# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 06 11_S165
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

165

to dwell upon them long. Yet a few of them shall be briefly indicated. The Missionsbote denies that we “receive the body of Christ with the mouth”; we therefore beg him to be so kind as to tell us whether one can also eat the body of Christ truly and actually with the spirit; for the LORD has given it to us to eat. — The Missionsbote is willing to put up with a confession which “in form and content confesses the faith of the Church”; but in the “doctrine of faith” he demands freedom, so that “the doctrine of the Church may develop forth out of the Scripture.” Such freedom in the “doctrine of faith” exists, among other places, in the united Church of Prussia, wherefore the faith has also “developed forth,” that is, developed away, out of so many churches. — The Missionsbote thinks that the Formula of Concord contains “the explanation of individual articles of faith, as individual believing men conceived and explained them.” — We beg him first to make himself acquainted with the history of the Formula of Concord, and not to forget the eight or nine thousand signatures, before he asserts such a thing. Finally, the Missionsbote is not ashamed, after the manner of the old “sacramentarian enthusiasts,” to distort our pure doctrine and to accuse us of the heresy of a chemical union of the two natures in Christ. This, and the fact that, against the truth and against his own better knowledge (or should he not know it? then he certainly ought to have kept silent), he writes into the world: “The Lutheran preacher believes that he prepares a better Lord's Supper than the Reformed one” — this we lay upon his conscience and commend it to God.

And herewith we would for this time take leave of the Missionsbote, begging him once more most heartily to study the Symbols of our Church, and in particular also the Formula of Concord, to examine their proofs and compare them with God's Word. If he does this with an upright heart, God will let him recognize, among other things, also the comforting truth that lies in the doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum, for God lets the upright prosper. But may He, our God, grant that we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; that we henceforth 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.

B.

(Communicated.)

It does not agree.

Damian (shambles in at the door with a Bible under his arm): Neighbor, there is nothing to the Scripture; it does not agree.

Farmer's Wife (spills the milk in her fright, which she was about to set on the table): That cannot be!

D. See for yourselves. Romans, chapter 3, verse 28, it says: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified without the deeds of the law, by faith alone.” And again, in James, chapter 2, verse 13, we read: “What doth it profit, my beloved brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?” And then down there verse 24, that says quite the contrary to the Romans: “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”

F. (takes the Bible in a trembling hand): Ah, dear God, to be sure it must be faith that does it; we are all poor sinners and lack the glory which we should have with God.

D. James knows it differently (he knocks on the table); he says: The works must do it. Just look at him properly! It is all one to me who does it; I am talking about this, that the Scripture contradicts itself and that it is therefore not reliable.

F. Be quiet, neighbor, there must be a way out.

D. No, no! There is no way out there. Look at the texts once more! — Why do you give yourselves so much trouble and toil, that you sit whole hours poring over the Scripture?

F. Oh, neighbor, it is no trouble and toil, it is my heart's joy and comfort.

D. It is a false comfort, for it does not agree.

F. (weeps): I will not let you mock God's Word in my hearing. The Herr Pfarrer will know well enough how to set you right.

The Farmer's Wife's Brother (comes out from behind the stove-seat): Perhaps my small understanding might serve here. Well then, Damian, what is your trouble?

D. (becomes quite embarrassed when he sees the Farmer's Wife's brother): So, you are here too! — — I say that the Scripture does not agree. There it stands, what can I do about it? (he reads the above three texts over again.)

Brother. We must just make a distinction between faith and faith; afterwards the texts will soon come into agreement.

D. A distinction, indeed!

Br. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, means a living faith. There the heart of man has united itself with Christ and receives sap and strength from the LORD, like the vine-branch from the vine. There nothing is lacking; it works and acts in the heart and drives forth good fruits from within. And that is then the true, justifying faith, one that is active through love. Nevertheless, it is the Apostle's meaning that entrance into heaven is not at all earned by the good fruits themselves, nor at all by our doing of the law; but entrance into the Father's house is a gift of God's grace, which one appropriates by pure faith.

D. Your exposition is not to be despised. But what does James say?

Br. Nothing contrary, if one considers it at bottom. James speaks of a dead faith, where one has the LORD indeed in the head, and for aught I care on the tongue, but not in the heart, where one is not penetrated by His power and His life, and therefore also bears no good fruits. Such a false, ruinous faith cannot indeed save; that may be done only by the faith that proves its uprightness in good works. And so far James agrees still with Paul, and further he will have nothing. His 24th verse, when one devoutly considers the example of Abraham put before it, says exactly as much: “Ye see then how that a man is justified by a living, obedient faith, and not by knowing and talking alone.” But that dear James should ascribe righteousness before God to works as works, that would be wide of the mark; for on the contrary he beats down righteousness by works more mightily than all the others. Consider what he says in the 10th verse: “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Mark well, Damian! If, then, a man from his childhood up to his 70th year had kept all the parts of the law in the coarse and the subtle sense down to the last dot, and at last he were to transgress, say, by a single lie, he would before the strict righteousness and holiness of God have incurred damnation just like him who dies on the gallows. Mark that well, Damian, our James says it. Now, however, he must himself confess there in the 3rd chapter: “in many things we offend all”; — well, how shall we poor sinners be saved then? It cannot be otherwise than by grace, through faith in JEsus Christ, who shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins.

D. When one hears it so, you are almost right. — But they ought also to speak uniformly, if they are of one mind. That would be much wiser, then one would know at once where one stands.

Br. Damian! The Holy Ghost, who inspired them as to what each should write, is wiser than you and I, and He will have had His reason why He had them speak so and not otherwise. Something we can guess at once. Understand, the divine wisdom wills that everyone should find in the Scripture just what is especially needful and profitable to him. There are now people who suppose that with their astonishing good works they have already earned heaven twenty times; — to them the worthy Paul must let blood, and say: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified without the deeds of the law, alone by