Thursday, December 14, 2023

Johann Gerhard (Lutheran [1625]) on Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32

  

“If an addition had been forbidden, the prophets and apostles would have sinned, for they added many things later.” We respond. One must distinguish between an addition made by human choice and one made by divine inspiration. The former must be judged as prohibited but certainly not the latter, for this command was given not to God but to men. Furthermore, the prophets did not add anything of a different character to the Law but explained it more fully and brought greater light to the prophecies about the coming Messiah. (Johann Gerhard, On the Nature of Theology and on Scripture [trans. Richard J. Dinda; Saint Louis, Miss.: Concordia Publishing House, 2009], 327)