$-Ruhland-Der getroste Pilger aus dem Babel

pg 31

The

Humble Pilgrims

out of

Babel of the Saxon Regional Church

into the

Lutheran Free Church

An emergency and help book

for Lutherans in Saxony,

in which they are clearly shown the apostasy of the Saxon regional church and the necessity of leaving it is put to their hearts.

In questions and answers

compiled by

F. C. Th. Ruhland,

Lutheran pastor at Niederptanitz.

Dresden, 1875.

Published by Justus Naumann's Buchhandlung (Heinrich Naumann).

"I will instruct thee, and show thee the way which thou shalt walk: I will guide thee with mine eyes."

Psalm 32:8.

A part of the possible net profit is intended for the church building fund of the Lutheran St. Trinitatis parish in Dresden.

To my dear brothers in the ministry,

the honorable gentlemen:

Reverend Friedrich Brunn

in Steeden,

Reverend Karl Eikmeier

the same,

Reverend Julius Kein

in Wiesbaden and

Pastor Andreas Hörger

in Memmingen

as a sign of

warm community

and common struggle for the good confession; of the Lutheran Church in Germany

dedicated.

2 Cor. 13:8.

Foreword.

As some years ago, Pastor E. O. Lenk's excellent, but unfortunately already forgotten book: Aufruf u. s. w. was forced from me only by extreme necessity, so now also the present booklet. Although the doctrinal and practical ruin that has befallen the Saxon state church has reached a truly appalling level, many otherwise honest Lutheran Christians are still living in it to the great detriment of their souls, in a secure carelessness and without recognition or feeling of this ecclesiastical misery. Seduced by the limp, inactive and denying attitude of many of their leaders and their false consolations, they remain caught in the delusion that the present Saxon Regional Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church are still one and the same, that the confessional status of the former is still undamaged, that there is no real danger, and that therefore the calm, trusting adherence to this regional church is the main duty of every good Christian, even when, as is happening in Chemnitz and many other places, stones or even

VI Foreword.

...to offer up soul-murdering poison instead of the bread of life. Even more. "Faithful" preachers of the regional church do not disdain to portray the withdrawal of conscientious Lutherans and their joining our congregations in Dresden and Planitz, which have already separated and gathered around the pure confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, as a true crime of majesty and thereby make them exceedingly detestable and hateful in the eyes of honest but ignorant Christians, that they publicly call us a sect (one must unfortunately fear, against better knowledge and conscience) and join forces with Methodists, Irvingians, Anabaptists, yes, with the most unsavory sect of all, with Mormons. I cannot remain entirely silent in the face of this outrageous and highly dangerous perversion of things. The general commandment of love for God and neighbor already compels me here to bear witness to the truth in honor of the God of truth and to my misguided and deceived fellow Christians in the national church. However, this testimony should come from a completely different force, and I would then much rather have simply agreed to such a testimony. May the almighty, merciful God and Savior of Israel, according to the riches of His goodness, patience, and long-suffering, awaken such a power once again and let it come like a spiritual Samson upon the Philistines of our time, who are uncircumcised in heart and ear, and who speak stiffly, proudly, and scornfully against the Lord and His anointed. In the meantime, and lest the stones cry out, I will speak my little

Preface.

VII

Raise your voice. The intended purpose of the "Noth- und Hülfsbüchlein" is therefore this: To provide honest but ill-informed Christians in Saxony, some of whom are dangerously unconcerned about the actual state of the Landeskirche, and others who are living in fearful doubt about the right of separation and free church, with brief and general proof that the Landeskirche has actually fallen away from the Lutheran confession and is not a Lutheran church, that the Saxon State Church has indeed fallen away from the Lutheran confession and is no longer an Evangelical Lutheran Church, and that, therefore, withdrawal from it and unification into independent orthodox Lutheran congregations is not a sin, but, on the contrary, the most sacred duty commanded by God of every confessional Lutheran in Saxony, and the only proper means for the preservation of our beatific fatherly religion. Of course, I have in mind only those readers who confess with the true Lutheran Church from the bottom of their hearts that the entire Bible is through and through God's revealed Word, and that the Evangelical Lutheran doctrine drawn from it is in all respects eternal, infallible, divine truth, and therefore, as little as God Himself, capable of or in need of further development; - readers, therefore, who are satisfied with the simple proof from Scripture and confession. To others, this booklet will probably only be a source of ridicule and laughter. It has not been a source of pleasure to me, but rather a hearty plague, to try to explain to the reader various things that have been made clear to me by personal piety, high gifts, and scholarship.

VIII

Foreword

I was not allowed to avoid this, however, if I did not want to take away the most necessary service of love and burden my conscience from all those who are suffering the most significant damage from the attitude of these important men. However, I, a lesser man, could not avoid this if I did not want to deprive all those who suffer the most significant damage from the attitude of these important men of the most necessary service of love and burden my conscience. - With this I commend myself, the booklet, and the dear reader to the mercy of God our Savior, who wants all to be helped and all to come to the knowledge of the truth and has saved, redeemed, acquired, and won us from the authority of darkness and lies, not with perishable silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as an innocent and unblemished lamb. Let him show us his mercy and help us! He will give us help in our distress, for the help of men is of no avail, amen.

Nieder-Planitz in the heil. Charwoche 1875.

In the name of JEsu.

Entrance.

l. What question should be answered here?

The question whether the Saxon regional church was still a truly Lutheran or orthodox church or not.

2 What depends on the right answer for the conduct of a faithful Lutheran Christian in Saxony?

This, whether he could remain in the Saxon regional church, or had to go out from it.

(3) Is there so much in staying or going out?

This, however, is very important, because every person is bound in his soul to flee the fellowship of unbelieving churches, to profess the right-believing church and to hold fellowship with it.

Four. Where is it written?

That everyone should flee the fellowship with false preachers, congregations and churches is commanded by the Lord Christ Matth. 7,15: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Likewise St. Paul 2 Cor. 6, -18: "Pull not on the yoke of strangers with the

2 Fellowship with false church is sin.

Unbelievers. For what enjoyment hath righteousness with unrighteousness? what communion hath light with darkness? How does Christ agree with Belial? Or what part hath the believer with the unbeliever? What is the likeness of the temple of God to idols? But ye are the temple of the living God: as God saith, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the LORD, and touch no unclean thing: and I will receive you, and be your Father, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the LORD Almighty." Revelation 18:4: "Come out of her (that is, from Babylon, the false church), my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, lest ye receive of her plagues."

(See also Deut. 13:1-3. Psalm 26:5-8. Rom. 16:17, 18. Tit. 3:10, 11. 2 John 10:11.)

But that every man should confess and fellowship with the orthodox church is the command of Christ Match. 10, 32. 33: "Whoever confesses me before men, him will I confess before my heavenly Father. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my heavenly Father." Further, Cphes. 4, 3: "Be diligent to keep unity in the Spirit through the bond of peace. One body

Fellowship with false church is sin. 3

and one Spirit, as ye also are called unto one hope of your profession. One Lord, One faith, One baptism." (For this see Luc. 9, 25. Acts 2,42. 1 Cor. 1, 10.)

(5) What, therefore, is a man guilty of, who either lightly separates himself from a righteous congregation or church, or remains in the fellowship of a false-believing church?

In any case of grave sin against God's word.

(6) Why is it such a grave sin to break fellowship with an orthodox church?

Because this grossly violates Christian love, destroys the peace and harmony of the church, causes serious trouble and division.

007 What threateneth the word of God unto them that help to destroy the church of God?

If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt him. 1 Cor. 3, 17.

(8) But why is it also such a grave sin to hold fellowship with a false-believing church or sect?

Because in this way one quite obviously denies the truth of the gospel, on the contrary, he confesses the lies of the devil and his tools, the false prophets, makes himself partaker of all their blasphemies and evil works, and leads his own soul into error and corrupts it.

008 What makes this sin doubly and trebly grievous and damnable?

4 God's threats against them.

If one persists in it against better knowledge and conviction, out of fear of man, or complacency, or otherwise for the sake of temporality.

010 What does the scripture threaten? What does the Scripture threaten those who remain unrepentant in this sin?

God's wrath and disgrace, hardening and eternal damnation, as it is written:

Ebr. 10:38, "But whosoever shall depart, in him shall my soul have no pleasure."

2 Tim. 2:12, "If we deny, he will also deny us."

2 Thessal. 2, 10-12: "Therefore God will send them strong error, that they may believe a lie; that they all may be judged who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness."

2 Pet. 2, 1. 2: "False teachers, which lead beside one corrupt sects, and deny the Lord that bought them, - shall bring upon themselves swift condemnation. And many shall follow their destruction: by whom shall the way of truth be blasphemed."

Rev. John 22:15: "Outside (shut out from heaven) are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the deceivers, and the idolaters, and all that love and do lying."

Glory of the ancient, Saxon church. 5

II. What is generally understood by the Saxon regional church?

The total number of congregations called Lutheran in the Kingdom of Saxony under the church government at Dresden.

(12) What confessional name, therefore, has the whole national church had from time immemorial?

The name of an evangelical Lutheran church.

(13) Was it justly called by that name in time past?

And rightly so, for not only did Luther's blessed church reformation begin in the lands of Saxony, and from here the glorious light of the pure gospel spread over Germany and many other countries, but also the Saxon church faithfully preserved the true Lutheran doctrine for 200 years by the grace of God.

14 Is it not a foregone conclusion that even today the Saxon regional church is a good Lutheran or orthodox church?

Not at all, if we first only examine the time in which we live according to God's word.

(15) To what judgment of this time shall we then arrive?

To the judgment that our time is the last, dreadful and sorrowful time.

16 For how does God's Word describe this last time?

As a time when many false Christs and false prophets arise, and much deceiving in

6 Signs of the times. Caution is necessary.

would come into the world and deceive into error, (where it would be possible) also the elect; in which many would follow their ruin, depart from the faith, and cleave to the seducing spirits and doctrines of the devils; as a time in which scoffers would come, who walk after their own lusts; People who think of themselves as unspiritual, blasphemers, traitors, sinners, who resist the truth and never come to the knowledge of the truth, people of corrupted senses, unfit for faith; as a time, then, in which, as in the times of Noah and Lot, unbelief, carnal certainty and extreme corruption will also be torn into the church, as all these things are to be read in Match. 24; Luc. 17 and 18; 1 Tim. 4; 2 Tim. 3;

1 Petr. 2 u. 3; 1 Joh. 4 u. a. O.

017 Are these sorrowful prophecies fulfilled in our days?

Yes, as no Christian can deny.

In what imminent danger, therefore, do faithful Lutheran Christians find themselves today? To be seduced by false spirits and to be dragged into the river of general ruin. (19) To what end does St. John exhort Christians? John exhort Christians to avoid being seduced by the grace of God?

To extreme caution and careful examination of the spirits, that is, of the preachers and church communities among whom they live.

Marks of the orthodox church. 7

20. what are the words?

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: for many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1.

(21) Might it therefore be well to examine also the Saxon regional church with its prophets quite carefully?

Most assuredly, very well done, and according to the scriptures. According to the Scriptures.

(22) How will we be able to know whether any church calling itself "Lutheran," and thus also the Saxon regional church, is in truth a Lutheran or orthodox church?

We learn this when we examine them for the unmistakable marks of the Lutheran or orthodox church.

23. what are these characteristics?

The pure preaching of the Word of God and the scriptural administration of the holy sacraments. Sacraments.

(24) How do we know that these are the unmistakable marks of the true visible or orthodox church of God on earth?

From the holy scripture itself. Scripture itself. The Lord Christ says John 8:31, 32: "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Desgl. Cap. 10: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. - But to follow a stranger

8 Confessions of the Lutheran Church.

they do not pursue, but flee from him; for they do not know the voice of the stranger."

25. what do you conclude from these words?

That only those are true disciples and sheep of Christ, and therefore a true believing church or congregation, who hold to the speech or voice of Christ, that is, to his pure Word and Sacrament.

(26) But how do we know that the Evangelical Lutheran Church bears these marks of the orthodox church?

This we know from the public confessions of this church.

27. which are the best known of these?

The Small Catechism of Luther and the unaltered Augsburg Confession of 1530. 28. What does every orthodox, truly evangelical Lutheran Christian consider these and the other confessions to be?

For the pure unadulterated exposition and explanation of the divine word and will.

029 In what words did our godly forefathers themselves confess this?

"To the same Christian and in God's word well founded Augsburg Confession we confess again hereby from the bottom of our heart, remain with the same simple, bright and clear mind, as such the words bring with them, and consider the said Confession to be a purely Christian symbolum, by which

Look at them. 9

"The only thing hitherto said of the summa of our Christian doctrine is that we have a unanimous, certain, general form of doctrine. - "What has hitherto been said of the Summa of our Christian doctrine is meant only as having a unanimous, certain, general form of doctrine, to which our evangelical (i.e. Lutheran) churches all and in common profess, from which, because it is taken from the Word of God, all other writings, in so far as they are to be tried and accepted, are to be judged and regulated." (Conc. Formula, Repetition. S. Supp.)

030 What particularly do our fathers confess at the close of the symbolical books?

"For this reason we wish to bear witness to the face of God and of all Christendom, among those now living and those to come after us, that this declaration, now made, is our faith, doctrine, and confession, from all the superior and declared articles in dispute, and no other; in which we also, by the grace of God, appear with undaunted hearts before the judgment seat of JESUS CHRIST, and for this reason give account; against which we also do not wish to speak or write anything secretly or publicly, but by means of the grace of God remember to abide in it." (Conc. Formula, Art. 12.)

31. What do Dr. Luther and his faithful followers confess?

Collaborators Bugenhagen, Creuziger, Major and Melanchthon in 1545?

"For we doubt not the same...

10 Viewing the symbols.

Let the doctrine of our churches be certainly the eternal, uniform, homogeneous doctrine of the true catholic church of God, given by the prophets, Christ and the apostles, and be in harmony with the symbols ^.po8tolieo and Xieavno, and with the ancient holy Conciliis and the understanding of the first pure churches. Therefore we also deem it necessary, for God's glory and right invocation, for the blessedness of many people, for the planting and strengthening of right faith and right invocation in the descendants, that the understanding of the same doctrine, which we profess and teach in our churches, confession and catechism, be preached and held in all churches." (Luth. Walch. Ausgabe. XVH, p. 1324.)

32. How will therefore still today the true descendants of our godly fathers, namely, all rightly

believing Lutheran Christians, profess the symbols of the Lutheran Church?

Unconditionally, without all deceit, pretence, and reserve, as to the reiueu doctrine of the holy scriptures.

033 But are not the confessions thus made equal with the Bible?

Let this be far off, but, to speak with our fathers, "As we lay hold of God's word, as the eternal truth, so (we) also introduce and put on these scriptures for the testimony of the truth, and for the unanimous right understanding of our forefathers, who held fast to the pure doctrine."

Waste of the Saxon regional church. 11

(34) What are we to think, then, of those who do not profess the symbolic books of the Lutheran Church unconditionally and from the bottom of their hearts, namely, who do not "abide in the same simple, bright, and clear mind as the words bring with them"?

Such, at least, we have no right-believing Christians or true Lutherans to consider.

35) Does the Saxon Regional Church nowadays profess the symbolic books of the Lutheran Church in the manner just indicated, and consequently the pure doctrine of the Holy Scriptures?

Alas, no, but she has quite evidently fallen away from this good confession.

36 But what characteristics has the Saxon regional church lost with this?

The unmistakable marks of the orthodox or Lutheran church.

(37) What, therefore, can confessing Lutheran Christians no longer regard the Saxon regional church as?

Although it still bears the name of an evangelical Lutheran church, it cannot be considered a true believer or Lutheran church, since it has fallen away from the pure confession of this church or from the "voice of Christ". Rather, it is to be considered an apostate church and a false believing community.

That is a serious accusation. With what will the apostasy of the Saxon church be proved?

Primarily:

I. With the abolition of the good old "Re-

12 Abolition of the old oath of religion, etc.

ligionseide" and introduction of the new Gelöbnißformel in Saxony;

2. with the false, godless doctrine prevailing in Saxony;

3. with the false, godless practice prevailing in Saxony.

Bon of the abolition of the good old Rcligionseide and introduction of the new Gelöbnitzfonncl in Saxony.

(39) From which persons in particular did the orthodox church always demand a solemn commitment to its confessions?

Of their servants in church and school, the preachers and teachers.

40. what was the meaning of this" obligation?

The preachers and teachers, before taking up their office, had to swear to the church or congregation appointing them, either on oath or in lieu of oath, that they would teach publicly and specifically according to the pure Lutheran confession and would not deviate from it in any way, either in the doctrines contained therein or in the manner of speaking observed therein. (41) From what time has such an obligation of the church servants to the public confessions of the Lutheran Church existed?

Church took place?

Even from the times of the ancient post-apostolic church, as Melanchthon testifies.

Commitment to the symbols necessary. 13

(42) But why is a commitment to the public confessions of the church necessary? Should not a commitment to the Bible suffice?

Because all false teachers say that they wish to teach according to the holy Scriptures, and therefore, if preachers or teachers will not be committed to the public confessions of the orthodox church, the congregations have no assurance that their preachers will not recite to them all manner of abominable and pernicious doctrines, without the congregations being able to punish and depose them as faithless, or else, if they could, they would be exposed to ever new disputes even about the articles of the common Christian faith. (S.

Walther: Rechte Gestalt u. s. w.. S. 78.)

(43) How does the highly famous Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard speak about the purpose of the oath of allegiance to the Confessions?

"The purpose is that God's glory may be promoted and the tranquility of the church preserved, by drawing into the light those who secretly cherish erroneous opinions and wait for opportunities to scatter them in the church.... In this way the little foxes are drawn out of their nooks and crannies, who are bent on ravaging the vineyard of the Lord, and a bridle is put on the swarming spirits, so that for fear of the punishments inflicted on perjury they refrain from stirring up dissensions, spreading errors, and confusing the church, and thus

14 The good old religious oath.

diligently preserves the unity of the faith and of the Church." (I-oe. äs irwAistr.)

(44) What was the attitude of the old orthodox Church of Saxony with regard to the obligation to the symbolic books?

Under the reign of Churfürst Christian II. the following religious oath was introduced in 1602 :

"You shall vow and swear that you will remain and persevere in the pure and Christian confession of these lands, as it is contained in the first unaltered Augsburg Confession, and as it is repeated and declared in the Christian Book of Concord and preserved against all falsifications, and that you will not practice anything secret or public against it, even if you notice that others want to do so. even if you know that others want to do so, do not refrain from doing so, but reveal it immediately without fear. God may also decree, which he will graciously prevent, that you yourselves, through human wit and delusion, may depart from such pure doctrine and knowledge of God, either to the Papists, Calvinists, or others of the above-mentioned pure confession, If you would turn away from such pure doctrine of God, either to the Papists, Calvinists, or other sects contrary to the above-mentioned, pure confession, exposed and rejected in the religious peace, you shall swear that you will immediately, by virtue of the oath you have taken, declare this in due form and await further decree and resolution; ...and all this faithfully and without fear..." (Hasse, Abriß der albertinisch- sächsischen Kirchengeschichte, Leipzig 1846. II. p. 75.)

The modified oath. 15

(45) Up to what time has this religious oath remained substantially unchanged in use?

Until the middle of the year 1862.

(46) But what was it still, in spite of the shortening and weakening now made with it?

"I hereby swear to God: - In regard to religion, that I adhere to the pure doctrine of the Lutheran Church accepted in this country, as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures, in the first unaltered Augsburg Confession, and in the other symbolic books of the Lutheran Church. In the matter of religion, that I stand by the pure doctrine of the Lutheran Church, as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures, set forth in the first unaltered Augsburg Confession, and repeated in the other symbolic books of the Lutheran Church.If I should feel compelled in my conscience to deviate from the doctrinal principles accepted by the Lutheran Church in my lectures, or to profess a different confession, I will report this without propriety to my superiors and expect further resolution from this, so help me God, through Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord!

(47) What kind of doctrine could Saxon preachers, professors, and teachers, who had taken the aforementioned oath, not recite and spread without perjuring themselves?

Any false doctrine contrary to the Scriptures and the Confessions. The first is a false doctrine contrary to the Scriptures and the Confessions.

(48) What benefit, therefore, did the former old religious oath confer on the congregations of the Saxon Regional Church?

16 Benefits of the Rcligion Oath.

It formed a protective defense against the intrusion of false prophets.

49. on what other occasion has this recently come to light?

At the first appointment of the well-known unbelieving preacher Sulze to the St. Johannis Church in Chemnitz. He had to refuse the call because he had declared that he could not take the religious oath.

(50) But how could it happen that, in spite of the good old religious oath, so many false prophets arose in Saxony and spread their pernicious errors?

This could happen because the oath of religion did not guarantee perfect security, but only the greatest possible security against this, and this too had to become less and less in Saxony after the pure faith and the doctrinal discipline commanded by God had once fallen away here.

(51) For example, how exactly did the church government in more recent times take the interpretation of the religious oath in order to avoid doctrinal discipline, i.e. the dismissal of false prophets?

Professor Baur of Leipzig said this to the first regional synod in the following words: "I have heard the assurance in an unquestionable way that one does not think in authoritative places of pressing the words of this oath in such a way that one would want to commit the swearing to an agreement to the certain doctrinal standard of the symbols.

Its abolition. Synod of Dresden 1871.17

(52) With what kind of conscience, however, could false-believing preachers and teachers in Saxony conduct their ministry so long as the old religious oath was in force?

With a guilty conscience.

53. what will conscience have accused them of?

Of perjury and breach of trust.

054 What, therefore, must they have longed for?

The outright abolition of this oath of religion.

55. did those wishes come true?

Yes, at the synod held in Dresden in July 1871.

(56) What has happened there by the elected representatives of the entire Saxon regional church?

First, the old good religious oath has been abolished.

57. who, in particular, made the proposal?

An avowed enemy of the Christian religion, Prof. Dr. Zarnke of Leipzig.

58. Why do you call I)r. Zarnke an "enemy of the Christian religion"?

Because at the same synod in Dresden he blasphemed the Holy Triune God, the God of Christians. God the Triune, the God of Christians, and said that the doctrine of the divine Trinity arose from human musings and sophistical trains of thought. (S. Lenk, Call, p. 13.)

What therefore does vr. Zarnke concerning the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ?

