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Top Five Latin Phrases Every Lutheran Should Know

11/18/2014

18 Comments

 
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My first “Top 5” has been inspired by none other than one Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller.  A number of years ago I had the privilege of attending one of his adult Bible classes with my grandmother-in-law (aka Oma).  In that class, the good reverend was teaching on Luther’s Isaiah commentary, and he got stumped on a Latin phrase that he could not call to mind.  In a moment of need, he turned to me, his brother pastor, for help with the phrase he was at a loss to find.  But, much to my shame, I know very little Latin and was of no help to him whatsoever.  As I left that class, I made a vow to myself:  It was not to learn Latin (I’m not that smart), but rather, if ever Pastor Wolfmueller has a journal-turned-blog and I have the honor of being asked to contribute, I will make it up to him by writing a list of Latin words that every Lutheran should know.  Here, then, for the inaugural “Top Five” are the “Top Five Latin Phrases Every Lutheran Should Know!” 
#5: Sola

Right off the bat I am sort of cheating.  Sola means “alone” or “only.” Yet, Sola is never alone!  In lovely Lutheran lingo, there are five Solas: sola gratia (grace alone); sola fide (faith alone); solo Christo (Christ alone); sola scriptura (Scripture alone); sola deo Gloria (glory to God alone).  The formula in English usually reads something like this: We are justified (declared right before God) by grace ALONE through faith ALONE on account of Christ’s work ALONE.  When it comes to where the authority in the church is found, we confess it is found in the Scriptures ALONE as our sole norm of faith and life.  All of this maintains that God ALONE is glorified in his work.  

Now, the solas are crucial if we are to understand what distinguishes Lutherans from every other Christian denomination; why our church, you might say, stands ALONE (get it?).   For example, the Roman Catholic church will maintain that they believe one is justified by grace through faith.  Of course!  Just not grace alone through faith alone.  Rather, one is justified when the grace that empowers one to exercise faith becomes active in love.  Notice how this phrase leaves room for our work in justification.  Faith active in love justifies, not faith despairing of my love and trusting in Jesus ALONE.  (Notice here how Jesus does not get all the glory in justification, but our loving faith gets some credit.  No more sola deo gloria).

Or consider sola scriptura.  Now this one might get me in trouble with our evangelical friends.  The Lutherans are the only church that actually follows this one all the way through.  Our closest cousins in the Reformation, the Calvinists, will fight you to your face, with their angry reformed fists in the air, if you suggest they are not a sola scriptura church.  “Of course we think that the Word alone norms our faith and life.”  But, consider the sacraments.  As soon as you ask them if the bread at the Lord’s Supper really is Jesus’ physical body, like the Jesus plainly says, they respond with that other norm: reason.  “Well, how could he be in heaven and in your mouth and the mouth of your neighbor?”  I dunno.  But, that is what the Scriptures say.  So, leave them ALONE!

I could go on and on.  Suffice it to say that these solas keep our eyes fixed on Jesus alone for everything.  As soon as we start to add something of our works to justification by grace through faith on account of Christ, we have ignored the plain teaching of scripture and undermined the glory of God. 

#4: incurvatus in se

OK, this explanation won’t be as long as the last one. This and the next phrase on the list belong together, I think, if we are to understand the nature of our sin and the nature of God’s salvation. Incurvatus in se means to be turned in on yourself or curved inwards.  This is how Luther would define sin.  I suppose we might say that this is Latin for belly-gazing.  We are so fixated on our own beautiful bellies that we don’t look to God in faith or to our neighbor in love.  We trust our bellies and love their fuzzy lint!  Honestly, when has your belly ever led you astray?  But, of course, our hearts and bellies are full of nothing but cholesterol and lint.  So that, turning inwards is the lifestyle of the sinner.  There is no fear, love, or trust of God and there is no love towards the neighbor when we are curved in on ourselves.


#3: extra nos

Thus, we ought never look inside for salvation.  The only things that comes from within there, Jesus says, are “evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22).  These things leave us dead when our faces are pulled away from our hairy bellies towards the awful glory of God.  Thus, salvation must come from outside of us, or, to use the Latin, salvation must come extra nos.  Any hope of standing before God must come from somewhere else to us. 

It is kind of like that scene in Lord of the Rings when the Ring of Power is finally cast into the mountain and destroyed.  All of middle earth is in the thralls of war and battle.  It looks like there is no hope for those fighting against evil until the ring is destroyed.  Once the ring is gone, suddenly the whole world, by no effort of its own, is set free from bondage.  Someone else saved them, namely Frodo and Sam.  The work that Frodo and Sam did for them apart from them was their saving grace. 

