# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 01 20_S87
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

87

be, but thank God, if HE has given thee a faithful shepherd, who does not rule hard and severe over the consciences, and pray Him that He may graciously preserve His Lutheran Zion from hierarchy and priestly domination, and keep for us the wholesome doctrine of the precious Gospel, pure and clear in this point as in all others, unto the end. Above all, however, pray with me the merciful God that HE would give to the poor blinded man, who lies so fast captive in the snares of the father of lies, grace unto repentance, for the sake of Jesus Christ, His dear Son. Amen.

August Crämer.

Methodism.

Mr. Mulsinger has answered in three numbers of the Apologet our essay on the holy Sacraments. In his first article he heaps blasphemies and abuse upon the Evangelical Lutheran Church and calls us oxen, Ishmael, pope, inquisitor, false prophets, etc., while at the same time he scornfully repels our well-meant instruction and stubbornly persists in his Methodistic errors. Thereby he proves, alas, sufficiently that he does not possess the grace of sanctification, but is a fanatic blinded by the devil, malicious and haughty.

In his second article Mr. Mulsinger has the impudence still to boast of his apostasy from the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, whereby he at the same time discloses to us what sort of man he really is. He says, namely: "From my youth up I had (as I now believe, by God's grace) a thorough spirit of inquiry. I therefore had many a doubt about much that I did not find plainly in the Holy Scriptures, although the pastor told it me, but especially about the Lutheran doctrine of holy absolution. . . ." So "a thorough spirit of inquiry" moves Mr. M. to doubt the Scriptural Evangelical Lutheran doctrine of holy absolution and at last to reject it. We see from this what this thorough Mulsingerian spirit of inquiry was, namely, his own corrupt spirit, the natural unbelief of the flesh. Had Mr. M. not relied upon his "thorough spirit of inquiry," but humbly called upon the Holy Ghost for his enlightenment, he would assuredly have recognized the truth; for to the upright God grants success. But because he relied upon his own spirit, that is, upon his unbelieving flesh, it went with him according to the word of Holy Scripture, 1 Cor. 2, 14: The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

It was therefore quite natural that the little man with the "thorough spirit of inquiry" could not find the Evangelical Lutheran doctrine of holy absolution in the Scriptures. The Jews also cannot find the Lord Christ in the Holy Scriptures, although He is the kernel and the star of them. For when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. 2 Cor. 3, 15. 16. Whoever turns to the Lord finds also the Evangelical Lutheran doctrine of holy absolution founded in the Holy Scriptures with wonderful plainness and clearness. For Christ has given to His church the keys of the kingdom of heaven, or the power, in His name to remit and to retain sins, in three different places, Matt. 16, 19, and 18, 18, John 20, 23, in the clearest, plainest words. Or is it not plain, when Christ says, John 20, 23: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained? Verily, Christ could not have spoken more intelligibly, could not have instituted absolution more plainly, as every one, Mr. M. also, must confess, if he would be honest, that is, would follow the voice of his conscience and the admonition of the Holy Ghost. And lest we should imagine that the office of the keys was given only to the Apostles for their own persons, the Lord Christ commands them expressly: Teach them (all nations) to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, Matt. 28, 20, whereby He declares in the most definite manner that it is His will that the office of the keys shall remain in force in His church until the end. Whoever, then, nevertheless wilfully, though instructed and warned, denies to the church the power to remit and to retain sins, blasphemes and denies Christ and His Word, as he will surely find out on that day. Meanwhile neither the devil nor the fanatics will succeed in refuting the Evangelical Lutheran doctrine of holy absolution, for it is founded on God's Word.

Further, Mr. M. mocks me right gloriously: "Perhaps he has also found, in some corner of the Bible which I have not yet discovered, an example of an Apostle absolving after the manner of the Old Lutherans." With these words Mr. M. proves again, most lamentably, his impudence and ignorance. Without knowing in the least the Evangelical Lutheran doctrine of holy absolution, he blasphemes it, as such a wretched fanatic must needs do.

What, then, is absolution? It is essentially nothing else than the Gospel, or the preaching of the forgiveness of sins. According to Christ's command, namely: Preach the Gospel to every creature, Mark 16, 15, the glad tidings are to be brought to all men: Christ has redeemed you and reconciled you with God, has obtained for you forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. This preaching can and shall now also be directed and proclaimed to individuals who desire it: Be of good comfort, Christ has redeemed thee also, thy sins also are forgiven thee.

But the Gospel is not a general, uncertain, doubtful consolation, that it might perhaps be possible some time that thy sins also will in time be forgiven thee, if thou prayest earnestly, strivest, followest after sanctification and by good works makest thyself worthy of divine grace, but it is an effectual means of grace, a power of God which saves all who believe in it; a living, powerful, eternal, true Word of God, whereby the forgiveness of sins is not shown us from afar, but as present, really and truly set before us and offered, and also given and imparted to believers.

Surely no Christian will doubt that the man sick of the palsy, to whom Christ said: "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee" (Matt. 9, 2), was really absolved, that is, really absolved from all his sins. Why? Because Christ's word is the truth, and it is impossible that Christ, who is the true God, should lie. How blessed, therefore, was the man sick of the palsy, when he heard from the mouth of our Saviour the sweet word of comfort: "Thy sins are forgiven thee." Upon this word he could rely securely and quietly, as upon an eternal rock; with it he could victoriously beat down all misgivings, doubts and temptations; for he had God's own, unfailing assurance and promise that his sins were forgiven him.

How comfortless, how terrible would it now be for us, if after Christ's visible departure from His church we had in the Gospel only a doubtful, uncertain word of man. We should then never attain to joyfulness of faith, since the same consists only in the confidence that God's promise of grace is true and holds good for us also; we should accordingly always have to ask: Who knows whether thy sins also are forgiven thee? But in order to bestow upon us also and upon all men His salvation and the comfort of redemption, Christ has given to His church the power to forgive sins, that is, to absolve them by the Gospel from their sins. And in that Christ says: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, etc., John 20, 23, and: He that heareth you heareth me, Luke 10, 16, He commands us thereby not to despise the Gospel and the absolution which is proclaimed to us by the servants of the church as a word of man, but to esteem it highly and to believe it as God's own true Word. It is therefore perfectly Scriptural when we confess in our small Lutheran Catechism: I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude the open and impenitent sinners from the Christian congregation, and absolve again those who repent of their sins and are willing to amend, it is as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if our dear Lord Christ dealt with us Himself.

Accordingly every attentive reader of the Bible finds