# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1860_S153
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

153
Church and Contemporary Notices.

I. America.

The Lutheran Church Messenger brings, in its latest number, an assessment of certain principles set up by members of the General Synod at a conference held at Peking [sic], Ills. We reproduce the substance of this assessment here in such a way that, in order to bring the correctness of the conclusions to light, we cast them more into scholastic form, and for that reason supply, where they are lacking, the premises that need to be added. 1. Since the brethren in Illinois set up the principle: "All the body of symbolical books of the Ev. Lutheran Church, as contained in the Concordia, are the pure and unadulterated explanation and exposition of the Word of God"; and since further no man who is not inspired as the apostles themselves were can ever know what Holy Scripture actually teaches, and therefore no one can set forth the Word of God purely and without corruption either; it follows that the brethren named hereby declare the authors of the symbolical books to be men who enjoyed a special and extraordinary inspiration in the drafting of the symbolical books and were thereby rendered infallible — a thing which these authors themselves never claimed of themselves. 2. Because the brethren say: "All questions that arise in doctrine, practice, and ceremonies shall be settled on the basis of the Concordia"; and since further everyone who holds such a principle is evidently governed by an unconquerable inclination to hew, stab, spear, hang, behead, break on the wheel, drown, and burn every dissenter, all to God's honor; one need not be surprised if I, C. B. Thümmel (the reviewer), before whose eyes stand "the persecutions and the stakes and the atrocities of former times," which must necessarily be repeated as soon as those brethren have the power — "shudder." 3. Since those brethren declare as a principle: "Avoidance and renunciation of all mixing of religions (syncretism), for example serving united congregations, participation in the sacrament as celebrated by false confessions, and participation in their tract-distributing activities"; and since further everyone who can merely utter such a thing is evidently possessed by an "unclean spirit," which not only makes him say to Christians, "Stand back, I am a saint," but also prompts him not to wish to celebrate, "in unity of faith," the meal of his atoning death with every confessor of the one Lord out of whatever church fellowship, while on the other hand declaring false doctrine to be a profanation of the name of God; it follows that the brethren "cannot lead men to faith, to repentance, and to conversion," since for that the Spirit of Christ is required. — If those members of the conference themselves, even after this striking demonstration, persist in their principles, that is fresh evidence that they are possessed by the devil.

Illinois State University at Springfield. The "Lutheran Standard" reports that Professor L. P. Esbjorn has left Springfield, together with most of the Swedish students, and moved to Chicago. As reasons for the departure, doctrinal differences and a lack of means to support the students until the close of the semester are given.

The General Lutheran Conference. The editorial staff of the "Lutherische Kirchenzeitung" of Columbus declares, with reference to the notice sent to it regarding the next session of the said conference, that it hereby takes public and formal leave of it, since under existing conditions it has no further desire to attend.

II. Abroad.

From Bohemia. Concerning the condition of the church in general, as well as the state of the Catholics, the Braunschweiger Kirchenblatt reports as follows from Bohemia: "During the Italian war we were quite afraid; the Roman clergy let it be known that, if Austria should emerge victorious from the struggle, all Protestants were to be driven out of the land. Our high government may well have known nothing of this ill-willed demand.. After the conclusion of the