Quote of the Day: "Catholicity" of Lutheranism

My friend, Pastor Wil Weedon, posted the following quote on his blog:

It is true that of all the church bodies which have left the papacy, it is precisely the Lutheran Church which is accused of retaining many papal abuses and of having been the least successful in cleansing itself. It is pointed out, for example, that in our church priestly clothing, church ornamentation, pictures, altar, crucifixes, candles, confession, the sign of the cross, and the like are still apparent. But, my friends, whoever regards these innocent things as vestiges of the papacy knows neither what the papacy is, nor what the Bible teaches. The very fact that the Lutheran Reformation was not aimed at indifferent adiaphora, but retained those things which were in harmony with God's Word, shows that it was not a disorderly revolution, but a Biblical reformation.

Rev. Dr. C. F. W. Walther
First Director (President) of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and the First President of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States (The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod.)