# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 09 02_S7
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

7

thum, God will reward me for it, not only here in time with necessary sustenance, but also in eternity will give abundance and fullness, yea, eternal life, welfare and blessedness.

"I know very well that my own people and others in popery will curse, despise, yea, even condemn to the abyss of hell, on account of this work, well-pleasing to God and the angels in heaven and awakening joy. But I count their hatred for sheer nothing, I laugh at their enmity, I say rather with Isidorus: "Melius est habere malorum odium, quam consortium; d. i.: It is better to have the enmity of wicked people than their fellowship." And that their blasphemous mouth may be stopped, I will lay before their eyes in this present Revocation-Writing those grounds and motives which caused me to turn away from the papal doctrine, and, on the contrary, to turn to the right, evangelical religion.

God open to you all, ye papists, your eyes, ears and hearts through His Holy Spirit, that ye may perceive what is good for you! — He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit of God now saith to you papists:

The first ground

of my departing from the papistical to the true, evangelical doctrine was that I recognized, through the grace of God and the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost: Quod extra ecclesiam scienter volenter viventibus nulla salus speranda, d. i. that all those who knowingly and willfully live outside the orthodox Christian Church have no hope of salvation, of grace, of the forgiveness of sins and of eternal life. But what is the Christian Church? The holy Apostle Paul describes it (Eph. 5), that it is a congregation of the saints, which is glorious, etc. He calls it a glorious congregation, partly because of the Founder of this congregation, who is Jesus Christ (chap. 4 and 5), partly because of the pure Word, which is preached and heard in it (John 10; 1 Tim. 3; John 8), partly because of the holy Sacraments, which are dispensed in it unadulterated (1 Cor. 10), and partly also because of the good order which is kept in the true Christian Church. These are all glorious marks of the Christian Church, which, however, I did not find all together in the papistical-Catholic church; for it sets the Pope as its head, beside God's Word it places the trifles and ordinances of men, it dispenses the holy Sacraments mutilated, and finally there is nothing to be found in it but disorder. Now as all who were not found in the ark of Noah had to perish, so also will all those be lost who live outside the true Christian Church and congregation, and persist with the erring multitude wittingly, and against their conscience, though they have sufficient information of the orthodox Church. And this was the first ground.

The second ground

of my departing from the papal to the true, evangelical doctrine was that I recognized, through the grace of God and the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost: Quod ex sola verbi auditione salus, d. h., that eternal blessedness comes alone from the preached and heard Word of God. For thus says Christ, Luke 11: "Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." And John 8 He says again: "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." From this I concluded that those who neither hear nor keep the Word of God will not be saved, that Jesus Christ does not give them eternal life, but as transgressors they must see eternal death, be condemned and perish forever. As God the Lord Himself also curses such people, Lev. 26, Deut. 18; and Christ threatens temporal and eternal woe to those who do not hear and keep His Word (Matt. 11).

Since now the papists do not hear God's Word as the pure doctrine of the Gospel, but falsify and blaspheme it, and much rather hear and have the Pope's decretals, comitia and canons, the monks' dreams and old wives' fables and legends: so they know not Christ, and Christ also knows them not, and as the unblessed they will see eternal death.

The third ground

of my departing from the papistical to the true, evangelical doctrine was that I recognized, through the grace of God and the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost: Quod dubitent de salute aeterna, d. h. because they teach that one should doubt whether one has salvation and forgiveness of sins or not, whether one is in the number of the elect, or not. In such doubt they remain before as after at their soul-masses, which they prove thereby, that they ever sing: Requiescant in pace, let them rest in peace; requiam aeternam dona eis, Domine! Give them, O Lord! eternal rest! With such crying they have neither end nor measure, begin the song again and again, one day like the other, and one year like the other. Thereby they give to understand that in life they doubted of the rest of souls, and also in their death still doubt of it. And how could they then obtain the comfort and peace in Christ and the rest for their souls? For the pretensions of the popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, monks and nuns concerning their church, their faith, their traditions and ordinances of men, their ceremonies and sermons are indeed a sheer fraud, extortion, swindling, soul-murder and despair. On the other hand, the evangelical doctrine has a far better and surer comfort of eternal life, which the Apostle describes, 1 Cor. 2: that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what God hath prepared for them that love Him." And of the right, true Christians who die in the Lord, the Book of Wisdom says, chap. 3: "The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them"; and Rev. 14: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours".

The fourth ground

of my departing from the papal to the true, evangelical doctrine was that I recognized, through the grace of God and the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost: Bonorum operum vanam gloriationem, d. h., that in popery they make much boasting of their good works, glory in them, and intend thereby to pay off heaven; whereas all those who seek their righteousness and blessedness through good works do not attain to righteousness (Rom. 9); for "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us". (Titus 3).

That the papists, however, seek all their righteousness and blessedness through their good works is well enough known from their countless orders of monks and nuns, pilgrimages, their fabricated holy waters, purgatory, sacrifices of the mass, Roman bulls and letters of indulgence, singing, chiming, crying, muttering, fasting, watching, hard couches, hair shirts, and, what is still more horrible, from their scourging, lacerating, tormenting even to the running blood, and in other vain things of this world, whereas all that they seek, and wherever they seek it, they find nowhere. For the Christian Church sings: "My good works they availed me not, with them all was lost"; and further: "Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone, He has done enough for us." The holy Apostle Paul draws the conclusion (Eph. 2), when he says that man is saved by grace through faith, and that the same comes not from ourselves, but is the gift of God, much less from works, lest any man should boast.

(Conclusion follows.)

Law and Gospel.

In every preaching or doctrine, be it right or false, the two parts are in use: minae et promissio, threatening and promise, which we call Law and Gospel. For even the ungodly could not maintain their affair, if they did not put forth a false law, that is, if they did not constrain and drive the consciences with false terrors and threatenings: and again, if they did not put forth a false gospel, that is, did not allure and detain the hearts with false comfort and promises. For every doctrine must be so constituted that it terrify and comfort the conscience, in that it pretends that this or that God commands and would have, and promises God's grace and reward as comfort to those who do accordingly.

Luther on Zech. 5:9.