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| Q: | I came across this on the internet. The man who made the website quoted from a book, so I don't know if this is from any of Luther's works or not. Do you know if he said this? "Baptism is no more than an outward sign that the divine promise ought to admonish us. . . . If a man cannot have it or refuses it, he is not condemned, so long as he believes the Gospel. For where the Gospel is, there is Baptism and all else that a Christian man needs." Also, there is a section of Luther's small catechism on baptism that seems to be left out of most versions on the internet. The part that says, "Can a person be saved without baptism?..." Most of them don't seem to have this part. Why is that? | ||||||
| A: | Regarding the first quotation in your inquiry: The words are not to be found in the American Edition of Luther's Works or in the Book of Concord (the Lutheran Confessions). It is highly unlikely that Martin Luther ever said or wrote these words. If he did, he was probably quoting someone with whom he disagreed. The Swiss Reformed Huldreich Zwingli could say that "Baptism is no more than an outward sign...." You are familiar with Luther's Small Catechism and you know that what Luther says about Baptism is that it is much more than an outward sign. It is possible, but not likely, that the quotation is someone's interpretive paraphrase of Luther's Small Catechism answer to the question, "What does this baptizing with water signify? Luther did say in The Large Catechism that a believer in Christ who was not baptized because he lacked knowledge or opportunity could be saved. He did not allow the same to someone who "refuses it." Luther's Small Catechism as such has never included a part that asks: "Can a person be saved without baptism?" Luther does deal briefly with this question in the Large Catechism. There may be an expository version of the Small Catechism that asks and answers the question, but we're are not familiar with it. | ||||||
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