# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 09 15_S6
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— both, however, only in an infallible way, through the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13). Oh, how my spirit loses itself here in this immeasurable sea of the Godhead, and how gladly it accepts a revelation whose purposes toward mankind are the most blessed, and which leads him from stage to stage!

That I can often stand with evident certainty in the right understanding and grasp of the doctrine of Scripture — provided I let myself be moved by that same Spirit who inspired the writers and breathed into them a new, divine life not known before — is aided not a little (to directly contradict the unproven assertion of Herr Münch on p. 4) by the very interpretations and translations given by such different great men in the Church of God at different times, which, so long as they were not given in the spirit of unbelief and of the god of this world, agreed entirely in the main matter, and disagreed only in secondary things and insignificant particulars. (Compare also the translations of the various religious parties with one another: the Roman one by Caspar Ulenberg, the Reformed one by Johannes Piscator, the Jewish one of Joseph Athias, the Dutch one issued by order of the States-General; and, among the foreign ones, the English one printed at Boston by Langdon Coffin, with Canne's marginal notes and references, in which the departures from the literal Hebrew text are also indicated, and the French one by David Martin. Notably, however, for scholars the Greek translation of the Seventy Translators [the Septuagint] (200 years before Christ), the old Syriac version (from the first century after Christ), and the old Vulgate (likewise from the first century, though later altered in many places, the Psalms perhaps excepted) retain their standing; but above all, for scholars and unlearned alike, the German Lutheran Bible translation retains, through its fidelity and the sublimity of its style, merits that have never been denied it by any competent judge.) Through the astonishing diligence and the natural and grace-given gifts of Christian interpreters, from Origen the Church Father down to our own times, we have been put in a position to prove every article of the one holy universal Church with unshakeable certainty from the original Hebrew or Greek text; and let the unlearned countryman hold fast, confidently and courageously, to his own dear native Bible — for there is indeed no better one, neither in German nor in any foreign language, that attains the sense (even if not always word for word) of the holy writers and their heavenly Teacher as well as this masterpiece of our German apostle. There is no doubt that it would also be better for him if he could enjoy the guidance of a learned man trained in the school of the Holy Spirit (compare Acts 8:30ff.); yet he will never be able to withstand all the artful distortions and attacks of a skillful unbeliever. But that is not at all necessary, as will become clear from what follows.

There was once a time when no one was able to meet a certain objection — an objection that stood unanswered until the sixteenth century. The ancient Ptolemy had fixed a catalogue of 1,026 stars, a definite number which unbelief could not reconcile with Genesis 15:5. After the invention of the telescope, and given the immense advances in mathematics and astronomy, one must laugh at these free-thinkers of the Middle Ages. Was it necessary that people of that time let themselves be led into error, in their faith and in their reverence toward the divine Scripture?
(To be continued.)

Ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them.
John 18:21.

On page 19 of Herr Nollau's "Defense against the Attacks of the Lutheraner," a note also mentions our local Pastor Keyl; and, as a consequence of the well-founded censure he raised against the liturgy of the Lutheran Synod of Ohio, the whole realm and element in which Pastor Keyl, together with "the strict Lutherans," is said chiefly to move is held to be so suspect and of such pernicious influence that the presentation of the all-important doctrine of justification suffers because of it. Since this doctrine — as Herr Pastor Nollau himself wholeheartedly admits — is indeed the pearl of the Lutheran Church, indeed the very heavenly sun without which there is nothing but sheer hellish darkness, it certainly cannot be a matter of indifference to the members of Herr Pastor Keyl's congregation whether their preacher has not only recognized and rightly grasped this precious doctrine for his own person, but also presents it to his hearers, in accordance with the Word of God, as the one thing needful. Since, thank God, both are indeed the case, as surely all hearers capable of judging will gladly admit, one of them feels moved hereby to take up the defense of his unjustly suspected teacher against Herr Pastor Nollau.

It is precisely the doctrine of the justification of the sinner before God, through faith in Christ, that Pastor Keyl chiefly urges in all his sermons; it is his constant, blessed task to make the hearts of the congregation entrusted to him, through the order of true repentance, capable of receiving the heavenly comfort that has its foundation solely in this divine doctrine; and in his preaching itself he follows exactly the pattern of Holy Scripture, as we find it particularly in St. Paul's epistles to the Romans and Galatians, as well as our symbolical books and the acknowledged great master Dr. Martin Luther, whom he has already studied for years with untiring zeal and faithfulness. With the sources from which Pastor Keyl draws, Pastor Nollau will therefore certainly have nothing to fault. The only remaining question, then, is whether the former has also been capable of grasping his subject and uniting it with the innermost life of his spirit so fully that it has become possible for him to be a faithful defender of it. Here one must first of all confess in humility with the holy apostle: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God." 2 Corinthians 3:5. But it has also pleased this faithful and wonderful God to make Pastor Keyl acquainted, by the path of experience, in hours of anguish and distress when he was anxious for comfort, ever more precisely with this precious doctrine, and to open it to him, day by day, ever more fully as the inexhaustible source of all comfort — so that he too can now truly say: I believe, therefore I speak; indeed, that he cannot do otherwise than let his heart overflow with that of which it is full.

Yet Pastor Keyl never presents this precious truth one-sidedly, but always joins Law and Gospel; the faith that he preaches can take root only in a penitent heart, and has good works as its unfailing consequence. I therefore do not believe it possible that any member of Herr Pastor Keyl's congregation capable of judging would give a different testimony concerning him; rather, one may hope that a good many would, with praise and thanks to God, tell of the comfort that, on the basis of this doctrine, has been spoken by their preacher into their troubled hearts. From all this it follows that Herr Pastor Nollau's apprehension is unfounded, and that his view of the realm in which Pastor Keyl moves must therefore be false and mistaken.

And on this, just a few more words. Herr Pastor Nollau appears, namely, to confuse the struggle commanded by God against every false doctrine — and thus also, in particular, against the false doctrine of the Holy Supper — as well as the just censure of a liturgy that helps to spread false doctrines, with the contentiousness of certain Lutheran and Reformed theologians of past centuries, which often degenerated into unholy quarrels and hairsplitting, into that "wrangling about words" forbidden by the apostle in 2 Timothy 2:14, and therefore, unfortunately, also bore unhappy fruit. But how different the two are from one another! — Were they the same, one would have to break the staff — not only over the holy apostles themselves, who with apostolic zeal reject every error, but also over the fathers of the first centuries of the Christian Church, and especially over the faithful servants of God at the time of the Reformation — a Luther, a Brenz, and countless others — who all, according to the measure of the grace and gift they had received for this struggle, and indeed not without the influence of their personal character, entered the lists against every error, holding fast to every clearly revealed truth as a "high mystery from eternity" (as the late Dr. Fresenius so beautifully and truly calls it), well knowing that willful contempt for it would have its loss as the next consequence. In