# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1859_S230
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

230 Church and Contemporary History.

chiliasm stirs can reveal itself here much more bodily than there: one sees that in the Mormons, the Anabaptists, the Hoffmannites, the English missions to the Jews, and a thousand others, down to those who try to keep chiliasm shut up within themselves as best they can, like some sweet secret. But it seems to us, on our understanding of the matter, very questionable that we, now that so countless many souls have been ruined by chiliasm in the sects named, and we ourselves have been spurred on to it at the last synod — indeed, since almost the whole Protestant world is infected by it — should now act as though we were speaking of matters quite remote from us. If chiliasm is right, then we must, as Löhe does, accuse our church of not having taught it until now; and if it is wrong, then we must contend against it. To be sure, I do not wish to begin with excommunications and removals from office. But I say, it does no good to paper over the matter. It is evident, and not to be concealed, that there is a difference of opinion about these things (and, to be sure, therefore at once about several others as well). Shall one party now secretly outmaneuver the other, or silence it by ignoring it to death, or otherwise suppress it? That would be neither brotherly nor honest. We ought to care so much for souls that we do not keep silent, for the sake of a rotten peace, in matters so exceedingly important. I well know that many, such as Freimund, fear that if, among those who still emphatically call themselves Lutherans (among whom, in truth, there are very many who are not Lutherans at all), one were now to discuss doctrinal differences in earnest, this little band too would be considerably thinned out. To that I say: should the divisions over doctrine among us become still greater on that account, it will grieve us deeply; but we must bear it, rather than let the pure doctrine perish from the world altogether. And how foolish it would be: in order not to acknowledge false doctrine, we abandoned the world-encompassing edifice of the Roman church, and now we should be unwilling to abandon the wretched tents of this present time, where once again false doctrines are at issue which, once they have shown themselves openly, will turn the whole of Christianity upside down just as the papacy did — indeed even more disastrously. Or is one to give anything for a promise that ran: we will not go as far as Israel Pick, or as Hoffmann? Is it within any man's power how far his teaching-principle must go? Doctrines work themselves out according to the spirit that is in them. And if you are perhaps too cowardly or too lazy to follow your afflicted conscience far enough that it catches fire and flame, then more honest and sincere men will soon be found who will carry on your feeble beginning with greater zeal.

For the rest, we still believe that if we in Prussia would only speak openly and honestly with one another, and compare our views, we could still continue on without division. GOD would hear our supplication and make us one in truth and in reality. But it is time, now that chiliasm blazes up ever greater all around us, that we all come to a clear understanding with it, so that we may be able to stand against it together. —

As for the case of the Missouri pastor Schieferdecker, I am, so far as I know of it, convinced that the synod acted quite rightly in excluding him, after his likewise chiliastically-minded congregation had caused manifold disturbances in other Lutheran congregations."

Vienna, March 19. The Consistories of the Augsburg and the Helvetic Confession have repeatedly appealed to the Ministry of Worship that the marriage impediment of § 63 of the general civil code (the reception of higher ordinations and the taking of solemn vows of orders) be lifted with regard to those Catholic clergy who have gone over to the evangelical faith, and for whom the principles of canon law, and in particular the Catholic marriage laws, can no longer be binding. This petition the Ministry, by decree of January 1, 1859, has not granted, allegedly "because the higher ordinations, according to Catholic institutions, are a sacrament and impress an indelible mark; because § 63 is a necessary consequence of the legal recognition which the Catholic church in Austria has enjoyed from time immemorial, and could only be repealed if the Austrian government were either to withdraw its support from every churchly ordinance, or at least, in the handling of all questions relating thereto, to take its stand solely on the position of the Protestant confessions" — etc.

Brunswick. We read the following in the Church Gazette for the Evangelical Lutheran congregation of the Duchy of Brunswick: The new catechism, which by ordinance of December 28 of last year was appointed for introduction into the Evangelical Lutheran churches and schools of our land, has now at last been issued this month of April, and with it the catechism-shortage in our land has, to our great satisfaction, come to an end. For the new catechism teaches in accordance with the confession of our church, and through its ordinance for all the churches and schools of the land, our church government gives the declaration that it wills this evangelical doctrine to be taught by all church offices. God be praised and thanked, who has helped us thus far! It is a great blessing to labor with a good, sure, and settled conscience — one sees that in this catechism; one notices how it allowed its reverend author to bring his laborious work to completion with joyful confidence. We press the faithful, diligent hand that has labored for us with such energetic devotion.