# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 03 29_S99
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

99

feel, since the will of God is the blessedness of souls. Moreover it is expressly testified, vv. 6, 15, that God had departed from Saul and no longer answered him. How then should God contradict Himself — or, if anyone maintained that there was no contradiction in it, how should He have answered Saul in a manner and under circumstances by which a kind of honor would be granted to sorcery and God would appear to be implicated in it? God Himself would then have made His utterances into spells of sorcery; yea, He would have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. But that be far from Him!

Here we have now come to the point where it must be said plainly what the apparitions then are which in our day frighten so many people. That they are not angels — for all these preceding discourses have by no means wished to deny appearances of angels — is evident. Angels do not seek help, and their appearances are of an altogether different kind. Neither are they souls of men; that is just what we have hitherto set forth at length. To assert that they rest on mere imagination is just as foolish as to say that imagination and fear cannot see spirits where there are none. It is a concurring testimony of all peoples and times that there are appearances of spirits. Even Holy Scripture (Matt. 14:26, Mark 6:49) does not contradict it. What are they then? Yea, what can they be? From the effect one can already know the cause. Never and nowhere has spirit-dealing brought truly good fruits to the world. Where it was received as something good, innumerable harmful errors and lies in things spiritual and bodily followed. Therefore faithful servants of the holy Church have at all times been of the inward conviction that lying powers of hell are at work where spirit-dealing is in vogue, that the spirit-apparitions are devilish hobgoblin work, devised by Satan and put on before poor children of men in order to turn souls from the truth, permitted by God in order to punish the godless world with lies and to plague it with shadow-work, because it does not receive the simple, bright truth in its beauty. 2 Thess. 2:9 ff. is to be applied.

Quite in this manner the noblest teachers of Christendom express themselves. The ancient Fathers perhaps grant that a departed soul may, for a special purpose, by a special ordering of God, appear to the living (Luke 9, the appearance of Moses and Elijah). But they firmly maintain that souls cannot appear and return of their own will — God has prevented the living from learning the abode and condition of the dead from the dead themselves. Holy Scripture reveals to us in bright clearness concerning the world beyond everything that we need to know. They appeal with one accord to Luke 16.

and prove from it with power that here on earth no departed soul wanders.

Thus, for example, St. Chrysostom (died 407 after the birth of Christ) judges, summarily citing almost all that has been laid before thee above: "It is no departed soul that says: 'I am the soul of such and such a one,' but it is a devil who devises these words in order to deceive those who give heed to them." And how many other testimonies might be cited from the writings of the Fathers which agree entirely with Chrysostom. One might also name a whole series of high and renowned names who interpret the history of 1 Sam. 28 quite as thou hast read above.

Martin Luther joins himself to this judgment of antiquity. He says on Epiphany, in the Kirchenpostille, concerning walking spirits, thus: "Let walk what walks. Thou hearest what thy God commands thee. If thou holdest all those same spirits suspect, thou sinnest not at all. But if thou holdest one of them for upright, thou art already in danger of error. Why so? Because God will not have thee learn from the dead and search out the truth. He will Himself be thy living, abundant, sufficient Teacher. To His Word thou shalt hold. He knows well what He should tell thee of the dead and the living, for He knoweth all things. Isa. 9."

So far the proof of Pastor Löhe. Hear besides, dear reader, the earnest divine threatening of Isaiah 8:19-22: "And when they shall say unto you: Ye must inquire of the soothsayers and diviners who chatter and dispute, then say: 'Should not a people seek unto their God? Or should the dead be consulted for the living? To the law and to the testimony.' If they speak not thus, they shall have no dawn, but shall pass through the land, hardly bestead and hungry." Thus, according to the Word of God, he is an abomination to the LORD, he shall not see the dawn, that is, the blessed light of grace of the LORD JESUS, but shall be cast into temporal and eternal destruction, who has dealings with spirits and asks the dead. For whoever does this commits a grievous sin: he transgresses the express commandment of God, and despises and denies the LORD JESUS and His Word. Therefore, dear reader, have thou nothing to do with the rapping spirits and all such uncanny hellish hobgoblinry. Consider, whoever asks the dead cannot be saved. But if thou hast already once let thyself be led to it through ignorance and curiosity, then do earnest penance and seek of the LORD JESUS the forgiveness of this sin. At the same time, however, form the holy resolution never and nevermore to consent again to this sin. Be not deceived; God is not mocked. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. Heb. 10:26, 27. Ask thou after the law and the testimony, and the blessed dawn, yea, the glorious Sun of grace, the LORD JESUS Christ, will shine upon thee, and thou wilt gladly despise all other revelations.

F.

(For the "Lutheraner.")

A Review.

Not long ago there appeared in print a discourse which Mr. H. W. Harkey, D. D., formerly pastor of an English Lutheran congregation in the State of Maryland, delivered in November 1852 at his inauguration as Professor of Theology in "Illinois State University," and which is entitled "the Mission of the Lutheran Church in America." Everyone who is not a Lutheran merely in name, but has a heart for his Church, will be eager to learn how the Lutheran Church is to regard that new professorial chair, and whether she may with joy count it as her own, or whether she must hold it to be one that has been turned against her under the cover of her own name.

Unhappily the latter appears from the discourse. On p. 27 the author, who pretends to speak in the name of the Lutheran Church, says: "We must take firm footing on the Augsburg Confession as a whole, without wishing to bind the consciences of men by unessential and single specifications of the same." And on p. 18 it is said that the remaining symbolical books cause him (the author) no difficulty, so far as he can perceive in them a correct and faithful presentation and explanation of the doctrine of the Augsb. Confession. If this already sounds very suspicious, we read, moreover, on p. 20, that in our symbolical books a view of the Sacraments is indeed expressed which differs from that of many Protestants, and is held by a part of our preachers and laymen, but which is as different from the Roman Catholic as day from night, and moreover belongs to the points concerning which we have agreed to hold different opinions.

Should one hold it possible that a Lutheran, yea, a man who is about to ascend a chair of theology, can make such a speech! Who then has given him the right to say that we, the Lutheran Church, have agreed to hold different opinions on the doctrine of the Sacrament of the Altar and other doctrines, and therefore to regard as fellow-believers also those who do not accept the Lutheran doctrine of the holy Lord's Supper! Mr. Harkey will surely know that this