# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 08 02_S206
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

I have always been a country pastor, and have observed everywhere and at all times (thank God the examples were not frequent): whoever has once doubted the divinity of Scripture has doubted everything, even his own immortal soul; whoever has not believed in Christ as the God-man and blotter-out of sin has in the end no longer believed in any God at all. And thus, in the most literal and most dreadful manner, the saying of John is fulfilled: "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either." (1 John 2:23.) —

But now I turn to you, my dear Christian-evangelical people, who have hitherto held to the good, time-tested faith of your fathers, with the earnest question: Will you go over to the Friends of Light? Will you deny the Gospel? Will you renounce Christianity? Will you step back into a Judaism that is indeed cleansed of superstition, but so very meager and comfortless? O dear brothers! I exhort you: let such a step fill you with dread! Truly, the Church of Christ bears within her precious, priceless treasures, which our fathers, through God's mercy, received again in their full fullness and purity and have bequeathed to us — do not esteem them lightly! Look at them well before you give them up, lest you regret it forever! Consider well what you would lose through apostasy.

As Friends of Light, you no longer have baptism. You were once, in the early days of your life, baptized in the name of the Triune God. But in your opinion that was foolish, for there is, as you say, no Triune God. You ought to have been baptized only "in the name of the Father"; and that then would have meant nothing more than that you, once you grew up, should use your moral powers to lead a pure and godly life according to God's will, and that your parents and godparents had the duty to see to it that you were trained to such a life. That is why a certain pastor (outside of Prussia and Saxony) has already left dear God entirely out of baptism, and poured water on the little child "in the name of holy virtue." Oh, how people used to rejoice when the human child had been born into the world amid fear and pain, born flesh of flesh — how they used to rejoice to go with it into God's house, "to the grace-filled water of life and bath of the new birth in the Holy Spirit"! But now it is "a mere plain water," that is, an entirely ordinary water, to which enlightened reason can attribute no further effect, no blessing. Formerly, when one came home with the baptized child, the mother would press it, weeping, to her breast and say, "you dear child of God!" and the father would kiss it and say, "you dear heir of heaven!" Now, in the best case, they say: "Well, we shall raise him into a capable man, her into a good girl."

As Friends of Light, you no longer have the Lord's Supper, no "Sacrament of the Altar." You come together in no other way than as if you wished to observe the memory of some otherwise famous and dear departed person — your late grandfather, who is held in blessed remembrance by the family, or the deceased mayor, who, whatever else may be said against him, rendered good service to the city. There, to be sure, one can be moved in remembrance, can send thanks after the departed one into eternity, and the wish that he may be rewarded in the world beyond, and can also resolve to strive after his virtues. I will grant that this too may take place at your Lord's Supper, in remembrance of Jesus. But to proclaim the Lord's death, that he died for your sin — that you cannot do; a heavenly seal of the forgiveness of your guilt, a holy pledge of a calling to the great supper in heaven, you do not receive; a wonderful means of coming into the most intimate communion of life with him who is life itself is not offered to you. For the Lord does not feed and give you drink with his body and blood, with himself; it is nothing but a natural meal and a natural act of enjoyment — and how can bread and wine, how can bodily eating and drinking, accomplish such great things?

As Friends of Light, you no longer have a word of God. This they have, as you have heard, emphatically declared: that the word in holy Scripture may no longer claim to be infallible truth, to be God's word. So, whatever shall henceforth enlighten you concerning the higher world, whatever shall direct your feet toward the blessed gates of the eternal world, whatever shall counsel you in your innermost, dearest, holiest concerns, is a human word — a fallible human word, that may perhaps be right, but that can also deceive you. Formerly it was said: the prophet Isaiah, the apostle Paul speaks in the Spirit of God, etc. — now it is said: old Paul, the even older Isaiah, are of the opinion, etc. — formerly it was said: God the Lord, the Most High himself speaks, etc. — now: pastor A. B. C. lets his thoughts be heard as follows, etc. —

No word of God anymore! — O dear souls, have you considered what that means? When, after the sour weekdays, dear Sunday has dawned, and the bells ring out like an angel's greeting and a herald's call from above, the father of the house can no longer say: Come, wife! Come, children! Let us go to church, to hear the word of our God. When that poor widow has lost her only cow, her last earthly help, she can no longer sit hidden behind the church pillar and weep sweet tears over the comfort of the preaching of the divine word. When a father lies seven months on his bed, sick in body, weary in soul, and says to his daughter, "My child, read me something from God's word, that I may be refreshed in my misery" — then the little daughter must say: "Ah, father! You have surely forgotten that the Bible is no longer God's word; strengthen yourself from your enlightened reason." When the awakening sinner hears his accusing conscience, and the terrors of the coming judgment make his soul tremble, he can no longer, however penitent and eager for salvation he may be, have the forgiveness of his sins pronounced to him out of God's word. When the poor, frail human being is assailed by his own desire and by the temptations of the world and by the cunning assaults of the evil one, he can no longer take up "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God"!

No word of God anymore! — ah, one's heart might well burst with sorrow (and with indignation)! Where now, Evangelical Church, is your holy defiance against all the enemies of your faith and against the raging of all your foes — your holy defiance: "The Word of the Lord endures forever"!? It has collapsed, and those outside laugh and jeer at you. Where now, Gustavus Adolphus, is the golden inscription on your gorget, under which you, fallen yet certain of victory, breathed out your heroic soul — the golden inscription: "The Word of the Lord endures forever"!?*) Its golden gleam is extinguished; it is eaten away by rust. The enlightened minds within our own Church itself trumpet on every side: there is no longer any word of God! Therefore it cannot endure forever either!

But no, my brothers! let me change my tone. All flesh, all this fleshly art and science, is grass, and all the glory of this world's wisdom is like the flower of the grass; the grass withers and the flower falls — but the Word of the Lord, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

My brothers! do you wish to become Friends of Light? As such, you have — little light. Do not let yourselves be deceived when they open their mouths wide about their mighty enlightenment and how astonishingly bright it has become in their circles. It is an old, true comparison that God's word is like the radiant sun, whereas reason, by contrast, is like a night-lamp. If the sun has set for you — very well, then your night-lamp will light your way, or, if not your own, then that of the great men among the Friends of Light; see how far you get with it. They have, to be sure, pilfered a little heavenly oil for their lamp, for otherwise it would not burn in the least brighter than that of the Chinese; in plainer words: whatever best remains in their teaching, they have nevertheless taken from the Bible, and without the dear Bible they would never have arrived at it, even though it is supposed to be a mere pronouncement of human reason. But for all that, how meager it always remains, what they still possess as essential doctrine, and are able to convey to you [see page 26].

*) In the armory of the fortress of Schwarzburg, the helmet and iron gorget are shown which Gustavus Adolphus wore when he fell in the Battle of Lützen. On the latter stands, in golden letters: Verbum domini manet in aeternum — in German: the Word of the Lord endures forever.