# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1863_S362
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

362 Report of the Sixth Ordinary Synodical Convention of the Norwegian Ev.-Luth. Church.

Thus the spiritual and eternal rest that is appointed for God's people shall last every day, and one may enter into it every day, as long as there are days; one shuts oneself out from it through unbelief, one enters into it through faith, and this comes from the Word of God, of which he speaks in verse 12.

Here the following passage from Luther was read aloud: "Isaiah, in the last chapter, says: When the Messiah comes, such a time will be that one new moon will follow another, one Sabbath will follow another; as if he would say: Every day will be Sabbath, and every day will be new moon. Thus in the New Testament the Sabbath lies prostrate, according to the crude outward manner. For this commandment, like the other commandments, has a twofold sense, an outward one and an inward or spiritual one. In the New Testament, among Christians, every day is a holy day, and all days are free. Therefore Christ says: The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath, Matthew 12. . . . . . . Therefore we do keep festival, however, for it is needful for us to learn God's Word." (Erlangen Edition XXXVI, p. 91.) And: "The spiritual festival day, however, is the true Sabbath, which is kept when the heart keeps the true Sabbath, which is the highest and truly spiritual work of this commandment, which comprehends the whole nature of man. This Sabbath Christ prefigured for us in the grave; there he kept the Sabbath rightly; there he lies in rest and festival, abstaining from all works. He does not see, he does not hear, he does not sleep, he does not wake, he does not eat, he does not drink, he does not digest, he moves neither tongue nor veins, neither hand nor foot, he does not stand, so he does not walk. Whoever now would keep the true spiritual Sabbath must be wholly dead with Christ. Nor will anyone keep it rightly unless he is truly dead. But we begin to keep the true Sabbath here when our old Adam ceases from all his works, reason, will, desires, and lust, all of which must die and cease in the true Sabbath. And everything that is in us shall be godly, as Paul says in Galatians chapter 2: I am dead to the Law through the Law, that I might live to God. I am crucified with Christ, etc. . . . . This Sabbath is, however, finally kept aright only when we have died. . . . . . . Therefore these are the true works of the true Sabbath, which proceed from faith, in obedience and at the command of God; for then God himself works the true Sabbath. Therefore God also kept so strict and hard a watch over the Sabbath in the Old Testament, whereby this spiritual Sabbath was signified. For it all happened as a figure." (Ibid., p. 94 and following.)

Against this proposition nothing was objected. Pastor Clausen only thought that the view here called the false one would not hinder, but rather promote, the earnest use of the Word on the other days. He pointed to the following passage in Scriver's Seelenschatz (Part I, Sermon 1, § 30): "First of all, for this purpose the holy day of the Lord must be taken, which the gracious God has especially insti—