# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1864_S383
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History. 383

The descent into hell benefits his own, the believers, but not the
unbelieving and the damned; it benefits, above all, the living, so
that they do not come into the φυλακή [prison], but not the dead, so
that they might come back out of the dungeon — whoever teaches
otherwise teaches according to his own private fancy, and should take
good care that he does not undermine the foundation and shake the
whole structure of Christian doctrine." And in closing: "After all
these discussions we turn back again to the beginning and sum up the
results, in the hope that this or that reader may have been confirmed
in his 'childlike faith' and may have drawn some material from what
has been presented for the defense against modern theories. So: no
epoch-making influence of the descent into hell upon the limbus
Patrum, the Old Testament Sheol; still less the establishment of a
continuing evangelical preaching for those who died in unbelief;
further, no confusion of the descent into hell with Christ's state of
death, and no division of his person, as if the soul alone had gone
down to hell. On every one of these wrong paths one plunges into the
very greatest dogmatic difficulties and tears oneself loose from
Scripture, which lets the whole Christ go down to hell, there to
preach judgment, after he had taken up his new life; the right way is
simply the long-trodden one, that we do not dispute much, with the
Formula of Concord, about the How, but rather simply believe and teach
as Luther already believed according to Scripture and taught in
particular at Torgau: 'So I too believe here, that Christ himself in
person destroyed hell and bound the devil; whether God grant the
banner, gates, doors, and chains were of wood, of iron, or none at
all, that matters nothing, if only I hold fast to this: that by such
images it is signified that I should believe concerning Christ; which
is the main point, the use and the power we have from it, namely that
neither hell nor the devil can take captive or harm me and all who
believe in him.' (20, p. 170)." We must invite our readers to read the
essay itself. It belongs among the now so rare instances of sound
Lutheran theology.

"Sonntagsbote" ["Sunday Messenger"] is the title of a Christian
people's paper which has appeared in Saxony alongside the "Pilger"
["Pilgrim"] since July 1 of this year. The "Sonntagsbote" is edited by
Pastors Florey, Mehr, and Stichart, and appears weekly on a quarter-
sheet at an annual price of 16 groschen. It appears that the change
which has come over the "Pilger" since the beginning of this year
called into being the idea of letting such a paper as the
"Sonntagsbote" appear alongside the "Pilger." The latter has namely
begun to strike a somewhat higher tone and to make somewhat greater
demands on the understanding and taste of its readers. In particular
it has of late communicated much bearing on church art history. It is
very doubtful whether the dear "Pilger," in its present condition,
does more good than it formerly did.

The Luther Society at Stade (a kind of Gustav-Adolph Society, except
that the former is confessional) celebrated its 8th annual festival on
August 30. Its yearly income had amounted to about 666 thalers, of
which, among other things, 132 thalers were allotted to our
pro-seminary at Steeden and 40 thalers to the "Church in North
America."

Waldeck. Nagel writes as follows in his "Kirchenblatt" of July 1:
"It will bring our readers joy and strengthening of faith to hear that
two Lutheran congregations have recently constituted themselves in the
Principality of Waldeck and have attached themselves to the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia in such a way that they intend
to conform entirely to our rule, both in confession and in
constitution. These are the congregations of Sachsenberg and Corbach.
As early as 1859 some Lutherans of Waldeck, who believed the Lutheran
Church of their land endangered or already destroyed by the Union
Edict of the year 1821, had turned to Pastor Crome with a request for
advice. They were first advised to ask their prince for protection of
the Lutheran Church, and, failing that, to break off church fellowship
with united clergy and to attempt, together with those pastors of
their land who still stood on the Lutheran confession, the restoration
of the Lutheran church. For a long time we heard nothing of the
further development of this matter. In the year 1861 Pastor Rocholl in
Sachsenberg, for the sake of the union, laid down his