unmoved, in full and ample manner, as it was written at the first. But who kept it and preserved it from such great and raging power, or who defends it still? Truly no human creature, but only God Himself, who is the right Master thereof; and it is a great wonder that it has been so long kept and preserved, for the devil and the world are great enemies of it. The devil (doubtless) has destroyed many good books in the Church, as he has rooted out and slain many saints, concerning whom we have now no knowledge. But the Bible he has left untouched. Homer, Virgil, and others like them, are profitable and ancient books, but in comparison with the Bible, they are as nothing.

But still Thy Law and Gospel, Lord,
Have lessons more divine;
Not earth stands firmer than Thy Word,
Nor stars so nobly shine.