The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1879, Page 30

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30

The Lutheran Pioneer.

birth up to our death, we therefore are in need

of arms, of weapons; we are in need of a good

shield wherewith we can protect ourselves
against all the attacks of our enemy. We must

daily pray to our God, according to the sixth

petition in our catechism: ‘‘Lead us not into

temptation.” What is meant by this petition?

—Answer: ‘‘God indeed tempts no one; but

we pray in this petition that God would guard

and keep us, so that the devil, the world and
our flesh may not deceive us, nor seduce us
into misbelief, despair, and other great shame
and vice; and though we be assailed by them,
that still we may finally overcome, and obtain
the victory.” Now, if you wish to prevail
against all temptations and gain the victory
over all your enemies, you must make use of
W the only successful shield and weapon; this is
the Word of God—the holy Scriptures—the Bible;
and in order to make successful use of this
shield and weapon, you must learn to know
your Bible—to understand it, you must, in one
word, have a knowledge of the holy Scriptures.

Turn back to the first three centuries after
Christ! what did those first Christians do? They
deemed the Word of God holy; they willingly,
yea cheerfully, heard it read and preached in
the assemblies for worship; they meditated upon
it, they learned it; they searched the Scriptures
diligently; and what was the result? The
Church prospered in every respect—their faith
was strengthened, and they nobly defended
themselves against the furious attacks of their
enemies.

Now look back again to the Church of Christ
after the first three hundred years, and you will
find quite a different picture. As soon as this
fiery zeal and this burning love for the holy
Scriptures began to cool down, began to decrease
gradually and die away; as soon as the pure
and unadulterated doctrine of the Bible began
to disappear more and more by degrees; as
soon as the Christian walk—a pious, upright and
godly life, was counted more and more a strange
thing, in short, as soon as the Christians ceased
to search the Scriptures diligently; as soon as
the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the
Bible, ceased to be the only guide and touch-
stone in all matters of religion—what was the
result then?

The result was this, that the gates and doors
of the Christian church were widely thrown
open tolmmeruption on all sides, and the final
result waswhis, that the bishop at Rome declared
himself as Pope, as father of the church, as the
Vicar of Christ. :

Had the Christians at that time not neglected
their Bibles, had they continued to search the
Scriptures diligently, as the first Christians did,
had the Bible remained the daily hand-book
and the only guide and standard of faith, never,
neyer, no, never would the bishop at Rome
have succeeded in deceiving the poor people as
he did. ‘Ignorance of the people in regard to
the holy Scriptures enabled the bishop at Rome
to carry out his pet desire at that time; and
~ ignorance of the people in regard to the holy

Scriptures leads so many millions in our days, | sinner himself, but it is the work of the al-
learned and unlearned, to believe that the Pope| mighty and merciful God. The conversion of
at Rome is the successor of St. Peter, the Vicar] sinner can not be the work of the sinner him-
of Christ, the infallible interpreter of the holy|self, for according to Scripture the sinner is
Scriptures, when everybody else that has knowl-| spiritually dead. He is dead in trespasses and
edge of the holy Scriptures, that searches the|sins. There is no good and no power to do
Scriptures, knows, or at least should know, that] anything good in him. A man that is bodily
the Pope at Rome is not the Vicar of Christ, | dead can not raise himself to life again. It re-

but the Antichrist, the ‘‘son of perdition; who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is
called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as
God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing him-
self that he is God.’”’ 2 Thess. 2, 3. 4. Why
are so many millions of people induced to be-
lieve that the ‘“Roman-Catholic Church” isthe
alone-saving church, outside of which there is
no salvation? Why do so many believe they
can work out their own salvation by doing good
works? Why do so many refuse to confess
with the TRUE Christian church:

Should my zeal no languor know,

Should my tears forever flow,

This for sin cannot atone;

Thou (Jesus) must save, and Thou alone.

In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling! ?

Why do so many worship the virgin Mary—

pray to the saints—pray for the dead—believe

in a purgatory—why? The main reason of all
this is, because these unfortunate people are
deceived, because they have no knowledge of
the holy Scriptures, and, as far as the Roman-
Catholics are concerned, are not allowed to have
any knowledge of the holy Scriptures,—are
prohibited by the holy (?) and infallible (?)
father at Rome to search the Scriptures, as we
intend to show our readers in another number
of the ‘‘Pioneer’’.

(for the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’)
Are you converted?

Any one who desires to be saved must know
what it means to be converted. He must know
this by his own experience; for without being
converted no man can be saved. Why not?
Because all men are sinners before God, and as
such are worthy of his wrath and punishment
in time and eternity. A great change, a spiritual
change, a change of heart must take place.
This great spiritual change is called regeneration
or conversion. Concerning this change our
Saviour said to Nicodemus: ‘‘Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.’’? And Peter
said unto the Jews, ‘‘Repent ye therefore and
be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.”

The sinner must repent of his sins, that is,
he must know and feel his sins and be sorry for
them. But he must not despair in his sins, or
give up all hope, but come unto Jesus, the
Saviour of sinners, and believe in Him with a
sincere heart, and be confident that for Jesus’
sake God forgives him all sins and saves him
forever.

The question arises, Whose work is this con-
version of a sinner? It is not the work of the

quires the power of almighty God to raise the
dead. So it is also with the spiritually dead.
God alone can give unto them spiritual life.
God alone can convert a sinner. The apostle
Paul therefore says, ‘It is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do of His good
pleasure.’’ And the prophet Jeremiah prays
unto God, “Turn Thou me, and I shall be
turned; for Thou art the Lord my God.”’

It is true, God calls upon sinners, ‘‘Repent,
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out.’” From this it might seem that sinners
must convert themselves. But it only seems so.
When God calls upon sinners to repent and be
converted, he at the same time gives power to
obey His call to all that do not wilfully resist.
Did not our Saviour say unto that dead young
man of Nain, ‘‘Young man, I say unto thee,
Arise’? He certainly did arise, but not through
his own power, but through the almighty power
of Jesus.

A further question to be considered is this,
By what means does God accomplish the con-
version of a sinner? The answer is, By the
means of grace, the Word of God and the Holy
Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
In the first place God terrifies the sinner by
His holy law. ‘‘By the law’, says Paul, ‘‘is
the knowledge of sin.’’

By the law God tells us what we should do
and what we should not do, and that we should
be perfectly holy and righteous before Him in
all our thoughts, looks, words, and deeds.

This law of God is a spiritual looking-glass
in which a man may behold himself as a poor
sinner before God, finding that he is a trans-
gressor of the Jaw. When a sinner looks into
this spiritual looking-glass, he will see that ‘‘the
whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint,
that from the sole of the foot even unto the
head there is no soundness in him; but bruises
and wounds and putrifying sores, which have
not been closed, neither bound up, neither
mollified with ointment’; ‘‘that he is as an
unclean thing, and that all his righteousnesses
are as filthy rags’’; that on account of his sins
he is worthy of the severe wrath of God, of
temporal death and everlasting punishment.

Such knowledge will give the sinner a broken
spirit and a contrite heart.

And thus the Spirit of God prepares the heart
of the sinner to receive the consolation of the
Gospel of Christ, to hear and to accept the
most joyful message that Jesus Christ is the
Saviour of sinners, that He is able and willing
to forgive sins on earth and to impart grace
and eternal life unto all who take hold of Him
by sincere faith. Through this gospel the Spirit
of God conggles and quickens the terrified sin-

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