# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 09 08_S2
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

It is true that the Synod, at its first annual convention in Chicago, passed the following resolution: "In the instruction to be given to the editor, it should be recommended to him that he give more consideration than heretofore to events in the ecclesiastical field of this country"; the Lutheraner will therefore from now on include more church news than it has done heretofore, and thereby gain in variety and interest, but according to the Synod's express declaration, the paper will retain its polemical character.

We must, of course, be prepared that we shall for this reason also continue to be accused of a mania for condemnation; but in this we take comfort in the word of Christ: "Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." Matt. 5:11–12. And indeed we can take comfort in this, for we have hitherto, by God's grace, entirely refrained from all loveless condemnation, and shall continue to do so with the same help. We have condemned no one, still less whole religious communions, for the sake of their errors; rather, we have only refuted and condemned their errors themselves. We have clearly, distinctly, and repeatedly declared it to be our conviction that the children of God — that is, the Church of Jesus Christ — is to be found under all denominations that still essentially retain the Word of God. As for the public teachers, however, who here seduce and deceive the poor, inexperienced people neglected in Germany; who, despite every refutation from God's Word, stubbornly cling to, defend, and spread their errors; who do not shrink from ceaselessly mocking and reviling holy teachings and institutions grounded in the clear statements of the Word of God, and who resort to lies and slanders in their own defense — such people we have indeed not been able to acknowledge as true Christians; to such we have had to hold up, not on account of certain errors, but on account of their malice, the Word of God, which condemns them.

But what have our enemies done? What have precisely those done who again and again speak of the condemnation-mania of the so-called Old Lutherans? They have always declared the Lutheran Church to be dead, and all those who hold fast to its teachings and practices to be unconverted, carnal, unenlightened, unregenerate people. Who, then, shows himself more given to a mania for condemnation than these hypocrites? One need only read, among other things, the Methodist paper, the "Apologist," and one can find this on almost every page. Whoever, moreover, has the misfortune, so to speak, of living in the midst of Methodists, needs no proof from us; he will certainly already have experienced often enough for himself that the Methodists really consider themselves the little flock of the elect, and hold all those who do not join them, or who even find fault with them, to be forever condemned and lost.*

So, then, in fellowship with several dear brethren, we shall confidently continue to use this modest little paper not only to bear witness to the truth, but also, as far as God grants us grace, to expose and combat the errors now prevailing — especially those that threaten to creep into our Lutheran Church — whether they clothe themselves in the garb of the Lutheran name or of human holiness. For this we have, first of all, God's command: "A bishop must be blameless... holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." Titus 1:7–11. Further: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." Matt. 7:15. Further: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1. But if Christians are to be on guard against such false prophets and to try the spirits, then we preachers have the sacred duty to assist them in this — as shepherds, not only to feed our sheep, but also to fight for them against the wolves, and as watchmen on the battlements of Zion, not only to keep watch, but also to report the approaching enemies.

* We have witnessed a frightening example of this in these very days. A few months ago an awakened Christian arrived here, attended a Methodist camp meeting recently held in this county, and, after a lengthy but powerless resistance, allowed himself to be converted there in the Methodist manner. He now declared the Methodist communion to be the gathering of the children of God out of all the churches that God had forsaken; to his former, non-Methodist brethren he preached repentance and conversion; he was now, accordingly, a "dear brother" among his Methodists as well. But what happened? The poor man's conscience awoke after a brief numbness; he realized that he had grievously sinned in allowing the work that God had already begun in his heart to be made suspect, and in letting himself be persuaded to declare it a work of man and of the flesh. He saw that he had been shamefully deceived; in deep repentance he renounced the bargain to the local Methodist preacher and declared to him that he had been cheated of his state of grace, and now goes about wrestling with despair. May God have mercy on him. We have this from his own mouth. We share this as a warning to all those in whom God may already have begun the good work of faith in Germany, that when they come here they take good care not to let themselves be moved from the goal, according to St. Paul's admonition: "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head... which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship and humility." etc. (Col. 2:18–23.) Further: "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." (Eph. 4:14.)

For this we also have the example of the apostles and prophets, and of Christ himself. How earnestly did the former, throughout their whole lives, contend against every kind of heretic and false prophet who preached the visions of their own hearts and not out of the mouth of the Lord! Compare, among others, Jer. 23; Ezek. 13 and 34. Whole books of Holy Scripture were written against false teachers; compare, among others, St. Paul's letter to the Galatians. With what earnestness St. Paul takes his stand there against the false teachers! He says twice: "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Ch. 1:8. Further: "He that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be... I would they were even cut off which trouble you." Ch. 5:10, 12. In the letter to the Philippians the holy apostle goes so far as to call the false apostles dogs, saying: "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers." Ch. 3:2. Already in the time of the apostles it was thought improper to make a great fuss over a slight deviation from pure doctrine, but Paul cries out to his Galatians: "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Ch. 5:9. With what zeal the Lord himself, moreover, contended against the false teachers, everyone knows who is even a little acquainted with the holy Gospels. But who dares accuse the holy men of God, indeed the Son of God himself, of a mania for condemnation? Whether, then, it please our enemies or grieve them, we shall continue, in the fight against the falsifiers of the Word of God, to follow in the footsteps of Christ and his messengers.

But we are also driven to this by love for our erring and misled brethren. Holy Scripture presents false doctrine to us as something very dangerous and destructive; it compares it, among other things, to a cancerous sore. St. Paul speaks of the talk of heretics: "Their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus." 2 Tim. 2:17. Is it not, then, our duty to take up the cause of poor souls who are threatened with being infected by the plague of false doctrine, or who are already infected by it? Would a Reformation ever have come about if Luther had contended only against the sins and vices of his time, and not also — indeed above all — against the corruptions of the Gospel, and had not sought to preserve it in its purity and clarity and to hand it down to posterity? How, then, could we in these last times answer for it before God, if we did not work against the flood of a thousandfold false doctrines that now threatens to inundate everything — now, precisely, when everything cries: Here is Christ! There is Christ! He is in the desert! He is in the secret chamber! When everywhere false prophets arise and do great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if it were possible, even the elect—