# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 09 15_S7
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

a word, these faithful witnesses tested everything according to God's Word, rejected whatever could not stand this test, and did not knowingly deny Christ in a single point, but held fast to the pattern of sound words concerning the faith, 2 Timothy 1:13. Had these blessed men taken a different path, and instead of holding fast to the word of life had, indifferently, surrendered now this teaching, now that one, as unimportant — because it did not touch the foundation of faith directly — abandoning it undefended to false teachings or to those in error: what would the enemy not have robbed from us! How the whole sanctuary would have been plundered and destroyed through the fault of unfaithful watchmen, so that we would now have to stand lamenting upon its ruins and ask, what is truth? It is therefore always important, very important, to hold fast to and defend every doctrine grounded in God's Word; and in the course of the history of the Christian Church there have accordingly quite often been periods in which the whole field of struggle turned only on the orthodox (rightly-believing) recognition and confession of a single doctrine.*)

As for the liturgy of the Lutheran Synod of Ohio (and, as I hear, of three further synods as well) that Herr Pastor Keyl has particularly attacked, one must truly be astonished and grieved that Herr Pastor Nollau also counts the opposition to its unlutheran content "among the products of an unhealthy element" in which Herr Pastor Keyl is said to move. One must therefore ask with astonishment: is a liturgy really so indifferent a matter? Or is it not, rather, as the preacher's almost daily handbook, of the highest importance and of practical influence on the spiritual life of his congregation? Is it, then, all the same whether truth and error are mixed together in it — a matter of indifference whether a Lutheran hears in it the dignified church language borrowed from the Word of God, or the language of the belletrists (fine spirits) of the nineteenth century, playing with feelings? Judging by what Pastor Keyl says about this liturgy, it must, in most of its formularies, stand in direct contradiction to the doctrine of the Lutheran Church, and therefore, despite its signboard bearing that name, it can lay no claim to it; and the fact that it has been publicly used for three years, and even commended, without objection from the congregations, only allows one all too readily to conclude a reprehensible indifferentism (indifference) toward truth that is pure or mixed with error.

*) Note. Dr. Guericke speaks to this point in the "Theological Considerations concerning the Reformed and Lutheran Doctrinal Concept, etc., by Dr. Guericke and Dr. Scheibel," p. 2 and following: "With just the same right with which the men of Breslau (the Lutherans) are reproached for dissolving the whole of Christianity into the Lord's Supper, one would also have to reproach the valiant defenders of church doctrine in the Arian controversy for dissolving the whole of Christianity into the homoousion, into the true deity of Christ and the Trinity; the defenders of church doctrine in the later Eastern controversies, for dissolving it into the person of Christ; an Augustine, for dissolving the whole Gospel into the doctrine of sin and grace; a Luther, for dissolving the whole of Christianity, in opposition to the papist church, into the doctrine of justification, and, in opposition to Zwingli, likewise into the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. In every important Christian controversy the point in dispute so easily appears as the center of Christianity, and in a certain sense indeed all essentially Christian doctrines are centers," and so forth.

[p. 7]

Is then such a Laodicean condition with regard to doctrine perhaps a mark of the Lutheran Church's flourishing — the church which, as even its adversaries admit, has preserved the truth more purely than any other church? Or is Herr Pastor Keyl not rather right to see in it a sign of its decline? In our old fatherland, Saxony, too, new hymnbooks and new liturgies were introduced at the beginning of this century. What fruits they have borne is taught by the history of the Lutheran Church there, and by lamentable experience; and we, the Lutherans who emigrated from there — pastors and hearers alike — must therefore indeed lament it as an error and a sinful weakness that we did not protest against both kinds of writings. But should, then, a preacher here in particular — whose lips are especially meant to guard doctrine — and every other Lutheran, upon seeing his brothers in the faith on similar wrong paths, calmly look on and let them slumber gently, when he perceives danger to their souls? Or is he not rather obligated to warn them in loving earnestness? Instead, then, of judging Pastor Keyl unlovingly, one should surely first have asked: has the man censured with cause or without it — is he, or is the liturgy, in error?

Let this be enough. The writer of these lines is conscious of no hostile disposition toward Herr Nollau, but rather wishes him, from our highly praised Savior, all grace and blessing — and, in particular, the light and power of the Holy Spirit, which alone make it possible to recognize and confess the importance of the whole divine truth.

Perry Co., July 17, 1845.

—2—

J. N.

Who Is Converted?
(From P. D. Burk's book on justification. Stuttgart. 1764.)

Holy Scripture names the work of God in our soul in many different ways, yet always means one and the same thing. Thus, for example, the following most common designations of this work of grace in the Old and New Testaments all come down to one thing (not as though they were all entirely the same or synonymous, but insofar as each of them always points to the whole, namely the very goal to which a soul must have arrived if it is to count before God as converted and believing): "to convert, to turn about, to amend; to be circumcised; the fear of God; to be betrothed to God; to be justified; to have forgiveness of sins; to be a disciple of Jesus and follow him; to believe; to be a child of God, born again and begotten through the word of truth; to be in Christ; to know the Father, to know and receive Jesus; to have fellowship with the Father and the Son"; and so on.

Now if one looks at these expressions in their context, and indeed also as applied to the persons to whom they are actually assigned by the Holy Spirit himself (taken, that is, just as if one were hearing or reading them for the first time, without any preconceived opinion), it does not appear that Scripture sets all these truths so high, or is as sparing, hesitant, or difficult in applying them to individual persons, as Christians and pastors nowadays almost universally are when they presuppose so much before conceding that a soul is converted, born again, a child of God, has forgiveness of sins, or the firstfruits of the Spirit.*)

For example, in John 1 the conversion of the Lord's first five disciples is described. There, on the side of the Lord Jesus, was the call: "Follow me"; on the side of those called, there was, first, a sincere heart without guile (v. 47), and second, a swift acceptance of the Savior (v. 40). And that was enough for the Holy Spirit, who searches the heart, to declare them disciples (2:11) and children of God, born of God because they received him (1:11-13); and enough for the Savior himself to testify to them, "you believe" (1:50), and only then to instruct them further about their own hearts and his person and his kingdom (v. 50; 2:11ff.). The same is found with Matthew (9:9; 21:28-32), with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:5-10), with the prodigal son, who came to himself, turned back, and was received (15:17-23); likewise with the newly converted on the day of Pentecost, whose hearts were pierced by Peter's word (Acts 2:37) and who swiftly received it (v. 41).

From this it follows: whoever's heart the Word of God pierces and moves, so that he now accepts Jesus sincerely and with his whole heart — as a sick man accepts a physician, so far as he recognizes his need for this first beginning — and now desires to be led by him, is a disciple or pupil of Jesus, a child of wisdom (Proverbs 2:1ff.) and of God himself. He has life, for he has the Son of God (1 John 5:11-12). Such people were recognized as fit to be admitted to baptism (Acts 2:38, 41; Matthew 3:5-6). — If one wished to picture this using a term current nowadays among the better souls, it would correspond fairly well to the concept of one who is "awakened" (insofar as this term is commonly distinguished from a converted person, or from one who has forgiveness of sins). It remains to be tested whether this impartial and patient conception of conversion does not find, through