18 Dr. Zarnke's religion.

He denies the true, eternal Godhead and the most holy redemptive work of our Savior.

60 And wherein, in Dr. Zarnke's opinion, will the whole glory of Christ and Christianity consist?

In that JEsus was a virtuous man and that we also become virtuous men.

(61) What, on the other hand, is the doctrine of the Scriptures and the creed of every true Christian concerning Christ and true Christianity? What is the teaching of the Scriptures and the creed of every true Christian about Christ and true Christianity?

I believe that Jesus Christ, truly God, born of the Father in eternity, and also truly man, born of Mary the Virgin, is my Lord, who redeemed me, a lost and condemned man, purchased me, won me from all sin, from death and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy and precious blood, and with his innocent suffering and death, that I might be his own, and live and serve in his kingdom under him, in everlasting righteousness, innocency, and blessedness, even as he is risen from death, and liveth and reigneth for ever and ever; This is certainly true.

62. So what did Dr. Zarnke fall from?

From the Bible and all three main articles of the holy Christian faith.

63. By what religion itself is Dr. Zarnke's religion surpassed in truth?

From the Turk religion of the lying prophet Muhammed.

Dr. Zarnke's proposal.

64. How far is that?

Inasmuch as the lying prophet Muhammed thought even far more highly of the Lord Jesus than Dr. Zarnke. (S.: The Koran, translated by Dr. L. Ullmann. Sura 4. 5. 19.)

65. With what words did Dr. Zarnke propose the abolition of the good old religious oath at the Dresden Synod?

"I have applied for the removal of the present silk of religion^ because I think it unnatural that between our conscience and the sources of our religion theological elaborations (elaborations) of the sixteenth century should interpose themselves with a power binding and obliging the conscience."

66 So what does Dr. Zarnke give as the reason for his proposal?

Two things:

1. that he does not believe the Lutheran doctrine as it is contained in the 6 main parts of the Catechism, and

2. that he could no longer be bound by oath to confess this doctrine.

67. who best supported the proposal of Dr. Zarnke?

The well-known Leipzig professor and enemy of the Lutheran doctrine and church, Dr. Baur.

68 With what right do you also call Dr. Baur a fan of the pure Lutheran doctrine and church?

This can be seen, among other things, from the words with which he called at the Dresden Synod for the abolition of

20 Dr. Baur.

of the good old Lutheran religious oath. He called it: "the stone of a righteous offence, which has been shaken for decades, - it must finally be removed from the way.

69 From what is Dr. Baur's hostility to the Lutheran religion further to be seen?

From the fact that at the united church congress in Halle in 1872 he ridiculed the difference between the pure Lutheran and the false reformed communion doctrine, gave a warm eulogy to the false religionist Prussian Union Church, and expressed the wish that all German reformers, Lutherans, and unions should unite to form a great Protestant German national and imperial church.

70 How does even Professor Dr. Luthardt judge Dr. Baur because of his remarks at the united church congress?

He says Dr. Baur has no mind at all for the position of a Lutheran, and a lively fondness for the Union.

71. where can you read all this?

In Luthardt's Allgemeiner evang.-luth. kirä-en- zeilung 1872. no. 45. pp. 837-839.

What will these two declared enemies of the Lutheran Church, Dr. Zarnke and Dr. Baur, be aiming at when they abolish the old religious oath?

On the suppression and abolition of the pure Lutheran doctrine in Saxony.

New formula.

(73) From what can this intention be more clearly seen?

From the new vow formula introduced in place of the old religious oath.

74. what is the same?

"I vow before God that I will, to the best of my knowledge and conscience, teach and preach the Gospel of Christ, as contained in the Holy Scriptures and attested in the first unamended Augsburg Confession and then in the other confessional writings of the Lutheran Church, aloud and pure."

75 But these seem to be quite good, pious and acceptable words?

So it may well seem, but in truth this new formula of vow is not a good form of confession, but an evil form of denial.

76. Is that clearly demonstrable?

However, if we just:

1. the originators,

2. the expressed purpose and

3. examine the wording of this new commitment formula.

(77) What is to be remembered about the authors of the same?

These are the declared enemies of the Lutheran religion, Dr. Zarnke and Dr. Baur, who have also proposed and carried through the abolition of the old religious oath.

78. to what extent are they the originators of the new formula?

Both have a new formula at the state

22 New Gclöbmßformel, originator and purpose.

synod in suggestion, and in particular Dr. Baur himself wrote the formula introduced and submitted it to the synod for adoption.

7 9 But what is to be thought of a formula of commitment which has as its author an obvious enemy and traitor to the Lutheran Church?

Such a formula will not be a confession formula, but a denial formula.

80 For what purpose did Messrs. Zarnke, Baur and Comrades introduce the new obligation formula?

Apparently for the purpose of releasing the church and school teachers of the Saxon state church from the obligation to stick to the pure doctrine known in the Lutheran symbols "to remain constantly without falsehood and to teach according to it" - and to provide them with freedom and state ecclesiastical right to also lead other doctrines that contradict the true confession.

(81) According to which word can this purpose be summarized'?

In the word "doctrinal."

82 With what words did Dr. Zarnke pronounce this purpose before that synod'?

He said, "We must take the formula to mean that men like Lessing, Reimarus, David Strauß are not outside Christianity. I have been asked whether I would employ a man like D. Strauß as a clergyman..... I answer:

New Gelöbnissformcl. Purpose.

I would not place him in a village congregation, but I would have no hesitation in making him a university preacher, and above all a professor of a theological faculty. Who were Lessing, Reimarus and David Strauss?

Notorious scoffers, who have denied the living God, Christ's holy person and the holy work of redemption, as well as the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Christ's holy person and his great work of redemption, as well as the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. They denied and mocked the divine inspiration of the Scriptures.

84. What ungodly propositions did David Strauss, for example, make?

The New Testament, he said, was a series of sagas and poems; not Christ, but all mankind was God's true Son; the newest, the present spirit of the age, was always the best and truest, but the old, precisely because it was old, no longer had any right at all.

What honor, freedom, and justification, however, was Dr. Zarnke's intention to give to such blasphemers as the aforementioned by the new formula of obligation?

The honor, liberty, and right to stand as good Christian preachers and professors in the Church of Saxony.

86 Did Dr. Baur express himself in the same way about the purpose of the new formula he had written?

Yes, indeed, only in a somewhat finer way. For he said that the new formula must preserve the right of free evangelical doctrinal development, as it belongs to the essence of our church.

New Gelöbnissformel. Purpose and wording

Does this so-called "free evangelical doctrinal development" really belong to the nature of our Lutheran Church?

Not at all, but on the contrary it serves to the utter ruin of our church and of all true Christianity.

What do Dr. Zaruke, Dr. Baur and comrades understand by the right of free scriptural research and doctrinal development?

The right of the children of men to deviate from the eternal, rock-solid Word of God, as it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and declared pure and right in our confessions. The right of the children of men to deviate from and apply the rock-solid Word of God, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures and declared pure and true in our confessions, at their own discretion, or even to put it aside altogether, as Lessing, Reimarus, Strauss, Sulze, and other unbelievers have done. - —

(89) How must we justly rewrite a formula of obligation which has the openly expressed purpose, under the pretence of free Scripture research and doctrinal development, of teaching false doctrines contrary to Scripture and symbols in

to bring justice and freedom to the church?

We have to call her an evil denialist.

90. by what is this third thing proved?

With the wording of the new formula itself, which is completely arranged in such a way that it must serve the evil purpose just indicated.

91. Show that closer.

A pledge has been introduced in place of the oath, and in place of the unambiguous words of the good old formula, ambiguous words have been introduced into the

New vow formula. Wording. 25

new formula set, - such words uämlich, about the meaning of which can be argued.

92. what meaning shall the words have, "I vow before God," since they take the place of the former

"I swear to God"?

At any rate, the sense is, as if one were not thereby committed to God as earnestly and strictly as is done by an oath.

93) What was the opinion of the former Minister of Justice, Dr. R. Schneider, before the assembled Synod?

"An alteration of the present formula, by interchanging the word "swear" with "vow," only involves the great disadvantage of confusing consciences; for many a man might think that he had not taken an oath before God under the form of the vow, when in fact he had, and this might lead to great injury to consciences."

(94) What expression has been substituted for the former words: 'pure doctrine'?

Gospel of Christ.

(95) Can there be any objection to this expression, considered by itself?

Certainly not, for they are precious, glorious, holy words of Scripture itself and of our confessions.

(96) But why are they nevertheless reprehensible in the new formula?

Because they are here to deny the truth.

26 New vow formula. Wording.

07. Tell me, what truth then is to be denied by the words 'gospel of Christ'?

The truth of the old oath that the doctrine of our public confessions (the Augsburg Confession, the Small Catechism, etc.) is the pure doctrine of the Word of God.

98. rather, what is to be conceded only?

That in our confessions the gospel of Christ is testified.

99. and now what and how much is taken for , gospel in the confessions of our church?

This is to be left to the belief or disbelief, to the judgment and reasoning of each individual.

100. what other words in the new formula clearly indicate this?

The words "to the best of my knowledge and belief".

lOl. How are the expressions "the gospel of Christ, as it is testified ... as it is testified in the confessional writings of the Lutheran Church, to the best of our knowledge and conscience, pure and unadulterated" - actually be understood?

So that no one is obliged to adhere to the confessions further than he himself thinks good.

Could it not be shown by an example that the new formula has been understood in the same way as here?

Yes, and again by the example of the unbelieving preacher Sulze, who so deceived them-

New Gelöbiüßfvrmcl. Wording.

Therefore, as soon as the new formula was introduced, he allowed himself to be called to Chemnitz, took Baur's vow and preached his Turkish faith.

103) Which articles of the Augsburg Confession, for example, do the two unbelieving preachers Sulze in Chemnitz and Binkan in Leipzig consider to be the "Gospel of Christ"?

Most likely not a single one.

104 Why, therefore, are they not bound by the new vow-formula?

To somehow adhere to the Augsburg Confession in their doctrine.

105. So what can they preach with impunity?

All kinds of ungodly doctrine, after which the people's ears jückcn.

(106) By what means, at any rate, would they be able to repel the reproach that they had thereby taught contrary to the gospel attested in the Augsburg Confession?

Declaring that to the best of their knowledge and conscience they could not hold the doctrine of the Augsburg Confession to be the gospel of Christ.

107 To what end will these words of the new formula have given the Saxon preachers and teachers right and full liberty?

Against the Scriptures and our confessions. Scripture and our confessions.

(108) What preachers and teachers should this be a welcome service to?

28 Newgelöbnissformcl. interpretation

The so-called. Liberals, i.e. the unbelievers and misbelievers.

109 How does Or. Münkel in No. 27 of his "Neues Zeitblatt" (July 7, 1871) about the wording

of the new formula?

"This is a commitment to the teaching of Scripture and the Confessions as guided by the Protestant Association, only insofar as it is gospel, and what is gospel?"

(110) But must the words of the new formula of obligation be interpreted and understood just as they are here?

Although they can be understood as indicated above and, according to Dr. Baur's intention, should also be understood, they could nevertheless be given a better interpretation.

111. who gives them this better interpretation?

The so-called. The so-called "believers" in the national church, who want to maintain the Lutheran confession.

1 >2. What do they mean by "gospel of Christ" ?

The Summa of Pure Wholesome Doctrine.

(113) According to your interpretation, what do the words 'in good faith' mean?

As much as: faithful and honest. - —

(114) But if the new vow-formula admits of so good an interpretation, might it be much easier to put up with it for its sake?

Not at all, but precisely because they are

Two interpretations of the same. 29

should have and does have two interpretations, it is to be rejected by all orthodox Christians.

(115) How, therefore, must the new formula be judged in order to recognize its unworthiness?

Not according to how it may be interpreted, but according to how it is to be interpreted by those who apply it.

But since the two formula manufacturers Zarnke and Baur herewith aimed at the eradication of the pure doctrine of our Lutheran confession, how did it come about that they fell for the holy word "gospel of Christ"?

This was done to give a pious appearance to the evil formula and thus to captivate the "faithful", as it is written: "By sweet words and splendid speech they deceive the innocent hearts." Rom. 16:18.

What compliment, therefore, could I)r. Baur make to his colleague Zarnke because of the words "Gospel of Christ"?

He called it a "lucky grab."

118. What was he trying to say?

With these words we make the new formula palatable to all; the liberals we don't confuse and the "believers" we reassure.

(119) To what end, then, have these precious words, "Gospel of Christ," been shamefully misused by the two malicious enemies of the Gospel?

Among the most unworthy of ecclesiastical political sleight of hand.

30 The new Gelöbniss an evil VcrlcugmiNIsformcl.

120 What can be read about this in your "Rheinisch-lutherisches Wochenblatt" and the "Kirchenblatt aus Kurhessen vom Jahre 1871"?

"With disgust, everyone who still has a vestige of honesty must turn away from this disgusting game of jugglery, in which ambiguous words are used that must seem incomprehensible to the uninformed, but which, by their deceitful choice, document not only an error, but a deliberate denial of the doctrinal content of the church confessions. We doubt whether it will henceforth be possible for an honest Lutheran to stand before his Lord and Savior with such a "vow" made on screws at the moment of ordination, and to assume a spiritual office in the Saxon regional church." (121) What do you conclude, then, in sum, also from the

ambiguous wording of the new vow formula?

This that it is an evil denial formula.

(122) Now what would have happened to a Lutheran synod faithful to the confession if the proposal had been made to it by the enemies of Lutheran doctrine and the church to exchange a good old formula of commitment for a new ambiguous and fraudulent one?

She would have declared such a proposal to be treason against the Lutheran Church and faithless apostasy from the confession of the truth, and would have rejected it with disgust.

123 Did not the Saxon Synod also do this in July 1871 in Dresden, when it was given the opportunity by the gentlemen

The same adopted by the Synod. 31

Baur and Zarnke and some other declared enemies of our Evangelical Lutheran Church, to abolish the good old religious oath and to introduce the

...to introduce a pledge of allegiance?

Alas, - it did not, but, as is well known, did the will of the enemy, abolished the old religious oath, and adopted by 63 votes to 9 the wicked Baur'sche Gelöbnissformel.

This is deplorable and frightening. But how was such a decision possible, since by far the majority of the synod members were supposed to be "believing" men?

These "believing" men have just here denied their faith and gladly put up with the proposed exchange.

125 From which remarks of the church regiment of that time is this evident?

The Minister of Culture, Freiherr v. Falkenstein, who had initially declared himself against the abolition of the old oath, later remarked before the assembled Synod that he and his Ministry would not oppose the amendment of the religious oath if there was any concern that the old oath was an obstacle to free research.

126 With what words did the two court preachers Dr. Kohlschütter (then city superintendent of Dresden) and Dr. Rüling speak out for a new formula of obligation?

They moved: 'That the Ministers of State commissioned in LvauAstteis be requested to attend the next

Synod's joy at the new formula.

Synod to submit a vow formula appropriate to the present stage of development of the Lutheran Church, instead of the present religious oath . ... want to let".

But what statement was made on behalf of the majority of the Committee even by Professor Dr. Luthardt, who is famous as a good Lutheran?

The declaration that they were in complete agreement with the formula proposed by Baur. 128 And what did other members of the synod finally say when they made this sad declaration?

They shouted 'Bravo'.

129 How is one to explain this affection of the faithful Synod members who want to be Lutheran for Banr's denial formula?

At first, at any rate, out of the joy of being rid of the old religious oath.

130. How so?

We have already heard this above in questions 52-54. Because many of these faithful and Lutheran preachers and teachers in Saxony have long since fallen away from the pure doctrine of the Confessions, the old oath to the pure doctrine must have been an unbearably heavy burden for them, while a new ambiguous formula of obligation like Baur's was very welcome.

131 Is the apostasy of the vast majority of Saxon theologians, and especially of those who are "faithful" and want to be good Lutherans, from the pure doctrine of our confessions an established fact?

Apostasy of Saxon Theologians from the Confession. ZZ

Yes, unfortunately, as the two rationalists Zarnke and Baur were able to say to the face of the "faithful" in front of the assembled synod in order to justify their proposals.

132. That's very strange. Please, quote Dr. Baur's words.

"Perhaps," he said, "there is not a single one in this assembly of ours who, thanks to the advanced deepening of evangelical doctrinal development, fully agrees with the doctrinal formulation of the symbolic books.

133. What's the man trying to say?

He wants to say that there is perhaps no one in the Synod who, thanks to today's great human wisdom, still believes everything that is found, for example, in the Bible and in the main parts of the Catechism.

134. I would also like to hear what Dr. Zarnke said to the "believing" Lutheran synod members.

He said: "Gentlemen! For our national church, the University of Leipzig is the planting school. I ask, is there unity of doctrine at the University of Leipzig? No, it is not present. And here, too, I will refrain from those men who from the outset do not essentially emphasize the unity of doctrine; I will stick to those who do the latter and agree in it. There, gentlemen, we have a teacher of the

Waste of Saxon theologians

Kahnis, of whom a Lutheran who otherwise agrees with him on the unity of doctrine says that through his dogmatics he has completed his apostasy from the truth of the Confession, and I think he is right in saying this, for I too cannot interpret the words of what is meant here in any other way than that through his disputes over the Lutheran interpretation of the words of the institution of Art. X. of the Jnvariata (the unamended Augsb. Conf.) has ceded. I do not say this to hurt the man, I do not say this to cry foul here, I gratefully press the hand of the venerated man in spirit, and so on.... And there, gentlemen, we have a second teacher at the university, of whom another, from the same demand of confessional fidelity with him, says that he stands only half and weakly on the rock of the gospel, and in another place that he has abandoned the divine nature of Christ to the pantheists. Gentlemen, who is this man? None other than our all-worshipful Mr. Speaker (Luthardt). And then, gentlemen, we have a third professor, who has administered Holy Communion at the Lutheran altar to Lutherans, Reformed, and Unrighteous. And then, gentlemen, we have a third professor who, at the Lutheran altar, has administered Holy Communion to Lutherans, Reformed, and unbelievers, and who has thereby committed an act which, in the opinion of one of his colleagues at the same university, is a sin against the express commandments of God. And then, gentlemen, we have had a professor at our university who, when a call was made to him, did not want it.

from confession.

has not refused to leave the Lutheran Church to join the Uniate." (Brückner.)

135. Have others spoken out like this?

Yes, as, for example, a liberal from Dresden in No. 27 of the periodical "Im neuen Reich" (In the New Kingdom) in 1871, who lets himself be heard thus: "But today there is no longer a single Lutheran theologian who completely and fully accepts the symbolic writings, and the chiefs among them feud with each other as having fallen away from the truth of the confession, therefore a change in the religious oath was necessary.

136 What do the men of faith who want to be Lutheran say to such judgments of the "liberals" about them?

They have only to confirm them, as, for example, the professor vi-. Kahnis himself confesses in his book, Basic Truths of Protestantism, 52-53: "There is no Lutheran, and there can be no Lutheran, who accepts the Augsburg Confession in all points ....". I repeat, if the Lutheran Church is to have a present and a future, the position of theology in relation to the Confession can only be a free one."

If this is the case, it is understandable that the "faithful" members of the synod lacked the good conscience and courage to reject Baur's "free" formula. It had to be welcome to them. To whom, therefore, must we primarily attribute the introduction of this denial formula?

36 Apostasy of Saxon Theologians from the Confession.

The apostasy of the so-called "faithful" preachers and professors in Saxony who wanted to be Lutheran from the pure doctrine.

138 With what words does the already mentioned Dr. Münkel confirm this in his "Neues Zeitblatt"?

of July 7, 1871?

He says: "In the negotiations it was emphatically asserted that the former Reli gwnseid was quite untenable, since the theologians themselves (Kahnis, Luthardt, etc.) deviated so significantly from the 'pure doctrine'; and, however, one must not demand of others what one does not oneself fulfill. If doctrinal unity and purity have been practically sacrificed, the confessions must at last fall under the same sacrificial knife."

139 Since, however, that synod lawfully represented the entire Saxon Lan desk'irche, the synodal decision to abolish the good old religious oath and to accept the new Baur's formula of obligation is also to be regarded as whose act?

As an act of the collected Saxon

National Church.

(140) What, therefore, has the Saxon ecclesiastical government decreed in their name?

The introduction and observation of this Baur' commitment formula.

141. have the 1200 congregations of the Saxon regional church, together with their servants, allowed themselves to be betrayed by the

Confession so calmly?

Three protests dismissed.

As much as is known, only three protests have been made against it.

142. from whom did these originate?

1. of the now separated Lutherans at Dresden and Planitz in the year 1871.

2. from the pastor Lenk in Siebenlehn 1872.

3. by the church council of the congregation of Grö- ditz in Upper Lusatia - whose protest (in the form of a most modest petition to the "highly enlightened men" of the synod), however, was not meant seriously, 1874.

(143) How did the ecclesiastical authority receive these latter two protests which came to it?

She just put them aside.

144 What was decided, for example, concerning the Gröditzer protest by the regional synod in 1874 at the request of Dr. Luthardt and comrades?

To let the petition of the church council of Gröditz (for the reintroduction of the good old religious oath) stand.

Now draw the final conclusion from all that has been said about the abolition of the good old religious oath and the introduction of the new evil formula of obligation.

Since in legal representation and with the consent of the entire Saxon regional church, the regional synod in Dresden in 1871, at the suggestion of some enemies of the faith, abolished the old oath to the pure Lutheran doctrine and introduced a two-sided oath formula adopted by the same,

False doctrine in Saxony justified.

and that in the obvious intention to release the preachers and teachers from the duty to remain with the pure doctrine of our confessional writings without falsehood, on the other hand to give them the right and freedom to preach under the Lutheran name against the same pure doctrine, - thus the Saxon regional church has fundamentally and solemnly justified the false, ungodly doctrine contrary to Scripture and confession, publicly carried out the apostasy from the Lutheran confession and thus lost the marks of the orthodox church.

(146) What therefore, as stated above, can the Saxon Church no longer be regarded as?

It can no longer be considered a truly Lutheran church, but has become a false-believing, unionist, Protestant-unionist church fellowship.

147 With what words did Dr. Spener, the same high court preacher, speak the same truth?

"On the other hand, that religion is not a true religion, and the church is not the true, visible church, whose doctrine and worship are so skilled that from their instruction even their members are led to error, idolatry, superstition, and sin, and thus, by virtue of their church ordinances, can do nothing but commit such things as are sinful and contrary to salvation." (Lamentations on Corrupted Christianity, 1685.)

