Book Review/Summary - We Confess Anthology (Herman Sasse)

This book was amazing! It is a must read for everyone. It covers so much ground on so many topics because it is actually a collection of essays and letters from Herman Sasse. They are generally categorized into three sections of Sacraments, Jesus Christ, and the Church. One of the themes throughout though is about confessing itself, which I have notes on below. I have and will continue to quote from this book in many other posts as well.

Confession in the Christian church is threefold:

1. Confession of Sin
2. Acclamation of God (praise, honor, glorify, worship)
3. Confession of Faith
1. It is necessary (Romans 10:9)
2. It is our individual answer evoked by God’s revelation of himself (Mark 8:19)
3. It is our whole church’s unified response to God’s Word (Mathew 6:13)
4. It belongs in the divine service and is similar to prayer because it is directed to God (1 Corinthians 12:3)
5. It is also directed toward the whole world (2 Corinthians 4:5, Colossians 2:6)
1. Confess Christ in your daily life (Matthew 18:19-20)
2. Confess Christ to defend your faith (1 Peter 3:15)
6. It will be fulfilled at the end of the world (Philippians 2:10)
7. Confession can't guarantee purity of doctrine, but purity of doctrine cannot remain without a clear confession.
1. "In removing the authority of the confession, it removes that of the Bible also. If it is no longer possible to say whether a confessional statement is in accordance with Scripture or not, then my doubt is basically not toward the confession but toward Scripture. I have lost confidence in it to interpret itself."
2. "Whether a church is still a confessional church is decided bot by the number of old confessional writings it still possesses but by its living proclamation in preaching, instruction, and pastoral care."
3. “Today there are only a few small groups, mostly small, who are not afraid of being called confessional and orthodox.”