# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1855 08 14_S205
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

205

(symbols) could be demanded and taken, and, if this is to be done, that no conditional formula is to be used in doing so.” This he explains further, p. 50: “As to the third question, how the oath is to be taken, namely whether it must be done by quia or quatenus, that is, because or in so far as they agree with the Holy Scriptures, some have indeed wished to prefer the latter manner to the former, on the ground that one could thereby set one’s conscience more at rest, which opinion, however, is by no means to be approved. For this conflicts with the nature as well as the purpose of an oath, since in such a manner the one who swears does not know how far he approves the doctrines set forth therein or not, and he to whom the oath is made thereby receives in fact no assurance. In like manner one might also subscribe to foreign symbolical books, as indeed the Papists in their Tridentine Council have various things that agree with the Scripture.”

We see from this in what relation the Evangelical Lutheran Church has stood from of old to her Confessions. She declares the same, namely, to be her symbols, and thereby the rule and standard of the doctrine that holds in her. She therefore binds her preachers by the ordination oath to an unconditional acceptance of them, in order thereby to obtain the surety, warrant and assurance that they will also truly set forth and proclaim her confession of faith and her doctrine.

(Conclusion to follow.)

Mormonism.

(Conclusion.)

The doctrine of the Mormons, which we now take particularly into view, surpasses, it may be, in heathenish abominations everything that has hitherto sought to adorn itself with the Christian name. Besides the Book of Mormon and the “Book of Doctrine and Covenants,” our precious Bible, all too often abused in the most shameful manner, is also said to be a source of it. But since a continuing revelation of the will and wisdom of God through the means of the seer and head of the church is assumed, the dogmatics is only a provisional one, to be developed further later. According to Orson Pratt, the most esteemed dogmatician of the sect, it believes in no eternal Godhead. Its Original God, by whom the world as a whole is governed according to the newest revelations, and who sits enthroned at the centre of the universe upon a monstrously great planet Kolob, is one who has come into being in a mysterious manner out of the self-existent intelligence and matter. The first thing he did was to set up a fundamental law, to the provisions of which it belonged that there should be a distinction of the sexes. According to this provision there proceeded from him other gods, partly sons, partly daughters, in order in turn to beget other gods of male and female sex. To each god a certain star or planet is assigned, which he has to people and to rule. When a world-body is then so filled with the children of the god that he can no longer house and feed them, he creates a new star, to which the spirits of the young gods are sent as inhabitants. These, losing the consciousness of their divinity as soon as they receive a body, then worship their father as God, just as the latter with his brothers in the universe honors his father as God, and so on up to the Original God on Kolob, with whom, because of the size of his star, one day amounts to 1000 of our years. The spirits begotten by the god who rules the earth have the choice to remain where they are, or to take on a material body, in order through a life of probation on earth to work themselves up to a greater glory than they enjoy with their father as spirits. As soon as such a son of God takes possession of his earthly body, which happens at the beginning of life, the man becomes a living soul. Man consists, then, of body and spirit, of which the latter is not subject to change and perishableness. Death separates the two; but then the spirit guards every particle of its body until the resurrection. Death came into the world through Adam, or, as he is also called, Michael the Ancient. He fell, in order that there might be so many more men; with full consciousness of the consequences he ate of the apple, and sinned, in order that mortal bodies might arise, fit for the dwelling of spirits, as soon as it pleased these to enter upon their time of probation. If a spirit sins in its life as a man, then after his death a lower stage of renewed probation is assigned to him, perhaps a negro’s body; if he is again disobedient, a still deeper one, until he comes to submission, and now may again take his way from stage to stage toward the old glory of a child of God. Here, then, the old Egyptian-heathen lie of the transmigration of souls is repeated in a slightly different form. — The introduction of sin into the world and the first appearance of Satan is described more closely as follows: after the earth had been prepared by the gods and created spiritually, and Michael or Adam (likewise spiritually) had fallen, a great council of the gods was held in heaven, at which the Father of the Heavenly ones presided, and at which the First-born of God, who is called preeminently the Son, and Lucifer, his brother, the beautiful morning star, the leader of heavenly hosts, were present. The question, how the redemption of men was to be accomplished, was answered by Lucifer to this effect, that he would save men in their sins; by Christ, on the other hand, that he would redeem them from their sins. The latter way was approved by the Father, which Lucifer took ill. He rose up with his legions, and the war thereby called forth ended in this, that the rebels, a third part of the children of God, were cast out of heaven. Lucifer became Satan, and his companions demons, although he nevertheless retained many good qualities and is a “perfect gentleman”! He concerns himself only with great things; to ascribe to him himself small matters, which subordinate officials of his realm carry on, is unchristian. One must wonder how the devil, where one does not already altogether deny his existence, nevertheless contrives most splendidly to appear as white as possible. But what Christian can refrain from a shudder when he hears that the God of the Mormons not only has a human body, by virtue of which he eats, drinks, and perhaps carries on some trade or other business at pleasure, but that he has also wedded himself to the Virgin Mary in the land of the Jews exactly as a human bridegroom. Jesus Christ, who before led only a spiritual life, is thereby said to have obtained his temple of the body. The Holy Ghost, on the other hand, is without a body, and therefore less perfect than the two other Persons, whose harmonious will he is. — How Christ is also said to have appeared in America we have already heard. The true church of God founded by him, however, died out in the old and new world after some centuries. Errors arose (for example, that the Christian might have only one wife, the priest none at all); the priesthood was lost, and with it also all the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, which God bestows on believers, were lost, and which returned only through Jos. Smith, the restorer of the state of grace. The Mormons now have a genuine priesthood. To them, also, in company with the converted Indian tribes, as descendants of the children of Israel, and with the Jews, at the entrance of the thousand years’ kingdom the whole earth is to belong. The returning gifts of grace of the primitive Christian age, wonderful healings, prophecies, and so forth, are for the most part confined only to the priesthood, though by way of exception they occur also among the laity. This is especially the case with the “speaking in tongues.” As the false wisdom of the so-called newer theology, especially among the Unionists, will not have the apostles on the first Christian Pentecost preach in the different languages of their hearers, but rather in the primitive language spoken throughout the whole world before the building of the tower of Babel, which is then said to have sounded in the ears of each hearer like his own language, so among the Mormons the gift of tongues consists in this, that one or another begins to babble incoherent words or syllables, which are then called “New Egyptian,” but are understood by no one, until someone again receives the gift of “interpretation.” — The baptism of the Mormons takes place by immersion, in the case of children in the eighth year, for the remission of sins. Immediately thereupon follows confirmation with the laying on of hands for the imparting of the Holy Ghost. There also frequently takes place a vicarious baptism of the living for their dead friends and relatives, who had no opportunity to receive the Mormon baptism, or who despised it in their lifetime. Through this baptism