Powerful objection.

148) Could it not be objected that, since the confessional writings in Saxony itself have by no means been abolished, but rightly exist in public, the Saxon Regional Church is still well Lutheran?

Such an objection is quite null and void. For since, by means of the new Gelöbnißformel, all Saxon ecclesiastics are released from the obligation to remain with the actual literal meaning of the confessions, the latter in Saxony have only the prestige and value of rightly existing, old papers. The mere existence of these, however, does not make the Saxon church a true-believing church, any more than the mere existence of the despised Bible in the Roman church makes it such.

149 How will a church which rightly bears the name of a Lutheran church take a stand on the Lutheran confession of faith?

This may be shown by the old, faithful Strasbourg theologian Dannhauer in the following words: "Therefore we should also keep our symbols as flags of faith, adorn them, defend them until death, so that not even the smallest letter, not even one tittle of them is changed; we should not let ourselves be aborted by them, like those peoples at Jrenaeus, who do not want to hear anything else than what agrees with their symbol, because this is the best patrimony and inheritance that we can leave to our descendants. St. Paul, after he had told Timo-

Sacrifice of the Saxon regional church.

theo, his faithful and beloved disciple, commanded him to hold fast to the example of the salutary words, he immediately adds this thoughtful admonition: "Keep this good supplement by the Holy Spirit. If we consider these things diligently, the noble consolation of faith will come from them: because the flag flies in the field, it has no need, but still stands well. This is our armor-blazon, our blood-blazon, whereby we contend chivalrously, and by death and life seek to reach our victorious Prince, Christ." (Catechism Milk.)

(150) How, therefore, do orthodox Lutherans, e.g., those of the Missouri Synod in North America, judge the Saxon Church after the adoption of the new formula of covenant?

They write: "The approval and acceptance of Baur's formula of commitment was rather not only an infidelity against the confession, but at the same time a sacrifice of the Lutheran, Saxon regional church, which ceased to be a community of Lutheran Christians as a whole with the acceptance of the new formula." Further, "The Saxon Church, by adopting this formula, has separated itself from the true Lutheran Church." (151) Could not this judgment also be confirmed by a statement of the unbelievers?

Yes, indeed, for so we read in the 2nd supplement to the Leipziger Tageblatt of June 13, 1871: "The Synod, in its last session, did a deed, which is the first section of the Saxon pro-.

testanüschen, Lutheran church history, closed the period of formal legal dependence on the confessional writings of the sixteenth century and opened a new chapter, that of free Protestant Christianity."

Did not even a member of that regional synod (svr. Jacob) point to this apostasy of the Saxon church?

Yes, for he declared that he feared that with the acceptance of Zarnke's motion (with which Baur's had the same opinion) one would stand at the beginning of the end of the Lutheran Church (precisely as a regional church in Saxony).

(153) Now what always precedes the manifest apostasy of an individual Christian or of a whole church?

A hidden, internal waste.

154 What do you conclude, therefore, from the fact that the Saxon regional church, by accepting Baur's formula of denial, has openly apostatized from the Lutheran Church?

Church has accomplished?

From this I conclude that a more secret and inward apostasy of the Saxon regional church must have preceded this manifest one.

155. And wherein do you think this inward apostasy will consist?

In the false doctrine that has gradually become dominant in Saxony.

156 What, then, do we have to do, secondly, in order to prove that the Saxon regional church is no longer a truly evangelical Lutheran church, but a false believer?

Of the false, godless doctrine prevailing in Saxony.

157. Have not, as the history of the Church teaches, false spirits and false doctrines arisen at various times even in the orthodox Church?

Certainly, as, for example, the Jewish false teachers in the churches of Corinth, Galatia, etc., already in the time of the apostles, and as in and after the Reformation the Anabaptists and secret Calvinists in Saxony.

(158) Why, however, could not the false doctrine, which otherwise eats around itself like the cancer, come to rule in it?

Because it was not tolerated by the orthodox, much less justified, but punished, fought against, and exterminated with great seriousness.

(159) Whence, then, has it come about that false, ungodly doctrine has gradually become predominant in the Saxon church?

Hence, that they have been tolerated from long years.

(160) What is here generally understood by prevailing, false doctrine?

Both the falsification or denial of one or more of the basic doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, and the denial of the Holy Scriptures. Scripture, as well as the denial of the Holy Scripture. Scripture,

False doctrine. Dr. Sulze.

as God's word itself, and thus denying the whole Christian religion.

161 But should it be necessary to speak of the latter case, since among preachers and teachers in Saxony there should hardly be found such a heathen?

Would to God it were so, but so appalling is the ruin that has been wrought that in the midst of the Saxon national church, under the name of the "Gospel of Christ," the whole Christian religion may be denied and barbarous paganism taught.

Indeed, this is horrible and hardly believable. Tell me, from what man does one suffer this abomination?

Among others by the well-known unbelieving preacher Sulze in Chemnitz.

163. what is to be remembered from the former life of the same?

That he had already preached his unbelief in Osnabrück for a number of years and was investigated for this by the Hanoverian Consistory.

164 Why was the unbelieving Sulze not deposed at that time?

Because the Hanoverian Consistory was more afraid of the street scandal and window throwing of Sulze's followers than of the living God whom Sulze blasphemed.

165 What did the "Pilgrim from Saxony" write about the cowardice of the Hanoverian consistory?

The disbelief of Dr. Sulzc.

"One does not seem to have thought of the consequences of his (Sulze's) attacks for the national church itself. Sulze will not have to bear them alone, but with him the church government, which did not want to take any serious steps against his heresies. - What does history teach? - If you preach Christianity without Christianity (as Sulze does), even a Hanoverian church regiment can see through your fingers nowadays, especially if you have a crowd of well-practiced window throwers behind you for emergencies. Only no hole in the window panes of any persons involved; holes in one's confession are rather put up with."

166 Since when has Mr. Sulze been allowed, with the permission of the Saxon church regiment in Chemnitz, to make "holes in the confession" and mock the whole Christian religion?

Since the introduction of the new gelöbnis formula.

167 From what can one learn today about Sulze's Christianity "without Christianity"?

From Sulze's sermons and lectures and a monthly journal he published called "Die Leuchte."

168 How then did Mr. Sulze, according to his own confession, come to his Christianity?

"I have also," he says, "formed my conception of Christianity." (Inaugural Sermon. 1872, p. 13.) Further, "We shall always make it felt that our discussions are based on serious scientific work." (Doctrine of God, p. 5.)

The unbelief of Dr. Sulze.

169) How does he call the pure doctrine of the Lutheran Church, according to his imaginary, self-fabricated Christianity?

Church?

A thorny web of doctrinal statutes. (Guest and Spirit Sermon. Chemnitz, 1872. p. 15.)

What words does Sulze use to renounce the Scriptures and deny their divinity? What words does Sulze use to deny the divinity of the Scriptures?

"One abandons the narrow-minded wisdom that is still found in most catechisms as an answer to the question: From what do we learn to know God? One answers: from nature and the Holy Scriptures. Scripture. It should be: from nature and from the history of the human race. The Scriptures Scripture cannot be called the second area of direct revelation of God apart from nature. It is only a representation of a section of history." (Doctrine of God. p. 10.) "The detailed discussion of the biblical history of creation must also be dispensed with. That it is a childishly beautiful and in part sublime poem needs no proof. This is said to the children, as long as one . . must take recourse to the biblical sagas. . . The retention of the story of creation... has also done much harm to the life of faith of the time." (S. 25). The heil. Sulze calls St. Matthew an unpaedagogical reporter, a collector who throws everything into confusion, who has not drawn from life and does not address living hearts.

The unbelief of Dr. Sulze.

(Leuchte, 1873. No. 16. 17. p. 282. 283.) Sulze declares the passages Matth. 16, 17-19, and Cap. 18, 15-17, to be contemptible, and sneers, "The great Creator of the kingdom of heaven had no time to give such' specific regulations for the disciplinary procedure in the church." - And before that, "He who knows Christ knows that in His kingdom there was nothing to bind and nothing to loose." (Lamp 1874, Nos. 23 & 24. p. 404.)

171 With what words does Sulze deny the divine power of the holy Scriptures?

"Doctrine," (understand God's Word), he lies, "cannot make life." (Guest Sermon p. 15.)

172. What, on the other hand, do we read in the Bible?

"We are born again of the living word of God, which abideth for ever." 1 Pet. 1, 23. "If any man keep my word, he shall never see death." Joh. 8, 51. "The gospel of Christ is the power of God to save all them that believe." Rom. 1:16. See also John 5:39; 2 Tim. 3:15-17; Ebr. 4:12.

With what moths does Sulze deny the true living, triune God of the Christians, who has revealed Himself in the Holy Scriptures? Who has revealed Himself in Holy Scripture?

Sulze first asserts that the ecclesiastical doctrine of the Trinity has suffered shipwreck, and then he says, among other things: "Here it is only to be shown that in it (the doctrine of the Trinity) one, like all others,

The disbelief of Dr. Sülze.

failed attempt to grasp the essence of God in human (!) terms. . . Such a doctrine can only damage faith. Where it (Sulze's faith, of course) places itself before the mystery of divine life and its infinity, foreboding and worshipping, it narrows its circle of vision by such a formula of one and three and three and gns. In order that he might not rest from the torment of the finite and the finite transformations, these are themselves transferred to the infinite being of God. There must be an end to these torments, if the pure, full joy of God is again to permeate the hearts ..... Let it be remembered that the results of the investigation into the existence of God must not be used to derive a doctrine of the Trinity. . . Three persons in one nature. (!) This in itself is a pantheistic trait. More Christian it would be, three natures in one person. But the worst thing is that the God-manhood of Christ is thought of as having entered into the Godhead. Remember Luther's omnipresence of the body of Christ. There is even the body in the Godhead. That is ... pure paganism, therefore it must be strictly held that we do not have three independent powers or even persons in the Godhead in the three fundamental attributes." (Doctrine of God. p. 7. 22.)

174) What, on the other hand, do the holy Scriptures teach?

"Three are they which beget in heaven; the Father, the Word (the Son, Joh. 1, 1), and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one." 1 John 5:7. (See also Matt. 3:16. Cap. 28:19.)

175 And what does the Evangelical-Lutheran Church confess? Church?

"We believe and teach that there is one eternal, one and indivisible divine being, and yet three distinct persons in one divine being, equally powerful, equally eternal, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We have always taught and contended this article so purely, and we hold and are sure that it has so strong, good, and certain a foundation in holy Scripture, that it is never possible to blame or overthrow it. Therefore we freely conclude that all those are idolatrous, blasphemers, and outside the church of Christ, who hold or teach otherwise." (Art. 1 of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession.)

With what words does Sulze deny the eternal deity of our Lord Jesus Christ?

"God does not become man if during the incarnation a being emerges that is something other than man. The incarnation of God therefore did not come to pass in Christ as soon as there were in him any attributes that went beyond the nature of man. . . It

The unbelief of Dr. Sulze.49

is a thoroughly pagan blending of the divine with the human, if at all as in a human being the qualities are supposed to be present which constitute the essence of God in...: Differences from that of man .... All these are ... religious (?) expositions, which we raise against the previous doctrine of Christo ... ... So one does not win Christ, but one loses him, if one does not decide to renounce the unreligious assumption that in Christ, even if only suspended, the divine qualities were present, which forever establish the difference between creator and creature, between God and man, the omnipotence, the omnipresence and omniscience. ... That the old church doctrine can be blamed for this error, that is quite another question." - "All the objections which were to be raised against the doctrine of: God-man, apply in a somewhat different form also to the doctrine that Christ owed his existence to a miracle of nature (?). The point was not to transfigure divinely a peculiar, miraculously originated human nature, but that which we all have." (Leuchte 1874. p. 370 sf.)

177 What, on the other hand, does God's Word teach about the person of Christ?

"Christ is come forth from the fathers according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed for ever and ever." Rom. 9, 5.

50TheUnbelief of Dr. Sulze.

"In the universe was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. The same was in the beginning with God.... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, a glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:1, 2, 14.

"I and the Father are one." Joh. 10, 30.

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Matth. 28, 18.

"This (Jesus Christ) is the ^truthful God uud eternal life." 1 John 5:20.

"Take heed that no man deprive you through philosophy and loose enticement after the doctrine of men, and after the statutes of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Col. 2, 8. 9.

"In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." V. 3.

178 What therefore does our Lutheran Church also confess?

"We confess that in Christ there are two natures, namely, that the Son of God took on the human nature, and so God and man are one person, one Christ; and that the same suffered and died for us, to atone for us the Father; and that he is ascended; that he possesses an everlasting kingdom, sanctifies and justifies all believers, etc., as the Creed of the Apostles and L^rnOottwr ^ieaennui teaches." (Apology, art. 3.)

The unbelief of Or. Sulze.

"Accordingly we reject and condemn, as contrary to God's word, and to our simple Christian faith, . . when it is taught that Christ is not true, natural, eternal God, as Arius held." (Conc. Formula, summ. Term, Art. VIII.) 179. How contemptuously and blasphemously does he further speak of the word of Christ?

"Christ's work rested more on His person than on His word. This is one of the most decisive realizations that has dawned upon the present age." What we owe to the Lord "is effected less by what the Lord said than by what he was." (Guest Sermon, p. 1.) "Therefore let it be far from us to hold fast the Messiah of the Jews in Christ; to listen to how prophecy and fulfillment sound together in the word, how his own hopes will be literally fulfilled."... further: "Yes, we must say still more: it is carnal to idolize the individual word and the outward deed from the life of JEsu. The words and works do not do it, but the person who is hidden in them. Many a heathen wise man has spoken of God the Father, and also in other respects, in a very similar manner to Christ.... Therefore the Christ of whom we have need is not the word or the work, not the teaching, healing, or dying in itself. It is also carnal to let the heart be captured here by the outward work, to derive from Him in Himself the salvation of our race." (Lamp 1874. No. 20. 330.)

The UnglauK of the vi-. Sulze.

180 But what do God the Father, Christ himself, and the holy apostles testify of this?

God the Father testifies to the words of Christ: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, him you shall hear." Matth. 17, 5.

Christ himself: "Verily, verily, I say unto you: He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Joh. 5, 24.

Likewise, "If ye continue in my sayings, then are ye my disciples indeed, and shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Joh. 8, 31. 32.

Likewise, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Joh. 15, 7.

Likewise, "Ye are now clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you." Joh. 15, 3.

St. Apostle Peter: "Lord, where shall we go, thou hast words of eternal life." Joh. 6, 68.

St. Apostle Paul: "If any man teach otherwise, and abide not in the saving words of our Lord Jesus Christ ... he is darkened, and knoweth nothing." 1 Tim. 6:3.

St. John the Apostle. The apostle John: "No one has ever seen God, but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared it to us". John 1:18.

The unbelief of Dr. Sulze.

Likewise, "He that transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath no God: he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, hath both the Father and the Son." 2 John 9.

181 With what words does Sulze deny, blaspheme, and mock the whole most holy work of redemption of our Saviour?

"Most dangerous is the doctrine that God rewards good and punishes evil. The question arises how he can be merciful in this. Thus arises the whole mythological doctrine of the struggle of justice with mercy, which is developed in Anselm. Justice wants to strangle, mercy wants to save. They become at last .... by mutual yielding one. .... Justice refrains from punishing the guilty; grace consents to punish at all. Thus the innocent Christ is punished for guilty men. And God can now have mercy on men. So God is redeemed, not men. Such things do not deserve to be spoken of at all. Faith in God cannot be undermined more systematically." (Doctrine of God, p. 35.)

"What according to the older opinion was first to be won, God's love for man, according to the newer opinion need not be won at all, because it could never cease.... Christianity is the religion of the love of God. As I said, not in the sense that through Christ's death...

God's love for sinful men would only have been created or freed from inhibitions. What we thank Christ for, according to the view of the newer (Sulze's) Protestantism, is this, that he has revealed the love of God, which was hitherto veiled to men, and has made it effective in the hearts".... "The conviction ... "that God can impute this strange suffering (of Christ) to me, and thus remove the tension between his justice and his love," is to Mr. Sulze only "a loose construction of historical and dogmatic presuppositions, and no certainty of faith at all." Sulze has no need of a mediator and redeemer. "But the certainty of my salvation must be given to me directly by God Himself." - "Our Redeemer," exclaims the blasphemer, "is the almighty personal God Himself . . . the painted Redeemer only orthodoxy wants to impose on us with its God-man, whom the imagination of conciliarists has created, who rankle in the same way with the Vatican." (Lamp No. 22, 1874.)

182. But what does the Scripture say?

"God has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their sins unto them, and hath established among us the word of reconciliation....

The unbelief of Dr. Sulze.

For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might have in him the righteousness that is before God." (2 Cor. 5, 18. 19. 21.)

"The love of God toward us was manifested in this, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we should live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:9, 10. See also John 3:16.

"For it was his good pleasure that in him should all fullness dwell. And that all things through him might be reconciled to himself, whether on earth or in heaven, in order that he might make peace through himself by the blood of his cross. And you, who were once strangers and enemies, through reason in evil works. But now hath he reconciled you in the body of his flesh by death, that he might present you holy and without blame before himself." Col. 1:19-22.

"We find God reconciled through the death of His Son, while we were yet enemies." Rom. 5, 10.

183 What is testified of this in our confessions?

"Wherefore this standeth fast, that there was but one sacrifice, the death of Christ, which was to be applied for others, the wrath of God.

The unbelief of vr. Sulze.

To make reconciliation." (Apol. Art. XXIV.) "Therefore Christ's obedience, not only in suffering and dying, but also in voluntarily submitting to the law in our stead, and fulfilling it with such obedience, is imputed to us for righteousness; that for all this obedience, which in doing and suffering, in living and dying for us, he rendered to his heavenly Father, God forgives us our sins, counts us righteous and just, and saves us for ever. ... Therefore we believe, teach, and confess that the whole obedience of the whole person of Jesus Christ, which he rendered to the Father before us even unto the most shameful death of the cross, is imputed unto us for righteousness.... But because the obedience is of the whole person, it is a perfect satisfaction and propitiation of the human race, whereby the eternal unchangeable righteousness of God, revealed in the law, is satisfied, and therefore our righteousness, revealed in the gospel, is relied upon by faith for God, which God imputes to faith, as it is written, Rom. 5 and 1 John 1, item: "The righteous shall live by faith," Hab. 2 (Conc. Form. 8o1.v6el. IH.).

184 With what words Sulze especially denigrates and blasphemes the redemption and reconciliation of our Lord JEsu Christ, and makes the merciful sinner

...into a self-serving, self-centered servant of Lohud?

The unbelief of Dr. Sulze. 57

Sulze blasphemes: Christ gave his life in death "to preserve for himself the possession of the invisible world, the possession of the kingdom of heaven." (Guest Sermon. p. 7.)

185. But what does the Scripture say?

"Truly He bore our sickness and took upon Himself our pain. But we took Him for the one who was afflicted and smitten and martyred by God. But he is wounded for our iniquity, and bruised for our sin. The punishment lieth out of him, that we might have peace: and by his wounds we are healed." Isa. 53:4, 5.

"Know that it is not with corruptible silver or gold that ye are redeemed from your vain walk after the manner of a father, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of an innocent and undefiled Lamb." 1 Pet. 1, 18. 19.

186 How does Sulze mock all the basic articles of the Christian, beatific faith?

He says: "You believe in the formula of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the two natures in Christ, the Atonement. Dear friend, can this faith make me pleasant before God, then I would easily be a perfect child of God. For the mind is a power easily wrought... The thoughts dwell together. ... Those teachings are only symbols and parables." (S. 15.)

The Unglanoe of the vr Sulze.

What saith the scripture of such scoffers? Scripture of such scoffers?

"They shall deny the Lord that bought them, and shall bring upon themselves a swift destruction. And many shall follow their destruction, by whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed." 2 Pet. 2, 1.

"And every spirit that confesseth not that JEsus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." 1 Joh. 4, 3.

"Who is a liar, except he deny that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, which denieth the Father and the Son. He that lemp net the Son, hath not the Father also." Cap. 2, 22. 23.

. 188. And what terrifying threat does the eternal Word of God pronounce upon them?

"If any man break the law of Moses, he shall die without mercy, by two or three witnesses. How much more grievous punishment do you think he deserves who tramples under foot the Son of God, and defiles the blood of the testament by which he is sanctified, and reviles the Spirit of grace? Terrible is it to fall into the hands of the living God." Ebr. 10:28, 29, 31.

189. what, then, in Mr. Sulze's opinion, since he rejects faith in the Saviour of sinners, is the "only source of assurance of salvation," and "the true, great

Grundglanbe"?

Faith in the life of the Spirit, and work in that faith. (Guest Sermon. p. 15. 16.)

The unbelief of Dr. Sulze. 59

190. What does he mean by that?

The fulfillment of the law.

0191 But to whom doth he ascribe the same to the dishonour of the precious merit of Christ?

Man's own strength, for he says: "The fulfillment of the law has reached the world of men, it is no longer an impossibility for us; it springs forth from our hearts in free love and joyful enthusiasm. ... This love makes us children of God. (pp. 8. & 9.)

192. What does he make people do with this?

To their own saviors, who through themselves unite and make blessed with God.

193 Which two fundamental doctrines of the Holy Scriptures - are thereby denied by Sulze?

The doctrine of the total corruption of human nature, and the doctrine of the justification of the sinner without the works of the law by grace alone, for the merit of Christ through faith.

194 Which one saying of St. Pauli makes Mr. Sulze here a false prophet and a liar?

to shame?

Rom. 3, 23-25: "For there is no difference here; they are all sinners, and lack the glory which they ought to have in God. And are justified without merit by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a

The unbelief of Dr. Zulze.

mercy seat, by faith in his blnt, that he might offer the righteousness that is before him, in that he forgiveth sin which hitherto remained under divine patience."

What bad Jesuit morals are being extolled as life in the spirit by ör. Sulze as life in the spirit?

He says: "Everything is permitted and everything is forbidden to the Christian. The Christian may do anything, if only he does not shorten his dominion over the earthly, sensual world, but increases it. Even the most harmless thing is forbidden him, if it debilitates the spirit and strengthens the power of the flesh. Thus, in Christianity, that narrow-minded, world-averse morality, which considers certain spheres of life to be ungodly in themselves, is excluded in the most unconditional way. .... Abstinence, too, can increase the lusts of the flesh by increasing lasciviousness." .... (S. 11.)

