Friday, June 29, 2007

The Dissidence of Life's Harmony

From the American Edition of Luther's Works, vol. 6, pg. 92, editied in Faith Alone by James C. Galvin.


People who are unfamiliar with the principles of musical harmony have trouble appreciating how the various sounds produced by an organ or harp can result in such beautiful music. In this life, we hear the sounds, not the symphony. It appears to us that God is asleep and the devil is wide-awake and ruling everything. Human reason concludes that neither God nor people are in control of the world, but that everything on earth happens by chance. Human wisdom can't comprehend the infinite, heavenly truth that God is in charge and allows many more things in this world to succeed than fail. God's kindness is more widespread that the devil's cruelty. But human reason makes us uncertain because we experience so much disorder and injustice. We feel uncertain because we don't see by the same light the angels do. We can't understand how right and wrong, life and death, light and darkness all harmonize.

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