Someone else, somewhere else, outside of me has to be my savior because, right here and right now in this place, I am too sinful and too embattled to do anything for my salvation.  Christ comes outside of me, in His own flesh to die in my place and rise for my justification.  His particular death on a particular Friday and His particular resurrection on a particular  Sunday roughly 2000 years ago are my only hope and salvation.  And, though these are outside of my doing, I know they are mine, because a baptism that happened to me, not from me, gave them to me.  God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit accomplished all of this without any worthiness or merit in my gross belly.  He comes to me even now, from the outside, in bread and wine to give me His body and blood for my free forgiveness.  His Word comes from without as it is preached into my ears and heart.  It is all His work, done outside of me, but done for me!

#2: simil iustus et peccator

This one is huge!  It means that we are simultaneously justified/declared righteous and sinful.  Or, to put it another way, we are simultaneously sinners and saints.  I saw a woman with a T-shirt the other day that looked like a shirt someone would wear in prison.  On the front it said “saint” and on the back it said “sinner.”  I said, “I like that shirt!  Where did you get it?”  I expected her to refer to some church function or maybe even Old Lutheran.com.  “I got it at Kohl’s.”  Weird.  Anyhow, she went on, “We are all kind of a dichotomy like that I guess.”  Then she chased after her granddaughter and avoided talking to me anymore.  So much for evangelism at the kid’s school.  But I digress.

My fashionable almost-friend expressed a common misunderstanding with the simul (by the way, if you want to sound like the Lutheran “in” crowd, just refer to this phrase as “the simul”).  This phrase is not saying that we are a dichotomy,  that sometimes we act like sinners and other times we act like saints, like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.  Nor does it mean that we are partially sinners and then partially saints.  We don’t think of this phrase in moral terms, that is, sometimes I am a good person and sometimes I am a bad person since I am a mix of both.  What we mean is that the baptized child of God is 100% sinner and 100% saint at the exact same time (good Lutheran theologians are bad mathematicians).  You and I will daily have to fight against the old sinful nature.  The old Adam was drowned in baptism, but that sucker can swim, as Luther once quipped.  The old, sinful nature must be drowned daily as we remember our baptism in repentance. 

But, you are not only a sinner.  By virture of your baptism, you are a saint!  Why?  Because God said so.  He put His name on you, crucified you with His Son, raised you to a new life, clothed you in Christ’s righteousness, and washed you clean.  According to the Word of God, the promise of baptism, you are a saint!  You may not ever see it in your own actions.  You may only see the activity of the sinner.  But, Christ shed His blood for you so that you might be his own.  To bring this thing full circle: we are always at the same time incurvatus in se  and justified extra nos.  (Hey, look dude!  You know some latin!) The sinner is found on earth in me, and the saint is found in Christ in heaven. 

#1: Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

 I saved this one for last simply because it is stinking long!  It means “the Word of the Lord endures forever.”  Not only would this make a completely sweet tatoo, it is really the battle cry of the Lutheran Reformation.  It was the symbol of the Smalcaldic League (a leauge of sixteenth century Lutheran princes organized to defend their lands against those who would seek to overthrow the preaching of the Gospel).  They put it on their flags, weapons, uniforms, and Wheaties boxes.  When the whole world seems to be opposed to the preaching of God’s Word, we are reminded with this phrase that the world in its sin and despising of God is temporary, but God’s Word is eternal.  1 Peter 1:24-25 says, “For ‘all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.’” And this is the word that was preached to you.”

This Word that endures forever that is preached into our ears and hearts is the Word of the cross.  That blood-soaked Word is the Word of Jesus which cries out “I forgive you!” against the devil, the world, and our flesh.  Suffering and persecution, temptation and despair, sickness and death will come our way if we are in Christ.  But nothing can separate us from the love of God that has been enfleshed and verbalized to us in Jesus Christ.  His Word of mercy and forgiveness is for you, forever.  Kind of like a tattoo…a completely sweet tattoo!

So, there is the list!  I know, I know, there are so many I left out!  Here are a few of the bubble phrases:  Lex semper accusat (“the law always accuses,” enough said); ex opere operato (“from the work done,” not a phrase we like, it is the teaching that sacraments work without faith found in Rome.  You just need to know it if you read the Apology to the Augsburg Confession); ex nihilo (“out of nothing,” God creates out of nothing).  I am sure there are more.  So, bring it on!  “Top Five Latin Phrases Every Lutheran Should Know!”  What others can you think of?

