# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 03 20_S115
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

115

14, and curses them, though it were an angel from heaven. That in indifferent matters he had patience with the weak, and in ceremonies which God's Word left free put himself on a level with them, so long as the weak did not want to impose it upon him as a law, well now! that goes without saying, we do that still, and we Lutherans in particular are quite liberal in it, as I have indeed plainly seen in my years of wandering; but in doctrine I cannot find at all, as Mr. K—t does, that he yielded, nor did he deal at all lovingly with the false teachers; I should like to know what kind of spectacles the people put on when they set about "Paul's epistles."

In the epistle to the Ephesians the holy apostle presses right earnestly for the unity in the Spirit, NB—but not in the flesh—speaks also much of love and peace, like Mr. K—t, — but, but, of unity with false doctrine he will know nothing, but while he points to the unity of the body, he shows at the same time what holds the one body together, namely the one Spirit, who has wrought one faith, and the one baptism, wherein we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body, and I can add from 1 Cor. 12:13: to the one Supper, wherein we have all been made to drink into one Spirit. Eph. 4:4–6. And the apostle exhorts now also immediately thereafter, that they should now be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive," and that for this very reason the holy ministry was instituted by Christ, that they should keep and build up the congregation of Christ in this one faith, and watch. Eph. 4:11–14.

In my Bible there stands noted in the margin at the 14th verse: "That is, As rogues handle the dice, so they handle the Scripture who put forth doctrines of men"; and it comes quite vividly to my mind how, as a boy, I once lost a sixer which my grandmother had given me to buy a gingerbread at the fair. There was a man there who had thimbles, and a little ball, which he pushed quite swiftly from one thimble under the other, and offered to give us money, a sixer against a sixer, whoever could guess where the ball was. Now I thought, I shall soon earn that, for I felt sure I had seen where the ball was, and laughed, and laid my sixer on the table, and lifted the thimble, but there was nothing there, and now the man laughed, and the other boys too, but I slunk away with a long face and got no gingerbread, for my sixer was gone. That came to my mind so vividly at this passage and at the Kirchenbote; for in the end it is nothing else but that such people cheat other simple folk with their hocus-pocus, and make them take an X for a U, and would to God it were here a matter merely of sixers and gingerbread, then it might pass, but God's Word and the salvation of souls, that is a serious thing, Mr. Lutheraner. —

What strikes me now at the passage in the epistle to the Ephesians, or rather must strike the Kirchenbote, is that the holy apostle in the 15th verse exhorts: "Let us be upright in love," etc. Must not Mr. K—t take the apostle for an arch-hypocrite, that he now so piously exhorts to love, when just before, verse 14, quite in the Lutheran manner he was so loveless toward the "dear brethren" who are "of another opinion" than he? I do not know, it will not agree anywhere between the Kirchenbote and the apostle.

But in the epistle to the Philippians, I thought, there you will find it, and to that Mr. K—t points, but right in the first chapter, verse 27, I find that the apostle exhorts the Philippians that they should "let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ," which would now, according to Weyl's ideas of love, mean: you must be nicely peaceable, and not so quarrelsome, and not take it so exactly with the faith and the Gospel, for love, love goes above everything. But the apostle has quite other views of the matter, he says: they should strive together with him for the faith of the Gospel, and in nothing be terrified by their adversaries (were they not heathen, surely?) "which is NB — to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God." That must indeed sound quite coarse and unapostolic in the ears of all pious Unionists. And how unchristianly, indeed more than Lutheran-coarsely, speaks the apostle in chapter 3:2 ff. of false teachers! he calls them dogs, evil workers, the concision, who want only to glory in their flesh, whose belly is their god, etc. From such passages the unlearned but perverse people now read out, "that the apostles were of different opinions about doctrines just as important as those of Baptism and the Supper, namely about the Mosaic — but yet quite peaceable, did not exclude one another from the Holy Supper," etc. Now truly, I think the apostle shows us precisely how lovingly and peaceably he dealt with such people.

But do explain to us once, Mr. Lutheraner, in your paper, this incomprehensible impudence and effrontery which these people have in their bodies, that they have not read the least of the epistles of Paul, and yet want to know everything, and admonish upright people who hold to God's Word, that they should "read the epistles of Paul, there they would find it." Yes indeed, one finds out what they are. God have mercy, and put an end to the offence which these shameless love-chatterers cast in the way of simple souls! Mr. Lutheraner! I grow quite warm, I think I had better let the writing rest a little; I can tell you, it fairly boils, and I fear there might be flesh mixed in with it, for I am a weak man, God have mercy, and to curse, and yet to weep for the people, as the apostle Paul could in his burning love, 3:18 and 19, that I cannot yet quite do at the same time, though it does come about now and then, one after the other. — But it is growing quiet again.

But here I have learned how such people read "the epistles of Paul," and how lightly they deal with God's Word. They tear off a piece here, and a piece there, and patch it together, stick their impudence into it, and then go with it to the market, and into the streets, Prov. 9:13–17, and say: "Behold, that is the true Christianity," so it looks, only read the epistles of Paul, there it stands; the Old Lutherans are quarrelers and half-heathen, and must first read the epistles of Paul; then one cannot do otherwise than leap to and tear from the people the patched-together garment, so that they themselves and the other people may see what really lies behind the Christian rags that are only hung on, namely mere flesh and blood. That, I think in my stupidity, is true love, when it is done with a fine loving heart, and with prayer for these poor seduced seducers and deceived deceivers.

So does Mr. K—t also: there he puts on his patchwork garment which the Unionistic preachers of love hang upon him, and says: Read the epistles of Paul; there it stands, for example, in the epistle to the Philippians, that we should be peaceable and friendly with one another, and "if in any thing ye be otherwise minded (that is, surely, if ye were not yet quite agreed about this or that side-matter), God shall reveal even this unto you"; and then such a man is so jolly of soul that he has now found a comfortable cover for his flesh and blood, and can besides patch something on the Old Lutherans' cloth, that he shuts the book, and reads no further, but exhorts: "read the epistles of Paul." But if he had only read one verse further, he would have found, verse 16: "Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." Now I should think that the Church even in the time of the apostles had come to one rule also in the doctrine of the Holy Supper and Baptism, as in all parts of our faith! if not, how should we come to it? we should have to go at last to the Pope, and ask His Holiness to be so kind as to give us the one rule in these matters. — Well! that would be something fine! No, I would rather stay with my pastor and other simple people by the small Catechism of Luther and the Augsburg Confession, that agrees all excellently with the epistles of Paul and the Holy Scripture, and let people chatter as much as they like, that we have not love! I think the dear God will surely know where love sits; but we can well know that where there is such a frivolous faith, there love also cannot be far off, and that one can prove of Mr. K—t also from his writing, as all