196. Who is Dr. Sulze mimicking with this ungodly teaching?

The Roman Pontiff, who is the master of the devil's art, to dissolve God's law, to do of it or to it, to permit what God hath forbidden, and to forbid what he hath permitted and left free. 197 And what shameful fruits will this doctrine bear wherever it is accepted?

Either it makes safe, wicked, carnal men, who do not make a conscience of the transgression of the divine commandment, and who, according to the saying, "The end justifies the means," -

The unbelief of Dr. Sulze. 61

"Let us do evil, that good may come of it," - not abstaining, that lust may not be "increased," but quenched, - or fearful, doubting, confused consciences, which make sin and common to themselves and others what God has sanctified, left free, and commanded to be received with thanksgiving.

198) What, on the other hand, does a Christian do in order to live in the Spirit?

Alone, but also exactly according to the unerring guide of the divine word, as it is written, "How shall a young man walk his way blamelessly? If he keep thy words." Ps. 119:9.

Finally, with what words does Sulze, to make the measure of his abominable heresies complete, also deny the eternal righteousness of God and the eternal damnation of the wicked?

He teaches: "To a loving contemplation of human life it will not be doubtful that even these souls (namely, the ungodly, in whom the 'innate disposition to divine glory' seems to have been completely buried) are destined to come at last to full light. The fact remains that in the end the will of God must infallibly find its realization. But God's will is that all men should be helped. How, then, could this remain unfulfilled?" (Here Sulze lies in God's name and twists God's holy word by false interpretation). "How is it therefore possible-

82TheUnbelief of Dr. Sulze.

Is it possible that the end of God's ways, the goal of all world development, would be the unresolved discord of heaven and hell? As long as we remain in this expectation .... so long will the most important proof of our immortality ... is deprived of its actual force, one hopes with bold courage" etc. etc. (Light 1873. No. 16.17. p. 279. 280.)

"Only beware of the crude view according to which the destruction of evil is equivalent to the destruction of the wicked.... The omnipotence of his love proves itself precisely in the fact that he creatively transforms the wicked and thus wins them over for himself, not by destroying them .... Thus (with the doctrine of the eternal damnation of the wicked) the heart of the Christian faith has been broken, the most joyful impetus has been snatched away. The fantastic idea of an eternal hell has been preserved, and the result of all the work of almighty love has been presented not as blissful harmony, but as the indissoluble conflict between heaven and hell .... .. When such things are passed off as Christianity, one cannot be surprised if hearts turn away from Christianity." (Doctrine of God. pp. 36,37.)

Enough of Sulze's sacrilegious chatter against the testimony of his own conscience and the clear word of God: "When the godless man dies, hope is lost, and the waiting of the unrighteous becomes a show" (Prov. 11:7). "They go

into everlasting torment" (Matth. 25, 26), where "their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched" (Is. 66,24.)

200. Say now, how much has I)r. Sulze still retained of the true Christian or Lutheran religion?

Not a scrap.

201 What should be said about Sulze's religion at all?

It is a mixture of old and modern heathen religious philosophy, of long ago used up deistic, rationalistic, naturalistic and pantheistic leaps of thought and some equally crazy original Sulze ideas, - a religion of the flesh and therefore of lies and deceit, according to which the majesty of God is trodden in the dust, the eternal Son of God is made into a human child dressed up with Sulze's flakes of virtue and the holy Word of God is made into a book of fairy tales.

How did Dr. Sulze come to his abominable unbelief and the blasphemous heresies that came out of it?

Without a doubt, through the intervention of the devil, who has ruled him to the righteous judgment of God, to despise the Holy Scriptures and instead of submitting to every letter of them, in drunken arrogance, to appoint his own brainbox as master and judge. He has no doubt, through the intervention of the devil, who has ruled him to the righteous judgment of God, to despise the Holy Scriptures and, instead of humbly submitting to every letter of them, to appoint his own brainbox as master and judge over them in drunken arrogance and thus, of course, to fall from one lie and darkness into the other.

64Theunbelief of I), Sulze.

With what words did I)r. Luther taught that from such devilish contempt of the written Word of God all Sulze'scheu and other heresies would arise'?

"Thou shalt see, because they walk in the way, that they will not honour God's word with faith, or accept it after the simple manner of tongues, but measure and master it with sophistical reason and pointed subtleties, they will come to the very fine point, that they will also deny that Christ is not God. For by reason it is foolish to say, Man is God, as, Bread is body. And because they deny one thing, they will very soon and freshly deny the other also. This also the devil seeketh, who hath led them out of the scriptures into their reason, that he may bring in again all heresy. For thou shalt see wonders how wise reason shall be ... And say, Yea, Godhead and mankind are two things, immeasurably separated one from another, as one eternal from one temporal: how then can one be the other: or any man say, Man is God? So must you also say, Temporal is eternal, mortal is immortal, and the like." (Against the Heavenly Prophets, Ibm. 2. Isn. toi. 79 b.)

Then they argued and concluded that there was only one God, and that therefore Christ could not be like the Father, and they took upon themselves to paint God and to put on a colour, as if he were the Father.

The unbelief of Dr. Sulze.

they wanted; ... this was Arius' heresy, which broke out and spread so far that almost the whole world hung on it .... I am worried that it will rise again, because the devil is already stirring strongly ... Therefore, everyone should take a good look at this text, so that he may be prepared if such mobs rise up again; for without the Scriptures, faith is soon torn down, as we have already read too much and see daily in our mob spirits." (Church Postille. Pr. in the Christmas Mass about Joh. 1.)

Furthermore: "They are already beginning to seek this article and to sow their poison against it. Therefore let us take hold of this article, and hold fast to it, that we may not hear what reason cunningly says here, but what God's Word says of it. This article is firmly attested, both in the Old and New Testaments; therefore it must surely be true." (House Postil. Pr. on Day ^un.

204 Should Dr. Sulze believe his own lies and blasphemies and take them for truth?

Yes, for all heretics are blinded and hardened, as the Scripture says: "Therefore (because they have not received the love of the truth, that they might be saved) God will send them strong error, that they may believe the lie." 2 Thess. 2:10, 11.

The unbelief of Dr. Sulze.

205) Only indicate what judgment we must arrive at about Mr. Sulze's person as a result of the teachings he has indicated here?

To the judgment that Sulze is not a Christian, not a Christian preacher, but a false prophet and an apostle of lies, a ravening wolf without sheep's clothing, who is outside the Christian church with a subtle, open denial of Christ.

(206) What, however, makes Dr. Sulze a most dangerous false teacher, from whom every honest Christian must be on the utmost guard?

His not insignificant gifts, his zeal, and especially his smooth, pious, splendid phrases, among which he injects the deadly poison of his false doctrine.

It would be important to know whether a man like Dr. Sulze, who completely denies the Holy Scriptures and all the articles of the Christian faith, can still administer the right sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. The question is whether a man like Dr. Sulze, who completely denies the Holy Scriptures and all the articles of the Christian faith, can still administer the proper sacraments of the church, baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Since Dr. Sulze publicly denies the true triune God and the eternal deity of Jesus Christ, and therefore, even if he takes into his mouth the words of institution of baptism and holy communion, he means something quite different from what the Bible teaches and the holy Christian church confesses, - so also what he performs under such words is not a real sacrament. Therefore, when he uses the words for the institution of Baptism and Holy Communion, he means something quite different from what the Bible teaches and the holy Christian Church confesses, - so what he performs under such words is not a real sacrament, neither Baptism nor Holy Communion, but only an imitation of the sacrament. From Dr. Sulze's

No sacrament to be found with the same.

Therefore, with one's hands, one receives neither a valid baptism nor the right Lord's Supper.

This seems to contradict what our Lutheran Church teaches in the 8th Article of the Augsburg Confession and in the 8th and 9th Articles of the Apology. Confession and in the 8th and 9th of the Apology. For here it is said, that the sacraments are nevertheless powerful, although the priests by whom they are administered are not pious; that one may rightly receive the sacraments from the wicked, and that therefore they are not without power and effect, that they are administered by the ungodly. What have you to say against this?

What the Confessions teach is perfectly true. But they speak of such wicked ministers of the church, who, though unbelieving and hypocritical in their own persons, yet are the mouth of the orthodox church, and therefore lead Christ's voice and administer the holy sacraments. Sacraments. Dr. Sulze, however, is not only an unbeliever in his own person, but also the mouth of an equally unbelieving society, at whose express wish, or with whose tacit consent, he is called to Chemnitz, and publicly denies the true Christian religion. Hence, then, with Dr. Sulze neither God's Word nor God's Sacrament is to be found. For these means of grace are given only to the holy Christian church.

209 What therefore does Dr. Luther also write?

"Therefore the church is holy everywhere, even in the places of worship, where the fanatics and the riffraff reign, as long as they only speak the word of God.

The baptism granted by Dr. Sulze is invalid.

But do not deny and reject the church and the sacrament. For those who deny these things altogether are no longer a church at all. (Br. to the Galatians.)

210 Add to this a testimony of a faithful Lutheran theologian.

Aegidius Hunnius writes in his 41st Disputation: "We say that a baptism administered by an antitrinitarian (who denies the Trinity) or by an Arian (who denies the deity of Christ) is void, if both the minister and the church do not believe the article of the most holy Trinity (in whose name the baptism is administered)." (8oeiuiani8inu8 xroüiAatu8 1688. From Rev. F. König: Is the baptism of the free Christian Protestant ministers Eisenlohr and Kröll still to be recognized as a Christian one, valid for the church, or not? Cincinnati 1867. p. 20.)

211. is Sulze isolated in Saxony with his gross unbelief?

Unfortunately, no, but he has behind him a legion of coarse rationalists and Protestant unionists, e. g. Binkau (Leipzig), Frommhold and Peter (Dresden), Katzer (Pirna), Ackermann (Chemnitz), etc. 212. You also wanted to speak of those who, like Sulze, do not deny or falsify the whole Christian religion, but do deny or falsify one or more of the fundamental doctrines of Holy Scripture, and are therefore, if they do so, false prophets and false apostles. Who are they?

False teaching of the Leipzig theologians.

First, various professors of theology at the State University of Leipzig, men whose profession it is to train others for the service of the church.

What false, ungodly doctrine of the inspiration or divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures? Scripture do the three professors lead: I)r. Kahnis, Dr. Luthardt, and Dr. Delitzsch, who are regarded as pillars of the Saxon Church?

The ungodly doctrine that the whole Bible is not inspired by God the Holy Spirit and therefore the infallible Word of God.

In what words does Dr. Kahnis say that?

To take up the old Lutheran doctrine of inspiration "again as it was, can only happen with hardening against the truth. The relationship of God the Holy Spirit to the holy writers must without doubt be understood differently than this (old Lutheran) dogmatic. The relationship of God the Holy Spirit to the holy writers must without doubt be conceived differently than this (old Lutheran) dogmatics thought in order to enforce its proposition: God is the actual author of Scripture." (Kahnis, Inner Course of Protest. Leipzig 1860. p. 241.) He means to say: whoever still believes today that God inspired the Bible, hardens himself against the truth. Further: "The untenability of the old orthodox doctrine of inspiration will jump into the eyes of anyone who takes the trouble to get a clear picture of it in detail." (Kahnis, luth. Dogm. Leipz. 1861. Baudi. pp. 665-67.) Dr. Kahnis then explains in-

False teaching of the Leipzig theologians.

especially the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and the Prophet Daniel for mere human books.

215 Add also Dr. Luthardt's words.

The same declares in the "Zeitschrift für Protestantismus und Kirche" among other things: "Biblical criticism exposed the human origin of Scripture in its individual parts and as a whole. It believed it could prove a number of inaccuracies and contradictions in the content of Scripture. We must all say that individual errors in external notes and the like in Scripture are possible. We shall think ten times before we really acknowledge a particular case. But no one will deny the general possibility. But where this takes place, there cannot have crept in further errors." And in what follows he then says that the old doctrine of Jnspiration has fallen forever. Scripture, he says, is not the revelation of God itself, (which must be believed), but only the report of the revelation, (which must be examined). Volume XI^III. issue 3. p. 177 ff.

With what words does Dr. Delitzsch finally deny the divinity of the Holy Scriptures? Scripture'?

"In it," he says, "even errors in reproduction (Wiedervorbringnng) of the historical nnd given are possible, errors of memory, errors of combination (Berechnungsfehler), at all such

False teaching of the Leipzig theologians.

Errors over which the most spiritual human activity is not absolutely superior." (Delitzsch, System der bibl. Psychologie. Leipzig 1855. p. 319.

320.) In another book, Commentary on the Psalter, he calls it "Songs from the Hearts of Men." Another time he writes: "One cannot rely on a passage of the Old Testament being interpreted correctly because an apostle or evangelist has so interpreted it. Yes, recently Dr. Delitzsch has also accused the holy apostle Paulum of the wrong interpretation of Scripture. (Is. 65, 1. Rom. 10, 20.)

217 Against what passages of Scripture in particular do the three aforementioned professors err? What passages of Scripture in particular do the three professors mentioned err against with their false doctrine of inspiration?

Against these:

2 Tim. 3, 16: "For all scripture (is) inspired of God" and so on.

1 Cor. 2:13: "Which also we speak, not with words which man's wisdom can teach, but with words which the Holy Ghost teacheth. Spirit teacheth."

Ebr. 1:1, "After the times of old God spake sometimes and divers manners unto the fathers by the prophets."

218 Why is the false inspiration doctrine of the three Leipzig professors such a fundamental, frightening and soul-dangerous error?

Because thereby the only sure ground of faith and blessedness is shaken for the Christians.

False doctrine. Dr. Kahnis.

and made doubtful and robbed of their only victorious defense and weapon against the evil enemy.

219 Into what dreadful danger of soul does that man fall who doubts the divine inspiration of the whole Bible?

He is in imminent danger of either seeking certain truth from the infallible antichrist at Rome, the pope, or of throwing all Christianity as a human state overboard and keeping it with the radical unbelievers, Sulze, Strauss, Uhlich, etc., or of becoming completely indifferent to all doctrinal differences and becoming a union, or finally of falling into many other grave errors and false doctrines.

(220) Can the latter in particular be proved in the case of the same three professors themselves?

Yes, because they all lead various other horrible false teachings.

Where and in what words, for example, does the famous Dr. Kahnis deny the pure doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Deity of Jesus Christ?

In his book, the inner course of German Protestantism. 2nd ed. Leipzig, 1860, p. 241 ff., he already declares that "the Reformers ... took from tradition the dogmas (doctrines of faith) which constitute the objective salvation, i. e., the Trinity, the person and work of Christ, without a deeper mediation of Scripture"; - that these doctrines of all-

False doctrine. Dr. Kahnis.

Kahnis, in his Dogmatics, Vol. 1861, Leipzig, rejects the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but says that the "good signs of their time were for them", but that now, with the further freer, deeper spiritual views, a "renewed reproduction" (Wieder- erzeugung ) of these teachings from Scripturea "more biblical comprehension of the person of Christ" is demanded. - But in his Dogmatics, Volume 1, Leipzig 1861, Kahnis virtually rejects the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as it is found in the Bible. He teaches that there can no longer be talk of a deity, but only of a "divinity" of Christ, that only God the Father is "God in the only sense of the word.

222 Is this then a biblical teaching?

No, but a completely unbiblical, even anti-biblical, godless doctrine, which already the apostle John and after him all orthodox teachers of the Christian church fought against. Joh. 1,1. 2; Cap. 10,30; Rom. 9, 5; 1 Joh. 5, 20.

Can one actually call a theologian who denies the deity of Christ and thus the Holy Trinity a Christian or Lutheran theologian? Is it possible to call a theologian who denies the divinity of Christ, and thus the Holy Trinity, a Christian or Lutheran theologian, even if he does so more covertly?

Although such a one is called so by many in our times, yet such a name does not actually and rightly belong to him.

What have other faithful theologians judged about the horrible heresy of I)r. Kahnis?

False doctrine. Dr. Kahnis.

Professor Dieckhoff in Rostock wrote about Kahnis' dogmatics: "In this book Dr. Kahnis carries out his apostasy from the truth of the Lutheran confession, which he has already announced clearly enough. But if he thinks he must break with the truth of the Lutheran Confession, he has no more right to call his Dogmatics Lutheran, even the Lutheran, and himself a Lutheran theologian ..... There can be no dispute, however, that Dr. Kahnis' condemnatory opposition strikes at the very essence of the Lutheran confession, for example, when he rejects the ecumenical (general) confession of the triune essence .... ... "Theol. Zeitschr. v. Dieckhoff und Kliefoth. December, 1861.)

The same professor Hengstenberg in Berlin wrote in the preface to the evang. Kirchenzeitung 1862 about the same book: Kahnis has "raised doubts against the authenticity, credibility and inspiration of holy scriptures (especially the 5th book of Moses, a part of Isaiah and Zechariah, the whole prophet Daniel and the Gospel of Matthew) in a way that was unheard of in church theology until then". Kahnis has "raised doubts in a way that was unheard of in church theology until then against the authenticity, credibility and inspiration of holy writings (namely the 5th book of Moses, a part of Isaiah and Zechariah, the entire prophet Daniel and the Gospel of Matthew)" - and has "especially begun to shake the article of the standing and falling church, the doctrine of the deity of Christ, to which he wants to substitute (impute) a vague (indeterminate) divinity". For according to Kahnis, JEsus is "not Jehovah" (not the

False doctrine. Dr. Kahnis.

HErr), but only "of a divine nature." Hengstenberg therefore calls Kahnis' teaching "sociniasirende Verleitungen."

Even Prof. Dr. F. Delitzsch, Kahnis' college in Leipzig, in the first quarterly issue of the Guerickische Zeitschrift in 1862, accuses him of having "shaken the foundations of the common Christian and especially the Lutheran faith" through his teaching. The author, says Delitzsch, falls back into Arianism, the overcoming of which cost the church so much sweat and blood and tears. "He thus lapses into a subordinatianism (doctrine of subordination), which threatens the unity of the triune Godhead, and inferentially substitutes one God and two sub-gods for the one Triune. (Appendix. p. 1. 2. 23.)

With what derisive words, however, did Dr. Kahnis treat the Lutheran theologian Dr. Münkel in 1862, when the latter publicly chastised him for his heresy?

Dr. Kahnis wrote: "If Pastor Münkel cannot bear the altitude, where avalanches and boulders fall, let him stay in the Lüneburg Haide with deu Haidschnuckeu, tend bees and grow asparagus." (Testimony of the basic truths of Protestantism.)

226 How may it stand with Professor Dr. Luthardt in regard to this doctrine of the divinity of Christ?

As reported above, at the first state synod, Dr. Zarnke publicly presented him with-.

False doctrine, Dr. Kahnis. Dr. Luthardt.

that, according to others, he denied this doctrine and gave up the divine nature of Christ to the pantheists (who deny the personal God).

227 Did Dr. Luthardt not protest quite vigorously against this appalling accusation?

Nothing has come of this.

228) In what other false and soul-corrupting teachings are the two Doctors Kahnis and Luthardt entangled?

In the false Pelagian doctrine of free will and the conversion of man.

229. For what do they teach?

The conversion of man is not solely and exclusively a work of grace on the part of God, which man only has to suffer, but such a work in which man cooperates out of his own strength and free will.

230 In what words does Dr. Kahnis teach this Papist heresy?

"But like Augustine's doctrine of grace, his doctrine of the total depravity of human nature is based on an ab- straction (conceptual distinction) which is contrary to Scripture, experience, and psychology. That in the natural man there is a consciousness of God, a conscience, an inclination to the true and the good, a longing for salvation, is taught by Scripture and experience. He then who confesses that man cannot of his own accord

False doctrine. Dr. Luthardt.

If a man can come to Christ with power, unless he is drawn by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this does not exclude the possibility that grace is linked to a trait in man," etc. (Kahnis, The Inner Course of German Protestantism. (Kahnis, The Inner Course of German Protestantism, 2nd ed. 1860, p. 241 ff.) Further: "Faith is a doing of our own. The believing person takes hold of Christ. This act the Holy Spirit cannot perform for man. Spirit cannot perform this act for man ... The holy. Spirit, therefore, works in regeneration more closely the power to believe, not the act of faith." (Doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Leipzig 1851. p. 431.)

231. In what words does Dr. Luthardt teach the same heresy?

In his Compendium of Dogmatics, p. 192, he calls the actual decision for man's salvation "self-acting conduct," and remarks: "This limitation of the old dogmatic proposition (i. e., of the old pure Lutheran doctrine of the Concordia formula): in eonversions Iioins 86 üad6l lners xa88iv6, i. e., in conversion man behaves in a purely suffering manner, is now as good as universally recognized." In the book "Lehre vom freien Willen," Leipzig 1863, p. 427, Luthardt further writes: "The door must be made out by man himself, that JEsus may enter to him."

232 With what scriptures does this false doctrine contend, by which the glory of God is robbed, and the work and merit of our Lord JESUS CHRIST is reviled?

False doctrine. Dr. Luthardt.

Specifically with the following:

Jerem. 31, 18: "Convert me, and I shall be converted; for thou, O Lord, art my God."

1 Cor. 2:14: "The natural man heareth nothing of the Spirit of God: it is foolishness unto him, and cannot discern it: for it must be spiritually directed."

Ephes. 2, 5: "Being dead in sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ. (For by grace you have been saved.)"

Joh. 15, 5: "Without me you can do nothing."

B. 16: "Ye have not mentioned me, but I have mentioned you."

233 Where is the Kahnis-Luthard false doctrine of free will rejected and condemned in our confessions?

In the 2nd and 18th Articles of the Augsburg Confession, and in the 1st and 2nd Articles of the Formula of Concord.

