# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1894_S22
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

22 Proceedings of the fifteenth convention

"Behold, here is Christ, behold, there he is," and documented with a quotation from Luther to the effect that the enthusiasts would say Christ is to be found not in the Church and congregation at the Word, but in the quiet of the field and in the chamber. "'Behold, here is Christ, behold, there is Christ. Behold, he is in the wilderness; behold, he is in the chamber.' For why did monks and nuns run into the cloister? Why did one become a priest, another a hermit? Why did people go on pilgrimages? Why did they read, hear and endow masses? Because all the world was persuaded that one would find Christ, that is, God's grace, forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation, in this way. Therefore Christ warns most of all against the Antichrist, who makes no other Christ, nor denies Christ, as the Turk does, and yet through false doctrine points away from the true Christ to the creature and to works of one's own." (XVI, 46.) "When someone became a monk, it was said of him that he was born anew, and monkery was held far above Baptism" (XVI, 527).

We have thus already brought some proof for the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Lord and of his Apostle that until the last day the Church would be visited by the evil of enthusiasm in the most dangerous way. But we also want to bring further proofs from the time of the ancient Church.

Let us first recall Montanism, which takes its name from Montanus in the middle of the second century and had its most famous representative in Tertullian at the beginning of the third century. In place of Scripture, with Montanus an immediate, ecstatic prophecy steps in as the absolute authority. God himself comes upon the man and gives revelation through him, whereby the man behaves quite passively (indeed unconsciously), like an instrument, a harp or the like, in the hand of the player. This so-called prophecy is supposed to be the fulfillment of Christ's promises of the Paraclete or Comforter. We will only point to the chiliastic world-kingdom, the higher spiritual life, especially the higher morality and strict asceticism, with which Montanus wanted to bless and flood the Church. But we want to stress that Tertullian, though he too clings to chiliasm and ecstatic prophecy, emphasizes more cautiously than Montanus that the new prophecy has nothing new to teach with regard to the doctrine of faith — this, as with all ascetics, interested Tertullian little — but with regard to the doctrine of morals, with regard to life. With Christ himself the Church has passed from the first, very imperfect stage, that of childhood, into the more perfect stage of youth. From this stage of youth, still imperfect after all, the Church has, with the coming of the Comforter promised by Christ, entered the perfect stage of manhood. Now the Comforter or Paraclete brings the