# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 05 03_S71
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

-son who has been awakened by some better preacher of the Roman Catholic church and brought to an honest longing for his salvation? — will not the Methodist then also call out to him: Thank God that he has awakened you this far and set you on the road to salvation; but beware of the leaven of the papist false doctrine, escape the danger of further seduction, and join the true church? If the Methodist answers "Yes" to this, as he cannot answer otherwise, then he has made our very own defense, and the shame he wished to pin on us will fall upon himself instead. May God grant not only to the "Apologete," but to every Methodist, grace to recognize the flaws of his church and to confess them as honestly as we, for our part, have done and continue to do. By God's grace we do not say, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing"; would that our opponent, too, might learn to speak so from the bottom of his heart, so that he would no longer mock the penitent confession of a Lutheran Christian.

(Submitted by G. H. Löber.)

The Heretic Arius and His End.
(Conclusion.)

Concluding Remarks.

The false doctrine of Arius was indeed, for that time, terrible and devastating enough; but on the one hand, far more than mere human nature was still ascribed to our Lord Christ, and on the other hand, testimony was borne against it with all earnestness by the whole church. Today, however, matters have unfortunately come to such a pass that in that very church which, in its unaltered Augsburg Confession, confesses in its very first article that Nicene testimony, and holds fast to the same, according to the wholesome doctrine of the apostles and prophets, as the foundation and cornerstone in all its other articles — countless teachers at churches, schools, and universities now declare the Lord Christ to be nothing but a mere man, and falsify or deny every article of our Confession according to their own reason; and the congregations, for the most part, remain silent about it and do little or nothing to preserve the precious jewel of their faith for themselves and their children.

To be sure, ignorance is unfortunately so great among many that they no longer know at all the glorious faith of their fathers, and let themselves be carried away by all sorts of sects, all of which more or less abandon the One Lord and the One Faith that the old, rightly believing church has confessed from of old, and always set up nothing but something new. Nevertheless, the one true church is, by God's grace, still to be found even in these lands, and is by no means so nearly dissolved and dispersed into mere sects and parties as Pastor Wyneken recently asserted, in too far-reaching a concession, in the face of the American-Catholic church.

[71]

The Lord has, indeed, often let his church go about in reproach, as though she were a forsaken woman, grieved in heart, like a barren Sarah, in contrast to that church which, like Hagar, boasts indeed of her husband, but bears children only after the flesh and unto bondage. (Galatians 4.) Now, however much this proud Hagar-church, in her countless children, may still mock us and defy and vaunt herself over her cathedrals and seminaries, her gold and silver, her saints and their relics, we will gladly leave her all of this, against the one promise that she must leave to us:

"Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not; break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband, saith the Lord." — "Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame; — — for he that made thee is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer." — (Isaiah 54:1-5; compare Galatians 4.)

Therefore all of us who wish to find comfort in this promise and in this Lord of hosts must also hold fast to the pure Word and the unadulterated confession entrusted to us, and must not court an outward union with every possible sect and party, a union which, like clay and iron, can never truly hold together. No — "let the spirits rather clash against one another in open, mutual confession," so that it may be seen who means it faithfully and honestly with the truth! "For justice must yet remain justice, and all upright hearts will fall in with it." Psalm 94:15. But whoever is ashamed of the old truth and would rather persist in his old, long-standing errors, or in his perverse new measures, from him we must separate ourselves and have nothing to do with him. Such a struggle has always been more wholesome for the church than a love without truth and a peace without salt.

Therefore let all of us, to whom the highly important office is entrusted that "our lips should preserve knowledge," call upon God, in view of the history of Arius, that he would graciously keep us from all false doctrine and unbelieving fellowship, and "let us behold the goodness and severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but goodness toward us, provided we continue in his goodness; otherwise we too will be cut off." (Romans 11:22.)

Finally, we have also seen in the history of Arius what evil and dreadful fruits were to be seen among the confessors of the false doctrine, and what good and glorious fruits of faith, of prayer, and of zeal for God's honor were to be seen among the confessors of the pure and correct doctrine. Yet we have also seen many sham virtues among the heretical Arians, and, in turn, a good deal among the orthodox that has not pleased us either. Because one can therefore easily run the danger of being deceived by "wolves in sheep's clothing," but also of being led astray from God's pure Word itself, since those who proclaim it are still subject to all sorts of sins and weaknesses in their lives, Christian congregations cannot take to heart enough the rule that they must carefully distinguish, in their preachers, between doctrine and life. To be sure, a teacher bears a great responsibility if, through his life, he brings the Gospel into ill repute and gives the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme; but his life can be brilliantly pure and exemplary before the world, and his doctrine nevertheless thoroughly false and dangerous; and, conversely, a Jonah and a Peter could even fall deeply before the world, and their doctrine could nevertheless remain pure and correct.

Therefore, "beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1.) By this, however, you shall know the true teachers: that they proclaim to you the pure biblical testimony concerning the eternal Son of God, who became man and died and rose again for you, and thus the testimony of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that they faithfully guide you, out of the Law of God, to the knowledge of your sins, and, out of the Gospel, to saving faith — and indeed all of this in the manner and in the language in which you can find, in Dr. Martin Luther's Small and Large Catechisms and in the unaltered Augsburg Confession, a brief, excellent summary and a sure touchstone of wholesome doctrine. — Those who faithfully and with all diligence set this doctrine before you, hold them in honor and love them all the more for the Word's sake! Such men will certainly also take pains to adorn the Gospel in every respect. But if they preach it to others and yet make themselves reprehensible, then rebuke and admonish them with modest earnestness. But where they persist in open and predominant sins, then have nothing more to do with such men!

But let us all diligently pray to and call upon God, in the name of his dear Son, for his beleaguered church, as the ancient church itself teaches us to pray in its powerful Litany:

That God would be gracious to us all, and help and guard us from all sin, from all error, from all evil —

that he would rule and guide his holy Christian church —

that he would graciously guard us against the blasphemy, murder, and immorality of his enemies,

that he would keep all bishops, pastors, and church workers in wholesome doctrine and holy life,

that he would restrain all factions and causes of offense,
that he would bring back all who err and are led astray,
and that he would tread Satan under our feet.
Hear us, dear Lord God! Amen.