234. Let us hear what the Concordia formula in particular teaches.

"Likewise we believe, teach, and confess that the will of the unregenerate man is not only turned away from God, but has also become an enemy of God, having only the desire and will for evil and that which is contrary to God, as it is written: The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Item: To be carnally minded is enmity against God, since it is not subject to the law, for neither is it able. Yes,

Whose false doctrine of symbols rejected. 7A As little as a dead body can quicken itself to bodily, earthly life, so little can a man, being spiritually dead through sin, quicken himself to spiritual life, as it is written: Since we were dead in sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ: wherefore of ourselves, as of ourselves, we are not able to do any good: but that we are able, that is of God. 2 Cor. 8. ... Accordingly we reject and condemn, as contrary to the guideline of God's word: ... since it is taught, though man with his free will be too weak before he is born again, to make a beginning and convert himself of his own strength out of God, and to be obedient to God's law from the heart; yet when the Holy. However, when the Holy Spirit has made a beginning with the preaching of the Word and has offered His grace in it, then man's will, out of its own natural powers, can do something, however little and weakly, help and cooperate, send itself to grace, prepare itself, take hold of it, accept it, and believe the gospel. (Conc. Formula, summ. Supp. 2.) 235. How does Dr. Luther speak out against the false doctrine of free will?

"Hereby are condemned all the unchristian doctrines of free will; that we should begin and lay the first stone, seek God, come to Him, run after Him, and obtain His grace-.

Luther against Luthardt.

ben. Beware, beware, of this poison: for it is the devil's doctrine, by which all the world is deceived. Before you call on God or seek him, God must have come before you and found you; God must lay the first stone and begin in you to seek and ask him. He is already there when thou beginnest and seekest; but if he be not there, thou seest nothing but vain sin. - But askest thou, How then must we begin to be godly, or what must we do, that God may begin in us? Answer, Doest thou not hear that there is no doing, no beginning in thee to become godly, as little as there is increasing and perfecting in thee? God's alone is beginning, and advancing, and perfecting. All that thou hast looked upon is sin, and remaineth sin, be it what it may: thou canst but sin, do as thou wilt. Then sayest thou, Why then must I sin because of necessity, when I have acted and lived without God of my own free will; and if I would not avoid sin, I would do what I would? Answer: Of course it is so, that thou must sin, when thou alone workest of thy own free will: for if thou wouldest not sin of thy own free will, or if thou wouldest not sin, what need would Christ be of thee? He would be a fool to shed his blood for your sin, if you were so free and powerful for yourself that you would do something that was not sin. Therefore there is no other beginning to become righteous, but that

Luther against Luthardt.

thy King cometh unto thee, and saith in thee. Thou seekest not Him, but He seeketh thee; thou findest not Jehu, but He findeth thee: for the preachers come from Him, not from thee; their preaching comes from Him, not from thee; thy faith comes from Him, not from thee; and all that faith worketh in thee comes from Him, not from thee. Where he cometh not, thou remainest without; and where there is no gospel, there is no God, but only sin and destruction. Therefore only ask not where to begin to be godly; it is no beginning, for where this King cometh and is preached." (Church Postil. Sermon on the Ev. on the 1st Adv.) 236. Does the professor Dr. Kahnis still lead a fourth grave false doctrine?

Yes, in the article on Holy Communion. Communion. 237 Where does his error lie here?

He denies against the clear word of the institution 1 Cor. 11, 24. 25 and against the pure teaching of our Catechism and the Augsburg Confession (Art. 10), that the true body and the true blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is present in the Lord's Supper and is received with the mouth for the remission of sins, - and on the other hand declares the false Zwinglian reformed teaching to be the pure teaching. (15. Synodalber. d. Syn. v. Missouri. p. 49.) 238. It would be desirable to know what position vr. Kahnis, who is considered the "greatest" theologian in Saxony, holds on Lutheran doctrine in general?

About this, as noted above, he wrote in his

82Was to be held by Dr. Kahnis.

In his first book, Basic Truths of Protestantism, p. 25 ff. he says: "There is no Lutheran," he says, "and there can be none, who accepts the Augsburg Confession in all points. According to the nature of Protestantism, the confession of the Augsburg Confession can only be a conditional one. I repeat, if the Lutheran Church is to have a present and a future, the position of theology on the Confession can only be a free one." - He goes on to say that the Lutheran Church should only not think that it possesses "in its shrine firmly marked con- fessional thalers" (a clear, fixed form of pure doctrine). "They are Protestant sister churches, each of which has its own distinct peculiarity. Let each stick to its own, only that it may not puff itself out into the church and let what the other has work for it. If we Lutherans had something of the unity and stability of the English state church, the moral strictness of the Scottish national church" (both are Reformed sects) "it would only be good for us.

239 After all this, what must every confessing Lutheran think of the famous Professor and Doctor Kahnis?

This, that he is a false prophet fallen away from the pure, Christian, or Lutheran religion, close to the unbelieving Sulze.

False doctrine. Dr. Delitzsch.

240 To what false doctrine, contrary to Scripture and the confession? Unfortunately, to what other false teaching is the otherwise pious and excellent Professor Dr. Delitzsch devoted?

A false papal doctrine of the church. 241 For what does he teach?

"Whoever is baptized and partakes of the Lord's supper is a member of the body of Christ. The body of Christ (or the church) is the entirety of all those who have been baptized into one body and watered into one spirit. Let it be Hengstenberg or Wislicenus (a denier of God), - by virtue of the act of God, which faith does not produce and unbelief does not frustrate, they are both members of one and the same body. Whether they be Protestants or Romans, Socinians or Unitarians (both of whom, like Sulze, deny the Holy Trinity), they are all one in Christ by virtue of baptism. Thus God Himself has given to the Church, which He called into existence by the power of His grace, its limits recognizable to every eye." Further, "The body of a baptized person is a member of Christ by the act of God; if therefore a man, in whom such an act of God has been done, commits fornication, his body is a member of Christ made a whore." . . He that is once baptized is a member of Christ; this cannot be changed." (Four Books of the Church, p. 33. 42 sf.) Further: "Visible is the church itself, as the whole of the baptized and partakers at the table of the Lord; these are all in the proper sense of the word, and are the members of Christ.

False doctrine. Dr. Delitzsch.

and not merely inauthentic members of the church, with their visible bodies as well (1 Cor. 6:15) as with their invisible souls, and this church and no other, because there is no other beyond, is the uua 8au6ta eatttoliea axostoliea eoelema (the one holy, universal apostolic church) which we believe and confess." (Ibid. p. 34 ff.)

What does the Scripture teach against this? Scripture?

That the holy Christian church (the body of Christ, bride of Christ, temple of God) is actually only the congregation of all true believers and those sanctified by faith is taught by St. Paul.

Ephes. 2, 19-22: "You are no longer sojourners and strangers, but citizens with the saints and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, since Jesus Christ is the cornerstone on which the whole structure is joined together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord, on which you also are being built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Cap. 5, 25-27: "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it, and cleanse it with the bath of water in the word, that he might present it unto himself a church glorious, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish."

False doctrine. Dr. Delitzsch.

Rom. 8, 9: "Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ is not His" (does not belong to the church, the body of Christ).

But that the holy Christian church is actually an invisible kingdom for this very reason is taught by Christ:

Luc. 17, 20^ 21: "The kingdom of God does not come in outward appearances. Neither shall it be said, Behold, here or there it is. For behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

2 Tim. 2, 19: "The Lord knoweth them that are his."

243 Where does our Lutheran church confess this scriptural doctrine of the church?

In the 7th and 8th articles of the Augsb. Confession and in the 4th article of the Apology.

244. what are the words?

"It is also taught that there must always be and remain a holy Christian church, which is the assembly of all believers, where the gospel is preached purely and the holy sacraments are administered according to the gospel. Sacraments are administered according to the Gospel.... The Christian church is actually nothing other than the assembly of all believers and saints".

"Now although the wicked and ungodly hypocrites have company with the right churches in outward signs, in name and offices, yet, if one will actually speak what the Church

Dr. Delitzsch, a Unionist.

It must be said of this church, which is called the body of Christ, and has fellowship not only in outward signs, but has goods in the heart, the Holy Spirit and faith. Spirit and faith. For it is necessary to know what makes us members of Christ, and what makes us living members of the church. . . Therefore they alone are the people of God according to the gospel, who have received the spiritual things, the Holy Spirit, and the same. And this same church is the kingdom of Christ, distinct from the kingdom of the devil: for it is certain that all the ungodly are in the power of the devil, and are members of his kingdom; as Paul saith unto the Ephesians, That the devil ruleth mightily in the children of unbelief.... And when Christ saith, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, and of the ten virgins, he willeth not that the wicked should be the church, but teacheth them how the church seemeth in this world. . And so Christ teacheth us, that the ungodly, though they be in the churches according to the outward company, yet are not the members of Christ, neither are they the true church; for they are the members of the devil."

245. Is not vr. Delitzsch with his papal doctrine of the church at the same time a unionist?

Alas, yes; as his words indicate, "In every reformed man thou hast a brother to see, and with thee a member of one body, for, like thee, he is

False doctrine, vr. Rüling.

Thechurch of the German Reformation holds fast to its confession, insofar as it knows itself in it as the mouth of the church of Christ, and the church of the Swiss Reformation (that is, the Zwinglians and Calvinists) holds fast to its own, as long as it does not recognize it as the will of God to sweep out the leaven of error that has penetrated it As long as she does not know how to do this, we are content with the unions of God." (Four Books of the Church. p. 157.)

246 To whom, then, do these distinguished professors of Leipzig present in particular the abominable heresies which they have named here?

Every year hundreds of students of theology.

247. What will be the further consequence of this?

That these afterwards as preachers spread the same errors among the people and so devastate the church.

248 Is it to be feared that also by many Saxon pastors all kinds of false and soul-dangerous teachings are preached?

That, unfortunately, is all too certain.

249. can this be demonstrated with examples?

Yes, e.g. immediately to the: court preacher Dr. B. Rüling at Dresden, who among other things in a lecture held at Dresden on Orthodoxism,

False Lehxc. Vr. Rüling.

Pietism and mysticism lead a whole series of false, unworthy doctrines.

Two hundred and fifty. Name them.

(1) He denies, in good papal fashion, the total ruin of the natural man, and asserts that he has "a trait, a desire for God, and for his fellowship."-(p. 12). Against this God's Word teaches:

Ps. 14:2, 3: "The LORD looketh down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if any man be wise, and seeketh after God. But they are all gone astray, and all of them are unprofitable: there is none that doeth good, not one.

John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

Rom. 8, 7: "To be carnally minded is enmity against God."

(2) Dr. Rüling declares the acceptance of the reconciliation accomplished in Christ, or faith in good papistically, to be a good work of man, namely, "the noblest deed of the spirit of man" (p. 12). In contrast, God's Word teaches:

1 Cor. 12:3, "No man can call JEsum a Lord without by the Holy Ghost."

Col. 2, 12: "You have been raised up through the faith that God works..."

3. he also confesses his unbelieving doubt about the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures in these words: "Thus Christianity is already known to me from the beginning.

False doctrine. Dr. Rüling .89

the true religion in the first place. I do not yet need to know who wrote the Bible, by whom this and that book was written; I know that if it had not yet been written, it would have to be written today. Scripture carries in itself for me the proof of truth, of necessity, of divinity, and yet also of full humanity; it is the God-human book. ..." (S. 13.)

4. he leads a false, rationalistic - socinia- nical - Swedenborgian doctrine of the holy trinity, in which he denies the 3 different persons in the one undivided divine being and speaks only of one person. He says: "The human soul is God's image. If God is not merely substance, nor merely cause, but person, and that is love, and therefore triune, first eternal will of love, which gives birth to the Son, being of his essence, then eternal thought of love, which is expressed in the Son, the Logos, the "Word," the self-thought of the Father, there is in God also blessed love-empathy, when the love of the loving Father and the counter-love of the beloved Son come to independent consciousness : so also the human soul, the image of this infinite threefold life, must itself be threefold. Willing, thinking, and feeling : this is the trinity of the human soul." (S. 13.)

5. he asserts, from genuine Pontifical, that "both the monastic life and the cult of Mary (idolatrous

False doctrine. Dr. Rüling.

The Church has said that the veneration of Mary in the papacy is "favorable" to that mysticism which is "the property of individual natures that have been pardoned by God and that develop their inner man into a temple of the divinity.

(6) He himself declares "that not a single Protestant theologian of the present time is in complete agreement with the symbolic books"; that one can argue about the "full Scriptural conformity" of some sentences of the Confessions; that only that which is gospel in them binds us and makes us blessed (Meissen Conf. Sermon 1873); that the Reformation is also not finished; that a man who, with every little deviation from doctrine (i.e. with every little apostasy from the word of Christ, 1 Tim. 6:3 sf.(Meissen Conf. Sermon, 1873); that the Reformation is not complete; that a man who smells an apostasy from Christ in every little deviation from doctrine (i.e., in every little apostasy from the word of Christ, 1 Tim. 6:3 sf.) is an "orthodoxist"; - but that Lessing's (mocking) words, that he would rather ask God for the urge to truth, even if he is always and forever mistaken, - than for the full, pure truth itself, - are certainly "beautiful words". (pp.18-20.) 251. It seems that Dr. Rüling also suffers from the false delusion of our time, as if the Christian doctrine had developed with the shell of human science from germ-like beginnings to perfection and was developing more and more. Has he not spoken more clearly about this?

Yes; e.g. already in a conference sermon to Meißeu in 1863, in which he expresses himself in this way: "What was present in the first Gospel in such a germ-like and root-like way, has gradually unfolded into a great tree, under which the birds of the air rejoice (?).

False doctrine. Dr. Rüling.

Every new age of the church has brought its new gift of knowledge and made the most of it; ours has its gift, too. I remind you, th. I only remind you, Br., of what is being worked on and brought to light today in the doctrine of God, especially in the doctrine of the Trinity, in that of Creation, in that of the Church, and especially in eschatology (the doctrine of the last things); - does it not also say there: "He will proclaim to you what is to come" ? This is the true progress, the true further development of Christianity into a world religion." ("Christ is where the Spirit of Truth is." Address rc. by v. L. B. Rüling. Leipzig 1863. p. 20.)

252 Why is this delusion such a godless and soul-dangerous delusion?

Because this is an arch-abstract denial that everything necessary for salvation has been revealed in the Holy Scriptures once and for all. Because this is an arch-abstract denial that everything necessary for salvation is revealed in Holy Scripture once and for all in a perfectly clear and distinct manner, and that man is led from the firm, prophetic Word to the sandy ground of the respective deceptive opinions of men.

253. Rüling not yet another false doctrine to prove?

O yes; in the same sermon, p. 10, he pronounces a Papist doctrine of the Church, when, for instance, he says, "There is no right sense in contrasting world and Church in countries whose citizens are

False Doctrine. Dr. Kohlschüttcr.

all are baptized; at the most one can speak of a world in the church. "*)

254 What errors has furthermore the former Superintendent and present Oberhofprediger Dr. Kohlschüttcr in

Dresden preached?

This we see from a sermon on the Reformation preached by him at Dresden in 1863, in which he gives (p. 7) the following false, rationalistic explanation of Paul's words, "We take captive all reason under the obedience of Christ."

„... It is by no means to be understood ... as if Christianity and true reason were ever a

*) Note. In which way Herr Hofprediger Dr. Ztüling at times used his rhetorical ability at the expense of his holy profession. Profession, to make himself an example everywhere. Here is just a sample of how he knows how to bring his rhetorical ability to action at the expense of his holy profession - to make himself a role model everywhere with wholesome and irreproachable words. On February 4, 1874, he gave a lecture in Dresden under the title "The Marys of the New Testament. "Towards the end of this lecture, the court preacher began to compare these three Marys with one another and to classify their characters:

Mary Magdalene represents the return to God, Mary of Bethany the return to God. Mary of Nazareth is blessed in God's return to her.

Mary of Nazareth brings gold to the cradle of her Son, Mary of Bethany offers incense, Mary of Magdala gives myrrh. To the holy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. To the Bethanic Mariq: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and so on. To Magdala: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall see God, etc. Mary Jesus is the white lily of the field; Mary Lazari the fragrant violet; Mary Magdalene the bewitched and disenchanted rose, or the purple-glowing Remontant. Mary of Bethany possesses the melancholy, Magdalene the sanguine temperament; the former is a Jdealist, the latter a Realist; Mary of Nazareth harmoniously unites in her being all the Tcm peramcnts. Ataria Magdalena is the female Peter, Mary of

False doctrine. Dr. Kohlschütter.93

and could come into contradiction with one another. No: Christ Himself is the highest reason; this - the eternal Word of God Himself - became man in Him. The apostle does not speak here of and against that which we call reason according to the usage of our time, not of man's faculty of hearing the divine, - of taking it into himself, - even though he is never able to grasp it in all its fullness - not of this faculty, which is at the deepest bottom one with conscience."

Bethany the female John, Mary of Nazareth even the female Christ. - In the Mother Mary we see great simplicity, in Mary of Bethany the sense of heaven, in Mary Mazda lena faithfulness. Mary of Nazareth is a Christmas figure, Mary of Magdala an Easter figure, Mary of Bethany a Pentecost figure. Mary of Nazareth a type of the Church. Mary of Bethany a type of the Christian school. Mary of Mag; dala a type of the mission. She is a type of the awakened, the Bethanic Mary a type of the quiet ones in the land, the First a type of the children of God in general. Mary the Mother of Jesus is the generally Romanesque, Magdalene the specifically Gallican, Mary of Bethany the Germanic emblem. She is a type of Lutheran theology and church, while Martha, ("if I see rightly") more the reformed way of life. way seems to prefigure and depict.

But the whole lecture begins :

"Maria! adored name, which throws one half of Christendom on its knees, and at least warms the heart of the other; Maria! delightful name, the great poet, from a Walter von der Vogclweidc on, inspired to tender minnelieder, who put the brush into the hand of almost all the masters of art up to a Raphael and a Halbem, a Correggio and Tltian, that they had to paint until the ideal in their minds, be it of the angel-pure, be it of the lost, but after terrible wanderings found again^ woman in perfect beauty stood before the astonished world; Mary! virgin name, never aging, because

False doctrine. Dr. Kohlschütter.

What errors are expressed in this one sentence?

Two gross errors, viz.

1) That Christianity (gospel) is according to human reason, contrary to the express word of the text 2 Cor. 10, 5; likewise contrary to 1 Cor. 2, 4. 5: "And my word and my preaching was not in reasonable speeches of human wisdom, but in evidence of the Spirit and of power." See also v. 10 u. 12. Further against

Rom. 16, 20. 26: "But to him that is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of JEsu

recorded in the old and eternally new creed of Christendom itself," etc., etc.

What a pity for the noble time that Dr. Rüling wastes with such useless gimmicks. Or whether he "sees rightly" when he thinks he is meeting the true needs of his listeners with such ear confection? As lavishly as he knows how to spruce up his three Marys for the salon Christianity of our time, so impudently does he resort, for example, to stripping Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, of her true, i.e. biblical, dignity, when he thinks he can thereby deal a scientific blow to the Lord Himself and His word. Without further ado, he says of Mary that she is "perhaps not a daughter of David." By this "neither the faith in the supernatural birth of the Lord, nor the prophecy . . be violated." Christ "according to the flesh was by his mother's husband a son of David," was "born into David's house."

Obviously, the court preacher speculates on quite a dose of thoughtlessness on the part of his enthusiastic listeners, so that they should not notice the scientific blow to the neck. If the matter stands as Dr. Rüling claims, then everyone who has eyes to see can see that either the conception of Christ by the Holy Spirit - or the descent of Christ from the house and family of David is nothing, and the Bible, the poor unscientific Bible, once again lies on the ground.

Christ, by whom is revealed the mystery which was hid from the world, but now is revealed, and made known by the scriptures of the prophets, by the commandment of the eternal God, to establish the obedience of faith among all nations. (Christianity, then, is a revelation of God, which cannot be attained by reason, but only by faith.)

Phil. 4:7: "And the peace of God, which is above all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ JEsu."

2) that man has the faculty of hearing divine things, contrary to

1 Cor. 2:14: "The natural man hears nothing of the Spirit of God; it is foolishness to him, and he cannot know it, for it must be spiritually directed." This is contrary to Articles 2 and 18 of the Augsburg Confession.

Show another example of how the Saxon church elevates the speculation of reason and philosophy to a Christian source of knowledge alongside, or even above, the Holy Scriptures. The first is that of a man who is a Christian, and that of a man who is a Christian.

In the previous year, a book was published, written by W. B. Hildebrand and prefaced by the Oberhofprediger I)r. Kohlschütter with warm recommendations and heartfelt blessings under the title: "Der Gottesbegriff in seiner Neugestaltung als Grundlage christlicher Weltanschauung und ihrer Harmonie mit der Wissenschaft unserer Zeit" (The concept of God in its new form as the basis of Christian worldview and its harmony with the science of our time). In it, Mr. Hildebrand now asserts the

96Falsedoctrine. Hildebrand.

Necessity of a new conception of God in place of the previous, inadequate, one-sided one, which is not sufficient to substantiate the personality of God. In the bright light of his reason, Mr. Hildebrand finds the bible much too dim and too weak. Therefore, in order to form the concept of God, the thought that "normalizes" everything else, correctly, newly, and beautifully, the starting point was "not the Bible, or a specifically Christian idea, but, in order to satisfy the requirement of non-objectivity, a purely philosophical principle. The path led through nature to the ultimate end, and though the language and form of thought could not, nor should not, be the Biblical, yet, as the author believes and hopes, the content and result, is the proof that the Christian world-view, in its greatest and widest features, is nothing but the highest truth of reason and nature."

257 What concept of God did Mr. Hildebrand arrive at without the Bible, by way of his natural philosophy and speculation of reason?

To the concept of a miserable hermaphrodite god half dissolved in the universe, half "enclosed in personality" above it, who, as the "epitome of all being," cannot be without the world either: a "pantheistic" idol, then, of which the Bible knows nothing. (P. 69.) "Thinking themselves wise, they became fools." Rom. 1:22.

False doctrine. Dr. Löber.

258 Does the Oberhofprcdiger Dr. Kohlschütter also pay homage to the popular teaching development theory?

Unfortunately, yes, as can be read on pages 14 and 15 of the same sermon, where he does not want to know anything about a "finished and completed" doctrine, but speaks of an ever greater and more glorious development of what God has given and "perfecting what has become according to His providence in the louse of time".

The same error is expressed, albeit in a somewhat more subtle and hidden manner, in the inaugural sermon delivered at Dresdeu in 1873 by Di-. Kohlschütter. Here, too, he calls Scripture only a "sacred document of divine revelation," that is, not divine revelation itself. He, too, wants us to hold those confessional writings in honor as good and faithful testimonies to the gospel of Christ, without thereby bowing under any word of man (understand again the same confessional writings)." A speech in the closest connection with the new two-headed formula of confession.

