# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1864_S125
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History. 125

of the "Evangelist," Mr. H. J. Rütenik, appears to stand. As to the task which the paper has set itself, the preface says: "We emphasize, before all else, the word 'Reformed'; he (the 'Watchman') wishes to be reformed, to serve the Reformed church, to represent Reformed theology... This periodical intends ... from this standpoint to conduct the office of watchman, to draw attention to foreign elements within and outside the church, and to defend the reformed character against all attacks... Our church has for more than a decade now been moved to its very depths by the church question and what hangs together with it: how needful is it, therefore, that a minister of the Word know what he believes, and not waver back and forth in uncertainty. To be sure, this struggle has hitherto been carried on more among the English-speaking part of our church's ministers. (The Mercersburg Review was exclusively the organ of the high-church party.) But we Germans cannot look on with indifference without thereby failing our own task, if in the end we do not wish to suffer harm." According to this, this quarterly seems to intend to work against the high- and future-church unionistic current, promoted by Nevin and Schaff, that runs through the so-called German Reformed church here, and to make it its concern to build up and maintain a purely Zwinglian-Calvinist church. The good will is indeed not to be denied, but judging by this first issue, the church in question does not seem entitled to place too great hopes in this its champion. To cite only a few examples: in an article on the descent into hell, the setting-forth of the new doctrine of Hades, which a new editor of Büchner's Concordance has smuggled into that work, is called an "authentic Lutheran testimony" that "has stood unretracted for 120 years and has been sent out into the world in 11 editions." Such a thing ought not to occur in a periodical wishing to be "theological," especially since the style of the interpolated passage alone should have betrayed its youth to any theologian. In a second article, on confirmation, it says: "It is beyond doubt that, according to apostolic practice, the laying-on of hands was regarded as an essential component of the sacrament of baptism." In keeping with this gross error, the writer then presents confirmation as the "completion" of baptism and places the "essence of confirmation" in a "communication of the Holy Spirit." That in doing so he writes, in his excursus into church history: "There came the Flacians, the Hesshussars, and the Thirty Years' War," etc., hardly demonstrates thorough command of church history either. When, in another essay against the pericopes, it is said of the Lutheran preacher that he "must grind out his ecclesiastical hurdy-gurdy year after year," we can find in this no theological argument against our pericope system, any more than in the whole essay a justification of the practice, current in the Reformed church, of picking out a few scripture texts here and there, now here, now there, and placing them at the head of subjective outpourings of the heart. In sum, we fear that unless this quarterly reshapes itself in time, Reformed theologians will hardly accept it as one of their organs.

Illinois Synod. A reader of the report on the last meeting of this body communicates the following from it in the Observer of Feb. 12, among other things: "No fewer than five brethren have withdrawn from the synod within a single year, or have been expelled from it. We are grieved at the departure of Br. Reynolds, who was a prominent and honored member of the body. Then comes the name of G. Grau, who was regarded as a beloved brother and was expelled for the crime of gross immorality, a dreadful disgrace to himself and to the church. Then H. Koppmann is suspended, 'until he shows signs of repentance.' H. Homann has been struck from the roll of ministers, and Klockenmeyer, a licentiate, does not wish to see his license renewed and withdraws from the ministry. Ah, these are sad things! The number of ministers is now 32, with 49 congregations. The German element predominates in this body."

Theology of the Lutheran Observer. In this paper of Feb. 12 one of the editors writes: "Flesh and blood, according to Paul, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Christ is at the right hand of God in heaven. How can we speak of Christ's body and blood as present in the sacrament, when no such body has existed for these 1800 years — not once since his ascension into glory!" This is indeed a radical way of doing away with the words of institution of the Holy Supper, by simply adopting a kind of Docetism. The Docetists, too, since they denied the reality of Christ's body, consequently and consistently denied the presence of Christ's body in the Eucharist. It is well known, however, how earnestly, for example, the holy disciple of the apostles, Ignatius, judged concerning them in his letter to the congregation at Smyrna, chapters 4 and 7. (See: The Voice of Our Church, etc., p. 157f.)

Revolutionary Principles. In an article on "Christianity and Slavery," the Methodist "Apologete" of Feb. 29 sets forth, among other things, the following principles: "The apostles exhort submission to a government, though a bad one, where resistance would have been premature and hopeless, inasmuch as the ord—