# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 09 12_S9
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine pure shall to eternity endure."

Published by the German Ev. Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 11. St. Louis, Mo., September 12, 1854. No. 2.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the annual subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who are to pay the same in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents.

Only the letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent hither under the address Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

Preface of the Editor

to the Eleventh Volume of the "Lutheraner"

(Continuation.)

The Word of God which we hold before those who are offended at the strife and discord in the Church, or who at least are grieved over it and therefore need comfort, is first of all this: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." (Matt. 10, 34-36.)

So says the LORD. Remarkable words! What? Should the purpose of Christ's coming into the world be, then, to divide men among themselves, to tear asunder the tender bonds of blood, of love and friendship by which men are bound to one another, and to let loose among them the very storms of passion? Should it then indeed be true, as a certain party in Christendom teaches, that God Himself is the author of sin, that He wills the salvation of only some men, that by an unconditional decree He has therefore elected only a few, but has passed by the others with His grace and still passes them by, whose salvation He does not will, in whose perdition He rejoices, and whom, for the manifestation of His righteousness, He has appointed from eternity to damnation and rejected? — Far be it! — This cannot be the meaning of those words; Christ is the truth, and the truth cannot contradict itself. He, the Son of God, is not yea and nay, but in Him is Yea yea and Nay is nay. (2 Cor. 1, 17-20.) But it is written: "Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with thee." (Ps. 5, 5.) "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man; He is the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1, 13. 17.) And it is further written: "God will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim. 2, 4.) "The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Pet. 3, 9.) "As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. 33, 11.)

What the LORD really means by those words we see from what immediately precedes them. For previously Christ had said: "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." When He now adds to this: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword —" Christ therefore evidently wishes to say by this: You will indeed object to me that if you were to confess me, that is, my Word and my truth, before men, only few men would hear and accept it gladly, but the most would rather become your enemies on that account, hate you, strive against you and persecute you, and so nothing but strife and discord would arise. To this I answer you: it is true, so it will go with you when you confess me before men. But neither shall you suppose at all that I am come to bring you peace with all men and good days. I am rather come to bring you peace with God and eternal life, and indeed that can happen only through a Gospel, at whose preaching all the world is stirred up and strife