18 Comments
James Kellerman
11/18/2014 08:53:05 am

Oops! It isn't "Sola Deo Gloria." That would mean "To God be the only glory." It should be "Soli Deo Gloria," if you are trying to say, "To God alone be the glory."

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James Kellerman
11/18/2014 10:31:13 am

Also, it should be "Solus Christus," not "Solo Christo."

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Gaylan Mathiesen
1/28/2018 07:08:39 pm

Actually, Solo Christo is an acceptable alternative rendering in the ablative case, i.e., that salvation is "by (or through) Christ alone."

Bob Hiller
11/18/2014 11:18:40 am

Oh blast! Thanks, James! I knew that was going to happen...

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Matt Lorfeld
11/18/2014 11:27:01 am

Three Latin phrases that are at the heart of the Lutheran understanding of the Lord's Supper
unio sacramentalis - "Sacramental Union" - that the bread and wine ARE Christ's body and blood
manducatio oralis - "oral eating" - We believe the Lord's Body and Blood are put into our mouths
manducatio indignorum et impiorum - "eating by the unworthy and impious [unbelievers]" - That even those who are not worthy or do not believe eat and drink the Lord's Body and Blood in the Lord's Supper, though to their harm, not benefit.

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Steve Stolarczyk
11/19/2014 10:16:46 am

My personal favorite is semper ubi sub ubi. Not a theological term, however.

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Deb Glaum
12/26/2014 10:22:32 am

Ha! Reminds me of a joke from Latin class...Ubi ubi est tuum sub ubi?

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Nelda R. Peterson
11/20/2014 03:07:49 am

I love the old doctrines of our church. they are sooo rich!!

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ChuckG
10/2/2017 05:20:41 am

They're old, yes, inasmuchas they were distilled out by Luther and his colleagues some 500 years age. But they are older still inasmuchas they are not the product of the minds of Luther and his colleagues but were give by God to man all but with creation.

However, we must not think of them as "old," as antiquated, or outdated, something man has progressed beyond, a relic of our old thinking, or as a keepsake or even a museum piece kept in a glass case as a reminder of bygone days and bygone thinking and practices. No! We must always think of these as new and vital everyday.

It can be fun to think of and say these things in Latin. It can be a bit of a nemonic for us. It can be a conversation starter. But we must not let this ancient and largely-disused language become a millstone around the neck of these vital doctrines. Say them and write them in Latin, sure. But say them, write them, teach them, proclaim them in modern English -- and in modern Chinese and Arabic and and French and German and Korean and Swahili and and and in every other language there is too.

These doctrines are not the doctrines of men -- of Luther and his colleagues -- but of God from God-given scripture alone. And the word of God is living and active.

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donald
2/12/2016 03:51:58 am

I think it is Simul justus et peccator and not simil.

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fika_nofa
6/27/2017 12:22:49 pm

Protestants of all stripes believe in the 5 solas, makes sense, i mean the Reformation was "launched" by Luther (many might not go through them regularly, what's more they're not confessional, most of them... so) but this portion right here, is misleading

"Now, the solas are crucial if we are to understand what distinguishes Lutherans from every other Christian denomination"

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ChuckG
10/2/2017 05:56:43 am

Protestants of all stripes may quote the Five Solas. They may, out of one side of their mouths, say they believe them. But, as the author here points out, if you look at the details -- and, as the old adage goes, the devil is in the details -- you will find that they don't.

Scripture Alone is the most commonly violated one. Man is a thinking animal. Our thinking has literally taken us to the moon and back. And so it is most difficult for us to stop thinking and just let God speak. The real presence in communion is often an example of this. With our thinking, we have learned to detect human blood in imperceptible traces. Forensic laboratories can detect blood traces even on clothing which has been washed multiple times. There are those who will -- while maintaining a forensic-standard chain-of-custody -- take the wine off of the alter and send it one of those labs and the waive the resulting report and declare, "Look! No Blood! It's just symbolic." And yet we Lutherans say, "No! There is blood, the blood of Christ Himself, none the less. We put our faith not in the words of a laboratory report -- no matter how highly accredited the lab may be -- but in the words of Christ who said, "This is my blood."

Were I serving on a criminal jury and the state presented a report from a forensic laboratory showing that, while imperceptible to the human eye, there was, never the less, the victim's blood on the defendant's shirt, I would believe it and count is as evidence against the defendant. But were you then to show me a report from that same lab showing absolutely no blood in communion wine, I would reply in the words of a hymn, "Ponder not how this takes place, this wonderous mystery. God can accomplish vastly more than what you think can be." Is this inconsistent on my part? Does this not require some human explanation to bridge this gap? No. This is scripture alone in action.

