# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1860_S198
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

198

The Struggle within the Prussian Lutheran Church.

Already in the March number of this journal, attention was drawn, through the communication of an article from Münkel's Zeitblatt, to the present tension among the Lutherans of Prussia. The latest papers from the Prussian church prompt us to lay before our readers a more complete picture of the struggle that has broken out there. "If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it," says the Apostle of the body of Christendom. Whoever is mindful of this spiritual bond of the members in the faith will not be able to refuse a heartfelt sympathy for this struggle, and will help to call upon God that He grant the victory to the truth among the brethren contending there, to the honor of His holy name and to the salvation of many souls. And whoever has himself, like the members of our synod, been deemed worthy to help hold aloft, through God's grace, each at his own post, the banner of truth amid heavy struggles against the fierce assaults of error, will surely also look with sympathetic attention upon the field to which the struggle for these same treasures of the heavenly doctrine has now chiefly rolled.

We use as sources for our account the Lutherische Dorfkirchenzeitung, published by Pastor C. Räthjen in Neu-Ruppin, from January 1 to April 1, 1860, and the Kirchenblatt für die evang. luther. Gemeinden in Preußen, published by Kirchenrath Ehlers in Liegnitz, from the same period.

Already the declaration and request with which the new volume of the Luth. Dorfkirchenzeitung begins points to the zeal with which one is minded to fight. It reads: "The struggle for our treasure, the pure biblical doctrine of our Lutheran confession, goes ever deeper and wider; our enemies threaten to sink us with a storm from every side. Besides, the General Synod is approaching, for which more comprehensive preparatory discussions are needed. For this, one sheet a month will not suffice. I ask my dear readers to permit me to issue the twelve yearly numbers in quicker succession, namely several sheets on the first of every month. Toward Easter or thereabouts this twelfth volume of 1860 will thus be completed, comprising 12 sheets. What will happen further, may God show. In any case I shall give notice before the time expires. C. Räthjen." At the close of this volume, brought to an end within a quarter-year, the publisher reports that on May 1 a journal enlarged threefold compared with the earlier one is to appear under the title: Kirchenzeitung für Lutheraner.

The matters around which the struggle turns are the constitution of the church, or church government, and chiliasm. That in this struggle different doctrines concerning the church and the ministerial office should come to light is to be foreseen.

Let us first hear Räthjen in general on the origin of the