# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1855_S81
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Specimen and Prospectus etc. 81

division that Christ makes. The publicans and sinners hold false doctrine; the scribes and Pharisees, too, have their falsifications; but beyond these there are yet other false prophets, against whom one must also be on guard. And this sequence teaches that when a conflict has been fought out, one may not at once dream of a peace that would no longer be troubled by any ecclesiastical strife, but rather that after the old ones, ever new and further conflicts arise. For after he has refuted the falsifications of the scribes and Pharisees, he adds: "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you." The Pharisees, however, had no fellowship with the church of the apostles. One can accordingly count three kinds of false prophets:

a, such as are wholly outside the visible church, do not have the Word of God at all, and do not acknowledge Scripture, as the heathen and the Turks;
b, such as do indeed have the Word of God and acknowledge Scripture, but are avowed and manifest enemies of the true church, as the scribes and Pharisees. — These two kinds attack the church with slanders, persecutions, and open counter-warfare, and can therefore all the more easily be recognized and avoided as manifest enemies;
c, the third kind of false prophets are those who "come to you," who wear "sheep's clothing," who prophesy in the name of Christ, that is, they hold a lawful office, claim that they are citizens and members of the church. For the sheep are the Christians, whose clothing they put on; they praise and highly extol Scripture and the Word, and profess that they come not against you but to you, that they seek your salvation, etc., etc. Christ therefore reminds us that one must not merely be on guard against the manifest false prophets, but that one may not even believe outright, without judgment and discernment, those who come to us and prophesy in the name of Christ. For under this very cloak false prophets often lie hidden as well. But so that no one should suppose there is no danger if one fails to exercise that watchfulness and closer examination, so long as one merely guards against the manifest seducers, Christ adds: "inwardly they are ravening wolves," that is, the souls of the sheep would be robbed and torn not only by manifest wolves, but far more often and more dangerously by those who find themselves in sheep's clothing in the very midst of the flock. For of these the credulous sheep fear nothing evil, whereas otherwise they take fright at the sight of the wolf and flee from it. In order to guard against this third kind, then, a more careful watchfulness and diligence are required, because they do more harm and can by far not be so easily recognized. This now falls chiefly to the office of the ministers. For because the sheep are simple,