# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1864_S364
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

364 Proposal and Specimen for the Preparation of a Bible Commentary etc.

the gifts of the Holy Ghost are imparted, not through my power, but
through the power of him who shall soon be made manifest. Br.

Different, and more in agreement with Luther, at John 1:26, where he
takes a difference between the two baptisms with respect to doctrine, and
says: The doctrine of John kills and prepares for justification through
the preaching of the Law; his baptism is accordingly a sacrament of
mortification and of future justification. The doctrine of Christ makes
alive and just him who believes; the baptism of Christ is accordingly an
example of vivification and justification.

Verse 6.

Those who had come together asked him and said: Lord, will you at
this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

Notes. So the apostles did not suppose that Christ would rule by the
word, but hoped that he would restore the kingdom to Israel again. They
had indeed seen glorious and great deeds, and heard the wonderful things
he did, and yet they imagine that this was not the glory of his kingdom,
but hope instead that he would become a lord of the world, who would
bring the Romans under the yoke and subdue all the heathen to himself,
and would make them princes in the world and lords over the riches of
the whole world. L. 6, 1057.

Applications. 1.) Even the saints, so long as they are in this life,
still carry a good portion of the old Adam, and it is a great art not to
judge the Word according to human reason. The disciples are full of
gifts and of the Holy Ghost, and yet they speak in a fleshly way, just as
reason and the flesh dictate to them. So too with us: we do no better,
and we all still have fleshly thoughts, even though we are baptized and
called Christians. 13, 1247.

2.) Of such crude lapses one finds many in the Gospel, where the
apostles at times stumbled crudely and had to be warned; all of which is
written for our comfort and strengthening, that we should not despair so
quickly if at times our faith fails us, and we cannot at once fit
ourselves into God's work and word. If it failed even those great men
who were to become future pillars of Christendom, no one should truly
wonder if at times it will not go smoothly for us; indeed, let no one be
alarmed at it. It is God's work and God's cause, and he can better it
when it pleases him. L. 11, 2946.

Verse 7.

But he said to them: It is not for you to know the times or the
seasons, which the Father has reserved to his own power. (As if he
should say: Let my Father and me be concerned with what is to happen;
go, and do what I bid you. L. 21, 457.)

Applications. 1.) So Christ also forbids, Mark 13:32, that anyone
should be certain of the last day, on what day or year he will come.
L. 6, 1489.