# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1855_S82
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

82 Specimen and Prospectus etc.

credulous, incautious, etc., God has set the bishops as overseers, who are to watch over the whole flock. —

But how is it possible to recognize and avoid these, if I may so put it, disguised false prophets, especially when some, whether ministers or sheep, are all too simple and are not endowed with those glorious gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:10)? I answer: for this very reason Christ employs such sayings, taken from the midst of the daily life of the people, in order to show that if one only asks God for the spirit of discernment and applies even a middling watchfulness, one can already find out the false prophets without much trouble, however much they conceal themselves. "Can one," he says, "gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? So by their fruits shall ye know them." If one considers the sense of the parable, the application becomes easy. If one looks at the leaves and blossoms, thorns and thistles have, in their bloom, a more beautiful form than the vine and the fig tree. Why then do we look for no grapes and figs on thorns and thistles? Because, indeed, common human understanding teaches that one must judge the nature of the tree not by its leaves and blossoms, but by its fruits. So Christ proposes to us two things for recognizing and avoiding the false prophets: 1, that we strip off from them the sheep's clothing, so that we are not bribed by the outward form; 2, that we come to know and see through the fruits by which they are to be recognized. Christ, however, speaks of the sheep's clothing figuratively, but soon expresses himself more plainly and says: "not all who say to me, Lord, Lord," etc., likewise: "many will say, have we not in thy name," etc. Accordingly the sheep's clothing consists of: a, the title, the call, the office; for they say that they prophesy in the name of Christ; b, they boast with their mouth of a special zeal of devotion and piety; for they say, Lord, Lord, and this doubling denotes precisely zeal and exaggeration; likewise, that they come not against you but to you; c, the outward sheepskin, which in appearance and feel resembles the sheep of the flock, denotes the outward manner of life, of works, of social conduct; the soft wool may denote what Paul in Romans 16:17 calls "smooth speech." d, among the sheep's clothing with which the false prophets deceive the little sheep, Christ also reckons special, distinguished gifts, such as being able to prophesy, cast out devils, and do mighty works. The gift of prophecy here, however, is to be understood not merely as foretelling or predicting future things, but, according to 1 Corinthians 12:10, as the gift of tongues, of interpretation, of eloquence, and of similar things belonging to the gift of teaching clearly and powerfully. By the casting out of devils one understands the gift of miracles. The word which is here translated "mighty works" sometimes also denotes miraculous powers, as in Matthew 11:21; 13:54; 1 Corinthians 12:10; but otherwise also other glorious, distinguished performances