# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 04 04_S63
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

that they have no reverence for any word of God whatsoever; when a clear statement of Scripture that testifies against them is held up to them, they behave — to use Luther's phrase — as though a goose had hissed at them. That truly does not testify to the right Holy Spirit. For this Spirit testifies rather "that the Spirit is truth" (1 John 5:6); this Spirit produces a broken heart that "trembles at God's word" (Isaiah 66:2), and that firmly believes: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). A Christian enlightened by the Holy Spirit therefore follows, we repeat it, his Savior; he does not let himself be driven from the Word; when strife arises, he appeals to it and says: "It is written! — and the Scripture cannot be broken!"

Thy Word stands firm as a wall,
which no one can distort,
however clever he may think himself.

Having now shown that the Methodist interpretation of the passages dealing with Holy Absolution rests upon principles that overturn the truth and certainty of the whole of Holy Scripture, we now wish to examine the other objections that are drawn from the analogy of faith (Romans 12:7).

The most common objection of this kind is that Scripture clearly teaches that God alone can forgive sin (Luke 5:21; compare Isaiah 43:25). We answer to this: that is true; but this is not denied by the correct doctrine of absolution either. That God alone can forgive sin is not in dispute at all; the Lutherans deny this no more than the Methodists and all parties of Christendom do; the question is solely whether God forgives sin through human beings. This alone is what the Lutherans assert, and indeed according to Scripture. For it is written not only, "Whosesoever sins ye remit," etc., but the preachers of the Gospel are also, quite generally, clearly presented in God's Word as "God's fellow workers and helpers" (1 Corinthians 3:9; 2 Corinthians 6:1). St. Paul therefore says to the Corinthians: "I have begotten you through the Gospel in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 4:15). To the Galatians he says: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again" (Galatians 4:19). Indeed, the same apostle even ascribes to Bishop Timothy the saving of his hearers, and says: "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." (1 Timothy 4:16.)

The Methodists, of course, will quickly be finished with such passages and say that these are all somewhat exaggerated expressions; God alone, after all, can regenerate and save; the apostle, by such expressions, evidently only meant to indicate that the preachers of the Gospel could set forth the conditions of regeneration and of being saved.

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But this means justifying the distortion of one passage by distorting others as well; it means not interpreting Scripture but emptying it out, not sharpening it (Deuteronomy 6:7) but blunting it. If such an interpretation of Scripture were valid, then the study of Scripture would be an absurdity; then the interpretation of Scripture would be nothing other than the effort to stretch and bend the words of Scripture until one had extracted from them a sense tolerable to ordinary human understanding. Then the business of an interpreter would consist in rescuing Scripture, by means of sophistries, from the suspicion that it could not stand before the tribunal of reason. But we, together with all sensible Christians, regard as a good interpreter of Scripture the one who discovers, precisely in Scripture's own particular manner of expression, ever greater depths of wisdom and ever sharper boundaries of truth. But whoever treats Scripture as though it used many words but had little sense, as though it employed strange expressions while concealing beneath them a stale content, as though it gave itself the appearance of a mysterious depth while in fact being altogether shallow — let the devil thank such an interpreter of Scripture for his labor. That is the manner of Rosenmüller, Dinter, and Lichtfreund, who refute Scripture under the cloak of interpreting it.

What, then, is it that the apostle teaches us when he says of the preachers of the Gospel that they are God's fellow workers and helpers, that they are spiritual fathers and make their hearers blessed? By this he teaches us that God himself is powerfully at work through the Christian preaching office instituted by him, that the voice of an evangelical preacher is no mere human voice but the voice of God, that God works through them, as through his instruments and tools (Acts 9:15), upon the souls of men. Just as, according to Scripture, God alone calls, enlightens, bestows faith, regenerates, and saves, yet does so through the office of the Word, so also God alone forgives sin, yet does so through the office that preaches reconciliation. Hence St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

If an ignorant and withal irreligious person raises the objection, "How can a mere man, a wretched cleric, presume to want to forgive sins? By that he makes himself out to be God!" — this need not surprise us; but should not men be ashamed of such an objection who claim to be learned in Scripture and wish to teach others?

Should they not at least know the difference between a master of the house and a steward, so that all difficulties would thereby vanish for them? (Hebrews 3:5-6; compare 1 Corinthians 4:1.) To be sure, a man would be making himself God who wished to forgive others' sins by his own power, as a lord over hell and heaven, damnation and salvation, out of his own self-assumed plenary authority and in his own name; but a true Christian preacher, as is well known, always absolves, in essence, in this manner: "By virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, in the place of and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, and in the name of the Triune God."

Now, just as the poorest man can distribute the greatest treasures of a rich man, if that rich man has appointed him steward over them, so also can a sinner distribute the forgiveness that is a spiritual treasure of the rich heavenly Father, if the sinner has been appointed steward by him. In this way, then, must the absolution spoken by a human apostle be understood; that first objection is therefore null and void. The Methodists, to be sure, try to persuade their people that the doctrine of the Lutheran church is this: that God has surrendered the power to forgive sins and handed it over to the Lutheran preachers, who could now admit into heaven, or exclude from it, whomever they pleased. By such distortions these gentlemen prove that they themselves know that, if they were to attack the true doctrine of the Lutheran church concerning absolution, they would be giving Christ himself the lie; they must therefore saddle it with a doctrine that they themselves abhor.

(To be continued.)

(Submitted.)

True Love.

The church historian Eusebius (died AD 340) has preserved for us the following touching account from the life of the holy Apostle John.

During a visitation journey to the Christian congregations of Asia Minor, John came upon a young man whose winsome appearance and noble bearing won the apostle's affection. He took the young man to himself and entrusted him to the oversight of the bishop of that place, with the urgent and repeated admonition: "I commend this young man to you in the presence of Christ and of this congregation, that you attend to him with all diligence and care for him as much as it is ever possible for you to do." The bishop then took the young man into his house, instructed him carefully, and at last baptized him. When this had been done, the bishop believed he might relax somewhat in his care and oversight of the young man. But the young man abused the freedom granted him, fell into bad company, through which he was led into a wicked, reckless life; until at last, despairing of