# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1856_S91
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

91

(Submitted.)
Norwegian Lutheran Church Paper.

Pastor Rasmussen, preacher of the Norwegian Lutheran congregation at Lisbon, Illinois, has this year begun to publish a monthly paper for the promotion and defense of Lutheran doctrine among his countrymen who have immigrated to America. We bid it a hearty welcome, and share the following from the publisher's preface concerning the origin and purpose of the paper. „The motive (for its publication) is simply the need for such a paper among our congregations. This need has been perceived not by me alone, but has also been expressed by many others in the congregations; and since I was called upon, at the meeting recently held at Koskonung, to meet this need, I have, notwithstanding my slight gifts, not wished to withdraw from such a request, but have promised to comply with it as well as I am able. — Now a few words on the purpose and content of this paper. We have seen and experienced how, in this country, many of our countrymen despise and reject the precious doctrine and confession of our Lutheran Church, and exchange it for the doctrine of deviating and erring parties, such as the Methodists and others. We have also seen how, at the expense of the ignorance of the people, their own called, so-called Lutheran preachers have made this and that alteration in our symbols, and have interpreted them not in agreement with the understanding and intention of our church fathers, but according to their own Romanizing pet notions, and have thus, in a subtle and secretive manner, led the poor, ignorant people away from the knowledge of Lutheran doctrine more than into it. Now it shall be the concern of this paper to bring the doctrine of the Lutheran Church to light, both according to the confessional writings and according to the private writings of its most distinguished teachers, to which it will hold itself closely and faithfully. Just as it will make it its business to lead its readers rightly into the knowledge of this doctrine, so it will also meet the attacks of other parties upon it and their falsification of it. It will not follow the stream of the spirit of the age, nor side with those who, following it, dream and cry out about a constantly progressing and increasing enlightenment in the realm of the saving, eternal truth, and who in such a dream contemplate the foolish undertaking of reforming the reformers. In truth, the work that was accomplished through Luther and his contemporaries was not the work of men, but God's own work. — Moreover, the paper will also contain mission reports, contributions on church history, accounts of martyrs, other edifying narratives, and so forth, and diligence shall be applied to making it so instructive and edifying that a good many may be glad to welcome it into their homes.“