# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 02 08_S89
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall now and nevermore pass away."

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

Volume 4.

St. Louis, Mo., February 8, 1848.

No. 12.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at the annual subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay this in advance and bear the postage themselves. — In St. Louis each individual issue is sold for 5 cents.

Only letters containing contributions for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however, containing business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent here under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

A Testimony of Luther against the Enthusiasts, Who Always Insist upon the "Spirit" and Yet Despise the Outward Word and Sacrament, through Which Alone the Spirit Comes into Men.

(From Luther's writing "Against the Heavenly Prophets." Works, Halle edition, Vol. XX, p. 271 ff.)

God deals with us in two ways. First outwardly, the other time inwardly. Outwardly he deals with us through the spoken words of the Gospel and the bodily signs, namely Baptism and the Sacrament; inwardly he deals with us through the Holy Spirit and faith, together with other gifts. But all this in such measure and order that the outward parts shall and must come first, and the inward ones afterward, and come by way of the outward — so that he has resolved to give no one the inward parts except through the outward parts; for he will give no one the Spirit or faith without the outward Word and sign which he has instituted for that purpose, as he says in Luke 16:29: "Let them hear Moses and the prophets." Hence St. Paul may also call Baptism a bath of the new birth, in which God pours out the Holy Spirit richly (Titus 3:5–7), and the spoken Gospel a divine power which makes blessed all who believe in it, Romans 1:16.

Take heed of this order, my brother; everything will depend on it entirely. For although this spirit of faction (Carlstadt) makes as though he held the Word and Spirit of God in great esteem, and boasts of an excellent ardor of love and zeal for the truth and righteousness of God, yet it is nevertheless his intention to overturn this order and to set up a contrary one out of his own presumption, and he carries the matter on in this way:

First, whatever God ordains outwardly toward the Spirit inwardly, as has been said — oh, how scornfully and mockingly he casts that to the wind, and wants to get into the Spirit beforehand! Yes, he says, should a handful of water make me clean from sins?*) The Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit must do it inwardly! Should bread and wine help me? Should the breathing over the bread bring Christ into the Sacrament? No, no, one must eat Christ's flesh spiritually! The Wittenbergers (nowadays one says: the Old Lutherans) know nothing of this; they steal faith out of the letter. And they make much of splendid words, so that whoever does not know the devil might well think they had five Holy Spirits about them. But if one asks them, how then does one come into this same lofty Spirit? — they do not point you to the outward Gospel, but into Cockaigne, and say: "Stand in the tedium as I have stood, and you too will experience it; then the heavenly voice will come and God himself will speak with you." If you ask further about this "tedium," they know just as much about it as Dr. Carlstadt knows of the Greek and Hebrew languages. Do you see there the devil, the enemy of divine order, how he gapes his mouth open at you with the words "Spirit, Spirit, Spirit," and yet meanwhile tears down both bridge and footbridge and the way, the ladder and everything, by which the Spirit is supposed to come to you — namely, the outward ordinances of God in bodily Baptism, sign, and the spoken Word of God — and wants to teach you not how the Spirit comes to you, but how you are to come to the Spirit, so that you should learn to ride upon the clouds and to ride upon the wind; and yet they say neither how nor when, where nor what, but you are simply to "experience" it yourself as they have.

*) One sees from this that the enthusiasts have always spoken the same language. To whom, upon reading the above, is it not as though he heard our present-day Methodists speaking? The difference between them and the so-called "heavenly prophets" of Luther's time seems to consist only in this, that the present-day Methodists carry it on still more wildly and recklessly. Thus we have heard with our own ears, from the mouth of a Methodist preacher, the words: "You surely think that makes you blessed, if only your head has been washed?" By this shameful expression he meant, as he himself explained, holy Baptism!! — It is especially sad, however, that here in America all too many, even of those who call themselves Lutherans, speak of the outward means of grace, namely of the holy Sacraments, not much better than the Methodists do. A proof of how far many Lutherans here are from the spirit and character of true Lutheranism.
The Editors.

Again: whatever God does not ordain outwardly, there they blaze out as though they were senseless. And just as they invent an inward spirit of their own, so too they set up their own outward ordinances, where God has neither commanded nor forbidden anything — such as that one should have no images, churches, or altar, should not call it Mass, should not name or should abolish "Sacrament," should not wear the chasuble but gray coats instead, should call one another "neighbor," should slay godless princes, should suffer no wrong, and practice much outward humility and gestures which they themselves have invented and which God pays no heed to.*) Whoever here does otherwise than they is a twofold papist, who hangs and murders Christ, and they must be "scribes"; but whoever does it has already leapt into the Spirit, boots and all, and is a "Spirit-scholar." O profound saints! If you ask them who commands them to do such things, they throw out their hand and say: "Ah! my God tells me so, the Spirit bids me so"; indeed, all their dreams are nothing but the pure Word of God. What do you make of these fellows? Do you now grasp who this spirit is?

*) Here our Luther already portrays the Methodists of today quite exactly; for they too know nothing more to find fault with in the Lutherans than that they still tolerate images, crucifixes, and altars in their churches, that in the Augsburg Confession the holy Lord's Supper is, among other things, also called "Mass," that we call Baptism and the Lord's Supper "Sacrament" (which they reject as a heathen word), that the Lutheran preachers wear surplices, that Lutherans do not address one another, and in particular do not address all their preachers without distinction, with "thou," and the like. But just as the Carlstadtians once had their own ordinances, which they pressed more than all the ordinances of God, so too do the Methodists now; among them one hopes for a thousand times more blessing from their mourners' benches, class meetings, camp meetings, etc., than from the most zealous use of all the means of grace ordained by God himself.