Romans 11:1-6
New International Version
The Remnant of Israel 11 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”[a]? 4 And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”[b] 5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
Saturday - May 8
Luther: “Baal was an idol who was worshiped by rites with which I am unfamiliar, except for the fact that the Book of Kings tells us that he was worshiped by kissing of the hands, dancing around the altar, and cutting the skin with knives and lances. [Yet] they did these things with a pious intent and under the pretext and with the zeal of the worship of the true God of Israel. They [believed that they] worshiped the true God… [but through] the worship of Baal there was depicted a monstrous and superstitious piety which prevails widely to this day. By means of this, [many] arrogant individualists [believe they] worship the true God according to their own ideas with the most ridiculous zeal… [but are really] enemies of God.”
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