# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 07 23_S186
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

186

from the Rationalists, but also from those of whom they well know that they received the right baptism.  Ed.

5. But how wrong yours do in rebaptizing, I let pass for now. For your shame is all the greater that you, like your idol the Pope, yourselves resist him with your rebaptizing: and so teacher and scholar agree not with one another. Therefore I will not treat further of this now, but will, to oblige you, become a papist again, and boldly flatter the Pope. For my dear enthusiasts will interpret it to me in no other way (as they already do) than that I hereby flatter the Pope and seek favor: seeing that whoever follows not their mad enthusiasms must be called a new papist.

6. In the first place, I hear and see that such rebaptizing is undertaken by some on this ground, to vex the Pope, as those who will have nothing to do with Antichrist: just as the sacramentarians also, for this reason, will believe in mere bread and wine, to vex the Pope, and think they will thereby rightly overthrow the papacy. Verily, that is a poor ground, whereon they will build nothing good. In this fashion they would have to deny also the whole Holy Scripture, and the office of the ministry. For all this we have indeed from the Pope, and they would have to make a new Holy Scripture too. Thus we should have to let the Old Testament go also, that we might have nothing from the unbelieving Jews. Why then do they take daily money and goods, which wicked people, the Pope and the Turks, or heretics have had? This too they ought to leave, if they would have nothing good from wicked people.

7. This is all foolery. Christ also found in the Jewish people abuse among the Pharisees and scribes: but he did not therefore reject all that they had and taught, Matt. 23:3. But we confess that under the papacy there is much Christian good, yea, all Christian good, and that it also came from thence to us: namely, we confess that in the papacy there is the true Holy Scripture, true baptism, the true sacrament of the altar, the true keys for the forgiveness of sins, the true office of the ministry, the true catechism, as the Ten Commandments, the Articles of the Faith, the Lord's Prayer. Just as he also in turn confesses that with us (although he condemns us as heretics) and with all heretics there is the Holy Scripture, baptism, keys, catechism, etc. "O how dost thou dissemble here?" How do I dissemble, then? I say what the Pope has in common with us. So he dissembles to us and the heretics again just as much, and says what we have in common with him. I will dissemble yet more, and it shall nevertheless avail me nothing. I say that under the Pope there is the true Christendom, yea, the very choicest of Christendom, and many pious great saints. Shall I leave off dissembling?

8. Hear for yourself what St. Paul says, 2 Thess. 2:4: "Antichrist shall sit in the temple of God." Now if the Pope is (as I believe no otherwise) the true "Antichrist," then he shall not "sit" or rule in the devil's stable, but in "God's temple." No, he will not "sit" where there are mere devils and unbelievers, or where there is no Christ or Christendom; for he is to be an "adversary of Christ," therefore he must be among Christians. And since he is to "sit" and rule there, he must have Christians under him. For "God's temple" means not a heap of stones, but the holy Christendom, 1 Cor. 3:14, wherein he is to rule.

9. If then there is Christendom under the Pope, it must truly be Christ's body and member. If it is his body, it has the right Spirit, Gospel, faith, baptism, sacrament, keys, office of the ministry, prayer, Holy Scripture, and all that Christendom ought to have. We too are all still under the papacy, and have such Christian goods therefrom. For he persecutes us, curses us, bans us, drives us out, burns us, murders us, and deals with us poor Christians as a true "Antichrist" ought to deal with Christendom. Now such Christians must verily be rightly baptized and true members of Christ, else they could not obtain such a victory over "Antichrist" through death.

10. We do not rave thus, like the sectaries, that we reject all that the Pope has under him: for so we should reject also Christendom, the "temple of God," with all that it has from Christ. But this we assail and reject, that the Pope will not let abide with such goods of Christendom as he has inherited from the apostles, but adds his devilish addition thereto and above, and uses such goods not for the betterment of the "temple of God," but for its destruction, that his commandment and ordinance be held higher than Christ's ordinance. Yet in such destruction Christ nevertheless preserves his Christendom, as he preserved Lot at Sodom, as St. Peter also declares thereof, 2 Epist. 2:6, 7, so that both abide, that "Antichrist sit in the temple of God by the working of the devil," 2 Thess. 2:4, 9, and yet nevertheless "the temple of God" be and remain "God's temple" through Christ's preservation.*) If the Pope can bear and accept this my dissembling, then I am indeed a dutiful son and pious papist, and will also truly be so with joy of heart, and gladly recant all that I have otherwise done to his hurt.

*) In this foregoing Luther gives an answer to the question often put to the Lutherans by the papists: Where then was the Church before the Reformation? Luther answers: Under the papacy; not because the papacy was the Church, but because it was in the Church or in the temple of God, and still is. May those also take note of this who dream of a visible church.  Ed.

11. Therefore the talk of such Anabaptists and enthusiasts is nothing, when they say: What the Pope has is wrong, or, because this and that happens in the papacy, we will have it otherwise. Just as though they would thereby prove themselves great enemies of Antichrist: but they see not that thereby they strengthen him most highly, weaken Christendom most highly, and deceive themselves. The abuse and addition they should help us to reject; but they would have no great honor thereof, because they see that they cannot be the first therein. Therefore they assail what no one has assailed, that they too may be the first and win honor. But the honor must come to shame: for they assail the "temple of God," and miss the "Antichrist" who "sits" therein; like the blind who grope for the water, and seize the fire.

12. Yea, they do just as one brother did to another in the Thuringian forest: they went together through the forest, and a bear came upon them, and threw one under him: whereupon the other, wishing to help his brother, thrusts at the bear, but misses him, and stabs his brother under the bear miserably. Even so do these enthusiasts also. They should help the poor Christendom which Antichrist has under him and torments, and they set themselves horribly against the Pope; but miss him, and murder the Christendom under the Pope far more miserably. For if they would leave baptism and sacrament right, Christians might yet escape with their souls under the Pope, and be saved, as has hitherto happened. But now that the sacraments are taken from them, they must needs be lost, since Christ himself also is thereby taken away. Dear friends, it is not so to be stormed at the Pope, since Christ's saints lie under him. It requires a prudent, discreet spirit, which lets remain under him what is "God's temple," and resists his addition, whereby he destroys the "temple of God."

13. In the second place, it is said, as they ground themselves thereon, that they know nothing of their baptism, and say: How knowest thou that thou art baptized? Thou believest men who tell thee thou art baptized: but thou must believe God himself, and not men, and so be sure of thy baptism, etc. That may well be to me a poor, rotten ground. For if I were to reject all that I have not myself seen or heard, I should indeed keep not much, neither faith nor love, neither spiritual nor temporal. So might I also say: Dear friend, how knowest thou that the man is thy father, and the woman thy mother? Thou must not believe men, but be thyself sure of thy birth. Hereby all children would henceforth be free, and need not keep God's commandment, wherein he commands: Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother. For I would soon say: How do I know which are my father and mother? Men I do not believe; therefore they must bear me again anew, that I may see it myself, or will