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LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1857, Page 387

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— 387 —

Die Erwartung der Chiliaſten, daß entweder eine allgemeine Auferſtehung
aller Gläubigen oder doch aller Märtyrer mehr als 1000 Jahre vor dem
jüngſten Tage erfolgen werde, macht alſo jenes Wort des HErrn zur Lüge.
Vergeblich iſt die Berufung auf jene Ausnahmen, deren die heilige Schrift
ausdrücklich gedenkt, denn dieſe Ausnahmen ſind Wunder zur Be⸗
ſtätigung des Worts und der Thaten Chriſti, nicht Theile einer
Entwickelung des Reiches Gottes, als welche die Auferſtehungen erſcheinen,
von denen die Chiliaſten ſich träumen laſſen. Die Ordnung, in welcher
die Auferſtehung erfolgt, iſt 1 Cor. 15, 23. 24. deutlich beſchrieben: der
Erſtling iſt Chriſtus, darnach die Ihm angehören, wenn Er
kommen wird, darnach das Ende — nicht das tauſendjährige Reich! —
Endlich erſehen wir aus Hebr. 12, 25—28., daß mit dem Neuen Teſtamente
eine Haushaltung Gottes eingetreten iſt, die nicht wieder, wie die altteſta⸗
mentliche, eine Veränderung erleidet, das „unbewegliche Reich“,
aus welchem die Gläubigen zum ewigen Leben im Himmel übergehen. Das
letzte Gerüſte zur heiligen Stadt, zum neuen Jeruſalem, das da zubereitet
iſt, als eine geſchmückte Braut ihrem Mann, iſt die Oekonomie, nach welcher
wir durch einen Spiegel in einem dunkeln Wort, nicht aber
von Angeſicht zu Angeſicht den HErrn ſehen, 1 Cor. 13, 12.

Beilage B.

Chemnitii Examin. decret. Conc. Trid. edit. gen. p. 45.

... Tertia igitur quaestio est: An ea scripta, de quibus in anti-
quissima Ecclesia, propter quorundam contradictionem dubitatum fuit,
ideo quod testificationes primitivae Ecclesiae de his non consentirent,
an, inquam, praesens Ecclesia possit illa scripta facere canonica, catho-
lica et paria illis, quae primi ordinis sunt? Pontificii non tantum dis-
putant se hoc posse, sed de facto illam auctoritatem usurpant: in uni-
versum tollentes primitivae et antiquissimae Ecclesiae necessariam di-
stinctionem inter libros canonicos et apocryphos seu ecclesiasticos. Sed
manifestissimum est ex iis, quae diximus, Ecclesiam nullo modo habere
illam auctoritatem, eadem enim ratione posset etiam vel canonicos
libros rejicere vel adulterinos canonisare. Tota enim haec res, sicut
diximus, pendet ex certis testificationibus ejus Ecclesiae, quae tempore
Apostolorum fuit; quas acceptas proxime sequens Ecclesia certis et
fide dignis historiis conservavit. Ubi igitur non possunt proferri certis-
sima documenta primitivae et antiquissimae Ecclesiae ex testificationi-
bus veterum, qui non longe post Apostolorum tempora vixerunt, libros
illos, de quibus controvertitur, fuisse sine contradictione et dubitatione,
pro legitimis et certis acceptos et commendatos Ecclesiae, non valent
ulla humana decreta. Quam insolens enim est audacia, ita statuere,
licet primitiva et sequens antiquissima Ecclesia de libris illis, propter
multorum Ecclesiasticorum contradictionem dubitarit, ideo quod non
satis certa et firma auctoritatis ipsorum testimonia exstarent, hoc tamen
non obstante decernimus, debere illos pro omnino certis pari auctoritate
cum illis, qui legitimi semper judicati sunt, recipi.

... Alia est ratio illius Ecclesiae, quae fuit illis temporibus, quum
libri illi primum scriberentur, et ejus Ecclesiae, quae postea secuta est.
Illa enim tantum conservat et ad posteros transmittit testificationem
primae Ecclesiae, non autem vel debet, vel potest aliquid de libris illis
statuere, cujus non habet certa documenta ex testificatione primae
Ecclesiae.

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[p. 387]

The Chiliasts' expectation that either a general resurrection of all
believers, or at least of all martyrs, will take place more than 1,000
years before the Last Day thus makes that word of the Lord into a lie. It
is useless to appeal to those exceptions which Holy Scripture expressly
mentions, for these exceptions are miracles performed to confirm the word
and deeds of Christ, not parts of an unfolding of the kingdom of God, as
the Chiliasts imagine the [scriptural] resurrections to be. The order in
which the resurrection takes place is clearly described in 1 Cor.
15:23-24: Christ is the firstfruits; afterward they that are His, at His
coming; then the end — not the thousand-year kingdom! — Finally, we learn
from Heb. 12:25-28 that with the New Testament a dispensation of God has
begun which, unlike the Old Testament one, will not undergo any further
change — "the kingdom which cannot be moved" — out of which believers
pass into eternal life in heaven. The final approach to the holy city, the
new Jerusalem, which is being prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,
is the economy by which we now see the Lord "through a glass, darkly,"
and not yet face to face, 1 Cor. 13:12.

Appendix B.

*Chemnitii Examen decretorum Concilii Tridentini*, general edition, p. 45
[Martin Chemnitz, *Examination of the Council of Trent*].

[Latin, translated:] ...The third question, then, is this: whether those
writings about which doubt existed in the most ancient Church, on account
of some people's contradiction of them — because the testimonies of the
primitive Church did not agree concerning them — whether, I say, the
present-day Church can make those writings canonical, catholic, and equal
to those of the first rank? The papists not only argue that they can do
this, but in fact usurp that authority, entirely doing away with the
distinction — necessary to the primitive and most ancient Church — between
canonical books and apocryphal or merely ecclesiastical ones. But it is
most evident from what we have said that the Church has no such authority
at all; for by the same reasoning she could just as well reject canonical
books or canonize spurious ones. This whole matter, as we have said,
depends on certain testimonies of that Church which existed in the time of
the Apostles, testimonies which the Church that immediately followed
received and preserved in reliable, trustworthy histories. Where, then,
the most certain documents of the primitive and most ancient Church — from
the testimonies of the ancients, who lived not long after the time of the
Apostles — cannot be produced to show that the books in question were,
without contradiction or doubt, accepted and commended to the Church as
legitimate and certain, no human decrees can make up for it. For what
insolent audacity it is to rule as follows: "Granted that the primitive
Church, and the most ancient Church that followed it, doubted concerning
those books because of the contradiction of many churchmen, since
sufficiently sure and firm testimonies of their authority were not extant
— nevertheless, notwithstanding this, we decree that they must be received
as altogether certain, with authority equal to those that have always been
judged legitimate."

...The situation of that Church which existed at the time those books were
first written is different from that of the Church which followed
afterward. For the latter only preserves and transmits to posterity the
testimony of the earliest Church; it neither ought to, nor can, determine
anything about those books for which it lacks sure documentation from the
testimony of the earliest Church.