# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 10 12_S30
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

30

unruly and fantastic in No. 33 of the Apologete against the Lutheraner, under the heading: "Love is the fulfilling of the law," in the following manner:

"All Christian parties and their organs, with the exception of the Roman Catholic, are nevertheless surpassed in lovelessness by the so-called old or pure Lutheran party, which, although it gives itself out as the only true Church of Jesus Christ and condemns all other Christian denominations as more or less false in doctrine, has nevertheless itself divided into two parts standing opposed to each other as mortal enemies, namely the Lutherans of Missouri, whose organ is the Lutheraner, published in St. Louis by Pastor Walther, and the Lutherans of Buffalo, whose organ is the Kirchliches Informatorium, published by a Pastor Grabau. Both put each other under the ban, call each other fanatics, blasphemers, liars, etc. We really cannot imagine anything more painful, anything more repulsive, than the caricature which these organs, which give themselves out as alone orthodox or right-believing, and especially the Informatorium, make of the Christian Church. The subject and the manner of their controversy is truly carnal and sets the reader back into the darkest centuries. How sad it is, not only with the Christian mind, but also with the education of that part of the Germans who can support such papers!"

And in conclusion: "The Spirit of God, the Spirit of peace and of love, neither is nor rules where strife is. Unity in the main things and common action against the power of darkness: that is what is needed at the present time; therefore we were truly very glad to see an appeal for a union issued from Stuttgart, in which true love to Jesus Christ is made the only condition. This is the main thing; the Apostle says it too: 'And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.' " —

It must grieve every true Christian heartily indeed to see how Mr. Nast crowds so much error and malice together in so few words. We should most gladly pass them over in silence, but love for the honest souls who are held captive by the Methodist sect moves us to throw a little more light on the crooked leaps of the Nastian fanatical spirit, and to uncover the wolf that hides beneath the glittering sheep's clothing of pious-sounding phrases.

First of all, observe how treacherously and spitefully Mr. Nast deals with the Lutherans. First he has all sorts of pious words about Christian love and the Holy Ghost in his mouth, and carries himself so lovingly as if he would melt away with love; and after he has thus disguised himself as a preacher of righteousness, he falls with hypocritical zeal upon the Lutherans and says they are the most loveless people, surpassed only by the papists. Were Mr. Nast an honest man, he would quite simply state to his readers the doctrines for the sake of which there is at present a controversy among the Lutherans; but that he does not do, but says briefly and contemptuously: "the subject and the manner of their controversy is truly carnal and sets the reader back into the dark centuries." And then he represents the Lutherans as perfectly senseless people, who are driven by an inexplicable impulse to scold and to quarrel constantly about nothing and again nothing, and who now, to their own pleasure, put each other under the ban.

But it really seems as if under the Nastian sheep's clothing there were hidden not merely a wolf but also an ass; for how else could it be explained that he asserts that "the subject of our controversy with the Lutherans at Buffalo is a 'carnal' one?" If the man is so devoid of understanding that he has not even yet comprehended what this dispute is about, he ought rather to keep quiet than make himself ridiculous by his silliness. Everyone who has troubled himself even a little about this dispute knows that it concerns the most important doctrines of Christianity: the doctrine of the Church, of belonging to the spiritual body of Christ, of church authority, of Christian liberty, of the power of the Word of God, of the spiritual priesthood, of the holy ministry, of the call, of the ban, etc. And these subjects Mr. Nast calls carnal!! Thereby he proves only his own coarse, carnal, unintelligent mind; the Word of God applies to him: "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." 1 Cor. 2, 14. These subjects have indeed been revealed by the Holy Ghost himself in the Word of God for our salvation; they concern not temporal things, but the most important questions of Christian doctrine and of Christian life; all believing Christians therefore seek, by the light of the Holy Ghost, to know them ever more distinctly: therefore it is truly sacrilegious to call these subjects carnal. But thus it is with the fanatical spirit. What it devises for itself, such as the mourners' bench, camp-meeting, night-watches and the whole Methodist cabinet of curiosities, that must all be called spiritual; but what God himself reveals in his Word, that is despised by it as carnal.

Then it is also altogether untrue and mendacious what Mr. Nast judges concerning the manner of our controversy. He calls it truly carnal; he says: "Both put each other under the ban, call each other fanatics, blasphemers, liars, etc." So far as this reproach concerns Pastor Grabau, let him answer for himself on that account; but so far as it concerns us, we declare the same to be wholly false and unfounded. We have never put Pastor Grabau and his people under the ban; we have never called them blasphemers and fanatics; Mr. Nast ought to be ashamed, if he can still be ashamed, to utter such base slanders against us. But if we called one of our opponents a liar, we have given the reasons for it which entitle a Christian to chastise a falsifier of the truth also with this name as such. We ask further, was it carnal that we so long a time bore the abusive speeches of our opponents quietly and left them unanswered? Was it carnal that at our last Synod we invited Pastor Grabau in the friendliest manner to a conference and reconciliation? If Mr. Nast knows at all what is carnal and what is spiritual, he will have to withdraw his reproaches against us.

But Mr. Nast is so blinded that he rejects altogether all contending for the pure doctrine of the divine Word. "To what shall," he says, "the mutual hostility, the mutual contending lead? Will it promote the truth and salvation? No, surely not; it leads away from it, and causes those who still had the light to lose it; the Spirit of God, the Spirit of peace and of love, does not rule where strife is."

This we confess, that Mr. Nast's proposal has very much that is attractive for our old man. If one might in a general stupor of love greet every heretic and fanatic as a dear brother, and add to and take from the Word of God at pleasure, how much denial, grief and trial would then be spared us! But can we do that with a good conscience? Never!

The Lord JESUS himself commands his believers to confess him, that is, to testify his Word and the truth revealed to us therein before all the world, and on the other hand to combat all falsification and perversion of it. For he saith: Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Matt. 10, 32. 33. He denies the Lord Jesus who in any article of faith does not acknowledge the original, clear, plain sense of the divine Word as truth, but substitutes for it another sense which seems more suitable to his carnal reason. And whoever thus knowingly and wilfully denies the Lord Jesus in one point has denied him in all articles of faith; for the Holy Scripture says: Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. James 2, 10. Shall the believing children of God now consent to such a falsification and denial of the divine Word, or tolerate it in silence? No, for then they would make themselves partakers of other men's sins. Rather they should, with the most sacred earnestness, against it