# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1860_S313
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Present State of the Lutheran Church in Norway. 313

rejects chiliasm thereby renounces only the old earth, for which surely no
one can have any particular tenderness, but not the earth as such. It is
the clear teaching of Scripture that the site of the glorified kingdom of
God will be the new earth. This is already pointed to by the description
which Isaiah gives in chapter 11 of the transfigured kingdom of God; it
moves throughout upon the earth restored to its paradisal condition.
This is pointed to by the regeneration announced by the Lord, Matthew
19:28, which can only be a renewal of the earth, for together with man
this earth has, according to Genesis 3, degenerated from its original
condition, so that it too needs regeneration. This is pointed to by what
the apostle says in Romans 8 of the creature subjected to vanity, which,
in connection with the revelation of the children of God, is one day to
be set free from bondage to corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. Even in the Apocalypse itself the earth appears as the
site of the glorified church: John sees the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God. So what the chiliasts seek in their
thousand years — which after all still belong only to the old earth, and
alongside which they still have the renewed fall to face — is granted
far more truly by the view of the new Jerusalem. That we are to fix our
eyes on this, and not on the thousand years, the Apocalypse itself
teaches us quite plainly. Not one of the promises attached to the seven
letters looks toward the thousand years; all direct the gaze to the
world beyond, and especially to the new Jerusalem: "To him that
overcometh will I grant that no hurt shall be done to him of the second
death — To him that overcometh, I will not blot out his name out of the
book of life — To him that overcometh will I give a new name. — To him
that overcometh will I write upon him the name of the new Jerusalem,
the city of my God, which cometh down from my God, out of heaven. —
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is
in the paradise of my God." To Saint John we wish to join ourselves,
and to speak in his spirit:

I am content
That I have seen the city;
And without wearying
I will draw nearer to it,
And its bright golden streets
I will not let out of my sight my whole life long."

(From the Freimund.)

The Present State of the Lutheran Church in
Norway.

The Lutheran church in Norway is a very hopeful one. Although
within it the Formula of Concord is not a recognized confessional writing