# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 05 03_S69
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never pass away, now or forevermore."

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 1.

St. Louis, Mo., May 3, 1845.

No. 18.

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

(Submitted by Pastor Schieferdecker.)

A Proof, Wrung From Us, That the Methodists Are a Sect.

One can scarcely believe how a paper that gives itself the honorable name of the Christian Apologist (that is, a defender of scriptural doctrine) can so completely forget its purpose, and, instead of standing for Christ, come forward as an enemy against his holy, divine truth. The "Apologete" has shown this, as it has done several times before, so also in particular in its No. 14 of April 4 of this year, in which it displays its bitterness against the "Lutheraner," and especially against an essay in it that flowed, without any hostile intent, purely from the heartfelt desire to give erring brethren a pointer toward the truth. Since the "Apologete" challenges us to open combat, it does not become us, out of a false love of peace, to flee the Lord's contest, but rather to fight joyfully for the faith of the Gospel. The "Apologete" first wants proof that the Methodists are a sect, and asserts that no one has yet supplied this proof. Has it then been for nothing, what, among others, the perceptive Dr. Sihler proved so clearly and as bright as sunlight in the Lutheran Kirchenzeitung? And yet the "Apologete" dares so boldly to assert that no one has yet furnished the proof that the Methodists are a sect? By this he testifies how little a proof grounded in God's clear Word counts with him, and how little inclination he has to acknowledge the truth when it touches the rotten spots of his church. How should one expect him to be more willing now to accept this proof, if we repeat it for him briefly and summarily! And yet we will do it, not only for the sake of the "Apologete," but chiefly for the sake of those who, though misled by him, are not yet so blinded that no ray of truth can any longer pierce the fog of their prejudices.

According to Holy Scripture, a sect is a community of people who have departed from the doctrine of the prophets and apostles and who, through their false doctrine, are the cause of the church of God being torn and rent apart; who also will not be set right, but persist in their error, and show enmity toward the true church and doctrine. For in Romans 16:17 the apostle says: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the innocent."

Now if the "Apologete" wants proof that the Methodists are a sect, we point him, first, to their false teachings on Baptism and on the Lord's Supper. It may well be something often said, what we charge the Methodists with in regard to the sacraments. But we must repeat it as often and as long as they insist on the glory and the name of the true church. The less weight the sects place upon the Lord's most holy institutions, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the more the truly believing church is compelled in its conscience to testify to the truth. Concerning Baptism, the Methodists teach, according to their Church Discipline, page 17: "It is not only a sign of the Christian confession, whereby Christians are distinguished from the unbaptized, but it is also a sign of the new birth, or regeneration." That is to say, in other words: it is merely an image by which the new birth is represented. Yet the Methodists deny that through Baptism the new birth truly and actually takes place; for anyone can see that the image of a thing is not the thing itself. But here the doctrine of the Methodists directly contradicts Holy Scripture; for St. Paul expressly calls Baptism a washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5.

Just as contrary to Scripture is the doctrine of the Methodists concerning the Holy Supper; for they say, according to their Church Discipline, page 15: "The means by which we receive and enjoy the body of Christ in the Supper is faith," and "only those have part in the body and blood of Christ who partake of the sacrament in a worthy manner and in faith." That the Methodists do not believe in the true, essential presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Supper, they have made all too plain in the "Apologete" and elsewhere. In this confession, cited from their Church Discipline, they somewhat veil their unbelief; yet they betray themselves nonetheless by accepting only such a partaking of the body and blood of Christ as occurs through faith. Whoever holds that the sacramental eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ under bread and wine in the Holy Supper is nothing other than the spiritual eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ through faith, abolishes the essence of the sacrament and retains nothing more of it than what we also have otherwise, apart from the Supper. For to eat Christ's body and blood through faith is: to appropriate to oneself in faith the benefits and merits of Christ. According to their doctrine, then, the Methodists receive in the Holy Supper nothing other than what a Christian who stands in faith can also enjoy at any ordinary meal. Let the "Apologete" lament ever so much that Luther was so firm and unyielding in the doctrine of the Supper; he only proves thereby how well founded our assertion is, that the Methodists hold this most holy institution of our Lord Jesus Christ for nothing. The third mark that the Methodists are a sect is their false doctrine of justification. Whereas other Christian sects, despite their false doctrine of the Holy Supper, have nevertheless never presumed to ascribe a higher value to the Christian's conduct than to the holy sacraments, and would abhor it as a detestable arrogance to prefer their beggarly righteousness to the cleansing and sanctifying power of the sacraments; the whole doctrine and practice of the Methodists proves that they value their works and their conduct more highly than the righteousness that comes from faith in Jesus Christ and is sealed to us in Word and sacrament. Among other things, the "Apologete" makes the mocking reproach against the Lutheran Church: "It seems the Lutheran Church places a higher value on the doctrine of the sacraments than on conduct." Such a reproach, from the mouth of a Christian! Who can read it without indignation? Hereby