259 What dangerous false doctrine does the court preacher Dr. R. Löber put forward?

A false, papal doctrine of justification and conversion. He exalts the work of man against the work of God's grace, and the righteousness of works against the righteousness of faith.

260. display the words.

"But truth must be followed by probation, and while it was God's work alone what he

False doctrine. Dr Löber.

at the grave of Jesus and at the closed grave of our life, he now wants to complete what he has begun by putting his work into our hands and continuing it under the form of human self-activity. .... The higher we come up to God's heart, the wider our heart becomes, and by working for others we increase our loyalty to God, we work for our own salvation, for our life, after beginning and end, is interwoven with a thousand root threads into the great whole; we grow in the whole, and not as individuals will we be perfected." (Two festive sermons by Dr. Richard Löber, court preacher in Dresden. Barmen. 2nd ed. P. 9u. 11.)

Furthermore: "The generating activity consists first of all in the fact that the Christian generates himself, for as he is not only passive (suffering) in the appropriation and excretion, so he himself is active also in the generation; indeed, no life at all is conceivable without self-active movement. Now God, as everywhere, so also here, takes the initiative; the Christian is born again and generates through holy baptism and through the word of God. He is born again through holy baptism and through the word of truth. But when he himself applies these sources of life which are outside him and which God has opened up for his free use, he generates himself. ..." (The Inner Life, by Dr. Richard Löber. Gotha 1874. p. 186. 137.)

False doctrine. Dr. Löber.

261 What does Dr. Löber claim in the first sentence against God's word and the pure confession of our church ?

That man is not justified solely and perfectly by faith in Jesus Christ, but only by the help of his works, and that gradually, more and more, and so cooperates in his own salvation.

262. What's to notice?

The Scripture says: "And we are justified without merit by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ... Now where is the glory? He is out. By what law? By the law of works? Not so, but by the law of faith. Therefore we hold that a man is justified without works of the law, but by faith alone." Rom. 3, 24. 27. 28.

But our church confesses: "Therefore we believe, teach, and confess that our righteousness is in the sight of God, that God forgives us our sins out of pure grace, without any of our previous, present, or subsequent works, merit, or worthiness, and gives us and imputes to us the righteousness of Christ's obedience, for which righteousness we are accepted and counted righteous with God by grace. that believers are justified before God and blessed at the same time by the imputed righteousness of Christ and by the righteousness of the obedience of Christ.

100

False doctrine. Dr. Löber.

new obedience begun, or partly by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, and partly by the new obedience begun. (Conc. Formula, summ. term, art. 3.) See also vr. Luther's explanation of the 2nd article of our holy Christian faith.

263 What does Dr. Löber further assert in the second sentence against Scripture and confession?

That it is not God alone who does the work of conversion and makes us Christians, but that man also has a part in it.

264. what is to be remembered against it?

See Proverbs and Testimonies under Question and Answer 232, and also Psalm 100:3, "Know that the LORD is God. He hath made us, and not we ourselves, his people, and sheep of his pasture." - Phil. 2:13: "God it is that worketh in you both to will and to do, according to his good pleasure. "*)

*) L. in D. (Löber in Dresden) denies in No. 8 and 9 of the "Pilgrim from Saxony" also the divine inspiration and consequently the infallibility of the Holy Scriptures. Scripture. Of course, the Pilgrim writer agrees with this. The article, however, bears the superscription: "The word of the Lord abideth for ever," but if one considers that under this title it is said: "In such a spiritless manner" "that the holy writers would have written out what the holy Scriptures say. The Holy Writers had written out what the Holy Spirit had said to them. (The Holy Spirit said to them) "only we have never again to think of the influence of the Holy Spirit. Spirit. If the holy writers If everything had been dictated to the holy writers from above, each of them would not be speaking his own language".... Further: "Who vouches for us that the holy Scriptures are an infallible word of God? Scripture is an infallible word of God? The apostles, especially in their knowledge of nature, the earth, and the other heavenly bodies, shared the ideas of their time, which were only later changed and corrected many times over.

False doctrine. Dr. Langbein.101

What an erroneous doctrine of the church and of the sacred ministry! Even the same court preacher, Dr. B. A., carried it.

Langbein before?

He taught that the church is not only a gathering or community of the faithful, but also a "salvation institution," an "organism divided according to its innermost essence," that "visibility is a necessary part of the church's essence," and that even those who accept the word "outwardly" and use the sacraments constitute the church of God. (Der christl. Glaube rc. Vorträge von B. A. Langbein, 2nd half, pp. 291 ff.) Against this, see the Proverbs and Testimonies under Question and Answer 241 and 243.

But of the office of preaching I)r. Lang bein teaches that it must not be regarded as "an outflow of the general priesthood; so that, for instance, the congregation are only for the sake of good outward order. Who can guarantee us that they have not erred in matters of Christian salvation and blessedness? For they repeatedly confess that they suffer under the pressure of sin: They repeatedly confess that they suffer from the pressures of sin, by which, as is well known, man's knowledge is clouded and obscured Further: "But also the assertion that the holy Scriptures are a book of knowledge independent of all human mediation is not true. Scripture is a word of God independent of all human communication, is also an untrue statement of faith. ... Every word that works regeneration must be regarded as a word of God, and therefore the word of God is not to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. One will certainly see that a quite different title would have been appropriate here. - But the "Pilgrim" is, after all, a paper for the "faithful" and has to take account of them. That is why the poisonous lie must go out under a glorious name. It almost seems as if the gentlemen of the "Pilgrim" only wanted to have the honor of not being counted among the honest enemies of the Lutheran confession.

102

False doctrine. Dr. Langbein.

commissioned some of their number to preach the ministry of reconciliation in their stead and on their behalf." Assuming this, he then declares the office of preaching to be a "state" instituted and endowed by God. (Ibid. pp. 295. 303.)

266. what do you conclude from these words?

That Dr. Langbein sees in the office of preaching a very special spiritual state, founded by God apart from and in addition to the common Christian state, and essentially different from the latter, through whose mediation the congregation first attains to the goods of the kingdom of heaven.

267. But why is this a false teaching?

Because according to God's word Matth. 18, 15-20 and 1 Petr. 2, 9 all believers already possess the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the priesthood, thus all spiritual goods and treasures, powers and rights directly (through faith), there is no difference of status among them (Matth. 23, 8-12) and therefore the preachers, as can be seen in 1 Cor. 3, 5; Cap. 4, 1; 2 Cor. 4, 5 and Col. 1, 24. 25, the preachers are only stewards, servants and slaves of the believing church, which, according to Christ's command and by ordinary profession, confers upon them the direction of their spiritual priestly rights in the public preaching or parish office.

268 Where is this pure, scriptural doctrine of the preaching office testified to in our public confessions?

False doctrine. Dr. Langbein.

103

Especially in the appendix of the Schmalkaldic Articles. (See further on under the questions of the right to vote of the congregation).

Twenty-six hundred and ninety-nine. What does Dr. Luther say about that?

"So there is only a difference outwardly, because of the office to which one is called from the church; but to God there is no difference; and only for this cause are some brought out of the multitude, that they may lead and do the office which they all have, instead of the church; not that one should have more power than another. Therefore none of them shall appear by himself, and preach in the congregation; but one must be called out of the multitude, and set apart. .. Now they have set up a state of their own, as if it were of God; they have gained such liberty, that there is almost more distinction in the midst of Christendom, than between us and the Turks. If thou wilt look upon the Christians, thou must look upon no distinction, neither say, This is a man or a woman, a servant or a master, old or young, as Paul saith in Galatians 3. They are all one thing, and one spiritual people. Therefore they are all priests; may they all preach the word of God" ... (Exl. of the 1st Epistle of St. Peter. 1523. C. F. W. Walther. Church and Ministry. 2nd ed. S. 229.)

270 To what extent is the main article of justification damaged by Dr. Langbein's teaching on the ministry of preaching?

When the preachers in and with the "Grace-.

104

False doctrine. Dr. Meier.

If the "middle office" forms a special state endowed with spiritual privileges and powers, and thus possesses more than other common Christians by virtue of their spiritual priesthood, then basically faith alone is not sufficient to attain the goods of the kingdom of heaven, and the doctrine of the righteousness of faith is nothing.

271 Can one not also prove to the Superintendent Dr. Meier in Dresden the grave error according to which the complete and unspeakably deep ruin of the natural man is denied?

I'm afraid it is. You. Meier, in his "Judas Iscariot," p. 40, says: ".... One would like to ask, can man himself be absolutely calculable for a higher, divine knowledge, as he can only be a being governed by natural determinations, while God created man freely and thus gave him a part of his divine power to determine himself out of himself? .... Every character, however, is a product of external and internal factors; - on the one hand, the external situation, the gifts, the education of a man, etc.; on the other, an internal decisive fact of freedom, on which the moral direction of life is based. This decisive state of freedom, we must suppose, was not yet accomplished in Judas at the time of his calling; the flag of his inner life still wavered between midnight and morning, between the cold, icy north and the darkness of the south.

False doctrine. Dr. Meier.105

inward torpor against the divine nnd the morncn exit of Christ's sun of grace."

Further, in "John, the Disciple Who Does Not Die," p. 8: "There is a twofold direction in the relation of the Christian to the human which confronts us in the New Testament; the one expresses the sharp opposition, the divine truth of Christianity, to the carnal, egoistic sense of the natural, self-righteous man, the other ties in with the sides and better impulses akin to the Gospel, with that God-seeking light instinct and truth sense of the soul."

Furthermore, in his inaugural sermon in Dresden in 1867: "Well, I have faith in humanity and in the inextinguishable God-seeking spirit that burns in it, I have faith in the hidden, thousandfold inhibited and concealed and yet also ineradicable pull towards truth in the human breast and even in the heart of the unbeliever .... I have a special faith in the nobler and better core, in the higher, God-seeking instinct in the heart of our dear German people and in its future, that it will again and again, after grave aberrations, remember its great calling to be the bearer of the highest and noblest goods of humanity, to be an Israel of God among the peoples of Europe." 272 How does this doctrine of Meier agree with Scripture and

Confession?

106Wrongdoctrine. Dr. Meier.

This is indicated by these sayings. 1 Mas. 8, 21: "The mind of man is evil from his youth" and Rom. 8, 7: "To be carnally minded is enmity against God, because it is not subject to the law of God, neither is it able to be."

Moreover, note this testimony from the Lutheran Church. For from the fall, since we, being born sinful by nature, do not fear, love, nor trust God, we do nothing but rely on ourselves, despise God, or are terrified and flee from God. And evil desire is not only a corruption and corruption of the first pure bodily health of Adam in Paradise, but also an evil desire and inclination, since, according to the very highest, best powers and light of reason, we are nevertheless carnally inclined and minded against God.. ...that of course all our mind, heart, and strength are contrary to God's word, since we not only seek all kinds of pleasures of the body, but also trust in our wisdom and righteousness, forgetting God, and esteeming little or nothing at all." (Apology, Art. 1.)

273 With what words, furthermore, does Dr. Meier deny the personal union of the two natures in Christ, as the Scriptures teach Col. 2, 9; Joh. 1, 14?

"This clear and this perceptive look of the Lord into the inward parts of men is not

False doctrine. Dr. Meier.

107

It is not only a miracle of divine omniscience, which had its necessary limit in the state of humiliation of the Lord .... , it is rather the view of divine simplicity, of the perfect purity and purity of the holy Son of Man, in whose unclouded mirror things and men are reflected perspectively in their true form. ("Judas Iscariot" by Meier, p. 37.)

274. What false, papal explanation of "faith" does Dr. Meier give in his paper, "John, the Disciple rc."?

He calls it a "moral deed" - that is, a work of man.

275 What, on the other hand, do the Scriptures teach?

That faith is a gift of grace, - the work and effect of God in man, as said above. (S. Br. and Antw. 249 under 2.)

276. does Dr. Meier perhaps also show himself to be a real Jndisferentist and Union man?

Indeed, as his words prove. "For it was in the struggle that the confessions of the individual confessions were formed, none of which has the whole truth, only individual main sides of it. The confession of the Roman Church was formed in the struggle over the doctrine of the person of Christ; the Lutheran Church took its starting point from man, in the face of flattened morality and false legalism, founded in the depth of the sorrow of sin and in the experience of salvation; the Reformed Church, especially in

108

False doctrine. Dr. Meier.

The church is not a part of the Calvinist form, but rather of the concept of God as opposed to the pagan error. Just as it is the sacred duty of life for the individual to remain faithful to the creative enthusiasm of his youth, .... so it is also the great task of the individual church to renew itself again and again out of the creative Pentecostal spirit of its first youth, in order to be a true guardian of the entrusted treasure of knowledge of truth, of the pound which it has only as much as it grows with it."

Further: "This diversity in unity is the right of the confessions, which, as different sides of the same Christianity, according to the model of the apostles, will not cease with their doctrinal unity and in divergent doctrinal differences so long as we still live in a world not of immediate but of mediated knowledge, in which the white, pure light is refracted in different colors. And only then do the confessions become an injustice, nay, a grave obstacle to truth, when the relative side seeks to elevate itself to an exclusive, absolute validity." (Dr. Meier wants to say that if, for example, the Lutheran Church wants to believe and profess that it alone has the pure doctrine among all visible church communities, this is wrong and a serious obstacle to the truth). And finally Di-. Meier: "that the invisible unity of the Spirit, which unites the living Christians of all confessions in reason and in truth, may be attained.

False doctrine. Dr. Meier.

109

The goal united in Christian brotherly fellowship, would gain more and more visible form". (John, the Disciple rc. by Dr. Meier. p. 34. 40.)

277 Should what Superintendent Dr. Meier has said here be true?

There be God for, they are vain scripture-less, hopeless thoughts of men, for:

1) But one, namely the Lutheran Confession, because it sticks to the word of Christ, has the whole, full truth, as it is written Joh. 8, 31. 32: "If ye abide in my sayings, then are ye my true disciples, and shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

2) The confession of the Roman sect was formed in the struggle not for the doctrine of the person of Christ, but for the accursed rule of the personal Antichrist and for his insatiable purse.

3) The Lutheran Church has taken its starting point not from man, but from the eternal Word of God and the righteousness of Christ in relation to the devil, the pope, sects, the world and the flesh.

4) The reformed sect starts from the human reasoning dubiousness in relation to the solid, prophetic word of Scripture.

5) Only the orthodox, Lutheran church has created a "Pentecostal spirit". The false-believing "churches" were created by the devil. The "great

110Wrongdoctrine. Dr. Meier.

The "task" of these "churches" is therefore not to negate the lying spirit of their youth, but to cast it out through true repentance.

6) In unity (i.e. in the One Holy Church) there is no "diversity" (not all kinds of confessions, doctrines, faith), but only One Spirit, One Faith and One Doctrine, as it is written: "One Body and One Spirit.... One Lord, One faith, One baptism" (Eph. 4, 4) and: "Be not carried away with divers and strange doctrines: for it is a precious thing that the heart should be established, which is by grace. (Ebr. 13:9.)

7) It is a miserable little human feeling to say that the different confessions (creeds) are different color plays of one and the same light, different sides of the same Christianity. But this is how it is: the one true light of the Word of God enlightens not to five or ten, but to one faith and knowledge of the Son of God, and what men believe and confess contrary to this does not come from the Father of light, but from the prince of darkness. Furthermore, true Christianity is not sincerity in the first place, and deceitfulness in the second, which counterfeits the word of God; but truth through and through, and on every side.

8) As surely as God's Word alone shall have validity on earth, so surely also only the Lutheran Confession, which is firm in all things, shall have validity on earth.

False doctrine. Dr. Meier.111

from the word stands. Whoever denies this should be ashamed to eat the bread of the Lutheran church and to adorn himself with its name.

9) Only those who confess the one pure faith will keep Christian brotherly fellowship until the last day. But false Christians, enthusiasts, unionists and chiliasts will join hands over "all kinds and strange doctrines".

But in whom does Dr. Meier see the predecessor and patron saint of his unionist rapture?

In St. Apostle John, for "he also represents the unity of the Christian spirit above all differences and divisions of ecclesiastical specialness." - Men like Fichte, Schleiermacher, Richard Rothe, and Liebner are also "Johannean characters," who confirm the prophetic word: "this disciple dieth not"-yea, our time, which according to Scripture and experience is the last, ghastly time,-must, according to Herr vi-. Meier's view, the Johannine age, "is not the end, but the peace of the confessions. And this is the true union." (John, the Disciple rc. pp. 29. 35 ff. )

279. what's mau supposed to say?

For example, what Dr. Luther writes of false teachers: "First of all, they form a conceit that is pleasing to them and seems good and right; when they have formed this conceit, they go into the Scriptures, search and pick out what they have learned.

112

False doctrine. Dr. Ahlfeld.

...in how they do grace such conceit. This then is a very dangerous thing. ("Ion. VI. k. 513.)

280 For what becomes of the true confession, which makes peace with another false confession, and no longer fights against error?

She shall be a foolish salt, and of no use henceforth, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. (Matth. 5, 13.) She is neither warm nor cold, but lukewarm; therefore God will spue her out of his mouth. (Rev. 3:16.)

281 What fame do all the Dresden court and city preachers mentioned here have among the believers of the Saxon regional church?

They are generally counted among the best of the faithful and confessional clergy of Saxony.

282 To what apprehension, therefore, does one arrive, after it has been shown how wisely the confessional fidelity of these best is ordered?

Concerning the fear that the faithfulness of other Saxon preachers would at least not be better.

283 Which false, soul-dangerous teaching of the pastor Dr. F. Ahlfeld in Leipzig, for example, must we remember here?

His false doctrine of hell and Christ's ascension into hell.

284 How does Dr. Ahlfeld explain himself about this, among other things?

By hell he first understands the kingdom of death with two divisions. "There is a kingdom of grace

False doctrine. Dr. Ahlfeld.

113

... but also a punishment box in which the unbelievers, the godless, find their place immediately after death. " ... "Finally, those also dwell there who have not heard of Christ either through prophets or evangelists, and therefore have not decided either for or against Him." . . . "On the other hand, hell is the eternal punishment.... Into this hell the Lord did not descend. What shall he do there? On its inhabitants is the lot cast for eternity.... Where the Scripture speaks of Christ's descent into hell, it means the kingdom of death." And "What hath the Lord done there?" .. "Thirdly, the HER descended to the cover to preach the gospel. But to whom did he preach it? Not to the impudent transgressors, who had known the way of salvation, and yet remained in their sins unto the end. This sermon could only have been meant for those who, through no fault of their own, had learned nothing from him." ...

What application does Dr. Ahlfeld now make of this doctrine of his?

He further writes: "The few hints of the Scriptures about the descent into hell are proof enough for us how the Lord pursues the lost sheep ("who had received no news of Christ here through no fault of their own") even in that depth. What can be saved will be saved.

114

False Doctrine. I)r. Nhlfcld.

be saved." (O. F. Ahlfeld, Katechismuspred. 1865. Vol. 2. p. 195 ff.)

But how is all this consistent with the Scriptures and the confessions of the church? How is all this consistent with Scripture and the confessions of the church?

Very bad. For first of all, the Holy Scriptures know nothing at all of a penal institution after death, before hell, in which salvation is offered to the undecided and impartial. But it teaches clearly and definitely (in the New Testament alone in 11 passages) only of a real hell, as the place of eternal torment, never-dying worm and unquenchable fire for all those who are unfaithful until death, into which they are condemned immediately after death for ever and ever. Eccl. 11, 3: "When the tree falls, let it fall at noon or at midnight; in the place where it falls, there it will lie." Prov. 11, 7: "When the ungodly man dieth, hope is lost; and the waiting of the unrighteous becometh nought." Matt. 25:46: "And they (the unrighteous) shall go into everlasting torment." Marc. 16, 16: "But he that believeth not shall be damned." See also what is written Luc. 16, of the rich man. - Dr. Luther therefore says: "Therefore the end makes even a great difference between the sufferings of the Christian and the ungodly. For though they are both stabbed and killed at the same time, yet a Christian leads from the beginning into eternal joy; but the wicked into destruction.

False doctrine. Dr. Ahlfeld.

115

the Hollen." (On the other hand, the Bible clearly and definitely teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ did not go into a pre-host of heaven and hell, but into the real hell, but not to preach the gospel and offer grace to certain dead people, but to show Himself as the conqueror of the devil and the whole host of hellish spirits and damned, who during their lifetime unbelievingly rejected the gospel that was preached to them (1 Pet. 4,6) as conquerors and to triumph over them, as it is written: 1 Petr. 3,18.19: "Christ was killed according to the flesh and made alive according to the Spirit. In the same he also went and preached to the spirits that were in prison, who believed not." (So not to the undecided.) Further Col. 2:15: "Christ hath stripped the principalities and the powers, and hath made a show of them openly, and hath made a triumph of them by himself." The 9th article of the Formula of Concord also confesses this and nothing else as the purpose of Christ's descent into hell.

Why is the teaching of Dr. Ahlfeld so dangerous to the soul'?

Because, if it comes to a decision for or against Christ with many people only after death, then also the preaching of the gospel and faith in it is not necessary for salvation for all people in this world. But how easy such a conclusion is to be made, and 8*

116False Doctrine. Dr. Ahlfeld.

How inevitably this leads to carnal security and contempt for the gospel is obvious.

288 What kind of Jewish legal, false doctrine of the Sabbath does vr. Ahlfeld also puts forward?

He teaches: "Sunday is a precious gift of God"... "The Sabbath is not a human institution, it is God's holy foundation"... "For this very purpose He has set Sunday, so that you should always become aware of this filiality. Sunday is every time a new covenant with God." ... "The Lord has appointed the dear Sunday." (Ahlfeld, Catechism Sermon. 1867. Vol. 1. p. 49.)

289. What, on the other hand, do the Scriptures teach?

Col. 2:16, 17: "Let no man therefore make you conscience of meat, or of drink, or of certain feasts, or of new moons, or of sabbaths: which is the shadow of things to come: but the body itself is in Christ."

290 And what does our church confess in the 28th article of the Augsburg Confession?

"For they that think that the ordinance of Sunday is established as necessary for the Sabbath, are very much mistaken. For the Scriptures have abolished the Sabbath. Scripture has abolished the Sabbath, and teaches that all the ceremonies of the old law are to be performed after the opening of the Sabbath.

