# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1894_S19
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1894. 19

But the enthusiasts at Jerusalem and Ephraim said, Isa. 28:10: "Command here, command there"; what use is it to us. God says indeed, verse 12, that through his preaching one has rest and the weary are refreshed; but we have found out a better way ourselves, to avert all misfortune, to render death and hell and all destruction harmless and to turn all good and salvation to ourselves (verse 15).

Jeremiah 23:10 ff. gives an exceedingly vivid picture of enthusiasm in the description of the false prophets. These sought, according to the whole context, to do away with the old divine discipline in Israel (verse 32), because it seemed to them, as often to the enthusiasts, a subordinate, legalistic condition unworthy of the Spirit. In place of the old divine discipline they wanted to introduce a life in a higher freedom, that is, in truth, a freedom according to the lust of the heart (verse 14), and at the same time to make the people certain that they were truly God's people, had nothing to fear, and were on exactly the right way (verse 17). It is always the Münzer-like cry: We must push it higher with the Spirit! "Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their own word and say: He has said it" (verse 31). At Jerusalem they knew well: Properly it is the Lord who must say what is to count in faith and life. Therefore the false prophets proceeded in such a way that they said: The Lord had spoken with them in a dream, had commanded them in a dream the word that they spoke. Therefore the Lord calls to them through his true prophet Jeremiah: "Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams and preach the same and mislead my people with their lies and idle prattle; though I did not send them, and commanded them nothing, and they are of no use to this people, says the Lord." The same evil spirit that cried in Luther's time: Spirit, Spirit, Spirit! — cried in Jeremiah's time: I have dreamed, I have dreamed, the Lord said it in a dream! —

These passages all show how self-government is the character of enthusiasm. When God says: This is necessary, the enthusiast says: This is free. If God says: "Let no one make a matter of conscience for you," the enthusiasts say: Do not defile your conscience by letting no conscience be made for you. At the same time, in these testimonies covering a long period of time we have the proof that enthusiasm was a common evil of the Church of all times. —

Placing ourselves in the time of the apostles, we have, from 2 Peter 2:1, looked back to the time of the Old Testament; let us now, remaining at the same place, take a look at the then present, with the Scripture of the New Testament.

Our dear Savior himself preached the Word of God and the kingdom of God. Over against him stood a generation which, to be sure, acknowledged the authority of Scripture — but nevertheless, how they despised