# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Dezember 1913_S532
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

532 Zum „richtigen Verhalten“.

stimmt. Wir teilen unsern Lesern das auch mit. Er sagt: The two
decisive points clearly stated in Scriptures are, that man before his
conversion is dead in sin and transgression; after his conversion he is
become alive and éean exercise the new powers of this new life by
virtue of his changed will, of which new will the apostle speaks
Rom. 7, 18. 19. This change in carnal man is brought about by
the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word, both the Law and
the Gospel, each in its peculiar manner. We therefore correctly
speak of a process in conversion in its broader sense, of preparatory
acts of the Holy Ghost, of motus inevitabiles, which leave their
impress on the soul of man. But when the question is raised whether
man, in the strength of these motus, can will to remain passive in
his resistance, or through his volition use these powers of the Holy
Ghost to cease his opposition to further activity of the Spirit, and
thus open the avenues for complete conversion, we must emphatically
deny the assumption as both unscriptural and unpsychological. Until
man is converteéd, which very term means a change of the will
through faith, he is simply subjectum convertendum. During the
wWhole process at no stage is theré a neutral state in man, no point
at which self-decision for grace or a passive non-resistance over
against grace can be deétermined; man is subjectively active in his
resistance at all times until the moment of his conversion through
the regeneration of his will, which at that moment becomes a volun-
tas berata and begins to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. It is a
fatal misunderstanding of the mere passtive' of our confession and
of Our theéologians to interprét it in the sense of non-resistance by
virtue of the actus praeparatorit, it means simply that man suffers
someéthing which is done to him in conversion, and in no wise is
active either to begin or to assist in it. The transition from spiritual
death to spiritual life is as instantaneous as that from physical death
to physical life; à condition of partly dead and partly alive is un-
thinkable, just as voluntary movements in the slightest degree
ascribed to à dead body are absurd. Apparently volitional move-
ments may be induced by outward influences, but the will has
absolutely no part in them, until the spark of life is kindled.“

Da wird also nichts davon gesagt, daß Bekehrung und Seligkeit
in gewissem Sinne auch vom Verhalten des Menschen abhänge. Auch
wird nicht bloß allgemein, und wenn auch in den stärksten Ausdrücken,
gesagt, daß Gottes Gnade allein die Bekehrung wirke, sondern es wird
so das menschliche Unvermögen und Widerstreben und die Alleinwirk⸗
samkeit der Gnade herausgestellt, daß für das „Verhalten“ schlechter⸗
dings gar kein Raum gelassen wird. Es wird festgehalten: die zwei
Endpunkte stehen fest da: Tod und Leben; vor der Bekehrung Tod,
lauter Tod; das Leben ist erst da, wenn die Bekehrung eingetreten ist.
Die Bekehrung ist eben die Lebenssetzung, die Willensveränderung, die