# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 09 29_S12
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

syncretistic aims — a church in which that mystery both can and cannot be believed — we must condemn it as a birth of hypocrisy, all the more culpable because it lays hands on the inviolable sanctuary of divine truth. Accordingly, it is stated in the Formula of Concord, this important confession of the Lutheran Church: "We also believe, teach, and confess that, at a time of confession, when the enemies of God's Word desire to suppress the pure doctrine of the holy Gospel — that then, in such a case, one is not to yield to the adversaries even in such adiaphora, nor to allow the same to be forced upon us by the enemies, whether by violence or by cunning, to the weakening of the true worship of God and the planting and confirming of idolatry. — For here it is no longer a matter of the external adiaphora, which by their nature and essence are in themselves free, but it is, in the first place, a matter of the high article of our Christian faith, as the Apostle testifies, 'that the truth of the Gospel might continue,' Gal. 2:5." —

How wrongly Mr. N. treats us when he ascribes it to the malicious suspicion of our supposed ultra- (overwrought) Lutheranism that we find, in the Evangelical distribution formula, a doubting of the truth of the words of Jesus. He may see from this that, for instance, Dr. Tittmann — who is anything but a strict Lutheran — has judged the very same thing. He writes: "In this addition ('Christ says'), in this context, there is no other sense than as if it read: Christ indeed says, 'This is my body,' etc., but you may take it as you wish. The little word 'indeed' lies in the context, and so does its counterpart; otherwise the addition would not be needed. Every word that is added, at the presentation of the blessed signs of the Sacrament, to Christ's own words ('this is my body,' 'this is my blood') is at the very least superfluous, and those particular words are more than superfluous." (See his treatise On the Union of the Evangelical Churches, p. 10.) Let Mr. N. now further reflect upon these words of an impartial man.

We cannot refrain from closing with an admonition to our dear Lutheran readers. Should one or another of you have a pastor who distributes the Holy Communion with the formula "Christ says: this is my body," etc., let him protest against it, as modestly as earnestly, and lay before his preacher the reasons why this manner of distribution offends his conscience. But if, in the course of this protest, the preacher shows that he holds the Zwinglian or Calvinist faith — or rather unbelief — or that he uses that formula precisely so that both those of Lutheran and of Reformed persuasion may commune with him, then let him avoid the Communion of such a minister, even if he must then go without the Sacrament for the rest of his life; for in such a communion he would not strengthen his faith, but rather shamefully deny it and thereby lose it; he would also thereby forsake the Lutheran Church as his mother church, for the Sacraments are the seals of doctrine; and to whatever church fellowship one accordingly partakes of them, to that fellowship's doctrine one confesses allegiance.

This is not our own counsel, but Luther's, who writes as follows: "Whoever knows for certain that his pastor publicly teaches Zwinglian doctrine should avoid him, and should rather go without the Sacrament his whole life long than receive it from him — indeed, should rather die over it and suffer everything else. But if his pastor is one of the double-tongued sort, who professes with his mouth that the body and blood of Christ are present in the Sacrament, yet is suspected of selling a pig in a poke and of meaning something other than what the words say — then let him go, or send someone, freely to him, and have it plainly told him what it is that he hands him with his hands and that he receives with his mouth, setting aside for the moment what one believes or does not believe in the heart; let him simply ask what it is that hand and mouth here take hold of. If the man is an honest enthusiast who wishes to deal with him sincerely, he will tell him plainly that he offers him mere bread and wine, with which he is nonetheless to think and believe upon the body and blood of Christ, etc. But if he is one of those jugglers who play the shell game, he will mumble and mumble, rolling the mush about in his mouth, and slobber out: 'Well, it is enough that you believe in the body that Christ means.' That is indeed a fine answer, and a fine account to give of the hope that is in us, as St. Peter teaches (1 Pet. 3:17). — For what, after all, is this dreadful juggling act supposed to be, in which they wish to teach the people and yet tell them nothing, but instead point them into the dark hole and say: 'Believe what Christ means' — while refusing to say what Christ actually means." (Luther's Works, XVII, 2440.) Here Luther paints, quite true to life, those who even now say: "We go back to the clear statements of holy Scripture, and we stand by them" — yet who refuse to interpret them.

The Christian Journal (Die christliche Zeitschrift).

This paper, which belongs to the High German Reformed Church and is published in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, says in its number of September 19 of this year, concerning the Lutherans who emigrated with the notorious Stephan: "We regret that the harsh and loveless spirit, which takes pleasure only in itself and only displeasure in others, is still so prevalent. — Must not any among them, if he is otherwise sincere, recognize that their principle — 'We are the only evangelical Church; the Lutheran Church (that is, the so-called Old Lutheran Church) is the church that alone brings salvation' — which they in fact set up, is an unchristian principle?"

We report this only to the readers of our Lutheraner, since any defense against these accusations would be quite superfluous for them; one need only compare again Nos. 24 and 25 of the first volume, where we set forth clearly and at length what we understand by the Lutheran Church. It is indeed a sad and characteristic sign of our time that one may now never confess, without incurring the sharpest censure: There is only one truth; and still less may one say: God's grace has let me too find this truth. It is most distressing that people now seek humility in saying: I think I have the truth, but others, who believe differently, have it too. — For the rest, it serves greatly to confirm us in our faith that we find, as a rule, that people venture to fight successfully against the confession we have set forth, and hope to be able to weaken it, only when they either remind us poor sinners of our sins and attack our persons — which are certainly no article of faith — or else impute to us assertions that never entered our minds, let alone were ever publicly stated by us. Finally, let it be known that we shall not consider worthy of any answer whatever further chatter may occur to the effect that we hold ourselves to be the only church that brings salvation. Whoever either will not take the trouble to consider our doctrine of the Church in its full context, or is incapable of doing so, and who by his glosses wishes only to prejudice, in an underhanded way beforehand, those who do not read the Lutheraner — with such a person we will not enter into any war of words whatsoever.

Mr. S.(chaf?) concludes, in the mentioned number of the Christian Journal, an article on the Buffalo "Old Lutherans" with the sigh: "God preserve us from all extremes!" — We close with the wish: God preserve us from the middle way which people now imagine they have found between the ever-extreme truth of God's Word and error.

Separatism.

Thus writes E. S. Cyprian: If we, like Christ — who ate the Passover lamb in the company of Judas and the Pharisees — go with wicked people to the Holy Communion, an act which is in itself good and praiseworthy, then we are not making ourselves like them, but they are making themselves like us; it is therefore not we who sin in such fellowship, but they, who play the hypocrite there. For the sake of mouth-Christians, one must neither despise the Church nor even forsake it. The godly martyr Cyprian writes quite rightly of such apostates: "These are the ones who, without divine command, set themselves up as leaders among brazen conspirators. Let no one believe that godly people can separate themselves from the Church. The wind carries away no wheat; it is only the empty chaff that is blown about by the storm."

Receipt. Received from Mr. P. Bartels, 92.

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