# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 02 08_S90
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...insist on inner faith by an outward new method of putting the old man to death, and here invent "coarsening away, studying, marveling, tedium,"*) and more of such tomfoolery, of which not one letter stands in Scripture. Hence my Carlstadt comes blundering in like a sow that would now eat the pearls, and like a dog that has swallowed the sanctuary (Matt. 7:6), and tears to pieces everything that Christ speaks and establishes concerning inward faith, turning it into such outward, invented works — so far indeed that he makes nothing else out of the Lord's Supper of Christ, its memorial, and the knowledge of Christ, than a human work: that we, with ardent heat and (as their clumsy words run) "with outstretched desire, are thereby also to put ourselves to death." By this he makes a fog and clouds, so that these clear words are not to be seen, where Christ says: "My blood is shed for you for the remission of sins," Matt. 26:24; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20 — which without doubt are grasped, obtained, and retained by faith alone, and by no word.**)

*) Nowadays the enthusiasts, to be sure, no longer use the same words as Carlstadt once did, but they still always have their own particular catchwords by which they indicate the secrets of their fanatical spirit, such as: "breakthrough, entire sanctification," etc.
The Editors.

**) In this too the present-day enthusiasts resemble the old ones, that they speak so splendidly of their devotion — which they have, for example, at the holy Lord's Supper — of their "spiritual enjoyment of the body and blood of Christ" and the like, so that one might forget the words of institution and think that they too held this holy Sacrament in high regard. They speak of the holy Sacraments in general — which are, after all, works, gifts, and treasures of God — as though the Sacraments consisted not in what God does, but in what man does.
The Editors.

Let this much now be said, to show you and let you know what the nature of this spirit is: straightway to pursue a perverse manner contrary to God's order — that which God ordains concerning inward faith and Spirit, this they turn into a human work. Again, that which God ordains concerning the outward Word and sign and works, this they turn into an inward spirit, and set the mortification of the flesh first, before faith, indeed before the Word — thus proceeding (as is indeed the devil's manner) outward where God wants to go inward, and inward where God wants to go outward. That I now call him a devil, no one should be surprised at; for I care nothing about Dr. Carlstadt, I do not look at him, but at the one who has possessed him and speaks through him, as St. Paul says: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual wickedness in the air," etc. Ephesians 6:12.

So do you now, my brother, hold fast to the order of God, namely, that the mortification of the old man, in which one follows Christ's example, as Peter says (1 Peter 1:21), should not be the first thing, as this devil urges, but the last; so that no one may put his flesh to death, bear the cross, and follow Christ's example, unless he is first a Christian and has Christ in his heart through faith, as an eternal treasure.

This treasure, however, one does not get through work (as these prophets rage), but through hearing the Gospel. So that the order runs thus: first, before all works and things, one hears the Word of God, in which "the Spirit reproves the world of sin" (John 16:9). When sin is recognized, one hears of the grace of Christ. In this same (gracious) Word the Spirit comes and gives faith, where and to whom he will. After that follows the mortification and the cross, and the works of love. Whoever proposes to you a different order — do not doubt that it is the devil.

Note of the Editors. Whoever has once read through the foregoing should not let the matter rest there. This testimony of Luther's is well worth being weighed quite earnestly, and every word of it deeply pondered. We know of no place in Luther's works where he, as here, gives so magnificent an explanation of the nature of fanaticism in so few words. We can testify from our own experience that repeated reading richly repays itself.

On the Power of the Keys, Absolution, and Confession.
(From Harless's periodical.)
(Continued.)

Likewise it follows beyond doubt from the context of Holy Scripture and of the divine work of salvation that this authority to forgive and to retain sin in a manner valid before God — just like the command to preach and to baptize, Matthew 28:18–19 — is given not to the apostles exclusively, but to all of them who would carry out the office of the New Testament. For, 1.) the Lord himself says, Luke 12:2, that the apostles are only the first reapers of the great harvest. The same Lord who said to the Twelve, Matthew 10:40: "He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me," says in John 13:20, in general terms: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me," and says to the seventy, Luke 10:16: "He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me." The apostles do indeed have the privilege of having been chosen directly by Christ to spread the Gospel among the nations; but for the rest, they acknowledge the bishops set here and there over congregations as servants of Jesus Christ confirmed on an equal footing, and as stewards over the mysteries of God, as fellow-servants (Col. 1:7) and fellow-elders (1 Peter 5:1), whom the Holy Spirit has appointed as bishops,

— this is precisely where the proton pseudos (the fundamental error) of Methodism lies: that a host of things are demanded which a person is supposed to accomplish and possess before he may and can believe, and yet which can only be accomplished and demonstrated by a person after he has come to faith — such as the wrestling, the struggling, the feeling of grace, the testimony of the Holy Spirit, and so forth —

to feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood, Acts 20:28.

2.) The purpose of the authority granted is the pastoral edification of the congregation, especially the comforting of timid and fainthearted souls within it. Such a congregation, however, according to the Lord's promise, is to endure, unconquered by the gates of hell, as long as this present age lasts; his authority therefore cannot pertain exclusively to the disciples, whose lives, as could be foreseen, would not extend beyond the earliest beginnings of the church — rather, he had in view thereby, according to his unchangeable will of love, the satisfaction of a spiritual need for all times. That authority is given not to the apostles exclusively, but for the service and benefit of the church for all times — indeed, to the office as such which preaches reconciliation. Let it furthermore not be said that only the apostles, by the high measure of their spiritual knowledge, were equal to the exercise of that authority; for the apostles too were not knowers of hearts, but acknowledge God alone as such (Acts 1:24), and in the gift of the Spirit — which they themselves indeed possessed to an especially high degree — all who carry out the office of the Spirit have a claim in common with them, just as, in the lifetime of the apostles, it was likewise granted to all those who were consecrated to that office by the laying on of hands (1 Timothy 4:14; 5:22). Moreover, it holds as an undoubted fact from the beginning, throughout the first centuries of the church and onward, that the power to forgive and to retain sins is given to the teaching office in general and for all times; this power has also always been exercised, and the ancient teachers praise the glory of this power conferred upon the office of the New Testament, and recognize the exercise of it as a mark of the church. "Where there is forgiveness of sins," says Augustine, "there is the church. How so, the church? For it is indeed said to her: To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven. How far does this forgiveness of sins extend? Throughout all lands, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47). Thus, then, the institution of Christ — by virtue of which sin is forgiven and retained here below, in a manner outwardly perceptible and valid before God — is a right of grace received from the Lord for the church of all ages, and the exercise of this authority is an official function belonging to the New Testament teaching office as such, which, through Christ's original promise, as a means of grace instituted by himself, still has today, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, its full, undiminished power.

We shall recognize the nature of this right of grace still more clearly if we attentively consider the remaining passages bearing upon it. After Peter, in answer to Christ's question, "But whom say ye that I am?" had come before the other apostles with the confession of faith —