# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 11 23_S52
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

52

of the world and want to know nothing of the distinction of stations in civil life, that they wait in fanatical fashion for the thousand years' kingdom, and that after the Jesuit manner they excuse even an evil deed with the good end.

We will now take up each of these points separately.

Concerning its faith, or rather unbelief, in regard to Baptism, the "Sendbote des Evangeliums" expresses itself as follows: "We regard Baptism not as the door to the kingdom of heaven, for the thief on the cross (Luke 23, 42) and many thousands have gone into heaven without Baptism; but we regard it as an indispensable part of entrance into the congregation of the LORD on earth, and teach accordingly, in agreement(!) with the Word of God, that if any one would come to this congregation, it behooves him also in regard to Baptism to fulfill all righteousness. (Matt. 3, 13—17.)—Also we regard Baptism not as the washing of regeneration, but as the covenant of a good conscience with God (1 Pet. 3, 21), in which a child of God openly manifests his willing obedience to the divine commands (Acts 2, 41). The washing of regeneration (Tit. 3, 5) is not Baptism, as is falsely taught by many, but (the washing of regeneration is) the renewal of the man fallen away from God by means of the Word of God (1 Pet. 1, 23) and of the Holy Ghost (Rom. 8, 14—16). Through this renewal the sinner obtains the power to believe in Christ as his substitute and surety, and so he receives forgiveness, peace and salvation. This washing of regeneration must, however, precede Baptism . . If any one believes that he will be saved by Baptism, he would be greatly deceived, for there is in no other salvation (Acts 4, 12) than in Christ, etc.—As, however, no one can come into the kingdom of heaven without the Saviour, so also no one can come into his congregation founded on earth without the Baptism ordained and instituted by him. Through the LORD JESUS Christ the believer obtains salvation, through the Baptism ordained by the LORD the membership of his congregation founded here." (No. II, page 3, column 4.) In another place it says: "I pointed out that Baptism can give to no man forgiveness of sins, redemption and eternal salvation" (as Luther writes in the small Catechism), "because only in Jesus Christ alone is salvation and blessedness." (I, 2, 4.) Finally Mr. Rauschenbusch, declaring the doctrine of Baptism a minor doctrine, writes in a letter sent to Germany and inserted in the "Sendbote": "Since I am forbidden only" (in the Amerikanischer Botschafter) "to express myself on the doctrine of Baptism, I can submit to it with full assent of my conscience. You see from this unmistakably and unequivocally that the great fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, in which all true believers agree, count for more with me and are more important to me than those doctrines in which I differ from many of my brethren, (1, 3, 1)"

The reader sees from this that our German Anabaptists hold Baptism not for a work of God, but for a work of man, not for something which God does to man, but which man does to please God; they hold Baptism not for a means by which man is sanctified, but for an empty sign, by which one is to see how holy people they already are; they hold Baptism not for a door into the kingdom of grace of Christ, but for a door into the Anabaptist religious society, not even for a mark of recognition of Christians, but only for the badge of the Baptists; they hold Baptism for the covenant of a good conscience with God, in which one does not receive a good conscience, but into which one must bring a good conscience and where one must only promise the keeping of it; they hold Baptism a seal of grace only insofar as they thereby, like Christ, "fulfill all righteousness!" Matt. 3. 15.

After this it is clear that these Anabaptists have, who would have thought it of them? in the contempt, yes, the desecration of holy Baptism reached the summit. To be sure, Zwingli himself was already so enraged at the word Sacrament that he wished to see it entirely struck out and therefore wrote: "I wish very much that the word Sacrament had never been adopted by the Germans, except in its proper meaning. For when people hear the word Sacrament, they at once understand something great and holy by it, which by its power frees the conscience from sins."! (De vera religione p. 2.) Further Zwingli writes: "The Church receives by Baptism him who has previously been received by grace. Baptism therefore does not bring grace, but testifies to the Church that grace has already come to him to whom it is given." (See: Confession, to be delivered to the Emperor, 1530. p. 19.) "Baptism is an outward ceremony which signifies the thing, but does not accomplish it. (Opp. 3, 1, 567.) Such grossly rationalistic speeches about the most holy ordinances of the great, holy, gracious God were offensive and vexing even to a Calvin, who indeed later taught the same thing at bottom. For Calvin wrote in the year 1542, in September, to Viret concerning Zwingli the following: "Perhaps he retracted and amended toward the end of his life what had there escaped him by oversight. But I remember how godless (profana) his doctrine of the sacraments is in his earlier writings." Our German Anabaptists, however, outdo even a Zwingli. On the one hand they make the LORD Christ a poor master of ceremonies, who has ordained that his believers be received into his Church by an empty ceremony, as here "the queer brothers" (the odd fellows) also receive their new members with certain empty ceremonies; on the other hand they make Christ and his holy Apostles manifest liars. Christ says: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. (Mark 16, 16.) "Verily, verily, I say unto thee: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3, 5.) Peter says: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2, 38.) "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us." (1 Pet. 3, 20. 21.) Ananias said to Saul: "Why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." (Acts 22, 16.) Paul writes: "We are buried with him (Christ) by baptism into death." (Rom. 6, 4.) "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." (1 Cor. 12, 13.) "As many of you as have been baptized have put on Christ. (Gal. 3, 27.) "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify it, and hath cleansed it by the washing of water by the word." (Eph. 5, 26.) "Ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, namely by the circumcision of Christ: in that ye are buried with him in baptism." (Col. 2, 11. 12.) "Not by works of righteousness which We have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. (Tit. 3, 5.) John finally writes: "There are three that bear witness in earth: The Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one." (1 John 5, 8.) What do our Anabaptists now say to this? They declare all this to be sheer lie and error; and because they do not like to say it outright in naked words, they twist and distort those words of God so long until they have made out of the divine Yea a Nay and have read and twisted into them the wretched thoughts of their blind reason and unbelieving heart. They indeed make bold to say they go solely and alone by Scripture and care nothing for any human ordinance, but when God's adorable promises concerning the power of his dear, blessed Baptism are taught, they act as if a drunken man had spoken these words, trample them under foot and revile all those who rely on the great God's glorious, great, eternal words. The godless babble with which they