# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1859_S227
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History. 227

issue of their paper bears witness to it. When the editors read of learned men or their writings that are almost universally praised, they consider it their duty to join at once in the praise, so as not to be taken for fools — even though the ones praised are the worst rationalists, open enemies of the Christian religion, and subverters of church and state. A remarkable proof of the fabulous ignorance that prevails among the sects is given by the latest number (of May 26) of the "Fröhlicher Botschafter" ["Joyful Messenger"], an organ of the so-called United Brethren, of Dayton. In it, quite artlessly, a godless song by a Swedenborgian is passed along, in which the Holy Trinity is denied in unvarnished words. It says there, for example: "We believe you, Lord Jesus Christ, that you are the Father Himself. We believe you, Lord Jesus Christ, that God is One and He is one — three in one on the highest throne, in a single person."

Chiliasm. The Chambersburg Reformed Church Gazette likewise lends itself to hawking chiliastic-ecclesiastical-political tinkerings and peddling them about. Thus we read, for example, in the number of June 1: "When the falling away from Christianity is here — Paul says 2 Thess. 2 — there will arise (this expression is very significant) an insolent and cunning king, etc., who will at last rebel as Antichrist against the Prince of all princes. That, now, is the work of our time.. A great worldly power, founded on revolution and anti-Christianity, will, in fulfillment of holy Scripture, rise up in the coming years through the son of perdition, who is the angel of the abyss and of whom the prophecy of Revelation 9:11 says that in Hebrew he is called Abaddon, but in Greek he is called Apollyon. Here one might ask: what is that same name or man called — in German?" — One sees that the writer clearly means hereby to hint at Louis Napoleon as the presumed Antichrist. The Reformed Church Gazette ought indeed to be ashamed to take up such foolish, frivolous twaddle as an exposition of divine prophecy.

A Loving Judgment from the General Synod. — The Lutheran Observer writes in an article about the General Synod that its preachers, being occupied with the work of establishing and strengthening the kingdom of God in men's hearts, have no time to engage in strife over subtle points of doctrine, and that such blessed labor fills the heart with the love of God in such rich measure that they would rather receive brothers than repel those who are stricter or freer in ecclesiastical matters than they themselves. But what, despite all the fine words, this "love" actually amounts to — this fruit of these men's dull indifference regarding doctrine and their unconscionable mixing of truth and falsehood from the General Synod — the reader may see from the following words, which the Observer allows to follow immediately upon the above: "It is true that there are a few small parties which call themselves Lutherans, but they are not of us, and there is no hope that the Missourians or the Buffaloans and other small communities will ever grow wiser in their generation. But it is to be expected that their children and children's children will outgrow the narrow prejudices of their fathers and become sensible and useful Christians. As already said, we do not consider these parties Lutherans; they have stolen a piece of Luther's livery, but they do not have his spirit, and would be disowned by the great Reformer if he were now on earth." There one sees what those people understand by "love" and "brothers." Orthodoxy they will tolerate, namely where it does not hinder union with the General Synod and thus does not testify against its prevailing unionistic principles; but if it goes so far, in earnestness for God's truth and in faithfulness to the confession one professes, that one bears witness against the unionistic abominations of the General Synod and keeps oneself apart from it so as not to be defiled by it — then without further ado the staff is broken over one: one is no Lutheran, hence no brother, one does not have Luther's spirit. And why? Well, that the good Observer wisely keeps to himself. He believes he has done enough when he has hurled slanderous and condemning judgments out into the world; as for proof and grounding from undeniable facts and from God's infallible word — which alone makes a judgment valid in such matters — he does not trouble himself with that. That everyone who does not think about the General Synod as he does, and who therefore does not agree with him in doctrine, is no Lutheran and does not have Luther's spirit — of that he is as firmly convinced as that two times two is four; but to prove, from God's word and from certain facts, that he teaches rightly and we falsely — that seems to him unnecessary. He is content once he has fired off his noisy salute and blown smoke before his readers' eyes. A harmless polemic indeed. Ah, and what kind of bombs are they that he, among others, also fires off against the Missourians? Nothing but boomerangs! For that the General Synod is not Lutheran, that it has stolen Luther's name, that it does not have his spirit — this we have held up to it countless times; this we have proven from undeniable facts and from God's infallible word with compelling grounds. Were the men of the General Synod honest, they would have to see that, faced with our testimony, only two paths stand open to them: either to refute us from God's word, or to repent. But the whole course of the controversy has so far shown that