# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 12 19_S69
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

69

(For the “Lutheraner,” by Pastor Röbbelen.)

Remaining Crumbs from the Reformation Festival.

Luke 11:21, 22.

That a Stronger One, the Lord Christ Himself, has come in the Reformation upon the strong man, the Roman Antichrist, you heard this morning. Here and there people are inclined to doubt that the full strength in the struggle with the papacy had already broken forth. Luther, it is said, was not the man, or at least not to the end, who with the five sling-stones of the Word of the cross laid low the Goliath of Christendom. Therefore, against the unheard-of exertions which the Roman harlot makes today in order to gain the field, they take refuge not in the defense and weapon which Luther wielded against the papacy, but rely more upon new inventions. Yes, in their own conceit they go so far as to depart outright from Luther’s doctrine, under the pretense that this “Elias” gave up much that he would better have kept, as for example the doctrine of the Roman priesthood of the bishops. Not so, my dear friends: let yourselves not be deceived. In 2 Thess. 2:8 the power which the dear God employs for the destruction of the Roman toad, this most poisonous dragon, is described not as a very dainty one, but as a murderous one. He shall “consume” the idol. The types of the Reformation in the Old Testament also remind us of this, especially the example of Elijah, who slaughtered the priests of Baal. To such a description, so long as the Word of the apostles echoes on the earth without infallible bearers of it, from Ignatius down to the celebrated names of our own day, no preacher and public teacher of divinity corresponds so perfectly as the blessed Luther. Nor will anyone become a truer counterfeit of it. That the papacy nevertheless still stands is no wonder. Jerusalem stood yet forty years after Christ’s ascension, and God had destroyed the Antichrist in this city bodily with the breath of His mouth. How should the Roman papacy have ceased to vegetate so soon after Luther? The Lord, moreover, says it plainly. HE will make an end of him “by the brightness of His coming,” not sooner.

Therefore let us abide by Luther’s manner of warfare and let no new weapons be forged for us against the Antichrist; no other avails than the Spirit of Him who called not the harlots and drunkards, but the true Antichrist among the Pharisees, before all the people a viper and his children a generation of vipers.

In order now to strengthen ourselves in faithfulness to the faith also by this, that we let our hatred of the enemy of our faith be kindled, we will take up the writing which the blessed Luther issued a year before his death, in 1545,

“Against the Papacy at Rome, Founded by the Devil.”

From it we shall at the same time perceive that Luther did not unlearn his harsh words even in old age, as proof that the Holy Spirit, who truly dwelt in Luther, neither demands nor works repentance over wrath against the devil and all his outbreaks, and also that such wrath is no natural movement of the heart; otherwise age would at least weaken its stirrings; rather it is a stirring like that which was observed in the pool of Bethesda when the angel went down in order to make it healing.

Let us then conclude our festival by praying God that He would graciously forgive us all fleshly indulgence toward the prince of darkness, his instruments and works, and fill us with His Holy Spirit also to this end, that in true holiness, and not in self-chosen humility and worshipping of angels — for God’s Word calls that devilry — we may learn to hate, to curse, and to “consume,” even as God hates, curses, and kills what is not of His Spirit.

Frmuth, on the 31st of October, 1854, in the afternoon.
K. R.

(Sent in by P. R.)

Boldness and Faintheartedness in One Person.

Paul calls all false spirits bold and haughty. Yes, on their own dunghill, among their yes-men, they are proud and impudent, otherwise they are the most fainthearted scoundrels that one may find; when they are to answer and stand their ground, no one can bring them forward. Among their own crowd they are bold, they dare to reach into God’s mouth; but when it comes to the encounter, there is nothing but despair. The Holy Spirit, however, stands fast, endures the blows, makes bold and courageous, comforts the timid consciences, and says: Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. The right spirit is timid, and makes itself timid before God, as the Christians do who bow before God, hold Him in honor, and are not proud; but against the tyrants the Holy Spirit puffs them up with such courage that they fear neither tyrants nor devils, are undaunted, even if one should tear off their heads for it; but before God they fear and tremble, like a rustling leaf.
Luther.

Of the Power on Earth to Forgive Sins.

There are two ways of forgiving sin: first, to drive sin out of the heart and pour in grace; that God alone does. Second, to proclaim the forgiveness of sin; that one man also does to another. But Christ does both here: into the heart He gives the Spirit; outwardly He proclaims it with the Word. This now is forgiving with the Word, and is a proclamation and public preaching of the inward forgiveness.

This power all men have who are Christians and baptized; for thereby they praise Christ, and have the word forgive sins in their mouth, so that they can and may say, when they will, and as often as there is need: Behold, man, God offers thee His grace, bestows on thee all thy sins, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee, only believe it, and it is certain; and whatever words one may choose to use. This voice shall not cease among the Christians until the last day: Thy sins are forgiven thee, be joyful and of good cheer! A Christian has this ever in his mouth, and carries on the Word publicly, in which sins are forgiven. Thus and in this manner a Christian has power to forgive sins. Therefore, when I say to thee: Thy sins are forgiven thee, then hold it for certain, as if God Himself had said it to thee; for who would do this, if Christ Himself had not come down, and put it in my mouth and said that we should forgive sin one to another; as when He says in John, chap. 20:22, 23: Receive ye the Holy Ghost, etc. And in another place, Matt. 18:19, 20, He says: If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, etc. The Word does it and cuts through.

If now there were no man on earth who forgave sin, and there were only laws and works, O what a timid and wretched thing it would be with the poor troubled conscience! But now, when God gives to each one his mouth full, so that he can say to another: Thy sins shall be forgiven thee, be thou where thou mayest be; then the golden year has begun.
Luther.

The devil sees that he can do nothing against the bright sun of truth; therefore he stirs up the dust, and would gladly make a mist before our eyes, that we should not see the light: and in the mist he holds up before us mere will-o’-the-wisps, that he may lead us astray.
Luther.

Of a Bishop of Salzburg.

In the year 1537 a writing appeared in which the following atrocity of the Prince-Bishop Michael of Salzburg is reported to the world. When this bishop one day had shot a stag in the hunt, and it had at last fallen dead, far from the hunting ground, on the field of a poor man, the latter supposed that God had sent him this stag, since at that time his family were suffering great want; he therefore appropriated the animal and ate it with his family. The matter, however, becomes known and comes before the bishop. He has the alleged poacher thrown into prison at once and presses for his sentence of death. When no one is willing to pronounce so harsh a sentence, the bishop himself mounts the judgment seat and dictates to the accused the following punishment: he shall be sewn into the skin of the devoured stag, and then the bishop’s hunting dogs shall be set upon him; if, however, he saves himself thereby by flight, he shall be free. The sentence is carried out, and the unhappy peasant, sewn into the stag’s hide, is brought to the market. The bishop himself blows the horn and thereby gives his