# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 07 25_S93
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

[p. 93]

[Fragment of citation text apparently carried over from the bottom of the preceding page: "p. 341. Meditationes de Voluntate Dei, p. 166. h) Pareus, ad e."]

DER LUTHERANER

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall not pass away, now nor ever."

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 2.

St. Louis, Mo., July 25, 1846.

No. 24.

Terms: The Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, half of which they must pay in advance, and who must also bear the postage. — In St. Louis, each single issue is sold for 5 cents.

(Submitted by Pastor Schieferdecker.)

THE APOSTLES' CREED
AND ITS VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS.

III. The Apostles' Creed as Understood by the Reformed.

I believe — out of conviction in the divine Word, which alone enlightens the elect, and (a) is in itself powerless and inoperative; which (b) outwardly says something other than what God's true meaning is, and thus stands in direct contradiction to God's hidden will; which (c) is finally subject to the tribunal of reason — I believe, insofar as I am elect, because (d) faith can exist only in the elect — in God, (e) the author of sin, the Father — (f) of the elect alone, for to all others he is no more than a creator: (g) because by an unconditional decree he has elected some to life and damned others to death, a decree in which (h) man's conduct was taken into consideration not at all, (i) not even faith; for it is not (j) sin and unbelief that are the true causes of reprobation — if the truth of Holy Scripture is to remain unimpaired — but rather God's good pleasure and his most unconstrained will; the Almighty — yet in such a way that God's omnipotence cannot do what, in the judgment of reason, involves a contradiction — Creator of heaven and earth, (k) that is, of the heavenly creatures, the angels, whom he has placed in danger of sinning, and of man on earth, (l) whom he created with the capacity to sin.

Notes: (a) Helvetic Synodal [decrees], on art. 3, 4, th. 2, p. 148; Gryneus, preface to [his commentary on] John. (b) Piscator, in his Apology against Vorstius, part c., p. 58. (c) Ursinus, Explicatio Catechetica, on the Lord's Supper, blessed memory, [p.] 166. (d) "That God does not grant faith to some — this stems from his eternal decree" — so teaches the Synod of Dort, cap. I, art. 6. (e) Masson, part 3, Anatomia [Arminianismi], p. 362, who derives the fall of Adam from God's immutable decree. (f) Synod of Dort, sess. 136; Pareus, Irenicum, p. 262. (g) Trigland, on Romans, argument, doubt 5, 16. (h) Chamier, tom. 3, l. 8, c. 8, §. XI, p. 117. (i) Synod of Dort, p. 514, 561, 571, 572. (j) Calvin, Institutes, l. 4, c. 17, n. 16; Orthodox Consensus, p. 6, p. 115. (k) Bucanus, l. 6, De Angelis, q. 30. (l) Maresius, l. 2, Antichristus Revelatus, c. 1, p. 15.

And in Jesus Christ, the Savior, whose merit (a) has no influence upon the election of grace, and (b) is indeed sufficient in itself, but effectual only for those who are elect; in a Jesus who (c) lacks personal unity, because in him there is such a union of the two natures that the Word is above and outside the flesh, since Christ's human nature (d) can only ever be in one place, not everywhere at once; a union (e) that consists only in words, turns of phrase, tropes, and figures, and (f) brings with it no real communion of the properties of the two natures, since (g) the divine majesty and omnipotence, (h) the omniscience, (i) the life-giving power, (j) the honor of worship, have not been communicated to Christ's human nature. Our Lord, who (k) inclines with grace and love only toward the elect, "who was conceived by the Holy Spirit" — (l) as his Father — "born," etc., "suffered under Pontius Pilate" — (m) according to his humanity alone. — Crucified, so that he, (n) through his blood, by which he established the new covenant, might truly and actually redeem, out of every people, tribe, and tongue, all those who were from eternity elected to salvation and given to him by the Father. Died — (o) his death, again, only a partial sacrifice of atonement, by which salvation has actually been obtained only for those elected according to the eternal purpose. "Buried, descended into hell" — neither (p) an actual and real, nor (q) a local, descent into hell; not (r) with the intention of triumphing as victor, but in order to suffer the most agonizing torments. "On the third day rose again from the dead" — (s) with a body that lacks spiritual properties. "Ascended into heaven," (t) according to both his deity and his humanity, though in a different manner with respect to his humanity. "Sits at the right hand of God, the almighty Father" — (u) a spatial sitting, which does not allow for the omnipresence of his human nature. For (v) according to his humanity he is present neither in the kingdom of power nor in the kingdom of grace, but only (w) in the sign of his body, in a spiritual manner, as opposed to an essential presence — he (x) is present only to faith. "Sits at the right hand of God" — not (y) as the advocate and mediator of all men, but (z) only of the elect. From there, namely (aa) from that place at the right hand of God, "he will come to judge the living and the dead," (bb) a judgment to which Christ's human nature contributes nothing except that it lends the divine Judge a bodily voice, since (cc) the omniscience necessary for judgment belongs to the deity alone.

[Editorial note: the printer's footnote letters in the two preceding sections are inconsistent in the original setting — and further disturbed by the OCR — with duplicated and skipped letters. They have been regularized to a simple sequential order here for the reader's convenience; the citations themselves are reproduced in their original printed order below.]

Notes: (a) Synod of Dort, in Judicium Extraneorum, p. 39 & 80. (b) Trigland, Meditationes de Trina Gratia, p. 274, 276. (c) Syntagma Confessionum, part 2, c. 3. (d) L. Grotius, Apologia, disp. 14. (e) Orthodoxus Consensus, sect. 6, p. 18 & 122. (f) Orthodoxus Consensus, p. 123. (g) Piscator, vol. 2, p. 41. (h) Beza, in Colloquium Montisbelgardense, p. 134. (i) Maccovius, Collegia de Mediatore, disp. 5, p. 225. (j) Maccovius, loc. cit., disp. 38, p. 386. (k) Synod of Dort, p. 405. (l) Ludovicus Grotius, in Assertio Augustanae Confessionis, p. 43. (m) Admonitio Neustadiana, p. 22 & 23; Zwingli, tom. 2, fol. 455 & 552. (n) Masson, part 2, c. 9, p. 404; Synod of Dort, p. 301, 302, 403, 407, 611, 618. (o) Zwingli, in Expositio Fidei Christianae, fol. 552. (p) Chamier, tom. 1, l. 9, c. 10, §. 3, p. 159. (q) Calvin, Institutes, [book] 2, c. 16. (r) Idem, Institutes, [book] 4, c. 17, sect. 29. (s) Sohnius, in Exegesis, p. 246. (t) Anhaltini, in Apologia contra Electoralem [Confessionem], arg. 38, p. 43. (u) Beza, tom. 3, fol. 89, and tom. 2, fol. 283. (v) Harmonia Confessionum, sect. 6, p. 100. (w) Idem, pag. 108, 109. (x) Idem, sect. 14, p. 115. (y) Masson, part 3, p. 3. (z) Chamier, tom. 3, l. 9, c. 4, §. 14, p. 124. (aa) Harmonia Confessionum, sect. 6, art. 2, p. 11. (bb) Admonitio Neustadiana, p. 23. (cc) Masson, part 3, c. 7.

"I believe in the Holy Spirit," whose gracious presence the elect enjoy (a) even while they are caught in a sinful act; whose call to grace (b) is not universal, and (c) is, with respect to the reprobate, only an outward one; which indeed occurs by means of the Word, (d) yet without the Word having in itself any power to convert. The real, effectual call of grace (e) goes out to the elect alone, and (f) no one can resist it. "I believe in one universal Church," into which