# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1858_S286
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

286                    Church and Contemporary History.

however, also large settlements in Minnesota. Six periodicals appear here in
both languages, three in the Danish or Norwegian language, three in Swedish. —

     The Roman Church. — This church now has in the United States 39
bishops, 1372 priests, 2053 churches, 35 seminaries, 29 incorporated and 20
unincorporated colleges, and 134 academies for girls. The entire Roman
population is estimated at four million. 18 weekly periodicals in German,
English, and French work in the papist interest. —

II. Abroad.

     Chiliasm. Last year Pastor Löhe published a sermon on Phil. 3,
7—11, which deals with "openness toward the resurrection of the dead." In a
review of this sermon, which is found in the Saxon Church and School Gazette,
it says, among other things: "Whether the distinction between the first and
second resurrection ought to be made the subject of a sermon may be doubted.
But it is in accordance with Scripture." (If that is true, and indeed in the
sense of the chiliasts, then we do not see how it could be "doubted" that this
distinction may rightly be made the subject of a sermon. Whoever doubts this
would thereby betray that his conviction of the scriptural ground of that
doctrine looks somewhat shaky.) Löhe confesses that during the solitude of
his illness he learned much in the doctrine of the last things, and so was
himself persuaded of the scriptural soundness of that distinction. The
eschatology thereby determined is, it seems, becoming ever more at home in
Löhe's circles, after having been rejected among them, only a few years ago,
as chiliastic heresy by teachers of theology. Löhe's epistle-sermons, now in
the course of publication, likewise show that he moves in these views not
without partiality.

     Leipzig. Dr. Lechler, until now dean at Knittlingen in Württemberg,
has been appointed here as city superintendent, pastor at St. Thomas, and
professor of theology, and preached his inaugural sermon on the first day of
Whitsuntide.

     Löhe's Orthodoxy. As we learn from Münkel's Neues Zeitblatt, Löhe
wrote the following, among other things, to a friend who had been troubled by
scruples on his account regarding the anointing affair: "Be entirely at ease;
among us here the doctrine of justification by faith alone reigns; we wish to
have nothing to do with either Romanism or Irvingianism. Not one article of
the Augsburg Confession has fallen away from us." From this it is clear that
Löhe, too, stands under strong illusions. Had he taught purely concerning
justification, he would never have fallen into his false doctrine of the
ministry, of anointing, of the last things, and so forth. Luther will prove
right when he writes: "Where this one article remains pure and standing on
the field, Christendom too remains pure and beautifully united, and free of
all sects (heresies); for this article alone, and nothing else, makes and
preserves Christendom. And wherever sects arise or begin, have no doubt that
they have certainly fallen from this chief article, regardless of how much
they prattle of Christ with their mouths and dress and adorn themselves. For
this article alone lets no sects arise." (Exposition of Psalm 117.) If we
apply this also to Löhe, we have good reason to. We call attention, as
evidence, to just one passage of his Gospel Postil. There it says, in the
sermon on the Pharisee and the tax collector: "He (Christ) says of the tax
collector: he went down justified in comparison with the other. Mark this
well, my dear friends! It does not say outright: he went down justified;
matters had not, it seems, gone that far with the tax collector. It says
only: he went down justified in comparison with the other, with the
Pharisee, that is, God's judgment upon him was more favorable than upon the
Pharisee, because he was in fact the better and holier of the two. For if one
were to ask, who was holier at prayer in the temple, the Pharisee or the tax
collector, we would have to say: the tax collector, for the Pharisee had no
virtue at all, but the tax collector was truly so in knowledge, will, and
feeling — he was in humble truth and in that true humility which is the only
one possible for fallen beings," and so on. From this it is clear to all,