# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 09 30_S19
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

19

and eternal my gain. For the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.—And thereby the matter also is satisfied. For if I have in myself the unshakable certainty that the Christian religion is true and the Bible is God's Word: the witness of the Holy Ghost, in that I have sought everywhere for peace of heart and rest of soul, and have found it nowhere but in Christianity; then that is a proof against which no other, even though it appeared never so strong, yea, were there a thousand of them, can avail anything.

Yet however sure the Christian may feel with this proof, and however joyfully he may rest upon it, two things are nevertheless to be considered. First, that the Christian does not always feel the force of this his proof for the truth of the Christian religion equally, that doubts sometimes arise in him, yea, that in the hour of temptation it may seem as though the ground were about to vanish from under his feet. Secondly, the objection of the opponents is of so serious a kind that all manner of misgivings can easily be caused thereby. For Christians too must admit that reason is the noblest natural gift of God, whereby man is distinguished from the beast, and by the possession of which he first becomes capable of the knowledge of God, which makes him blessed, and so of blessedness. And though reason has now been corrupted and darkened by the fall of Adam, as the Scripture testifies and Christians believe and inwardly experience; yet everything that is truly truth, and therefore especially divine revelation, cannot be so contrary to it that it could not accept it at all, but must absolutely reject it; for it remains ever and always the means through which, though it needs renewal, we alone perceive what God causes to be proclaimed to us, that through the knowledge of Him, as He has revealed Himself in Christ, we may obtain eternal life. Moreover, what we are to believe from the heart may not be altogether contrary to reason, for in order to be able to do this, the assent of reason is required by the essential constitution of man, which it can never and nowhere give to a thing that is absolutely contrary to it.

Accordingly the assertion of the opponents, that the Christian faith runs contrary to reason, is worthy of attention; and we shall do well to examine it further in the fear of God, which is the beginning of all wisdom, and according to the guidance of His Word, whether perhaps here also what has otherwise always happened may happen, namely that every attack upon Christianity has turned out to its new victory, and has served to its new glorification; and that every weapon that was aimed against it has in the end been found to be one that smites those who took it up and that fights for Christianity.

Our text we find recorded 2 Peter 1, 19—21:

"We have a sure word of prophecy; and ye do well that ye take heed thereunto, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts."

"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation; for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

In the words read, the Apostle adduces the prophecies of the Old Testament, which have found their fulfilment in the appearing of the Lord Christ, as a proof that the Gospel of Christ is a message from God. For, says the Apostle, every one can easily perceive that neither could a man give them, nor, after they were given, could a man fulfil them; that therefore they and their fulfilment are of God, and for that reason bear a mighty witness to the divinity and truth of the doctrines of the Christian religion and of the Holy Scripture, in which they are contained; wherefore also every one would do well to take heed thereto.

From this proof for the truth of the Christian faith, namely the fulfilment of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament, we now also wish to conduct our cause, as shall presently be set forth at greater length.

But before this is done, we will first still further clear up the objection of the opponents, that it is contrary to reason to hold the doctrines of the Christian religion to be true and the Bible to be God's Word, so that every one may the better know what is really in question. It cannot be meant thereby that the faith of Christians flatly contradicted reason, and that it could never and nowhere agree with it. A proof that this cannot be meant, which experience gives, is this, that many thousands have accepted the faith from the heart, and still accept it, which, as shown in the introductory words, would be a thing of impossibility, and never and nowhere would happen, were both of them, the doctrine of Christianity and reason, so contrary to one another. Another proof is furnished by the examination of the matter. Let one take each several doctrinal point of which the enemies of Christianity say that it is contrary to reason, and see whether it is so. One will find in every case, were they a hundred or a thousand, that it only surpasses reason. For example. When the opponents adduce the doctrine of the Holy Trinity; there it is not required of us to believe that there is One God, and that at the same time there are three Gods: that would contradict itself, and would be contrary to reason; but that there is One Being, God, and in the same a threefold distinction, which we designate by the word Persons, which is above our reason, since we know nothing similar. Or the counsel of redemption. But it is not contrary to, but only above our reason, which has not such love and such compassion, nor can comprehend that God regarded sinners who were not worthy of His notice, to say nothing of His grace, and had compassion on them, yea, that He gave His Son for them unto death. Or the incarnation of the Son of God; but there it is not required of us to believe that God is everywhere, and yet also at the same time not everywhere, but shut up in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, which would contradict itself and be contrary to reason; but rather that God is everywhere, and yet the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily in Jesus, which only surpasses our reason. Secondly, when the divine inspiration of the Holy Scripture is taught us, and we see that St. Luke nevertheless ascertained everything from eye- and ear-witnesses; there lies in this nothing contradictory to reason, since God could very well let him be instructed among men and afterward nevertheless, when he wrote, give him word for word, etc. In short, nothing of all that is said to be against reason in the doctrine of Christianity is in the proper sense of the word against it, but it is above it, that is, it cannot comprehend it, or comprehends it only with difficulty. With that assertion of the opponents it also cannot be meant that it is contrary to reason that doctrines which treat of God and His being, attributes, will, counsels, works, surpass reason, and are incomprehensible, or hard to comprehend; for this lies in the nature of the thing. Consider only, O man, who God is, and who thou art! He is from everlasting to everlasting; He the Creator of heaven and earth, who also filleth them both; He the most high and most perfect Being—Thou of yesterday, thou a drop of water at the bucket in the creation, thou a limited, weak, sinful being. Were there nothing incomprehensible or hard to comprehend in Him; then He must be as we are, yea, even less, for how much that is incomprehensible and hard to comprehend do we find even in ourselves! And precisely in the revealed religion such incomprehensible and hard-to-comprehend things must be found; for if what revelation is to bring could already be known from nature, to what purpose then should revelation serve? That therefore the doctrine of Christianity contains much that is incomprehensible and hard to comprehend for us poor creatures lies in the nature of the thing, and indeed so much so that reason is thereby not held back, but rather impelled to believe; in which sense even very pious and wise men have regarded just the high and incomprehensible things which the Holy Scripture reveals to us of God as a witness for its divinity and truth. With that assertion of the opponents, therefore, it can only be meant that it is contrary to reason to accept and allow the proofs which are adduced for the truth of the doctrines of Christianity, and therefore also that which rests upon the fulfilment of the Messianic prophecies.