False Doctrine. Diac. Portig. 117

The Christian church has ordained Sunday for this purpose, and was the more pleased and willing to make this change, so that the people might have an example of Christian liberty, that it might be known that neither the Sabbath (as a divine commandment) nor any other day was necessary. (Müller, symbol. B. p. 67.)

291. also cite some of the wise, high, sensible speeches of human wisdom, with which the Diaconus Dr. Portig in Zwickau nullifies the cross of Christ.

"We clergy are to combine the most penetrating sharpness with the greatest depth of thought; we are not merely to acquire a sum of knowledge, but to unify it into a knowledge that seeks to encompass heaven and earth as boldly as it does humbly. We are to think not only with the head, i.e. with the all-destroying intellect, but with the heartWe are to preach the eternal truths of the Gospel unadulterated, but nevertheless in such a way that our time can really understand them We clergy are not merely to have penetrated the lecture halls of theology, but to stand at the height of the education of our time, in order to make all the assured results of this education serviceable to the Gospel.

118FalseDoctrine. Diac. Portig.

can.... Thus shall we testify that all true science and art lead not away from the kingdom of God, but toward it. "...

Furthermore: "Through a science of our day that is as soberly examining as it is faithfully expanding, he (Christ) speaks through: Uud but over eiu little things, ye shall see me indeed in my true humanity, but also inseparable therefrom in my true Godhead. - Perhaps you have had times when a strange clarity from above filled you and it was so heavenly light and peaceful in you. Everywhere in nature you were able to discover an image, a likeness of the invisible world; with joyful listening you sensed everywhere in art and science the hidden relations to the kingdom of God; as if by itself the harmony between all revelations of God unveiled itself to the searching soul. Then all at once all this melted away from you like a dream-image; you became inwardly vacillating, even unstable; in all that glory you saw "the world," you saw more a lure from Christ than a prophecy to him; but behold: over a little one, and before the eye of your soul all this stood, though stripped of the false ideality which it might have had before, yet in essential, indestructible beauty".

"Well do the old believers" right to save the real protectors of the past also for the present and the future, but they get

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119

But we are easily in danger of speaking a language which the congregation of the present no longer understands, of moving in circles of thought which are all too distant and unmediated from the innermost feelings and aspirations of our time". ... "Whatever in detail the results of Protestant scholarship may be, in the end they must all serve to prove the glory of Christ." .... (Inaugural sermon of Die. Dr. pllil. G. Portig. Zwickau 1873.)

292. what do you see from this?

How hostile Dr. Portig is to the simple faith of the Bible and to our good old Lutheran confession, and what shameful idolatry he does to nature, reason, modern culture, education, art, and science, by placing them on the throne beside and above God's revealed Word, and making them the sources and means of Christianity and blessedness.

What does Dr. Luther say to such sermons?

"They are nothing but vain, pompous, and inflated words, that they may fill the ears of the poor multitude, that they may be thought to be vain delicious things, and yet there is nothing behind them ... but vain deceit." (Walch 11, 409.)

"There are some preachers who think they may not be preachers where they do not teach something more than Christ, and above our preaching. These are the ambitious eccentrics, who have taken our in

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And therefore, in wisdom, they go on, that they should be cast with eyes, saying, This is a preacher. Such should be sent to Athens, because they would hear new things every day: they seek their own glory, and not Christ's; therefore their end also shall be with shame. Beware of them, and abide with Paule, who would know nothing but Jesus Christ crucified..." .

"The world will bring forth many such fellows; the grammarians, dialecticians, rhetoricians, and philosophers will falsify the holy Scriptures, and make of them and their art a multitude. The Grammatici, Dialectici, Rhetores and Philosophi will falsify the Holy Scriptures and make a mixture out of them and their art, since each of them should be left in its place, as and for that it is ordered by God, and not brewed together. Theologia should be empress, philosophia and other good arts should be its servant, not rule and master it, as Servetus, Cam panus and other enthusiasts do. God preserve his dear church, which is carried by him like a child in the womb, and keep her from such school and philosophical theologia" ... "Alas, they all now want to preach according to the Dialeetica or Rhetorica, thus making it curly uud colorful, that neither the people nor they themselves understand anything of it." (Table Talks.)

Does it not seem as if the Superintendent M. Körner in Zwickau also let himself be ruled by a similar spirit?

False Doctrine. Sup. Körner.121

So it seems sreilich when one has to read the following passage in his Reformation sermon held and printed in 1874: "As long as man lives, he errs. It is as if truth thereby loses all its charm for many. Only error is life, says a poet. For my sake. But the search for truth is the profession of life." (Just so the old pagan philosophers also meant it.) "Error is bondage, truth is freedom. Seek the truth, (?) saith the LORD, and the truth shall make you free! But it, like faith, is not everyone's thing. Where it is offered to him unsought, laboriously investigated by others, he accepts it, even with joy, as something new. But he does not endure it. He would have to break decisively with the errors ... or he cannot yet bear them, cannot yet grasp them. The unaccustomed errors give nothing to think about, nothing to fight about, nothing to say, and nothing else .... And this, Mr. M., I consider to be the essential, psychological reason for the aversion of many against our evangelical faith, our evangelical church. Many peoples still lack spiritual education, self-thinking, in a frightening way! The more this progresses, the more decisively one will turn away from the errors - the more eagerly toward the evangelical truth. It will get better and must get better."

122FalseDoctrine. Sup. Körner.

295 By what means, then, according to Superintendent Körner's teaching, can a man come only to the Gospel, to faith, and to Christianity'?

By the way of philosophy or worldly wisdom. He must not so readily accept in faith the truth revealed and given by God; he must laboriously seek, think, and contend for the truth himself, so that man, man alone, and not God alone, may retain the glory.

Is this really the right way'?

No, but a pernicious error. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the understanding of the unwise. Where are the wise? Where are the scribes? Where are the wise men of the world? Has not God made the wisdom of this world foolish? For because the world by its wisdom knew not God in his wisdom, it pleased God by foolish preaching to save them that believe." (1 Cor. 1:19-21.)

297 Which then is the right way to become a Christian and to be saved'?

This, that the preaching of the gospel, which is foolish to human reason, may be received in true faith, which faith alone God's grace worketh in us without all our help.

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298. Does a man still seek the truth after he has become a Christian?

No, but he has now recognized and found it, and just because of this he is a Christian and a free, blessed child of God, as Christ testifies Joh. 8, 31. 32, which passage Sup. Körner quotes incorrectly.

299 Since Superintendent Körner does not recognize the calling of life in having, but only in seeking the truth, he certainly also speaks out for the loving toleration of error and false teaching?

So it is. In the same sermon, pp. 8 and 9, he says: "There is no agreement in all things and convictions between two men, much less between comrades, let alone between the members of a church" (with the exception of the Lutherans, who all believe, teach, and profess the same thing). "The different confessions and churches, moreover, differ essentially from each other in important, authoritative principles and opinions; - are those who differ among themselves therefore excused, or even justified, in hating each other and embittering each other's lives? Certainly not! Life itself, the necessary living together and togetherness, demands that one should trust one another and not, for the sake of an acquired or accepted faith" (what kind of 'faith' might that be?) "take up a hostile, persecutory position toward one another." But that Mr. Superintendent Körner, under "his-

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False doctrine. Dr. Hoffmann.

The fact that the Lutherans understand the "blessed, persecution-addicted position" to mean the serious fight against false doctrine and practice contrary to Scripture on the part of faithful Lutheran Christians is proven by his following complaints: "Everywhere the most bitter dogmatism; almost nowhere the slightest yielding, the slightest rapprochement. Thus they rage in their own flesh and blood, and can hardly do enough to mark their rigid separation from one another." ...

What are the main and fundamental teachings of the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confession? Scripture and the Lutheran confession do the heresies of Superintendent Körner and his deacon, Dr. Portig', dispute?

Against the doctrine of our righteousness and salvation by grace alone through faith alone, without all and any human power, merit, or work.

301 Do we also encounter in the sermons of other Saxon pastors an apparently 'papal doctrine of works'?

Yes, for example, Dr. E. F. Hoffmann, formerly cathedral pastor and superintendent at Freiberg, preached, among other things: "Great in His sight (God) is every one who fills his place and creates as much as possible with the gifts and powers bestowed upon him by faithfully fulfilling the duties of his Bern of good. " - (Gedächtniß-Pred. 1853. gehalten zu Freiberg. S. 16.)

Court preacher Dr. Käuffer in Dresden preached: "If you, my Christian, are to enter the dark valley of death, and God's grace gives you free consciousness, then all self-deception will vanish from your mind, and only the true and the true will be revealed to you.

False doctrine, vr. Käusfcr. Reverend Graf.

The good you have done will enter your soul with comfort and uplifting, will give you an easy farewell from earth and a joyfulness for the day of judgment. (Sermon of the Diet 1864, delivered at Dresden. p. 13.)

Is not Dr. Käuffer the same man who once, in a lecture delivered in the Frauenkirche at Dresdeu, addressed the three questions to the starry heavens: "Where are we? Who are we? and will we be"?

The same. In said half-crazy lecture he also said, among other things: "Summa, how small is man, and yet how great! and to preach both humility and exaltation of human dignity, as gospel and science demand, has always been to me one of the clearest, holiest, and most urgent duties of the ministers of the Word of God." ("Three Questions to the Starry Heavens," by Dr. I. E. R. Käuffer, Consist.-Rath. Dresden 1861. p. 25.)

303) What false doctrine of regeneration, contrary to Scripture, did the pastor G. Th. Graf of Cölln near Meissen present?

He first denies the utter ruin and spiritual death of all natural, unregenerate, and unconverted men, speaking of a "misapprehension of all that is good which proceeded from unbelievers," of "virtues of the heathen," of innate good "qualities," and of, before regeneration, men not so deeply fallen as others.

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False doctrine. Reverend Graf.

He then explains rebirth for the state of a man at "a turning point, where he no longer walks the old way, nor yet on the new," for "the revival of his slumbering powers," for "the decisive change of the whole direction of life. Finally, Father Graf divides the work and the honor of rebirth between God and man and says: "You must be born anew! This demand is made only by Christianity. It contains not only a law, but also a gospel. For 'ye must' means at the same time 'ye can,' for the triune God has done everything on his part for your salvation; now ye can also do your own .... from your baptism he has done his own to you uninterruptedly and fully: now ye can do the rest also; it depends only on whether ye will." (Graf, Sermon on the Feast of Trinity. "Gesetz und Zeugniß" Vol. 8. pp. 300 ff.)

What, on the other hand, does the Scripture teach about regeneration? Scripture teach about regeneration?

This, that regeneration alone is a work of grace on God's part, since he gives true faith to a man who is carnal and dead in sins and transgressions, and thereby justifies him, brings him to new life, and adopts him as his child and heir.

305 Where does the Scripture teach this?

False doctrine. Reverend Graf.

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Look it up:

I Pet. 1, 3. 4: "Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord JEsu Christ, who according to his great mercy hath begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of JEsu Christ from the dead unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and everlasting, which is kept in heaven."

Jac. 1:18: "He hath begotten us according to his will by the word of truth, that we should be the firstfruits of his creatures."

See also Joh. 3, 5. 6; Ps. 100, 3; Eph. 2, 5.

306 What therefore do our confessions' testify to?

"But before and before man is enlightened, converted, regenerated, and drawn by the Holy. But before and before a man is enlightened, converted, born again, regenerated, and drawn by the Holy Ghost, he can, before himself, and of his own natural powers, begin, work, or assist anything in spiritual things, and his own conversion or regeneration, as little as a stone, or block, or clay.... Though he be able to govern the outward members, and to hear the gospel, and to consider it to some extent, and also to speak of it, as is seen in the Pharisees and hypocrites, yet he thinks it foolishness, and cannot believe it, and thinks himself worse than a block in that he is contrary to God's will, and is not, unless the Holy Ghost be strong in him, and he be able to believe it. Spirit is not strong in him, and

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False doctrine. Reverend Graf.

kindles and works in him faith and other virtues and obedience pleasing to God.

"How then, in the third place, the Holy Scriptures do not attribute conversion, faith in Christ, regeneration, and all that belongs to it. Scripture does not attribute conversion, faith in Christ, regeneration, renewal, and all that belongs to the real beginning and consummation of the same, to the human powers of natural free will, either in whole, or in half, or in some, to the least or least part, but in 8oliclum, that is, wholly, to the divine operation and the Holy Spirit alone, as the Apologia also says." lConc. formula. Decl. art. 2.)

307 But how lightly does Pastor Graf speak about those who have fallen into sin again after being born again?

In the same sermon he says: "A single illness does not necessitate a completely new birth; a single step backward does not compel one to turn back to the very first beginning and start all over again. He who has once fallen into sin is not yet dead in sins; he may need to rise from the fall, but not to awaken the dead." (S. 303.)

308 To what carnal, false comfort do these words give rise?

1) That; the rebirth once done could not be lost again by certain sins.

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2) That the sinner who has fallen after being born again cannot again fall into spiritual death.

3) that a second rebirth is not necessary for the fallen.

309 Does the Scripture also give such comfort?

Never again, because Scripture clearly teaches Ezekiel 18, 26; Luc. 8, 13; Gal. 5, 4; 1 Tim. 1, 19 etc. that a born again and converted person can completely fall away again and fall into spiritual death. Scripture also shows in the example of Nicodemus (John 3:7) and the prodigal son (Luke 15:32) that those who have fallen away after being born again must be born again if they want to be saved in any other way.

3l0. What false teaching contrary to Scripture does the Superintendent and Professor Dr. Lechler present in Leipzig?

A so-called chiliastic doctrine of a kingdom of glory from earth before the last day, - in which the Jews as the "people of Israel" will enjoy a special privilege.

311. what are the words?

"All the ardor of patriotic souls, who have at heart the liberty, greatness, and glory of their people, flares up in this question ('O Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? '), united with the devout hope of the fulfillment of all the promises of God made to the people of God. The kingdom which they

130FalseDoctrine. Sup. Lechler.

is a kingdom of Israel, the theocratic kingdom realized by the Messiah, as well as the presently subjugated nation of Israel, which will be free, great and ruling ..... Nor did the Lord deny or reject this; on the contrary, he confirms the matter by saying that the Father has established the times. A thing out of which nothing ever comes has neither a period nor a time. Those are utterly mistaken who say that Jesus utterly rejected the ideas of his apostles concerning a Messianic kingdom. He did not do so at all. Neither did Christ deny the prospect of a realization of His Lordly Kingdom in the world of manifestation, nor the future that blossoms for the people of Israel in it; He only subdued curiosity in regard to time, and pointed out to His apostles their practical task in the present."

Furthermore: "Not only the Scriptures of the Old Testament, but also many weighty pieces of the New confirm that Israel still has a future, and will still enjoy a privilege in the kingdom of God". (The Apostle's Histories, exegetically and dogmatically edited by G. V. Lechler, I). u. ordtl. Prof, der Theologie u. Superintendenten in Leipzig. 3rd edition. Bielefeld and Leipzig 1869. p. 21. 22. 23.)

312 Why is this chiliastic doctrine a false, pernicious doctrine?

False Doctrine. Sup. Lechler.

131

1) Because it disputes with the Scriptures, which nowhere promise us to expect a kingdom of glory from the earth, but have earnestly commanded us to expect the last day daily. Matth. 24, 43. 44; Luc. 12, 39. 42; Rev. 16, 15.

2) Because it argues with the true authority of the kingdom of God, because according to the clear words of the Bible this is not a visible, earthly kingdom, but an invisible, spiritual kingdom; not a kingdom of glory, but a kingdom of grace and cross. Matth. 10; Luc. 14, 27; Joh. 16, 33; Acts. 14, 22; Rom. 8, 17; Ebr. 12, 6.

3) Because it disputes with the doctrine of the nature of faith, because faith on earth until the last day does not have to do with visible, temporal glory, but is a certain confidence of that which one hopes for and does not doubt about that which one does not see. (Ebr. 11, 1.) But in the true kingdom of glory after the last day we pass from faith to sight.

4) Because it conflicts with the doctrine of the righteousness of faith, for if according to Scripture there is no respect of person before God, and there is no distinction between Jews and Greeks, if all without exception become righteous and citizens of the kingdom of God through faith in JESUS Christ, and not by merit of works, but by grace, and if finally all believers become righteous and citizens of the kingdom of God without any distinction between Jews and Greeks.

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State Church Sermons.

Since the Gentiles have the same rights, gifts and goods through faith, there can be no question of a privilege of the converted Jews over the converted Gentiles, otherwise grace would not be grace. Rom. 10, 12; Cap. 11, 6.

313. also reject the confessional writings of the Lutheran Church.

Church the false, Jewish teaching of vr. Lechler?

Yes, in the 17th article of the Augsburg Con- fcssio".

314 Whom has Dr. Lechler among the other professors of Leipzig still to the co-proponent of his chiliastic doctrine'?

The Professor Or. Delitzsch.

(315) Are all the errors and false doctrines proved here also to be found in the sermons, speeches and lectures of many other Saxon clergymen?

Unfortunately, there is no doubt about it. For one part of it consists of rationalists and Protestant unifiers, another of so-called progress theologians. Progressive theologians.

316 What is often to be deplored even in the sermons of the better, the personally believing pastors?

This, that in it law and gospel, justification and sanctification, are often not properly separated, but variously mixed; that the law is not set forth and applied in all its holiness and sharpness, the utter ruin of the natural man is not rightly proved from it, and many prevailing sins and vices are not seriously punished. Still less

State Church Sermons.

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the Gospel is preached in all its sweetness and fullness of consolation. To the East the Lord Christ appears more as the miserable stopgap of self-grown and self-prepared saints for heaven than as the Saviour who justifies the ungodly. (See, e. g., in "Gesetz und Zeugniß" Vol. 8, p. 21 ff., the sermon on Luc. 10, 38-42, by C. M. Zimmermann, formerly psarist at Seifersdorf, Saxony, in which the soul is instructed to find rest with Jesus first through sanctification, then through salvation). It is especially to be deplored that many such sermons are all too little doctrinal and all too much calculated to stimulate the mere feeling in the Methodist-Herrnhutian manner, so that in them neither the pure wholesome doctrine is taught quite thoroughly and comprehensively, nor are the prevailing false doctrines and errors of the times quite emphatically attacked, refuted and warned against the soul-destroying poison of the same.

317 What is the consequence of such preaching?

That in many cases the hearers attain neither to a right knowledge of their natural misery, nor to a sound knowledge of Christ, neither to thorough repentance, nor to firm faith in JESUS Christ, nor to an unshaken comforting assurance of the forgiveness of their sins and their state of grace, nor finally to a truly evangelical life of faith in love. In the best

In the event of a trap they remain weak, wavering, unsteady Christians, children of understanding, without a certain foundation of doctrine, who are then very easily driven about by all kinds of strange teachings, very easily fall into the hands of papists and enthusiasts, very easily succumb to the seduction of coarse or subtle scoffers, and thus suffer complete shipwreck in the faith.

318 What in particular does Dr. Luther say of the terrible consequences of the false doctrine of justification?

"For where this one thing (the doctrine of justification) remains pure on the plan, Christianity also remains pure and fine in harmony and without all varieties; for this thing alone, and nothing else, makes and sustains Christianity. All the other pieces may also shine with false Christians and hypocrites, but where it does not remain, there it is not possible that one may ward off some error or spirit of the rot. And where also there arise or begin reds, thou hast no doubt that they are certainly fallen vqn this main, notwithstanding that they chat much of Christ with their mouths, and almost preen and adorn themselves." (Hall. ed. ^om. V. 1697.)

"Wherefore, if we be not valiant, and take heed that we keep the article (of justification) right and pure, it shall be so with us, that we shall not keep any article right and pure, nor cease to err, and rot-

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Until it is all over, and no preaching and teaching will help, but cows and swine will remain, as is unfortunately already the case among your great multitude, to the reward of our contempt and ingratitude for the holy gospel". (I. Lapaeus. Luther's Prophecies. p. 125.)

"If we understand this article rightly and purely, we have the right heavenly sun. But if we lose it, we have nothing but hellish darkness."

It would now be important to learn something about the highest church authority in Saxony, namely about the newly formed Landesconsistorium in Dresden. Its members are said to be very honorable and devout men. Can they not be given the testimony of Lutheran orthodoxy?

It may well be that the members of the Landesconsistorium are very honorable and devout men, but they are not orthodox Lutheran church servants.

320. What will it take to prove that?

With the false and soul-dangerous doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture publicly declared by the same.

321. what is this doctrine?

It is the same hopeless doctrine which the Leipzig professors Kahnis, Luthardt, and Delitzsch, as well as all the theologians of further development, put forward, namely:

136 False doctrine. The state consistory.

1) That the Bible is not inspired word for word by the Holy Spirit. Spirit;

2) That the Bible is not equally inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is not inspired by the Holy Spirit in the same degree, but one part of it in a higher degree than the other.

322. what are the words?

"And even if the rigid mechanical reasoning of the old church dogmatists" (i.e., the old Lutheran church teachers) "the in8xii-ati0 vsrdalis (literal inspiration of the Holy Spirit) cannot be upheld, yet the Scriptures from beginning to end testify most clearly, at least in regard to the Law and the Prophets, that the biblical authors (writers) spoke, filled and driven by the Holy Spirit, that the Scriptures are therefore a human representation of the divine thoughts of salvation, the God-human book, the Ottri8tu8 8erixtu8 (written Christ). The Old Testament, at least with regard to the law and the prophets, clearly shows that the biblical authors (writers) spoke, filled with and driven by the Holy Spirit, and that the Scriptures are therefore a human representation of the divine thoughts of salvation, the God-human book, the Ottri8tu8 8erixtu8 (written Christ). Now, if the history of the revelation of salvation, which has been deposited in the sacred Scriptures, is a progressive one, it is also a human representation of the divine revelation of salvation. If the history of the revelation of salvation, which has been deposited in the holy Scriptures, is a progressive one, so that every Scripture of the Old and New Testaments must be judged according to the stage which it occupies in the whole of the covenant, that is to say, that different degrees of inspiration can be distinguished, according to which some theologians regard as the core of Scripture the prophetic and apostolic writings, in the second line the historical books of the Old and New Covenants, and also these again in different degrees of inspiration.

