# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 02 19_S100
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

100

means of grace, of these sure and true hands of God stretched out to every one, or what, as the fruit of absolution wrought by the Holy Ghost through such apprehension of grace, is to follow upon the use of the means of grace, is in an improper manner so interwoven and entangled in the doctrine of the means of grace and their use, that it is only to be ascribed to the gracious hand of God, the Holy Ghost, which, in spite of such impure doctrine, in the Word itself assures the soul of its power, and in the living water flowing fresh to it from this eternal fountain cleanses and heals it, if all do not wither and perish upon the pieces and patches of the truth, which have become powerless in fanatical fever-heat, and have been boiled to rags with all manner of human doubts of the divine speech and with human opinions about the mysteries of heaven?

Our time, which in true Cainite fashion progresses gigantically in inventions, gives in spiritual knowledge another plain testimony of its lamentable ignorance, in that a periodical which may palm it off upon its readers without proof, that those doctrines in which all evangelical church divisions agree are sufficient to win souls for the kingdom of God, so that on their account one need "ask after no confession," and so need not reprove the errors of certain confessions either, finds numerous readers. Though one might now, even in this our time, venture, for the sake of other distinguishing doctrines, not to rate highly the particular opposing formation of the several church divisions; yet even the less instructed will have no doubt concerning these two doctrines, justification and the means of grace, that in the web of a system of doctrine they must necessarily, according as they are conceived one way or another, give this or another shape also to all other doctrines. Even if it be granted to those who do not comprehend how God also becomes another in our conception when we conceive the manner and way in which He absolves sinners and imparts Himself to them otherwise than befits us according to His Word, that the doctrines concerning the being of the triune God are to be regarded as such fundamental truths of Christianity, in which "all evangelical church divisions" agree; he must yet have a very contented heart who can find therein a justification for withdrawing from the conflict of the various evangelical church divisions, which one and all hold their divergent doctrines worth the contest, and, without a settlement of it, full church fellowship with one another a thing impossible;*) a heart so contented that one should hardly credit it with the arrogance which betrays itself in the arbitrary distinction, into fundamental and secondary doctrines, of the saving truths revealed by the Holy Ghost in the Word as equally authoritative and essential. One might find an astonishing magnanimity in denying the hungry soul all the crumbs of the holy Word that are disputed anywhere, and, at the risk of coming at last wholly out of the spiritual bread, in docilely accepting, as a minimum and as the portion of the old forefathers, what the children begotten of the spirit of this age may be pleased to leave over of the paternal inheritance, if this magnanimous contentment were not again coupled with the strange invitation to so many to let themselves be fed with these, and moreover so little authenticated, leavings; for thereby the heroic renunciation turns into a most ignoble injustice toward the invited guests. — How, moreover, with such contentment with our present church world and such love of peace, spiritual watchfulness can subsist, will be taught to every one, who would not have God's Word used merely for making war on tyranny and popery, but regards it above all as given by the Holy Ghost for the edification of a sound structure of doctrine, by a short saying of it, that word of the Apostle:

"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Gal. 5, 9.

*) Otherwise one or the other must already have given up the system of doctrine whose confession and defence gave it existence; but such a condition, unless an open and honest apostasy from the former error to the truth confessed in another confession, and consequently a passing over from the sect to the Church, has taken place, escapes all judgment, because it, like that of the Union, after the manner of the otter, can be counted neither with the one nor with the other "evangelical church division," and yet, on account of its uncertain, indefinite, and confessionless character, cannot be grasped by itself either.

But what shall the apostles of the Lord Christ still teach our present apostles? They have become schoolboys. Our masters have learned to esteem doctrines lightly. That is also much more genteel, and, especially in America, far more fashionable. "To make righteous by the knowledge of the salvation" (Is. 53, 11) and therefore to regard any inaccuracy in knowledge as dangerous to souls is an old, worn-out affair. One progresses, that is, one pulls up the stakes that have been fixed for the Church in the doctrine of the apostles and prophets, so that the man of this age also may walk right in quite comfortably and not bump his rationalist head against the "strait gate." Fancy that! to excommunicate a Hymenaeus, as the Apostle Paul did, and merely for the sake of doctrine, and indeed for the sake of the single doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh (2 Tim. 2, 17. 1 Tim. 1, 20)? — No, such a thing one will no longer put up with. Such Pauls may keep far away, and also the disciples of Paul, such as Luther was. Such people curse and condemn (Gal. 1, 8). We know very well how to distinguish Mount Ebal from Gerizim. We hold the dear God, whose Spirit teaches cursing, by a fashionable wave of the hand, to be silent. — Therefore also one feels so comfortable in this time. There is so much labor about growth in the knowledge of God that is not needed at all any more. One prays a little. One rejoices that one feels anxious, for that is testimony enough that one has been saved. One talks and writes something of Christ, so in general terms that one nowhere gives offence. Then one rubs one's hands and rejoices in one's precious calling, to walk one's ways of peace so peacefully. The simple-minded apostles! They looked out for those who taught perverse doctrine (Acts 20, 30. 31). They tested every opinion, whether it also did not depart from the one holy Gospel, and if it was a tittle different, they did not cease with teaching and warning, yea, also, when need was, with cursing and banning, until they had preserved the pure shining shield of faith from the threatening speck of dust, and the pure golden wine of the Gospel from the drop of poison (1 Cor. 1, 10, 1 John 4, 1). Had those fools but founded temperance societies instead, they would have gained the respectable heathen as friends and helpers. Or were there no vices among the heathen to be combated, that they had so much time and strength left over for doctrine? How Luther gave himself so vain a trouble, that he engaged continually in strife with thirty different kinds of erring spirits, and absolutely would not consent, for the sake of the few words "this is," to make fellowship with the Zwinglians! Had he rather done something else than write, shortly before his death, so thick a book as the great Confession concerning the Holy Supper is, merely that he might have no responsibility if men after him should enter into church fellowship with the Swiss reformers, the people who had "another spirit"! He was a miserable quarrelsome fellow. His whining, praying, crying, and resisting for the letter of the truth was a childish game, for which one can at most pity him. Good that he is dead. Still better that the apostles live no more. Much better still that the Holy Ghost no longer speaks immediately through living instruments, and the living dogs have peace from the dead lions. Yea, what would it matter, even if the triune God Himself were dead, who has spoken to us? If only we live, we new spirits, we ambassadors in the time of railroads and steamships, we preachers of a wisdom which in better times was held to be dangerous indifferentism, we who first know what love is after we have learned to love also that which God hates, the puddles of error and of the lie of the "Yea, hath God said?" just as heartily as the full pure truth, we who, blessed in breadth, which we have found, greeted by all, dream the loveliest dream, that we are full of the Holy Ghost, when this love flows through us delightfully — if only we can live and speak, we who would have to fall silent, should HE arise, whose Word we presume to abridge and interpret according to our own opinion.