# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 03 08_S53
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall pass away neither now nor ever."

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 1.

St. Louis, Mo., March 8, 1845.

No. 14.

— 53

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar and twenty-five cents for subscribers living at a distance, half of which they must pay in advance, and who must also bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for [illegible] cents.

(Submitted by G. H. Löber.)

The False Teacher Arius and His End.

1. The Age of Arius.

It was without doubt a help as wondrous as it was gracious, which almighty God once showed to his hard-pressed Church on earth through the first Roman emperor to profess Christianity. For almost three centuries, throughout the whole Roman Empire, Christendom had been persecuted most bloodthirstily by blind heathen through Satan's malice, and countless numbers of holy martyrs had been strangled, or burned, hanged, or torn apart by wild beasts, drowned, or otherwise tortured to death in agonizing ways for the sake of their steadfast faith. Even at the beginning of the fourth century the bloody banner of persecution still flew, as ever-new Roman tyrants attempted to blot the name of Christ, his Word, and his confessors from the earth. Indeed, once more the patience of the Christians was put to the utmost test under the cruel raging of a Diocletian, a Galerius, and a Maximinus, so that truly a great part of the hard-pressed grew faint in courage, and sighed to God for deliverance more than ever before.

Behold, then the gracious and merciful God at once heard this sighing of his Church, and made the emperor Constantine into a zealous friend and protector of the same. On a campaign against his rival Maxentius, in the year 312 after Christ, this emperor one midday looked up with burning longing to discern which god he should call upon for victory in the coming battle. And since he had already, in his youth, received various Christian impressions, but had not yet recognized the Mediator and Savior who had also been crucified for him, God now had mercy on him in a special way, and let him behold — as Constantine himself affirmed with an oath to the church historian and bishop Eusebius — a great, shining cross in the sky, on which was shown to him, in two Greek words, the message: "By this you shall conquer."

A dream in the following night confirmed him in his resolve to have the cross of Christ carried before his army from then on as a standard, and God granted victory not only over this one but also over another rival emperor, by both of whom the Christians had likewise been hard oppressed and persecuted.

Thus a great turning point in the history of the Church of Christ was also to be marked and prepared by a special event which divine wisdom had chosen for the purpose. For the more Constantine, without doubt, learned from God's Word to recognize what the true victory was which the cross of Christ had brought to all who believe, the more he took up the cause of the poor cross-bearing Christians, called them forth out of their caves and wildernesses, built them churches and schools, honored and provided for their bishops and teachers, protected their worship assemblies by public laws, instituted days of remembrance for the holy martyrs, and, together with his mother Helena, spent great sums to display publicly and without shame his high regard for Christianity.

Now even though he still lacked deeper insight and Christian experience, and indeed right wisdom in many of his ordinances, it nevertheless remains always true that God at that time used him as an instrument to overthrow the dreadful, dark heathenism in the Roman Empire and to secure for the Christian congregation outward peace and the free, public exercise of their faith.

If, then, the present generation, in its comfortless unbelief, can only doubt and mock the biblical miracles — and all the more, the miracle of Constantine's time — and if now not only heathen but so many who call themselves Christians regard the cross of Christ as foolishness, and instead make "reason and their own strength" their banner and battle-cry, then at that time, without doubt, all devout Christians — whose prayers and intercessions had, moreover, so diligently ascended for this emperor — gave thanks, praise, and honor to the strong and truthful God, that he can help beyond all asking and understanding, and, according to his promise, even in wretched times can make kings the nursing-fathers and princes the nursing-mothers of his congregation. Isaiah 49:23. And so the congregation of Christ, under the protection and peace of the authorities, recovered from long, heavy afflictions, and undoubtedly, in many respects, was better built up, and provision was made more effectively for Christian order in church, schools, and household, than was often possible in times of persecution.

Yet, little as we may therefore deny that times of peace and undisturbed churchly freedom have much good in them, it is equally certain that such times can easily become very dangerous, especially for the inner life of faith in the Son of God. For good days, says our Luther, require strong legs, and all too easily seduce us into carnal security, arrogance, and worldliness — not as though God were to blame for this, who indeed causes both good and bad days to work only for the salvation and good of those who sincerely love him; but our deceitful heart, which in storm and gloomy weather easily sinks down discouraged, just as easily rises under mild sunshine to spiritual heights of pride and hypocrisy. On such heights, humble thanksgiving toward God is forgotten, fervent prayer grows cold and lukewarm, worship becomes a dead habit, and faith a mere matter of the intellect.

And so it happened, unfortunately, that even in the time of the first Christian emperor, much lukewarmness and spiritual pride, much hypocrisy and ungodliness broke into Christendom. Great weight was laid upon outwardly splendid worship and church ceremonies, while the inner power of true faith diminished more and more. The divine Word was indeed still honored and proclaimed as God's Word — quite differently than in most congregations today — but instead of using it for true godliness, many made it rather an object of idle speculation and hairsplitting wordy quarrels, the groundwork for which had already been laid by various teachers of the church in earlier centuries. The spiritual office still stood, indeed, in full esteem as the precious and glorious office of God's called servants (likewise quite differently than today), and was administered by many upright bishops with