# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 05 17_S76
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

should it then be impossible for Him that the bread be Christ's body, and the wine Christ's blood, since His Word stands there, which He speaks in Matthew 26:26 and following: Take, eat, this is my body; drink of it, all of you, this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins?

Indeed, if the baker were to say to me: Take, eat, this bread is my body, and the wine-server were to say to me: Take, drink, this wine is my blood — then I too would say: You lie, how is that possible? Yes, even if the priest undertook this on his own authority and spoke his own word there, I would likewise say to him: Be still, you lie. But here it is not a baker nor a wine-server, not a priest nor a bishop, but God, the almighty Creator of heaven and earth (2 Corinthians 6:18; Psalm 33:5-6), who is here the Founder and Ordainer of the Sacrament, who says: Take and eat, this is my body, which is given for you; this is the cup, the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. Who has ordained this? Not a man, but God, who created heaven and earth out of nothing. This is what one must look to: who spoke the word — not how it might be possible, but who spoke these words, namely, no baker, no wine-server, no priest, but God's eternal Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, I say, the factious spirits and fanatics lack only this one thing: that they do not believe God is almighty. If they believed that, they would not dispute and ask how it is possible. They forget God and His omnipotence and therefore prattle on: water is water, bread is bread, wine is wine; how is it possible that water should redeem from sin and death? How is it possible that bread should be Christ's body, and wine Christ's blood? We too know full well, and need not first learn from the fanatics, that water is water, bread is bread, wine is wine. But here you must not look at the water, the bread, the wine, but at the almighty Speaker, who says in John 3:5: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Likewise Mark 14:22-23: Take, eat, this is my body; drink, this is my blood. — You must not lose sight of this Speaker if you are to remain in the right faith and understanding of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Consider the creation of all creatures, Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." By what means? By His Word, as Moses writes in verse 3: God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Verse 6: God said, Let there be a firmament between the waters, etc., and it was so. Verse 9: God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, that the dry land may appear; and it was so. The speaking accomplishes it; when this Speaker speaks something that He wills to have,

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it must come to pass. Now since God, out of nothing, by His speaking alone, created heaven and earth and all creatures, how should He then not be able, through His Word and Sacrament, to accomplish what He wills, especially since His Word stands there and testifies to it? — Now if a factious spirit, an Anabaptist, a despiser of the sacrament, or a fanatic comes along and prattles out of reason, saying: The priest takes the child in his hand and pours water on it, takes bread and wine for the sacrament, speaks the words and hands it to the people with his hand, lays his hand upon the people and absolves them — how should that give salvation? I see there water, I see bread and wine, I see a man's hand. How can water save? How can a sinful hand forgive sin? — then be prepared and say: Dear man, here you must not look at the priest's hand, but at the Speaker whose word it is that you hear in Baptism, Absolution, and the Sacrament. This same Speaker says, in Matthew 28:19: Go, and teach all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Likewise John 20:23: Receive the Holy Spirit; whosesoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them. Likewise Mark 14:22: Eat, this is my body; drink, this is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me. And what this Speaker says must come to pass. Although He makes use for this purpose of water, bread, wine, and a man's hand, as instrument and outward sign, He nevertheless says that it shall be called His work. What men do here according to His word and command, that He wills to have counted as done by Himself.

This Speaker is almighty and has created all creatures out of nothing; so too He is truthful. Since, then, we have His Word in Baptism, Absolution, and the Sacrament, we should not doubt, but believe with certainty that what the Word tells us will come to pass; for nothing is impossible for Him (Luke 1:37), and He cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18). Though we see the poor, sinful hand of the priest, we should not let that mislead us. This Speaker intends so to trample the devil and his kingdom underfoot that even a man's hand, through Baptism, through Absolution, through the Word and Sacrament, shall snatch men out of his jaws. Since, then, this is not man's word and work, but God's Word and work — He who is almighty and cannot lie — we should be certain that whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:16). For what the priest does here according to God's command, God Himself does.

Therefore, I say, the factious spirits and fanatics, who will not believe that Baptism effects the forgiveness of sins, that bread and wine in the Sacrament are the body and blood of Christ, that Absolution unlocks heaven, have not yet even begun to spell out the article of the childlike faith: I believe in God, the almighty Creator. For this reason they are also unable to keep any single article of Christian doctrine pure. For whoever does not believe that God is almighty cannot believe either that Baptism is a saving bath for the forgiveness of sins, that bread and wine in the Sacrament are the body and blood of Christ; indeed, he cannot believe that God became man, and that a virgin is the Mother of God. The article that God is almighty upholds all the other articles: if that article falls, the other articles fall as well.

This, then, is the sum of the matter: that we learn rightly to pray and to understand our childlike faith — which we vow at Baptism to confess and to remain steadfast in — when we say: I believe in God the Father, almighty Creator of heaven and earth; namely, that we know this to be the chief article and the foundation of all the articles of Christian doctrine. Whoever holds fast to this chief article must also hold to the other articles — of the resurrection of the dead, of Baptism, of Absolution, of the Lord's Supper, and so forth. Whoever denies the other articles, or disputes how they are possible, has thereby also denied the chief article, namely, God's omnipotence, indeed His majesty and Godhead. For everything hangs together like a chain, the articles are linked to one another, and one follows from the other. May our dear God keep us in the right understanding of the faith, and graciously guard us from sharp disputation and the clever fables of human reason, as St. Peter calls it in his second epistle, 1:16. Amen.

Protestants in the Midst of the Papacy.

Sixty years ago, when a monastery was being demolished in Hungary, a copper box walled up in one of its cells was found, containing a document in which a monk, named by name, long before the Reformation, solemnly and sorrowfully renounced the papacy, composed his confession of faith on a purely evangelical basis, resting on the Bible, and prayed to God that, since no other way was open to him, this testimony which he had thus laid down might avail for him on the Day of Judgment. How many honest souls may have fared this way, and perhaps still do, who well recognized the mystery of iniquity at work in the papacy (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8), but were too weak to come forward publicly, and instead laid down their protest alone, weeping and sighing before God in silence! Far from the Romanists having cause to rejoice when it is granted that even among them children of God are found, they have rather more reason to fear these very ones who languish in their captivity, for the constant sighs which the distress of their conscience wrings from them are constant accusations against them before the holy Judge in heaven. (See: The Bible, a Work of Divine Wisdom, by Köppen, I, 686.)

The Christian's Righteousness and Perfection.

We are righteous, then, when we recognize ourselves as sinners, and when we seek our righteousness not in our own merit, but in the pure and unmixed mercy of God; for the recognition of our imperfection is the perfection of a righteous person. Jerome, Against the Pelagians, Bk. 1.

Receipt. — For the second half-year, payment has been received from the following gentlemen: Alt, Anschütz, Breß, Pastor Bartels, Huch, Kleinschmidt, Ungemach.

For the full year: Mr. Faulstich.

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