# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 04 19_S68
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

1. Arius once maintained that, apart from the one article in which he taught differently, he agreed with the church in all other points; indeed, he thought that he believed the doctrine of God the Father, of redemption, of justification, of the sacraments, and the like, even better than those Christians who called themselves the orthodox. But in this he erred very greatly; "for whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father," says John in his first epistle, chapter 2:23; "and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life," chapter 5:12. Therefore Arius had neither the right knowledge of the Father, nor the true, living, and saving faith concerning the forgiveness of sins, and so forth.

If we apply this first to the Roman Catholic Church, it indeed professes, as it does the Apostles' Creed, so also the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds; but through its papistic false doctrines and long-notorious gross heresies — indeed, through its enmity against all confessors of the faith that alone justifies and saves — it again nullifies those Christian creeds and contradicts them to such a degree that in it, too, an entirely different Christ results, and thus a different Father, a different Comforter, a different forgiveness, and, in sum, an entirely different faith, than that which Holy Scripture alone has taught as leading to salvation.

Let Mr. Oertel, therefore, in his so-called "Wahrheitsfreund" ("Friend of Truth"), take as much trouble as he likes to justify now even the most dreadful errors that he once abhorred; let him excuse and defend now the whole shameful papal record of life, and the bloodthirsty inquisitions and persecutions with which the Roman see has befouled itself for centuries; let him, on the other hand, with nameless blindness, derive all the disgraces and evils of the last three centuries solely from the highly blessed work of the Reformation, and thus faithlessly deny and condemn the true faith of his own Lutheran forefathers — we, with God's help, intend to remain faithful to this Lutheran faith, as the true old-catholic, that is, genuinely Christian, faith, just as Mr. Oertel himself, upon his departure from Perry County, admonished some members of his former Lutheran congregation, "that they should remain faithful to the truth they had come to know, even should he himself one day fall away from it."
(To be concluded.)

(Submitted by Pastor Schieferdecker.)
On Judging Methodism.

In No. 24, Volume 6, of the "Christian Apologist," a certain Carl Köneke of Mascoutah, Ill., writes: "Six joined our (Methodist) congregation, among them an Israelite, a young man who received holy baptism on the second day of Pentecost; this too occasioned a great solemnity in the congregation. He does not yet have the testimony of the Holy Spirit, although he sought it with longing; but I hope the Lord will soon reveal Himself to his soul and grant it to him according to his faith." This is a striking proof of what enthusiastic notions prevail among the Methodists concerning the workings of the Holy Spirit. According to the writer's own account, this Jew had received baptism and yet did not yet have the testimony of the Holy Spirit; thus, in the Methodist view, the testimony of the Holy Spirit is not present at baptism. But Scripture teaches us otherwise: "There are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one." 1 John 5:8.

When now by the water is to be understood holy baptism, as even the Methodists cannot deny, how then may they separate the testimony of the Holy Spirit from baptism, since Scripture plainly teaches the opposite! Does not Christ Himself also join water and Spirit together? "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John 3:5.

But the Methodist does not believe that the Holy Spirit works through baptism; therefore he seeks, in addition, an immediate testimony of the Holy Spirit. This is the enthusiastic leaven that permeates their whole doctrine as well as their whole practice. They esteem lightly the ordinary means of grace, Word and Sacrament, and seek the assurance of divine grace and the genuineness of the divine work of grace upon their souls not from the Word and Sacrament alone, but chiefly from the feelings of their hearts, which they derive directly from God. One may imagine what sort of treatment — or rather mistreatment — of souls arises from this.

As one example among many, that Israelite — certainly a decent man, but a misled one — may serve. He had himself baptized, certainly out of an honest longing for salvation and grace, for the writer himself testifies of him that he sought with longing.

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Where there is a longing for grace, there the person is also capable of receiving grace. Accordingly, the small spark of faith in this honest Israelite ought to have been awakened and nourished, so that he might joyfully lay hold of the great promises of God in baptism. But instead, doubt about grace is cast into the poor baptized man's heart. For because the Spirit in him does not yet leap up or burst into laughter, or give some other Methodist sign of its presence, they press him to strive after the testimony of the Holy Spirit. The poor man falls into anxiety and confusion; he does not dare to believe that he has already received this testimony with his baptism; he accommodates himself to the accepted form and confesses that he does not yet have the testimony, but that he is seeking it. Thus the poor man is misled into turning his trust away from the promises of God and from the means of grace that God has ordained, and into giving himself up instead to the delusions of his own heart. The comfort of holy baptism is now wholly lost to him; it is to him nothing more than an empty ceremony; and what can this ceremony still mean to him, if it has not given him the most important thing — the assurance of grace? Thus the Methodists' perverse treatment of souls destroys all firm confidence in the Word and the promises of God, and abandons the person to the self-deception of his own heart. The good fruit awakened by the preaching of repentance is soon stifled again in its very germ by this unconscionable handling of souls, and instead of a healthy, well-formed convert in Christ, a monstrosity is born.

P.S. — The undersigned has just now learned, from No. 14 of the "Apologist," that a reply has been made to his "Call to Lutherans," etc. The undersigned intends, in the next number of "Der Lutheraner," to lay this reply before the reader in question as a specimen of the Methodist spirit.

Instruction for Those Who Are Assailed on Account of the Weakness of Their Faith.
(Taken from Nikolaus Selnecker's Consilia Lunebergensia, part I, p. 130.)

When our faith makes itself felt as weak in our heart, we should, as God's Word itself teaches us, give heed to the following:

1. That faith is God's work and gift, 1 Thessalonians 3; John 6.

2. That we ask and examine ourselves whether we desire to believe, and wish that our faith were stronger and more powerful. Where the will is present, there God's work and power are present. For even the smallest willing is God's power and working, as St. Paul testifies, that God works the willing in us as well. Therefore even a weak, small will is God's work.

3. That we look to the ground and foundation of our faith, which is not our own feeling, condition, strength, worthiness, work, or merit, but is the sole merit, innocence, satisfaction, obedience, suffering, wounds, and death, and the blood of Jesus Christ, which we grasp, take hold of, and make our own by our faith, as by a means, a hand, and an instrument. Indeed, just as a small, weak little child grasps a precious ring with its weak little finger no less than a great, strong Samson might grasp this same ring with his whole fist — for it is, after all, one and the same ring, which is not diminished by the weakness of the child, nor increased by the strength of the mighty Samson. It is and remains one ring — namely, one merit, one satisfaction, for the weak as for the strong; indeed, more for the weak than for those who suppose themselves to be strong.

4. Here belongs also dear prayer from a humble heart, after the example of the sorrowful man who had a poor possessed child, and to whom the Lord said: "If thou canst believe, thou shalt be helped; for all things are possible to him that believeth." "Ah, Lord" (says the troubled father, weeping hot tears), "I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

5. We know that the Holy Spirit Himself works and carries forward our prayer, sighing, and tears, warms and encourages them, so that they go forth fervently and pierce through the clouds and fill God's ears; as Paul testifies in Romans 8, that the Holy Spirit helps our weakness and intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered; and through Him we cry, "Abba, dear Father"; wherefore He is called a Spirit of grace and of supplication, Zechariah 12, who bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God.

6. We have the comforting promise that the Lord God will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Matthew 12.

If we weigh these six small points in our hearts, then, by God's grace, we can withstand and overcome the assault that comes from the weakness of our faith, and, more and more as time goes on, arrive at our salvation through every adversity. And so we live, so we die, so we are saved.

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