# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 02 22_S50
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the contrary, they went back to the work with all the greater eagerness. Therefore God performed a new miracle. A mass of fire shot up out of the depths, consumed or scorched the workers, and destroyed a great quantity of the building materials; and this conflagration lasted the whole day. Through all this some Jews were moved to become Christians; they confessed that Jesus Christ was the true Messiah and that he himself had thwarted the rebuilding of the Temple. But most of the Jews, like the Emperor Julian, remained obstinate and blinded, and withdrew from Jerusalem full of discontent. Since that time no attempt has ever again been made to build the Temple.

The Christian witnesses to this wondrous event are Rufinus, in his continuation of Eusebius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Ambrose, and Chrysostom, all of whom lived around this time. Further, the three church historians Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, who lived in the following century. Finally, in agreement with all of these stands not only Julian's own report in his twenty-fifth letter, but also another pagan writer, Ammianus Marcellinus, in his history of the Roman emperors,*) who was himself part of Julian's retinue and therefore deserves full credibility, since he was never a friend of the Christians. This event thus has such reliable testimony in its favor that there is not the least reason to doubt it; for even if one were unwilling to trust the report of friends, this still leaves no room for doubt, since even enemies relate our history.

*) Thus writes the pagan Ammianus Marcellinus in his Hist. rerum sub Impp. Constantino, Juliano etc. gestarum, book 23, chapter 1: "Quum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alypius, iuvaretque provinciae rector, metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes, fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum; hocque modo elemento destinatius repellente cessavit inceptum." In English: "Therefore, while Alypius was vigorously pressing on with the task and the governor of the province was assisting him, fearsome balls of flame broke out repeatedly near the foundations, making the place inaccessible after the workers had several times been consumed by the flames; and thus, since the element offered such stubborn resistance, the work that had been begun had to be abandoned."

50

Now if so-called "strong spirits" should nevertheless wish to find fault with this history and mock Christians as credulous people, let them consider: it was not written for their sake, and for their sake it will not be suppressed either. Christians, however, know well that God can still work miracles today, as in former times, when he wills, to confirm his true Word. And this is precisely what he does through the miracles here related; for Christ's prophecy concerning the Temple had to be, and was bound to be, fulfilled—that not one stone should be left upon another, and that this house should be left desolate. Just as true are likewise all the other words of Holy Scripture; therefore all the efforts of the father of lies and his following have not yet, up to now, been able to bring even a single word of the Bible to nothing, nor will they ever be able to do so. They themselves, together with their structure, will perish and come to a fearful end, but the Word of the Lord remains forever, and all who are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord!

"The Evangelical Church in North America."
(Continued.)

Having examined the first argument that the Evangelicals here in the West advance for their cause, and having, we hope, convincingly shown that one flock under one shepherd has indeed come into being, and that Christ's prophecy concerning this has been fulfilled through the calling of the Gentiles into his kingdom, and continues to be fulfilled in this way daily until the Last Day, we now turn to the second argument that the members of the aforementioned society advance in justification of their undertaking. It is this:

"That, in accordance with the explicit admonition of the apostle, 'Let there be no divisions among you,' there exists an obligation for all Christians in general, but especially for the teachers and representatives of the church, to reconcile, according to the circumstances and by the way of peaceful agreement, the divisions that have arisen within it, and gradually to reunite what has been separated."

If the Evangelicals meant by this that it is every Christian's duty to do, for his part, what he can, so that a true union in the truth might be brought about among all those hitherto separated from one another by errors, then indeed every reasonable person would have to agree with them. But that is not what is at issue here.

What the Evangelicals wish to prove by this is rather that the union as they have established it is commanded by God himself through the apostle's word, "Let there be no divisions among you," and that therefore all those who might oppose their work are enemies of unity and disturbers of peace and order. Unfortunately, however, we must here again accuse the Evangelicals of a misuse of the Word of God; for this apostolic admonition which they cite, when considered in its context, is by no means in their favor, but rather entirely against them—indeed, it is a veritable thunderclap against all such false union-making. For, to set it before our readers once more in full, it reads thus: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." (1 Corinthians 1:10.) Is a union commanded here that, as the Evangelicals say, is brought about by human "peaceful agreement"? No! Rather, it is one that consists in this: that one speaks the same thing, in one mind and in the same judgment—that is, that one is united not through mutual concession in the articles of faith, but through a shared, strict adherence to the truth. If, therefore, a church is not gathered together by one faith, one doctrine, and one confession on the part of its members, and is not united on this foundation but on human peaceableness, then, according to that saying, such a church already rests on an unchristian principle; it is a human contrivance, comparable to an army in which all indeed wear one and the same uniform, but must fight against one another. A visible church is nothing other than a body of people who have joined together outwardly because they hold one and the same doctrine to be true in their hearts and confess it with their mouths; where this is not even the case, a community can no longer lay any claim at all to the name "church"; it is in fact an absurdity—not a union, but merely a uniforming.

But does not the apostle also plainly say, "Let there be no divisions among you"? Indeed he does say this; woe, therefore, to him who despises this apostolic—and therefore divine—admonition, and causes divisions and separations in the Christian church! Woe, therefore, to all disturbers of the true peace in the house of God! But what does it mean to cause divisions? According to God's Word, this can happen in two ways: first, when someone introduces a new, false doctrine and thereby tears the members of the orthodox church away from it (Romans 16:17); or second, when someone, out of an unloving spirit, personal hatred, pride, obstinacy, mere external ceremonies, or failings of life and the like, separates himself in church fellowship from those with whom he is nevertheless in agreement in the pure Christian doctrine. The first is called in Holy Scripture forming a faction or sect (a heretical fellowship); the other is called making a mere division or separation (a schism) (1 Corinthians 11:18; compare 1:11–13). The former is caused by the heretic, the latter by the separatist.

Now which kind of division is it that exists between Lutherans and Reformed? Clearly the first kind; for it arose, as all the world knows, from nothing other than disagreement in doctrine. That such a division arose is, to be sure, a matter for no small lament; for three hundred years now it has brought terrible, irreparable harm to the kingdom of God. But we ask all who know even a little of the history of the Reformation: who was the unfortunate author of this division, and who therefore must answer for it before God? Not Luther, but Zwingli alone. For although also the