# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1858_S39
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

"Luther or Arndt!" 39

liath's costume, with his five slingstones, may yet perhaps put greater weight into the scale than if one of the best men had to come forward and take the field. In short, whoever does not know it, let him know it now: "a poor, simple preacher" of the Gospel is what he is (to speak with Luther), the one who writes, "declares," opposes. Let that be enough for my personal vindication; now to that of the matter itself.

Ströbel's attack is sharp, and if I am to say it precisely: biting, "with considerate regard," or, to put it as mildly as possible, somewhat unjust as a result of sharp-sighted short-sightedness. But who, indeed, can demand that the Lutheran-sharp-sighted eye of an Elijah-zealot should, clear across the ocean, distinguish everything in the church-sky, the stars, the clouds and the little clouds, down to the very smallest, with hair-splitting precision? So only — patience, even though the weapons clash in earnest. Yet, be it well understood! we have no intention of saying peccavi when we attempt to go out against such an opponent. With such a one there is not much to be trifled with. So let it stand! Fresh and frank to the first battle against Str.'s attack.

We say: the specifically Arndtian tendency is so little our own that we rather agree with Str. from the heart in his objective judgment of it. In short: these are also our propositions, our confessions — with Str. —: "Arndt is no teacher in the sense and spirit of the Reformation." The article of the justification of faith, "this mighty, evangelical chief doctrine, does not permeate and govern the whole remaining content of 'true Christianity' as it ought to." Indeed, to speak with Str. in the strictest and sharpest terms: "law and mysticism hold the government there." These too are our propositions — with Neumeister —: "incautious and unsound turns of phrase have crept into" this book, "which cannot stand together with the analogy of faith and the model of wholesome doctrine"; "he builds true Christianity in the book mostly and almost throughout upon a blameless life." — And with Pastor Grabau: "This same deficiency is unfortunately also carried by Arndt's 'true Christianity,' in that it 'teaches little or nothing of the holy sacraments and of holy absolution and the office of the keys.'"

We further confess: 1.) that the specifically Arndtian tendency, particularly as found in the 6 books of True Christianity, which for several reasons come chiefly into consideration here, is an unsound one — that is to say: were simple Christian folk, in order to grow in godly knowledge, to become strong in faith and more godly in life, to study exclusively Arndt's 6 books of True Christianity and read them for their edification, they would by no means thereby become sound at the core, joyfully believing, and genuinely church-and-Lutheran-minded confessors of the truth. 2.) The Arndtian tendency is, in our humble estimation, in fact the root of Pietism. In it, therefore, all the ruinous fruits of Pietism lie hidden and enclosed in seed. 3) Practically