# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 09 12_S10
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

10

and strife will arise against you. Far from Christ's meaning, when He says He is not come to bring peace but a sword, that His real intention is to stir up strife and discord here, His meaning is rather this, that given the nature of men and of His Gospel it cannot be otherwise than that strife and discord arise.

Behold then, dear reader, those who demand that there be no conflict and strife in Christendom demand something altogether impossible. Such demand that either the Gospel be not the Gospel, or that the world be no more the world, and Satan, the god of this world, no more Satan. The world can sooner endure any doctrine than the pure doctrine of the Gospel. For the Gospel puts to shame all the glory of the world, all the wisdom of the world, all the strength of the world, all the dignity of the world, all the righteousness of the world, all life, all thinking, thought, willing, speaking, ability, doing and walking of the world, and demands of all men that they subject their reason, their heart, their will in all things to God and His Word and be born again. This doctrine cannot please the world and false Christians. As soon as it is confessed, preached and defended, the world must either cease to be the world, or set itself against this doctrine, declare it untrue, reject it as fable and lie, and open conflict and strife against it. "As soon as the pure Gospel is proclaimed, Satan also, the liar from the beginning, feels that he is to be driven out of his stronghold; he feels then that Christ, the Stronger, is coming upon him with His Word, to bind him and to take from him his household goods; so it cannot then happen otherwise, he must bestir himself and, so to speak, fight for house and hearth, yea, for his life. Had the world therefore been meant to remain in peace, Christ would not have been permitted to come into the world with His Gospel. But now either the voice of the Gospel must be silent, or the world and Satan will speak against it. So long as Christians confess Christ and His pure Word, and so long as the world is and remains the world and Satan Satan, so long strife and discord in the Church are unavoidable. Very beautifully therefore our dear Luther writes in his exposition of the 110th Psalm, on verse 2: "Some clever fellows now begin to patch, and would counsel in the matters and settle the quarrel, giving out that one ought to yield and give way on both sides. We let them do it, and let them try what they can, and grant them their pains: but if they shall make the devil pious and one with Christ, then they are the first. But I hold that such patchwork is just (as Jesus Sirach says in chapter 22, verse 7) as if one would piece potsherds together. And there have indeed already been many cobblers who have undertaken it, but have also laboured in vain, and lost both thread and stitch." (Opp. V, 1420.) This is confirmed, too, by the whole history of the kingdom of God from its beginning to the present hour. From the moment when God said to the serpent: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed," whenever and wherever Christ has been purely preached and confessed, that enmity too has always at once become visible, and conflict and strife have broken out.

But what follows from this? — First this: When at any time in the Church everything is still and quiet despite the difference of the doctrine that is held; when despite the different faith that is cherished, all extend the hand of brotherhood to one another; when despite the different ways in which men go to eternity, all let each other go quietly his own way: then that is not a pleasing but a most sorrowful condition. Then the world lies quiet and undisturbed in its natural sinful state, and sleeps on unalarmed at the brink of the abyss of eternal ruin, dreaming of heaven and blessedness. Then the strong man armed, Satan, keeps his palace, and his goods are in peace. Such peace and such quiet is not a sign that God has granted His Church a time of special visitation and refreshing (Acts 9, 31.), but it is the peace and the quiet of death, the churchyard quiet of rotting spiritual corpses. But where there is conflict and strife about the pure doctrine, about the true Gospel, about the right way, about the right Christ, there it becomes manifest that He is there who said: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword," etc. There one sees that the world has been awakened from its sweet sleep; the power of the LORD has come upon it; He, the King of truth, has already carried off some from its midst as spoil, and the rest resist becoming also this King's prisoners and subjects. There one sees that Satan is alarmed; his armour, wherein he trusted, is taken from him; he sees his kingdom threatened and now foams with rage that he is to be driven out.

Behold, dear reader, you must consider this and comfort yourself with it, when you also now find again in the whole of Christendom conflict, strife and discord. This discord for the Gospel's sake is a sign that the LORD with His pure Word is again on the field among us. However great the sin of those is who in this contend against the truth and for error, yet, when we look at the conflict for the truth and against error, it is a blessed discord, a holy, glorious conflict and strife, a war of the LORD, of Christ against Belial, of light against darkness, of heaven against hell.

But, dear reader, I know well that many a one thinks: It is true, Christ, His truth, His Gospel must be preached and confessed, and one cannot indeed heed that the world takes offence at it and is vexed and raises its voice against it; but would it not be best to let it rest there? namely, not to answer the contradictors, to punish their blasphemies with silence, and so to deprive the fire of discord of its fuel, that the flame must go out of itself? Is not more torn down by the endless strife than built up, a laughing-stock made of it to the world and nothing but sorrow and distress prepared for Christians? — however sensible and fair this judgment may seem to be, it is nevertheless mistaken. As unavoidable as strife and discord are on the part of the unchristian and false Christians, if the voice of Christ is not to be silent in His pure Gospel, so necessary is it also that the orthodox Christians then lay not down their arms, but take up the battle offered for the truth.

"The old Adam shudders, to be sure, at such a battle, by which all comfort of life is disturbed and very poor honour is gained with the world. The flesh wants peace at any price, and, to obtain it, is ready, at the cost of this and that truth, to enter into union with people of all sorts of colours. It would like best to consume in quiet what our fathers earned and fought for with blood, sweat and tears. It would say with that rich farmer whose field had brought forth plentifully: "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." But in the first place the whole Holy Scripture is full of exhortations, not only to confess the truth, but also to contend against error. The whole Word of God is One great battle-cry, One great voice of God to men to conflict and strife. Men indeed think, when the Scripture on every side speaks so much of watching, fighting and wrestling, that it is speaking only of the battle against sin, but not against false doctrine. But they consider not what hosts of sins error, the falsification of God's Word, has in its train. Whoever therefore does not fight against false doctrine, does not faithfully fight against sin either. In particular it is, to be sure, hard laid upon the preachers of the Gospel in God's Word, that they not only "hold fast the faithful word, and be able to teach," but that they also be "able to convince the gainsayers, and to stop the mouths of the unruly and vain talkers and deceivers." (Titus 1, 9-11.) They are to be true shepherds, who reveal the wolf to the sheep, warn them of him and fight against him; if they see the wolf coming and then flee, the LORD calls them wretched hirelings. †) (John 10, 12.)

†) Many think, to be sure, that only those are hirelings