# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 03 28_S127
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

127

really means, and what a great, earnest, heavy and responsible task each individual servant of the church as well as every synod has to perform: yet it is also now my sincere heart's wish that, if it is possible, the Western Synodical District of Ohio, whose synodical reports hardly testify of life, progress and movement, might through thorough repentance and the putting away of all unrighteousness attain to an upright character in Christ Jesus and to a truly churchly disposition and manner of action. It should then surely be a true joy of heart to us to acknowledge them as brethren, and, though not in one synodical union, yet in one fellowship of faith and confession, from the same ground and toward the same goal and in the same manner to build and to defend the church of the Lord in common. To this may God help, for Christ's sake. Amen.—

(For the Lutheraner.)
From the Life of Pastor Flattich.
(Wholly from the South German Originals.)

(Continuation.)

A pastor once asked a woman whether she also had a Bible and read diligently in it; Yes indeed, she answered, we have Bibles enough, we do not lack for that. But is it not true, replied the pastor, that reading is lacking and obedience still more, for otherwise you could not boast so of your Bibles. If it were enough already for true Christianity to have many Bibles, then the people who deal in Bibles would have to be the best Christians

"One must not hold so anxiously to the letter," replied someone to a pastor who was pressing him with God's Word. Thereupon the latter asked that wise man: If someone also owed you 3000 thalers and said, it does not matter about one cipher or several, they count for nothing of themselves, we will strike them out and I will give you 3 thalers, say, would you be satisfied with that? I should thank him kindly, said the one asked, I would insist upon my whole 3000 thalers. Now see, said the pastor, so also will God keep His whole Word and let not a letter fall.

To another who likewise would know nothing of the letter but only of the "spirit" of the Bible, a pastor gave the good counsel that he should have several quires of white paper bound and have printed on the title: Spirit of the Bible; then he would have no letters in it at all.

Someone once said, who wished to say something special and yet knew nothing: Is it not a glorious thought: man is immortal! as it is in the song (of lamentable memory): Joy, for we, we all are immortal! To which another replied quite dryly: The devil is also immortal.

Someone asked an acquaintance why he did not join a Lutheran congregation, since he too wished to be a Lutheran. Oh, what, answered the other: We are in a free country here, where everyone can do what he will! Then you must also put up with it, said the first, if someone on the open street without more ado gives you a sound box on the ear. The freedom-man said: Just let one come to me, he would have something to think of! Now see, replied the other, so you strike yourself with your own words; Do you believe, then, that the great God will let you go unpunished if you make freedom a cloak of wickedness?—

What Do Our Confessions Teach Concerning Antichrist?

As we hear, some have wondered that we had the report of the proceedings of the Leipzig Conference printed without any corrective remarks, especially that passage in it where the very leaders of this "Lutheran" Conference deny that the Pope is the Antichrist. In order now not to fall under suspicion through silence, as though we also had fallen away from this doctrine of our Lutheran Church, we communicate here some passages from our Symbols in which the Pope is expressly called the Antichrist, the "true Antichrist." We do this in that we hereby publicly and solemnly confess this doctrine, indeed declare that we recognize this revelation of the Antichrist as a chief benefit of the whole work of the Reformation.

Thus it is said in the Smalcald Articles: "St. Jerome writes that the priests at Alexandria all together and in common governed the church, and the apostles also did, and afterward all bishops in the whole of Christendom, until the Pope raised his head above all. This piece shows mightily that he is the true (verus) Antichrist or Adversary of Christ, who has set and exalted himself above and against Christ, because he will not let Christians be saved without his power, which is nothing, neither ordained nor commanded by God. This is properly to exalt oneself above God and against God, as St. Paul says, 2 Thess. 2. Yet this neither the Turk nor the Tartar does, however great enemies they are of Christians, but they let people believe in Christ, whoever will, and take bodily tribute and obedience from Christians. But the Pope will not let people believe, but says: One should be obedient to him, so shall one be saved. This we will not do, or die for it in God's name ... Therefore, as little as we can worship the devil himself as a lord or God, so little can we endure his apostle, the Pope or Antichrist, as head or lord in his government. For lies and murder, to destroy body and soul eternally, that is properly his papal government." (Second Part, fourth Article: "Of the Papacy.")

Further it is said in the same place: "So all the vices which are foretold in Holy Scripture of the Antichrist agree with the Pope's kingdom and his members. For Paul, when he paints the Antichrist, 2 Thess. 2, calls him an adversary of Christ," etc. In what follows all the marks of the Antichrist given in this passage are now shown to apply to the Pope, and thereupon it is added: "Since now this is so, all Christians should most diligently guard against making themselves partakers of such godless doctrine, blasphemy and unjust tyranny, but should depart from the Pope and his members or adherents, as from the kingdom of Antichrist, and curse it, as Christ has commanded." (First Appendix: "Of the Power and Jurisdiction of the Pope.")

Finally, it is said already in the Apology: "All Christians should learn that such papistical Mass is sheer dreadful idolatry. But such idolatry remains in the world as long as the Antichrist reigns and remains; for as in Israel a false worship was set up with Baal, also unrighteous services were under the semblance of the service which God had ordained, so the Antichrist in the churches has also made a false worship out of the Lord's Supper of Christ, and yet as God among Israel and Judah nevertheless preserved His church, that is, some saints, so God has nevertheless preserved His church, that is, some saints, under the Papacy, so that the Christian Church has not wholly perished. Although now the Antichrist with his false worship will in part remain until Christ the LORD shall come openly and judge, yet all Christians shall be warned to guard against such idolatry." (Of the Masses for the Dead.) — —

Whoever weighs these testimonies and is heartily devoted to our church and her doctrine will, it is to be hoped, not let himself be misled by the name and the high standing of so numerous a "Lutheran" Conference as the Leipzig one was, for it is not newer theologians who have the right to determine what shall now be Lutheran, but so far as the newer men now accept the old Lutheran confession, so far have they the right to call themselves Lutheran.

How Well Versed the Jesuits Are in the Bible.

In the history of the Bohemian persecutions the following story is found. When once a dispute arose whether man can become and be certain of his state of grace, the Jesuits of Prague adduced the Bible text from the Vulgate (the Latin Bible confirmed by the Pope): "Nescit homo an odio vel amore dignus." (Eccles. 9:1.) But when they were then asked where these words stood, the divines fell into no small embarrassment. One called to the other: "Sir, where does it stand?" The other answered, stammering: "If I mistake not, in the Epistle to Timothy." When several laughed at this, the Freiherr von Budowa cried out: "You ass, you would teach me the way to salvation, who do not even know such a little saying in the holy Bible?" (Histor. persecut. Bohem. fol. 235.)