# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1855_S140
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

140 James’s Doctrine of Justifying Faith.

the literal sense intended by the words), or none at all.” Canon 121: “The allegorical sense has no probative force unless the Holy Spirit himself has revealed it.” (According to 2 Peter 1:20. Cf. Deuteronomy 25:4 with 1 Corinthians 9:9. This includes the papist interpretation of Genesis 1:16, according to which the sun is supposed to signify papal government and the moon secular government!) Canon 19: “The embellishments of a parable must be carefully distinguished from what belongs to its essential content.” Canon 22: “In interpreting Holy Scripture, it is not enough to show what the meaning of a passage could be, but what its meaning unquestionably is.” Canon 24: “In explaining every passage of Scripture, one must go back to the original text.” Canon 28: “The primary meaning of a word depends not chiefly on the testimony of a lexicographer or Church Father, but on the usage of Scripture itself.” Canon 42: “Every interpretation of Scripture must accord with grammar.” Canon 58: “In the prophets, the form denoting the past is often used in place of the form denoting the future, to indicate how certain the matter is.” (Isaiah 53:4, 6.) Canon 66: “Affirmative statements are sometimes intended only to express the negation of the opposite.” (Luke 14:26.) Canon 125: “The curses uttered by the saints are not maledictions to be imitated, but prophetic predictions.” Canon 130: “The highest and ultimate goal of all Holy Scripture is Christ, whom the interpreter must therefore always keep in view.” Canon 156: “Predicates are to be explained according to the nature of their subject, and vice versa.” — We have selected here only a few of the canons whose correctness is immediately evident even without the accompanying proof. It is impossible to give their essential core in an excerpt, since every canon belongs to that core.
(To be continued.)

(Submitted by Pastor Hoyer.)

James’s Doctrine of Justifying Faith.

(Conclusion.)

The first part of verse 24, “that a person is justified by works,” speaks of a justification that is clearly different from justification by faith and that, though not by name, is indicated often enough in substance throughout the rest of Holy Scripture; the discussion thus far has, we hope, demonstrated this. But the second part of verse 24:

“and (that a person) is not (justified) by faith alone” has made many fear that James thereby directly overturns the passage Romans 3:28, that epitome of the doctrine of justification by faith. Is that fear well founded? We answer: no. Let us first