# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 12 23_S67
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

67

nor speak of His divine being and will, other than we Christians. In His time He will indeed find Turks, heathens, Jews, Papists and all unbelievers who despise CHRIST and His Word, etc. For their sakes, though there were ever so many of them, He will not cast off the Son and Holy Ghost. He that hath not the Son hath not the Father. He that despiseth the Son despiseth also the Father; for His divine being, honor and power are in the Son. This He has revealed and made clear enough, having given Him Mary, the virgin of the house of David, for His mother; as is plainly to be seen in the Scripture. So the Holy Ghost has testified of Christ, and glorified Him. So He, the LORD Himself, preached, did wonders, raised the dead, made the blind to see, took upon Himself the sin of the world, bore it, and made full satisfaction for it by His suffering and dying, and by His glorious victory and resurrection has redeemed from the power of the devil, justified and saved all who believe on Him. He has also left behind Him His Word, Baptism, Sacrament, the Keys, for the comfort and salvation of His Christendom, and through these same still leads sinners without ceasing to righteousness, out of death into life. To such an office the Father has ordained Him. Whoever therefore does not honor the Son, nor worship Him, and does not acknowledge Him with the Apostle Thomas as his LORD and GOD, is lost, and eternally damned.

All this did not happen secretly in a corner, or only in the Jewish land; but the Gospel of Christ, that He is the only begotten Son of GOD and the Saviour of the world, has resounded through such preaching of the Apostles and their successors in all the world. Moreover, through them, moved by the Holy Ghost, it has been set down in writings (God be praised, before our eyes,) and also confirmed with signs and wonders; therefore it will well remain against the Jews, heathens, Turks and Papists.

Many of the Roman emperors, when they were still powerful, wanted to root out Christ, His Word and Church from the foundation, and set about it also in great earnest, raged horribly among them, so that in one day in the Roman Empire many thousand Christians were put to death. But He has remained against them all, has preserved His Word, so that there have been always some who had to teach, spread and confess it, and on the other hand one tyrant after another has gone to the ground and gone to the devil. So the Pope also will be devoured by the Gospel, as in the time of the Apostles the Jews with their kingdom and priesthood. The Turk also struts proudly, has for a long time now done the Christians great harm, persecuted and murdered them, destroyed the Church of Christ in many lands and kingdoms, and blotted out His Word; yet there have been Christians among them all the while, and are still. It has also succeeded with him, by the permission of GOD, to punish the sin and ingratitude of His people. But before he shall suppress the Son of GOD, so that He should not be LORD and GOD, heaven and earth must first fall in. Therefore both the Pope with his crowd, and the Turk, may set themselves against Christ, and undertake to destroy His Word and Church; but it will surely go with them as it did with the Jews and the Romans. When the little hour comes, "the LORD that dwelleth in the heavens will speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure, Ps. 2:5, 6. for He hath set His Son as King," and given Him the kingdom, that He should be LORD over all, and wills that all men should honor and worship Him, and acknowledge Him as their GOD, Maker and Saviour. They who now do this have in GOD a gracious Father, and shall be His sons and heirs, and have His only begotten Son for their protector against the devil and all his scales. But if not, then He has given the Son, who sits at His right hand, "a rod of iron, wherewith He shall break His enemies, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel," and to make them His footstool, Ps. 2:9, as He did to the Jews, Romans, Egyptians, Asia, Greece, etc., and other kingdoms and monarchies.

Thus it is inwardly in the divine being: that the Father has a Son, begotten of Him in eternity, and yet at the same time Mary's Son; is thus, born of her in time, true GOD and man in one Person. If you will dispute and be clever, you would know nothing of this without GOD's Word, nor understand it, much less believe it. But for the sake of your unbelief the Son becomes neither greater nor less: He has remained well against the power of all tyrants and the thoughts of sharp heads, who have set themselves against Him, His Word and Church; but they have perished, and gone to the devil.

Therefore, though the Turk should slay us all, we nevertheless believe in Christ, our Saviour and the LORD and Creator of all creatures, and bid him then defiance, and say: Turk, if you will not laugh, then be angry. I will slay you, however. What more do you want? I will root out your Christ's name and Gospel. That you will do well to let alone; and even by your presuming to do so, you have thrust at the eye of Him who says, Zech. 2:8: "He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye;" whom you call your GOD and Creator of heaven and earth, and boast, and say you worship Him; He will find you well. I comfort myself with this, that I have a LORD who is true GOD and man: Him will I call upon and confess, as long as I can move my tongue; He will surely make me alive again, though you slay me, and thrust you in turn into the abyss of hell.

Therefore GOD is not content with this honor, nor satisfied with this, that He is GOD, Creator of all creatures, as Jews, heathens, Turks and Papists praise and extol Him; that is the old wisdom. But through the Gospel He lets it be proclaimed in all the world and said: My Son, who is also Mary's Son and lies in the manger, receive Him, believe on Him, acknowledge and confess Him as your LORD and Saviour, honor and worship Him as me: whoever honors Him not, honors truly me also not. This is now the new wisdom and faith of all Christians, whereby they are saved. Whoever honors GOD otherwise, gives Him the lie and blasphemes Him. Mark this well, and shut it up in your heart.

v. 14. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us: and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father."

I have now often said that the Evangelist speaks of the Godhead of the LORD when he calls Him the Word, who was in the beginning: not made; but when all things were made, He was already there, and so that by Him, as the Creator, heaven, earth, and all that is in them, were made, etc. thereby proving that our LORD Christ' is true GOD of the Father in eternity. No Evangelist urges this article, that Christ is true GOD and man, so mightily as St. John, for he lived the longest, and still in his time arose the blasphemous heresies, in which it was alleged that Christ was not GOD, which were not yet in the days of St. Peter and Paul. Thus St. John lived to see the first heretic, Cerinthus, and was led to write against him. He therefore suffered much more than the other Apostles.

Now he says here that this very same Word, of which he spoke above (v. 1.): "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with GOD, has also become flesh, that is, man. I have often admonished you that you should rightly learn to understand this article; for it has been well whetted by the heretics, (who either denied one of the two natures, or else wanted to separate the two natures in Christ,) and have also admonished you that you let not the two natures in Christ be separated. For thus the holy Evangelist would say here: The Word has become a true, natural man, has taken upon Himself body and soul, as I and you have; but because He is true GOD also, the Person who is at the same time also man must and can have no sin in Him. Therefore let not the two natures, GOD and man, in Christ be separated, but remain together, as the text plainly says: "The Word was made flesh;" it does not say: The Godhead became one person, and the manhood another person.

So then the Son of GOD and of Mary is one Son, not two: Christ is GOD and man, and is only one Christ, not two: one Person, not two: GOD is man, man is GOD in one Person, undivided: the Child of GOD and the Child of man is one Child. And great power lies in this article; for so