Grace Alone and Christ Alone are also so difficult for man to simply accept. "You get what you earn," that is man's thinking. We so much want to be involved. We want to be a part of our own salvation. It just makes sense to us. Anything else just seems to our reasoning and in our worldly experience to be, well, to be to good to be true. But again, Scripture Alone! Stop thinking. Start reading. God can accomplish vastly more than what you think can be. God can accomplish your salvation without your help. And God has said that he has already done it. It is finished. To suggest otherwise, to say that if I do this or that or refrain from something else then I have earned even a fraction of my salvation, is to say that my actions -- or inactions -- have put God into my debt; God now owes me my salvation. I have now earned an IOU signed by God that I cash in on the last day to get the salvation God owes me. Of course not. God cannot be a debtor and most certainly not to a poor sinful being such as me. In the words of an old hymn, "Oh to grace how deep a debtor daily I [not God but me] am constrained to be." I am the debtor. Nothing I can do can put God in my debt which is what works righteous tries to do. No! Grace Alone and Christ Alone as we learn not from our human thinking and earthly experience but from Scripture Alone.

The Lutheran church alone not just says the Five Solas but believes them totally and practices them totally and stakes our faith and our salvation totally upon them. We bring none of our own thinking or reason or experience lest we deserve some credit. To God Alone be the glory.

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Adam
2/12/2020 04:44:08 am

As one not part of an alphabet soup church (e.g. LCMS, ELCA, WELS, etc.), I do believe in the 5 Solas. I am nondenominational and so is my church. I am sure there are some going to my congregation that wold take issue with some part of the Solas, but so would my mom who goes to a Lutheran church (ELCA now but previous to moving LCMS for many years).
I consider Lutherans my brethren in Christ and mean no disrespect in any of this comment. But I think y'all should be slow to define the beliefs of people outside your letters.

Please be careful about creating a 6th Sola of Sola Lutheran.

Brian Dunne link
7/31/2018 08:20:46 am

I am currently reading a new book--2018--by Mary C. Moorman called Indulgences: Luther, Catholicism, and the Imputation of Merit. In it she uses the term extra nos which, since I never studied Latin, I didn't know the meaning of. I went online to find the meaning and came across this post. I didn't read the entire entry, just the intro and the sections on sola and extra nos. These sections further confirmed for me what I have long believed about Lutheranism, really Protestantism in general to the extent that all Protestants believe what Bob Hiller presents in this post. However, considering there are about 30,000 Protestant denominations out there, who can tell what they all believe in common. So much for Jesus' desire that "they may all be one..." (Jn. 17:21). But I digress.

What I have long believed about Protestantism is that it is a lazy faith, and as much as Protestants rely on sola Scriptura, their interpretation of Scripture cannot be trusted. The fact that there are thousands of Protestant denominations, all relying on Scripture and the Holy Spirit yet having so many different beliefs that cannot all be reconciled, leaves one with two conclusions--either Jesus lied about the Holy Spirit guiding the Church into all the truth (Jn. 16:13) and instead the Holy Spirit is leading "followers of Christ" into many truths, or that Protestantism is heretical because no Protestant, separated from the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, has the authority to teach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as found in the Bible, let alone Sacred Tradition. I am going with the latter. Here are some points from Hiller's article to support my claim.

Let's begin with what he says about sola, which he tells us means "alone" or "only". Most people already know this, but I reiterate these meanings because it needs to be emphasized how Protestants misuse these terms. Hiller writes, "For example, the Roman Catholic Church [I am Catholic if one hasn't figured this out yet] will maintain that they believe one is justified by grace through faith. Of course! Just not grace alone through faith alone. Rather, one is justified when the grace that empowers one to exercise faith becomes active in love. Notice how this phrase leaves room for our work in justification. Faith active in love justifies, not faith despairing of my love and trusting in Jesus ALONE. (Notice here how Jesus does not get all the glory in justification, but our loving faith gets some credit. No more sola deo Gloria.)" Let's unpack all the problems with this statement about Catholic beliefs.

Let's start with those important words "alone" and "only". It is well known that Luther referred to the epistle of James as an "epistle of straw". This is because what James says about faith and works undermines what Luther taught about faith alone. I am sorry, but I am going with James, not Luther. Let's see how the words "faith" and "alone" and "only" are used in James. "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being ALONE" (2:17), and, "You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith ONLY" (2:24). So much for faith alone. And why do Protestants put so much emphasis on faith over and above love anyway? This is where the laziness of Protestantism comes to the fore.

