# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 04 18_S68
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Gospel concerning Christ. But Christ has said: Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Everyone, He says — whether he has burdened himself with only one sin, or with many hundreds or many thousands of sins; and everyone, whether he is afflicted with small or great sins — whoever believes in Him shall not be lost. And again: For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him should not be condemned. You hear it again: everyone, everyone, I say, who believes shall attain blessedness. Now where Christ makes no distinction between a sinner with a single sin and a sinner with many great sins, why, then, do you take it upon yourself to make such a distinction? And elsewhere Paul says: God has concluded all under unbelief, that He might have mercy on all. Therefore, if you feel yourself to be one who is concluded — that is, taken captive — under unbelief and its fruits, you should remember that, precisely thereby, you also belong to the number of those on whom God will have mercy when they believe in Christ. And again: Everyone who trusts in Him shall not be put to shame. And Paul adds: For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But if there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, how much less is there a distinction between a sinner with only a single sin and a sinner with many great sins? Therefore, whether you have committed few or many, great or small sins, believe in Christ, and you shall be saved. — Brenz's Works, V, 774.

Doubters.

Although it is dangerous, in matters and articles of faith, to waver, doubt, or merely dispute — should someone persist in this to the end — yet we who are certain are nevertheless obligated to help such wavering and questioning hearts, and to extend a hand to them in such danger: to hear their questions and inquiries, their reasons and motives, in a friendly manner, to refute them with Scripture, and to help them find their way out. For one need not despair of those who waver and ask and beg for a right foundation, since they are not yet hardened and sunk, but are still struggling upward and swimming, and would gladly reach the shore.

Let every man take this to heart: whatever is taught or understood out of the Holy Spirit has these two virtues about it. First, that it makes the one who has it certain and sure, as John says in 1 John 2:27: "As the anointing teaches you, so it is true, and is no lie." Second, that it makes him bold, joyful, and confident to confess this even against death and the devil. Therefore He is also called Spiritus veritatis, a Spirit of truth (John 15:26; 16:13) — Spirit, in that He makes bold and confident; Truth, in that He makes certain and sure that it cannot be otherwise, nor could it be.

Now since Dr. Karlstadt, and also all others who treat this article (of the Holy Supper), speak of it out of mere opinion and questioning, as they themselves confess, it is certain that they do not yet have the Spirit in this matter, but speak out of human conceit, and not out of the Spirit. Therefore everyone should guard and conduct himself with regard to their opinion in such a way that he does not fall for it and cling to it; rather, if he too still doubts and is uncertain along with them, he should wait and delay until he also becomes certain and sure — or else he will put his soul in danger. For what we are to believe must not be mere opinion or conceit, but certain truth, for which we would be willing to risk a thousand necks. — See: Luther's Preface to Karlstadt's Explanation of how he wishes his doctrine of the Holy Sacrament, and other matters, to be regarded, and by others held. Luther's Works, Halle edition, XV, 2473–74.

Earnestness Against Heretics.

When once the heretic Marcion (who taught, among other things, that the true God was revealed not in the Old Testament but only in the New) met the holy martyr Polycarp — a disciple of the Apostle John and bishop in Smyrna — on the street in Rome, Marcion addressed the latter with the words: "Do you recognize me?" (namely, as a brother in the faith.) Polycarp answered: "Yes, I recognize you — namely, as a firstborn of Satan." The church historian Eusebius, who relates this, adds: So great was the caution that the apostles and their disciples exercised at that time in matters of religion, that they would not have fellowship, even in a single word, with those who had departed from the truth. As Paul also says: Reject a heretical man after a first and second admonition, and know that such a one is perverted and sins, being self-condemned. Titus 3:10–11. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book IV, chapter 14.

Rationalists' Praise of Christian Moral Teaching.

"Our unbelievers heap the Christian moral teaching with praise, especially when they wish to give greater weight to the arguments they set against our confession of faith; and yet they would perhaps rather sign this confession of faith, which seems to them tasteless, than be required to practice that moral teaching which they extol so highly."

Edward Young.

Battle Against the Unbelievers.

"We are led onto the battlefield against the unbelievers, not to strike down those who stand, but to raise up those who lie fallen. For such is the nature of the war we wage. It does not kill the living, but awakens the dead and makes them alive, because it is full of gentleness and goodness. I do not persecute with acts of violence, but with words — not the heretic, but heresy. I do not abhor the man, but I hate the error; this I seek to destroy. I do not wage war against the creature, for the creature is a work of God; rather, I seek to better the soul that the devil has corrupted. Thus a physician who heals a sick man attacks not the body, but its ailment, with the intention of relieving it. So, when I contend with those of false belief, I do not contend with the persons, but I wish only to drive out the error and preserve them from decay. It is customary for me to suffer persecution, not to persecute; to be oppressed, but not to oppress. Thus did Christ overcome." — Chrysostom, in his homily against the Anomoeans, from the year 404 A.D.

A Frank Rebuke.

When once the Emperor Julian, who had fallen away from the Christian to the pagan religion, publicly took part in idol-worship in Constantinople, the old, blind bishop Maris of Chalcedon had himself led before the emperor and there publicly declared him an apostate and a godless atheist. The emperor answered him mockingly: "Can your god, the Galilean, not even heal you of your blindness?" Maris replied: "For my blindness I thank my God, for He sent it to me for this reason, that I should not have to look upon you, godless man." Without saying a word, the emperor went away. The church historian Sozomen remarks on this: for by this he thought to commend paganism — namely, by showing himself patient and gentle toward the Christians.

The Various Trials of the Church in the Various Ages.

"It seems to me," writes Luther, "that the first persecution of the Church was the violence which the tyrants exercised through their power; the second persecution, it seems to me, was the cunning which the heretics exercised in their wisdom; the third and last, it seems to me, is the lukewarmness of the most cunning sloth among hypocrites. Against the first, the holy martyrs contended; against the second, the teachers; against the third, no one contends except the watchmen and admonishers, whose spirit is stirred up by God; the others stand in the way of sinners — that is, in their false security of righteousness they have become stiff-necked and have gotten a hard forehead." (Luther's Works, Halle edition, XII, 2333.)

— Do you know, dear reader, your own heart, through the illumination of the Holy Spirit? Then you will surely also have experienced in yourself that the last trial with which Christians above all must contend is lukewarmness and sloth. Do you also fight against it? Do you recognize that this enemy, who dwells in your own heart, is more dangerous than bloodthirsty tyrants and cunning heretics? — Awake, awake from your sleep, you who still slumber carelessly on your cushions of sin! It is already midnight; soon the bridegroom will come; then it will not be time to buy the oil of living faith for the lamp of your heart; then the foolish virgins will cry out in vain, "Lord, open to us!" The door to the heavenly wedding hall will then be shut, and to those who come late the Lord will answer: "Truly, I say to you, I do not know you."

Paid:
First half of Vol. 2, Mr. Bücher.
Vol. 2, Messrs. P. Rally, P. Hengist, Hülskötter, D. Brockschmidt.

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