# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 02 22_S49
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never now nor ever pass away."

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 1.

St. Louis, Mo., February 22, 1845.

No. 13.

Terms: The Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar and twenty-five cents for out-of-town subscribers, half of which they must pay in advance, and who must also bear the cost of postage. — In St. Louis, each single issue is sold for 6¼ cents.

The Interrupted Rebuilding of the
Temple at Jerusalem.
(Compiled from the sources by E. G. W. Keyl.)

Julian, born in the year 331 after the birth of Christ, the unworthy nephew of Constantine the Great, was indeed instructed with all faithfulness in Christianity in his youth; but because he also attended, with great fondness and against the will of his parents, the instruction of pagan teachers, the seed of the divine Word was soon choked in him by the weeds of pagan doctrine. Yet he knew how to conceal his apostasy for so long that the people, believing him to be a Christian, elected him emperor in the year 361. But then he threw off the mask, publicly renounced Christ, and unashamedly embraced paganism with all its abominations, for which the Christian church rightly gave him the surname Apostata, or the Apostate. He was also intent on suppressing Christianity throughout his entire realm and reviving paganism—not, indeed, the old paganism (for that had almost entirely outlived itself), but rather a new paganism, to which he sought to give a Christian veneer by mixing in some Christian customs and moral teachings. To achieve this purpose he used many cunning devices against the Christians, and where these would not help, open violence; in particular he took pains to make the Christians, and everything that was sacred to them—their faith, the Bible, the Lord Christ, whom he mockingly called only the Galilean—an object of ridicule and contempt before all the world. Unfortunately many Christians were moved to apostatize, though some of these later returned to Christ in repentance. Many, however, remained steadfast in their faith and endured everything, even death itself, rather than deny Christ. In this they were encouraged by their teachers in word and deed—for example, by Basil, who joyfully suffered a martyr's death, and by St. Athanasius, who comforted the Christians in the face of the raging Julian with the courageous words: "Do not be afraid; it is a little cloud, it will soon pass by." And so it happened; for not even two years had passed since Julian had become emperor and an open enemy of Christ, when he marched to war against the Persians and swore to the Christians that, should he return victorious, the next war would be waged against them. But behold, Christ conquered him, and Julian himself was forced to confess this; for when a hostile missile had mortally wounded him, he flung a handful of the streaming blood into the air in rage and cried out as he died: "Galilean, you have conquered!"

Among the manifold but unsuccessful attempts of Julian to bring the Christian religion into disgrace, one of the most remarkable is his undertaking—interrupted, however, by God's hand—to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem. Filled with bitter hatred toward the Christians, and in order to wound them all the more keenly, Julian began to show himself extremely well-disposed and friendly toward the Jews, since they too hated the Christians with their whole heart. He asked for their intercession for his own welfare and that of the empire, and when they, encouraged by these unexpected tokens of imperial favor, sent an embassy to him, he asked them, with feigned sympathy, why they no longer offered sacrifices to their God as Moses had commanded. They replied that they were permitted to do this in no other place than the Temple at Jerusalem; but since the city and the Temple had long since been destroyed and their people scattered, they found themselves unable to comply with that commandment concerning the sacrifices. Julian, who was well acquainted with Christ's prophecy, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" (Matthew 23:38), believed that he could best bring this prophecy into disrepute by rebuilding the Temple, and thereby at the same time deal Christianity in general the surest and final blow. He therefore granted the Jewish envoys permission to restore their Temple and its worship, indeed in its full former splendor; he even promised all the necessary support from the public treasury for this purpose.

This news spread quickly through all lands and filled all the Jews with unspeakable joy, which grew so insolent that they publicly mocked the Christians, threatened them with harsh persecutions, and in several places even set fire to their churches. In the confident hope that the intended work would succeed, they now set about it hastily and with great zeal. From near and far, even from the most remote lands, Jews streamed to Jerusalem in great crowds; large sums of money were collected, and even the Jewish women brought their most precious jewelry as a contribution. The necessary tools and building materials were brought in great quantity, and in order that the whole undertaking might proceed all the better, Julian charged one of his highest officials, named Alypius, with overseeing it. Now that everything was in readiness, and a countless multitude of workers—among them even many women—had gathered in impatient anticipation, the preliminary work for the building was begun with great zeal. The building site was cleared; the remains of the former structure that were found were carried away; new ground was dug in order to locate the former foundation wall. But in the midst of the work a violent storm and whirlwind suddenly arose and scattered a great quantity of gypsum and lime that had been piled up in many thousands of sacks.

At that time there lived in Jerusalem a renowned bishop named Cyril; when he saw that many devout Christians watched the progress of this undertaking with anxious expectation, he reassured them with the prophecies of Daniel (chapter 9:26–27) and of the Lord Christ (Matthew 23:38; chapter 24:2), proving to them from these that this building could not proceed successfully—as indeed soon became evident before the eyes of all.

The rubble of the former Temple had by now been cleared away to such an extent that they had reached the foundation and were on the point of beginning the new construction the following day, when, the night before, an unprecedented earthquake occurred and hurled out the lowest foundation stones along with everything that surrounded them. As a result of this earthquake many buildings near the Temple site collapsed, and many Jews met their death beneath the ruins or were pulled out mutilated. Yet this sign of the wrath of the strong, zealous God did not yet frighten the Jews away from their undertaking.