# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1860_S231
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Instruction Against Doubt of the Divine Word and Its Truth. 231

...writings. Ovid writes of the glorious work of creation in no other way than Moses, according to his biblical order, wrote in the first and second chapters of his first book. Berosus, in his fourth book, records the Tower of Babylon, how it was indeed begun to be built but not completed, in agreement with Moses's account, Gen. 11:4, 9. That the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was also known to the heathen is witnessed by Pliny, book 5, chapters 15, 16, in accordance with Scripture, Gen. 19:24. Likewise the heathen knew of circumcision (Gen. 17:10) and, in many places where they lived on Jewish borders, practiced it themselves as well, as Herodotus writes, book 2. To treat this as fully as one well could would be far too lengthy a matter for this place.

Now let one conclude from this and the like: if Turks, Jews, and other heathen, in their great blindness, recognize the books and history of the holy, divine Scripture as good and true, hold it to have come from heaven, and are, in that respect, so far content in agreement with it, how unaccountable would it then be, if a Christian, under the clear light of the holy Gospel, should fail to recognize it or esteem it as good and true, but out of evil intent should stubbornly deny and reject it.

Sixthly, a strong ground and proof herein is also given by the miracles and wonder-signs of the Old and New Testaments, which have likewise been witnessed and described in their own books even by the enemies, namely the Jews and Turks themselves. That the Jews confess all the signs and great deeds of God in the Old Testament to be true and divine is plain to see, and again admits of no dispute at all. But beyond that, concerning the New Testament, they must give this testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ in their own Talmud, that he raised the dead, healed lepers, helped the lame, and performed similar miracles, as Josephus also has described in the words cited above. Likewise the Turks say in their Koran that Jesus Christ confirmed his teachings with signs, miracles, and wondrous deeds, along with many more which, for the sake of brevity, are passed over here.

Can then a Christian well doubt that which, in Holy Scripture, Jews and Turks — themselves the greatest enemies of Christ and of Christianity — do not doubt, but publicly confess to be true? Let your conscience testify and judge; let all the world confess the fairness of it and speak the truth from the heart.

Seventhly, the wondrous propagation and preservation of this Word also proves that it is and must be God's true Word, in that it penetrates great kingdoms, lands, and cities without any human force, without external weapons and arms. The Turk introduced his Koran as a dreadful abomination against God by force of arms, and has thus maintained it to this very day, with this proud boast, that it comes not by the power of those signs and wonders, but by the power of his sword. But it shall be shown, however, that