# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1859_S124
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

124 On the Difference in the Law between the Missouri Synod, etc.

dreadful to hear, that in one and the same church, or at one and the
same altar, both parties should receive and partake of one and the same
sacrament, and one party should believe that it receives mere bread and
wine, while the other party believes that it receives the true body and
blood of Christ. And I often doubt whether it is to be believed that a
preacher or pastor could be so hardened and malicious as to keep silent
about this, and let both parties go on, each in its own delusion, that
they receive one and the same sacrament, each according to his own
belief, etc. But if there be indeed such a man, he must have a heart
harder than stone, steel, or diamond; he must surely be an apostle of
wrath. For Turks and Jews are far better, who deny our sacrament and
confess it openly; for by that we remain undeceived by them and fall
into no idolatry. But these fellows would have to be the very highest
archdevils, who give me mere bread and wine and let me hold it for the
body and blood of Christ, and so wretchedly deceive me. That would be
too hot and too harsh a thing; God will strike down on that before long.
Therefore, whoever has such preachers, or suspects as much of them, let
him be warned against them, as against the devil incarnate himself." —

We have now, in what precedes, set forth openly what separates us from
the General Synod; we have spoken our heart's opinion without reserve,
for it truly matters to us that the Lutheran Church of America become
united and that peace reign within her borders. But that cannot be,
unless what hinders unity is first uncovered, so that it may then, with
God's help, be done away with. — Come, then, you papers of the General
Synod, speak out now, for once, openly, what you think in your hearts
against us, and set forth the facts on which your contradiction and
your ill will toward us are grounded. Leave off all this much talk of
love and brotherliness and peace and the edification of the "beloved
Lutheran Zion," and act, for once, in truth lovingly and in brotherly
fashion — that is, confess either that there are "abominations" in the
General Synod and that you honestly intend to fight against them, or
prove that there are no such abominations, and that our struggle against
you is therefore a sinful one, so that we may recognize and abandon
that sin. But do not spare us, and do not, out of forbearance, omit the
proof and the facts. —

So long as the General Synod refuses to put away its manifest sins in
confession and practice, but resists the truth, and the President of
the General Synod even blows the trumpets of glory with full cheeks and
proclaims: "the General Synod is by far the purest and best Lutheran
body now existing in the world, whether in Europe or in America, an
honor to our Church and to our names, and one that promises more for a
living and spiritual Christianity, and for the future greatness and
glory of our beloved Lutheran Zion, than is to be found anywhere else"
— so long can there be for us but one manner of warfare, prescribed by
God in 2 Thess. 2:25: "rebuke the gainsayers, if perhaps God will at
some time give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." X.