# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1863_S300
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

300 Some Remarks on a New Apology for the Reformed Church.

of works, otherwise grace would not be grace. 2 Timothy 1:9: Who has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began."*) In another place Gerhard
repeats this in the following words: "We confess with a loud
voice that we hold that God found nothing good in the man to be
elected to eternal life, and that he had regard neither
to good works, nor to the use of the free will, nor indeed even
to faith itself in such a way that he was, thereby
moved, or elected some on that account; but rather
we say that it is solely and alone Christ's merit, whose worth
God had regard to, and that out of sheer grace he formed the decree of
election."**)

Now, how after all this a man of sound understanding can charge our
Church with so much as a breath of Roman Catholic Pelagianism or semi-
Pelagianism is utterly inexplicable. That Mr. Lic.
Krummacher does this we can, as has been said, explain to ourselves only on the ground that
he either does not know the confessions of our Church at all, or has
at most leafed through them in the highest degree superficially and through the tinted
spectacles of his Calvinistic prejudices, or that he judges the doctrine of our
Church by the false prophets who occupy our
professorial chairs. But whichever of these explanations may after all
be the right one, each of them is, for a licentiate of theology who even
wishes to appear publicly as a polemicist, most shameful, and shows that he made his choice
between the Lutheran and Reformed Church blindfolded.

When Mr. Kr., moreover, says: "The Lutheran Church has in this respect
departed entirely from Luther's teaching in his book De servo arbitrio;
it ignores this book, which Luther himself, even in his late years, acknowledged as
his best little book" — that is simply an untruth.
That the Lutheran Church has not ignored the book is shown not only by the
very numerous, in part with extensive commentaries and vindi-

*) "Nullis hominum meritis, nulla humani generis dignitate, quin nec praevisione
operum, vel fidei motus est Deus, ut quosdam ad vitam aeternam eligeret, sed soli
indebitae et immensae ipsius gratiae in solidum hoc asscribendum. Eph. 1, 6. Rom.
11, 5. 2 Tim. 1, 9." [By no merits of men, no worthiness of the human race, nor
any foreseeing of works or of faith, was God moved to elect some to eternal
life; it is to be ascribed solely to his own unmerited, immeasurable grace.]
Loc. de electione et reprobatione § 52. [Gerhard's Loci, on election and
reprobation, § 52.]

**) "Sonora voce profitemur, nos statuere, quod Deus nihil boni in homine ad
vitam aeternam eligendo invenerit, quod nec bona opera, nec liberi arbitrii usum,
neque adeo ipsam etiam fidem ita respexerit, ut hisce motus vel propter ea
quosdam elegerit; sed unicum et solum Christi meritum illud esse dicimus, cujus
dignitatem Deus respexerit et ex mera gratia decretum electionis fecerit." [We
profess with a loud voice that God found nothing good in man when electing him
to eternal life, and had regard neither to good works nor to free will nor even
to faith itself as moving him to elect some; rather it is Christ's merit alone
whose worth God regarded, forming the decree of election out of sheer grace.]
L. c. § 161. [Loci, § 161.] There is accordingly a great
difference between saying: God elected those of whom he foresaw
that they would believe and remain in faith; or saying:
God elected some because he foresaw that they would believe and remain in faith,
or for the sake of their faith. The former is entirely correct, according to Romans
8:29; the latter is Pelagian.