# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 01 22_S82
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

82

God indeed chose the Jewish people before all other nations to be a people of His own possession, established a covenant of grace with them, and bestowed upon them before all others the Word of His revelation; but by this God by no means meant to turn His grace toward the Jews alone, and to withdraw and withhold it from the heathen nations. As the sun has its light not for itself alone, but for the whole world, so the light of divine revelation, kindled by God for the people of Israel, was to shine not for Israel alone, but for all peoples. For this reason God also assigned to the Jewish people their dwelling-places precisely in Canaan, the center of the world as it was then populated; for this reason He let them, before and after, move from land to land and from people to people, and at last be scattered into all the world; for this reason also, finally, such great wonders and signs were done among them, the report of which resounded into the farthest regions: namely, that the Jewish people might be a city of God set on a high hill, visible and accessible to all the world, a light set as upon the lampstand of the world, shining into all lands, and a spiritual lighthouse for all nations, and that the heathen world, sunk in blindness and idolatry, might have opportunity continually to come again to the knowledge of the true God.

It is indeed true, to be sure, that in spite of all these provisions of God to give His saving Word to all the heathen also, nevertheless countless millions of men, through the fault of their forefathers, have been robbed of the Word of God and have sunk back into the night of heathen ignorance and superstition. The question therefore arises: why has God not provided that, at all times, the Word should be brought anew to the descendants of those who had squandered His Word and cast it from them? — At least One reason is made known to us by the course so often observed by God, of not letting His Word be preached to those of whom He knows beforehand that they will not accept it in faith, but will reject it. As, for example, when, as is told in the Acts of the Apostles in the 22nd chapter, the newly converted Paul, burning with desire to confess there in Jerusalem the Crucified One, whom he had formerly persecuted in His members at Jerusalem, wished to remain in Jerusalem, the LORD said to him: "Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem; for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me." There is therefore no doubt: had God known that those living in the darkness of heathenism would accept His Word, He would have had it preached to them, even if it had to be done by angels from heaven.

Yet, my beloved, although we cannot on that account accuse God that so many millions have already died, and still keep dying, who never heard anything of their Saviour; although we do not seek the reason for this, as a certain party in Christendom does, blasphemously in an absolute decree of God to pass by these millions; although we must rather recognize here a righteous judgment upon men of whom God foreknew that they would not have accepted His Word even if it had been preached to them; although therefore the heathen are lost on account of their sin: nevertheless all the forsaken heathen, languishing without God's Word in comfortlessness and hopelessness through the fault of Christians, are so many accusers of the Christians before God, and God will one day require from the hands of Christians the blood of all these souls neglected by them. The conversion of the heathen is and remains a duty which every one has his share in who calls himself a Christian; in short, the heathen mission is and remains a debt of Christians. Of this let me now speak to you somewhat further.

Text: Matth. 2, 1—12.

After the texts of the Christmas festival have told us of the revelation of the newborn Saviour among the people of Israel, so the festival text of today, just read, tells us of the first revelation of the newborn Saviour among the heathen. If, therefore, twelve days ago we celebrated in a manner the Christmas of the Jews, so today we celebrate the Christmas of the heathen, which concerns us above all, since we descend from heathen forefathers. It is fitting, therefore, that today we remember that work through which more and more heathen are to be brought to the knowledge of their Saviour, the holy work of missions. So let me now present to you:

The Heathen Mission, a Debt of Christians;

I show you herein:

I. in how far the heathen mission is a debt of all Christians, and

II. in how far this work is a debt especially now for us here.

I.

It was, my beloved, a wonderful way in which the first-fruits from heathendom were once led to Christ. In a land lying far east of Judea, probably in Persia, a wonderful star had appeared to several wise men of that land, and God had revealed to them that this star signified the birth of the King of grace, long awaited by the Jewish people for centuries. Immediately, therefore, the wise men set out on the way to the capital of the Jewish land, Jerusalem, and, arrived here, they say: "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him." The tidings of the arrival of these strange guests from afar, and of their still stranger question, soon fill all Jerusalem and at last penetrate to the chambers of King Herod. Every one receives the news with alarm. But what happens? The king straightway has all the chief priests and scribes among the people gathered together, asks them where, according to the Scripture, the Messiah should be born, and after they have shown him from the prophet Micah that He must be born in Bethlehem, the king directs the wise men to this little town. Following the direction received, they find at last Him whom they had sought, fall down before the little Child, worship Him, open their treasures, and thereupon return home, bearing in their hearts the eternal treasure of saving knowledge.

Now, as wonderful as is the circumstance in this history that the wise men were led to Judea by a wonder-star, yet it appears still more wonderful that God did not choose the star to lead the wise men without detour straight to Bethlehem, but that rather the Jewish king with his chief priests and scribes first had to show them from God's Word that Bethlehem was the place where Christ could be found. We cannot think that the all-wise God did this not from wise purposes, not from most weighty reasons. But what was it, then, why God so proceeded? Who would dare to wish to fathom all the holy purposes of God herein? But a chief reason — this the analogy of faith teaches us — was without doubt this: God wished thereby to show for all times to come that He would lead the heathen to His dear Son not by immediate revelations, not by wonders, not by stars, not by angels or otherwise by extraordinary heavenly appearances, but by men, and indeed by His already existing Church, so that the heathen mission is therefore a debt of the Church, a debt of Christians.

In our days, alas! only too many, even such as one cannot deny all Christianity, think that the heathen mission is indeed a laudable work, but a work which one may just as well do as leave undone, and in which one may just as well take part as remain uninvolved; and since there is now, in the midst of Christendom itself, so much need and want, more than can be met, therefore, many think, the mission is a burden which one should not lay upon Christians in these times of distress besides, a work which, in order not to hinder other needful things, it were better to omit now. But, my beloved, such Christians are in error. The Christian Church is and remains at all times a debtor to the whole world still living without Christ. She is, according to God's will, to be the fruitful mother, from whose womb ever more children, like the dew from the womb of the morning, are to be born to Him also from among the heathen. It rests upon her that the heavenly star of the Word be kindled for the heathen and that they be directed to Bethlehem. This