I am flabbergasted when Hiller questions the Catholic teaching of the importance of faith becoming active in love, especially when considering the Biblical evidence. When asked what the Great Commandment is, Jesus says nothing about faith but instead talks about love, and not just love of God. Love of neighbor is an essential component of the GC. Of course we have to love God first and foremost; it can be argued that without love of God and God's love, it is impossible to love our neighbor, especially with a real sacrificial love. Still, we cannot separate the two, love of God and neighbor. "Whoever claims to love God yet hates his brother is a liar" (1 Jn 4:20). And what happens to liars? "...all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur" (Rev 21:8). Faith active in love is further supported by Mt 25. The parable of the talents means that what God has given to us we must put to use, most notably by loving our neighbor. That is why this parable is followed by Jesus' teaching about what Catholics would call the Corporal Works of Mercy. And what will happen to those who do not perform the CWoM? "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison and you did not care for me...And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous [those with a faith that is active in love] to eternal life" (Mt 25:41-43, 46). The primacy of love over faith is further evidenced in 1 Cor 13:13, "These thre

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Kay
10/5/2021 05:45:16 pm

I feel your response is based mostly on boastful pride. Your argument seems irrelevant to me considering that arguing about things such as these misses the entire point. If you believe in Jesus' death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins as the means to salvation then you will be saved and that's that. Arguing anything else to prove yourself right and someone else wrong is irrelevant.

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Brian Dunne link
7/31/2018 02:17:35 pm

...to continue where I got cut off:

1 Cor 13:13, "These three remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love."

It seems that Hiller's de-emphasis of love comes from his fear that a faith active in love "leaves room for our work in justification" and thus takes away from our trust in Jesus, while also taking away from his glory. If there is no room for our work in justification, why does Paul tell us to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling"? (Phil 2:12) Why not "just believe"? But isn't even believing, strictly speaking, a work? It's our free decision, an act of the will, to respond to God's grace, to love God and others out of gratitude for His love for us. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son" (Jn 3:16) to die for us and our sins. And why does our active love take away glory from Jesus? In fact, our acts of love glorify Jesus because once again, it is because of his love for us that we do what we do. As Scripture tells us, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (Jn 13:35). I think one can say that faith is in part what makes us a disciple, but love is what shows the world that we are Jesus' disciples, and this only redounds to his glory; it doesn't take away from his glory.

Am I saying that Protestants do not love their neighbor and thus is the reason why I can say that Protestantism is a lazy faith? Not at all. I am sure that many Protestants perform many of the Corporal Works of Mercy, although they would probably not call them such. But who knows what reason they would give for even performing any loving works in the first place. I'd really like to know what a Lutheran would say to this, especially since their founder said, "Sin and sin boldly but believe more boldly still," considering that sin is the absence of love.

Before ending this response I would like to address one more use by Hiller of the word "only". In the extra nos section he writes, "Jesus says the only things that come from within there are evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. (Mark 7:21-22), and that is why we should not rely on anything extra nos, such as our works of love. However, Jesus doesn't say that "only" these things come out of a person. To give this interpretation is one of the major problems I have with Luther and Lutheranism, which is his view of man's nature as essentially depraved, even though God saw everything that He had made and saw that it was good. This includes mankind, as we are created in God's image. If the "only" things that come out of us are evil and sinful thoughts and behaviors, then it would make no sense for Jesus to tell us that we should love our neighbor. Would a mathematician tell his or her ordinary grade school child, "Complete this calculus problem," and when s/he could not, then say, "See, I asked you to do this knowing that you could not so that you would rely solely on me to solve the problem"? It seems that this is the kind of God that Lutherans worship, but this is not the God that Catholics worship.

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Luther von Wolfen link
1/27/2020 08:10:53 am

Frodo and Sam did not destroy the Ring. That was done by Gollum/Smeagol, by accident. Frodo actually failed at the final moment and would have claimed the Ring for himself.
In the context of Tolkien's Christianity, Frodo's fails because he is of the flesh. The Ring is destroyed because there is a Greater Force at work, which is alluded to at various points, mostly by Gandalf. The fact that it is Gollum/Smeagol who brings about the destruction of the Ring - unintentionally and treacherously - is like Judas' betrayal of Christ, which brings about the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

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James Robles link
1/15/2021 04:16:33 am

Hello nice blogg

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