# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1861_S158
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

158 Church and Contemporary News.

article in the Erlangen periodical (April number of this year) which, though written by a chiliast, nonetheless contains a good deal that chiliasts should take to heart for their own better reflection. We quote the following from it: "Nothing is read more gladly than writings about the future; books and pamphlets that promote chiliasm are eagerly devoured even in circles where one would not expect it; both called and uncalled people seek advice about it, and whenever so much as a word about chiliasm or the like comes from the pulpit, even the sleepiest heads sit up and complain that otherwise one hears nothing about it." (Remarkable, that in Germany the word of God is otherwise so often heard sleepily and reluctantly, while for chiliasm there is everywhere so open an ear! In what relation, then, must the two stand to one another?) "But it is another question whether it is right to meet this demand of our people and to feed it, whether it is right to bring chiliasm to the pulpit in one form or another .. If the question before us concerns the preachers of our church, we shall be in no doubt as to which writing of the New Testament we must consult: the general instruction for all pastors of the evangelical church is the Pastoral Epistles .. Three times in the three Pastoral Epistles the coming of the Lord is spoken of, once in each epistle (1 Tim. 6:14f.; 2 Tim. 4:1; Titus 2:13) .. But so that we understand the apostle rightly, he points (2 Tim. 4:1) to Jesus Christ, who is to come to judge the living and the dead, and adds specifically: by his appearing and by his kingdom — a juxtaposition of the kingdom of glory with the world's judgment, which we would do well to note particularly .. So Paul does indeed know of the coming of Christ; he teaches us to hope for it and to wait for it, and his helpers, like all the preachers appointed by them, are to direct the heart and eye of their congregations to it; but the Pastoral Epistles know not a word of chiliasm, and whoever seeks in the Pastoral Epistles his instruction for the care of the congregation learns of no right of chiliasm to the pulpit .. The Apostles' Creed likewise knows not a word of a twofold coming of Christ that we still have to expect .. Our people, however, should hear only one thing from the pulpits, namely the word of the living God, which is certain and infallible, which one can stand upon, and on which one can live and die." — With this, however, the chiliastic writer breaks the staff not only over such of his brethren in the faith as the Iowans, who as is well known proclaim chiliasm freely and openly from the pulpit "in this free land" (which, admittedly, interests people more than the doctrine of repentance), but also over himself. For if chiliasm is not something "certain and infallible, which one can stand upon and on which one can live and die," then it belongs not merely off the pulpit but nowhere at all, except where old wives' tales belong. To be sure, the writer of the cited article hopes that chiliasm, through the research, writing, and conferring of the theologians, will at last be brought into the light, so that the church may in due time raise it, by her own verdict, to an article of faith; but we decline with thanks a church that keeps manufacturing ever more articles of faith as time goes on, and decline all the more such newly discovered and decreed articles of faith themselves. As for such churches, we have had enough of the Roman one, and as for such articles of faith, we have had enough of the immaculata conceptio Mariae.

Bremerhaven, Feb. 17. The Senate has forbidden the formation of a Lutheran congregation. A number of inhabitants of Bremerhaven belonging to the Lutheran confession had recently declared to the Senate that they intended to unite in an independent Lutheran congregation, separate from the united evangelical church existing there, whereby they were nonetheless prepared to raise the necessary pecuniary means themselves, without claiming any public support for the purpose. To this declaration an answer has been given on the part of the Senate which forbids the forming of an independent Lutheran congregation as impermissible. (Wes. Z.)

Lutheran Synodal Gazette, published by R. Lohmann, pastor in