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137

But if we place in third degree books like Job, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Hebrews, 2nd and 3rd Epistles of John, and place others in a different order,the Holy Scriptures are not a mere conglomerate. Scripture is not a mere conglomerate". (Proceedings of the Extraordinary Lutheran State Synod in the Kingdom of Saxony, 1874, Report of the Lutheran State Consistory. S. 78.)

323 Can and will the Saxon State Consistory, in view of this position on the Holy Scriptures, have the courage to take proper action against those preachers who deny some or several of the teachings of Scripture?

No, certainly not.

324 With what would such preachers always know how to justify themselves?

That they would declare the scriptural passages belonging to it to be uninspired or inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Lord is the one who has the power of the Lord.

What, therefore, must in Saxony, in consequence of the false doctrine advocated by the Landesconsistorium, spread like a devouring cancer? The false doctrine.

326 From what is the rule of the same in the land of Saxony further to be proved?

From various so-called religious books in public use by the national church. The following is a list of the religious books, e.g. Agende, Gesangbüchern, etc., that are in public use.

0327 How are such books to be kept in the orthodox church with respect to doctrine?

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False Doctrine. The Agenda.

As public books of edification and, to a certain extent, confession, they should correspond in all respects to the pure, scriptural Lutheran doctrine.

328 Is that the case, for example, with the Saxon church agenda at issue here?

Not at all, but it is a wretched, rationalistic piece of work, which from January 1, 1813 to this day has been ordered for the exclusive use of the national church congregations and preachers, with the express provision that "no clergyman shall permit himself to make arbitrary changes" (with the exception of confirmation and the communion of the sick).

329. Name some of the most abominable heresies in this agendum.

In the baptismal form, page 172, of the 1812 edition, first, original sin is denied, and the child to be baptized is called a new arrival on earth, a creature, a being, "in whom slumber noble powers, and germs are hidden for all good." See also page 289.

There, the beatific and regenerating power of holy baptism is denied, and it is said that the child is here (come to baptism) "to develop these (noble, slumbering) powers, to unfold these germs, and to mature toward a still higher existence."

Page 185, 196 and 222 is denied,

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that the child attains its own saving faith in and through holy baptism. For after the preacher has confessed: "In the Christian congregation we believe in God the Father," etc.only the pious (true papist) wish is expected from the godparents "that the present child be baptized in this faith and brought up in this faith. - Then also baptism is called only "a holy obligation to the faith.

In the Confirmation Form the whole of Christianity is dissolved into vain heathen morality and Pharisaic self-righteousness and righteousness of works, for the poor children are told: "You know ... how you, as confessors of the true God, as members of the church of Jesus, distinguish yourselves from all other men by faith, love and exemplary righteousness.... . ." ... - "Your vows are great, the obligations you have undertaken are very heavy; manifold are the obstacles you have to overcome, innumerable the dangers you have to conquer. You have learned to know it, the heavenly, divine religion which we profess; you have heard what blessednesses it promises to all who faithfully observe it, but also how much, oh, how much it demands, what heavy duties it lays out, how a confessor of it is wiser, more understanding, more pure from sins, more holy

False Doctrine. The Agenda.

and more virtuous than everyone else" (so everyone else, even if he is not a Christian, can after all be somewhat pure of sins, holy and virtuous, can have faith and love). ... "Take hold of the thought in your heart, the great thought of God, the omnipresent witness of all your thoughts, words, and works; let this thought be continually before you, and accompany you to all your business, societies, and pleasures," &c.

In the form for the baptism of pro- selytes the Christian religion, which is the only one that saves, is reviled and blasphemed by saying that one finds in it only "more light and strength and comfort and reassurance" than in the Jewish religion; just as if the latter were not a false, damned religion, but also a religion that brings light, strength, comfort, and reassurance.

The pure Lutheran doctrine of the sacrament of the altar is denied in the form of the Lord's Supper, in that it is nowhere confessed that the true body and the true blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are present in the Holy Communion under bread and wine. Nowhere is it confessed that the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are present in the Holy Communion under bread and wine, distributed and received for the forgiveness of sins.

Page 289 in the marriage form No. 2, marriage is made a means of grace, because, it is said, it promotes most happily

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the "most sublime and sacred of all final ends"; "she is the powerful preserver of innocence uud prevents the aberrations,.... she is the intimate friend of virtue ... she is the mild image-giver of our nature, and under her influence (now a second lie is added) all the faculties of our being unfold into the most beautiful blossoms and the most refreshing fruits."

Page 350 in the ordination form, the scriptural meaning, force, and application of the binding key is denied, in that the preacher is not given the office of keeping the impenitent from sinning, as the Catechism professes, but only the office of "warning the impenitent from divine punishments."

330. What else could be said about this agenda?

In them there is only a miserable, weak and powerless rationalistic rhetoric of virtue, in which God's honor is trodden in the dust and human dignity is raised to heaven. The Collect prayers are, with very few exceptions, distorted, washed-out, adulterated, and mutilated copies of the old, good Collects. For example, on page 33 the Advent Collect and page 57 the Passion Collect are mutilated to deny the gracious redemption from the devil. On page 75, the Ascension Collect is mutilated,

False Doctrine. The Dresden Hymnal.

to deny the ascension of Christ. On page 82, the Collect on the Feast of Trinity is deprived of the words: "in three persons of equal power and honor," in order to deny the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, and so on.

331 Is it possible that a faithful, orthodox Lutheran preacher can use such a shameful agenda without grave denial of his conscience and without imminent danger to the blessedness of his hearers?

No, I don't think that's possible.

You also mentioned the hymnals. Are there any in use in the Saxon regional church whose content corresponds to that of the Agende?

However, for example, the " DresdenerGesangbuch."

333. What can you say?

It is a collection of nearly 900 songs, of which only a few deserve to be called Lutheran hymns, but all the others are in part an obviously unchristian, even blasphemous chanting of human merit and righteousness, and in part an unspiritual, salty, useless, rationalistic drivel of virtue.

334 Please give some examples of the first class of these songs.

No. 754, B. 5

will be sung:

"Thy word showeth me the better part of the world;

That is how my faith is established.

How gloriously is the worth of mankind enlightened by Jesus' testimony."

False Doctrine. The Dresden Hymnal.

143

No. 200 V. 6:

"O Lord, this thy example shall teach me, and life's innocence be my garment of honour. I will gladly hear thy voice, And gladly do thy word."

No. 556 B. 3:

"Uud be virtue without strife,

Their worth would be small,

Then magnanimity, temperance, and benevolence would be small things, And virtue would not win that life's high price."

No. 493, v. 5:

"With thy heaven thou wilt, O Lord of the Worlds, Of virtue noble toil repay me, Wilt what thou hast give me, if I be faithful, An everlasting life."

No. 430, v. 2:

"I do not tremble when sinners tremble, That God is just and holy, My heart bears witness to my life, That I have walked as a Christian, Worthy of the divine calling, Who here teaches me to walk in heaven."

No. 575 in vv. 5 and 6: "Let not your teaching be in vain.

Grant, Father, that I may be faithful to him, and that, while enjoying this life, I may one day be capable of that life," and so on.

"Happy am I, if I dare bravely To be worthy of the great hope; And these short days of practice

To thee and to virtue wholly consecrate;" &c.

144

False Doctrine. The Dresden Hymnal.

No. 562, v. 8:

"Grant that my diligence in the work which I do on earth...

Thy wise counsel, my God, created, To me a step become, Whereon, after time accomplished, I climb To the higher business of the better life."

No. 620, v. 2 and 7:

"Man cannot educate himself alone, Only human company educates him, He wanders lonely on fields, Which bloom for him in vain;

Only people ease his pain

And pour joys into his heart."

"And from the prince's throne does not protection and safety flow to us? Who makes each man dwell in safety? Who gives us peace of mind? For by his paternal care We shall see the welfare of the land flourish."

No. 711

a Christian pauper is sung about in a manner truly worthy of nothing:

"To him shines not the light of thy sun, Nor is thy fair earth glad; And to him, with all his splendour, Is grey and gloomy midnight."

"What do you want him to start, God?

Despair? Deny thee in his affliction? "And shall he alone suffer, and not be happy?"

False doctrine. > The Dresden Hymnal. 145

"Wilt thou never make him happy? Yea, thou wilt, O Lord: thine eye saw before the worlds were made His suffering, and also His reward."

"He wrestled and strained, like a man, The whole power of diligence to make him pure And free from all the guilt of sloth."

"Then he complained to men of his affliction..;

Humble, confident God, Not angry when man does not hear, Sure that at last God hears him."

335. Now also run a few samples from the second

Class on.

No. 642, v. 2-4

schoolchildren are supposed to sing:

"From you comes wisdom and understanding

From thee of truth light, Thou makest us acquainted with ourselves - And teachest us our duty."

"You let good schools flourish, For the happiness of the world and the state, Let young people be educated there"' "Lead them in the path of virtue

"Thou formest them for the service of the world, Let their diligence prosper, To be useful once where it pleaseth thee, In every station."

146 False Doctrine. The Dresden Hymnal.

No. 546, v. 4: "Healthy limbs, strong forces, How much are they, O God, not worth! Who is fit for the work of the profession, Because illness weighs down his body? Health and a cheerful spirit Are here for us the greatest good."

No. 547, v. 2 and 3 (tune: Herzliebster JEsu rc.) is further sung of the care of the body: "I shall care for it, shall strengthen it to noble works By nourishment and also by joy, Shall dishonor it by no softness, Not destroy it myself."

"Thou gav'st him to the enjoyment of many pleasures, And also to the endurance of honourable sufferings, That he also under their noble burden

Would be glorified."

No. 620, v. 6 and 7 says of business, especially compagnie business:

"And now he enters on the business for which prudence chose him: united his powers work upward to the general good, and order and coherence increase and strengthen the drive of deeds."

"United to the same purpose, each then works the other's happiness;

Wrong teaching in the schools.

147

And everyone looks on with glee

To the common good;

And what a man cannot work,

They'll start that united."

336. Is this horrible hymnal still in use?

Unfortunately, in all "evangelical" churches of Dresden and many provincial parishes.

337 Are similar bad hymnals still in use in Saxony?

Yes, for example the Zwickau, the Leipzig and others.

(338) If, then, as has been shown, false doctrine has become dominant in the Saxon church, it is to be feared that the same thing is the case in the school. How may it stand with this?

It must be confessed that, unfortunately, in very many, indeed in most, of the Saxon schools and colleges of higher learning, the pure Lutheran doctrine is in decline, while the youth in them are corrupted with the poison of false, erroneous doctrines or even manifest unbelief.

(339) Which books, however, are by order of the ecclesiastical regiment to be placed at the disposal of religious instruction?

The Bible and Dr. Luther's Small Catechism.

340 But how do whole crowds of teachers in high and low schools relate to the Bible?

Not only do they not believe in it, they actually blaspheme it.

10*

148

Blasphemy in the schools.

341. show this with some examples.

Some years ago a certain teacher Stahlknecht in Chemnitz advocated in two writings the introduction of a so-called school Bible. For in the complete Bible there are many passages and stories by which the knowledge of the highest being is clouded and misled, the reverence for God and the Holy Scriptures is diminished, the simply pious mind is hurt, and morality is endangered. - We find news from different, not seldom contradictory writers; not very edifying war stories, with deterrent crudities and atrocities, heroic deeds not at all suitable for imitation. Many stories contain obviously erroneous views, improbabilities, exaggerations in numbers, impossibilities, especially in war stories. We find things that, according to the nature and circumstances of the time and the actual nature of things, could not have happened the way they are depicted here. ... Even God's chosen protégés and his ordained representatives sometimes do things which appear to our Christian (?) children to be immoral, unjust and cruel. ... At God's express instigation several thousands of innocent people are slain in battle and many of them killed ... Some in our Christian (?) terms

Blasphemies in the schools. 149

shameful deeds are not reprimanded, not punished, even presented as good and crowned with rewarding successes.... According to many other passages, God appears too human, petty, fickle, and unworthy of his majesty in his actions, resolutions, and statements.... The morality of children must be greatly endangered by hundreds, I say hundreds, of passages in which sexual relations and relations are discussed, which every moral man keeps hidden from minors with the utmost care. Even the New Testament is not entirely free from them. Individual such facts in the Old Testament are told in such a way as does not occur even among uneducated Germans, and even in the worst books of more recent times, in such a coarse way as to make even an old teacher's hair stand on end." (The Introduction of a School Bible rc., illustrated by I. F. Stahlknecht. Chemnitz 1867. p. 9 fs.)

How does a Christian, on the other hand, relate to the sayings and stories of the Scriptures? Scripture?

This is shown by the following words of Luther: "I faithfully entreat and admonish every devout Christian not to be offended or offended by the simple sayings and stories found in the Bible, and do not doubt that, however silly and badly they may be regarded, they are most certainly the vain words, works, history, and judgments of the high, divine majesty, power, and wisdom.

150

Blasphemy in the schools.

For this is the book that makes fools of all the wise and prudent, and can only be understood by the foolish and simple, as Christ said Matt. 11:25. Therefore let go of your arrogance and your feelings and think much of this book, as of the highest, noblest sanctuary, as well as of the richest treasure, which can never be sufficiently filled nor exhausted; so that you may find in it the divine wisdom, which God presents so foolishly and badly in the Bible, that He dampens and puts to shame the arrogance of all the clever. In this book you will find the swaddling clothes and the manger in which Christ lies, to which the angel also directs the shepherds. The swaddling clothes are poor and insignificant, but the treasure in them is Christ.

Does Mr. Stahlknecht stand alone among the teachers of Saxony with his abominable blasphemy of the Holy Scriptures? Is Mr. Stahlknecht alone among the teachers of Saxony with his abominable blasphemy of the Holy Scriptures?

Oh no, but a hundred teachers at that time publicly agreed to it, and Mr. Stahlknecht was able to write: "A counter-declaration has not been made by any side, notwithstanding the express public request for it." (II. Booklet on the Introduction of a School Bible by Stahlknecht. p. 1.)

344 With what words has a Saxon burgher, Mr. Gesell in Chemnitz, recently confessed his unbelief?

The unbelief among teachers.

151

The same publicly stated in the 5th session of the extraordinary state synod in 1874, among other things:

"I will, as an honest man, put my position against it: to me the sacred Scriptures are not God's word, but I say: the sacred Scriptures contain God's wordSo, as a counter-position, I must state it that everything in the sacred Scriptures that causes offence to me - I say only first to me and to the party I represent - what seems to me erroneous, what seems to me contradictory, superfluous, and of which I do not believe. I say, only at first to me and to the party I represent, - what seems to me erroneous, what seems to me contradictory, superfluous, and of which I do not believe that it can have an edifying effect within our whole party, that all this, as we think, does not belong to God's word, that it is a human component of holy Scripture." (Verhandl. der außerordentl. Landessynode im Königreich Sachsen. p. 60.)

345 But what does Herr Gesell testify at the same time about an "extraordinarily large part of the Saxon teaching world"?

That the same also stands on "this standpoint". (Ibid.)

346 Show by another example by what unchristian spirit a large part of the Saxon teachers are driven.

In the Jahresnachrichten über die Bürger-, Bezirks- und Gemeindeschulen in Dresden 1870, all directors of these schools profess the following, completely unchristian, arch-humanistic principles:

152Theunbelief among teachers.

"Man is inwardly free when, in spite of external and internal temptations to evil, he remains faithful to what he knows to be good and right, when in every situation of life he pays attention neither to enjoyment nor advantage, but only to what conscience (or practical insight) demands of him, and makes sacrifices to this demand, whatever the cost." .... "Da gilts" (for the teacher before entering the class, namely) "to make himself inwardly free and to follow a reasonable self-determination, for freedom consists - according to Karl Schmidt - not in arbitrariness, but in the des- potism of reason." "In sum: Whoever does not want to see his good teachings invalidated, must stand blameless in all his doings, must be a real, true man, and such a goal can only be reached after gaining inner freedom." (Against this, see Joh. 8, 36, what the Lord Christ says about inner freedom, and Joh. 16, 24, what the teacher needs above all before entering the class). ....

"We seek the eternal truth of thought, and the farther it recedes from us, and the darker our distant vision of it becomes, the brighter one star after another shines near us - perhaps the star of virtue, perhaps the jewel of true knowledge, which tells us that all that we seek is not worth so much as the star of virtue.

The unbelief among teachers.

153

Is than what we found. We found the sharpening of our eyes, the education of our mind, the control and taming of our heart and our desires". (Of course, all without God's grace, only through the despotism of reason.) As a sacred task of the teacher is mentioned: "to redeem in the child the bound ideal man, to help peel God's image out of the earthly dross. But before that it is said that children's tongues are "the still pure mirror of the divine on earth." (Of the inherent corruption of children, of the loss of the created image of God in man, of the gracious redemption through Christ, of the restoration of the image of God through the Holy Spirit by means of baptism and faith in man. The article entitled "The Teaching Profession" does not speak of all this, for the directors neither know nor believe anything about it).

347 Show by another example how hostile even a better part of the Saxon teachers are to sound Lutheran Christianity.

In a little book, the Dresden private school director E. Böhme instructs a mother, among other things, as follows: "On the other hand, prayers which contain words,

154

The unbelief among teachers.

like, "Christ's blood and righteousness, that is my ornament and robe of honor!" "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." - as much as I am convinced of the truth of these words - not suitable for children, as they do not know how to connect any sense with them at all. Equally unsuitable and reprehensible are all sweetening additions, such as I met, for example, with a boy who never called the Saviour anything but 'the dear Lord Jesus'." (Ernst Boehme, Invitation Program, Letter to a Mother. Dresden 1869. p. 56.)

348 What other fact speaks for the unchristian and unchurchlike spirit of many Saxon teachers?

The participation of the same in the so-called general German teachers' meetings, in which radical free spirits lead the great word, (as in Berlin 1869), to whom the unbelieving Jews have already offered their temple as a meeting place in good brotherhood, (as in Kassel 1868).

Is it to be expected of teachers of this kind that they will instruct the youth in the pure Scriptural doctrine of the Small Catechism unto salvation, and bring them up in discipline and exhortation to the Lord? Certainly not; on the contrary, it is a well-known fact that this doctrine, e. g. of the triune God, of the divinity of Christ, of original sin, of the work of redemption, of the righteousness of faith, of the existence of a personal

False teaching in textbooks. 155

The teachings of the Holy Spirit, of the devil, of regeneration, of the nature, power, and usefulness of the holy sacraments, of the office of the keys, of the resurrection of the dead, and of the Last Judgment - are denied in many Saxon schools, either in whole or in part, and the souls of the poor children are miserably deceived and cheated of their salvation, partly by this and partly by the miserable rationalist morality that has been inculcated into them.

350 Are not the Saxon teachers, in explaining Luther's Small Catechism, bound to some definite, orthodox interpretation of the Catechism?

No, they have been given as much freedom as possible, and only the Dresden Catechism of the Cross, or the Spener Catechism, or the Jasper Catechism, or the Jrmscher Catechism, and the Catechism of the Chiliast vr. Kurz have been recommended. (See Haan, Lexicon des Kirchen- und Schulrechts. p. 344 sf.)

351. By what, furthermore, must the ruin of the Saxon schools be considerably increased?

By many other textbooks in use therein, contradicting the pure Lutheran doctrine, held unionistically, humanistically and rationalistically.

352 Show this with some elementary school reading books that still belong to the better class.

One such is the "Dritte Schulbuch für die Oberklassen der Volksschule. 12th ed." In the same it says e.g.

156Falseteaching in the textbooks.

Page 299: "To the worshippers of a God belong first the Jews;.... Further, the Christians are to be mentioned .... finally also the Muhamedans." So Jews, Christians and Turks in one line. Is not this an unspeakable disgrace to a reading book of the Christian elementary school? For Jews and Turks worship one idol, the heathen several idols, the Christians alone have and honor the one living God.

Further, page 429: "The belief in one God is the basis of all true religion." - Jews and Turks also put up with this. But the Holy Scripture teaches. Scripture teaches: "Only faith in the true living God, who has revealed Himself in Christ, is the foundation of the one true religion. Christ is the cornerstone, and to know him and the Father who sent him is eternal life.

Furthermore, on page 433 ff. in a chapter entitled "Unchristlicher Zank der Christen" ("Unchristian quarrels among Christians"), it is said of the doctrinal disputes in the first centuries after Christ: "Then it could not fail that the one came to this, the other to the other dispute. This would not have been a misfortune if they had peacefully exchanged their different views with each other and at least had not disturbed the unlearned people in their pious faith by disputes, in which they themselves often did not quite understand each other. - Then heretical people like

False teaching in the textbooks.

157

Arius, who denied the eternal deity of Christ, and Pelagius, who denied the original sinfulness of man, were formally defended.

Page 461 it is said of Melanchthon that he improved, changed, and tempered the Augsburg Confession in each new edition.

Luther is said to have remained firm in his opinion in Marburg (where, as is well known, the great man of God defended the pure doctrine of the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Holy Communion against Zwingli, who denied it). The Bible is not a source of information, but a source of information that can be found in the Bible.

On page 464 the "hero of the faith Zwingli" is mentioned.

On page 465 it says: Calvin deserves "our highest esteem because of the purity of his faith". (Zwingli and Calvin, however, were in many ways determined enemies, even public detractors of the pure Lutheran faith).

Finally, Socinians, Unitarians, and German Catholics, who, like the Turks, all deny the Holy Trinity, are included in the Christian Church.

In the reading book for higher educational institutions (Lebensbilder IV.) - edited by Berthelt, Jäkel, Petermann, Thomas - the biblical story of creation (the 6 days' work) is denied, among other things, in the following passages, and thus the child is led to disbelief: "Before man made the earth

158

False teaching in the textbooks.

inhabited, there was an age in which another world of beings ruled." ... (p. 370.) "There was a time, to which natural history, like history, leads us, when the earth was not what it is at present.... History does not reach up to this time, either of the first formation or of the transformation of our planet, which has already become old, but traces of the time when the earth already bore living creatures and even men, but the quarrel of the elements had not yet been settled and their formation not yet completed, and other animal races than the present ones inhabited it, have been preserved in the sagas of the ancient peoples of land-covering floods and of monsters of the earth and the sea; And it is to this that we are led by the petrified limbs and the frozen forms of unknown animals, which are found in the summits of the highest mountains and in the motionless expanses of the Arctic Ocean. In the same way, the population history of our earth leads to the conclusion that it once had a different form and was not inhabited by men"(p. 308.) "But these extinct species (individuals constructed from preserved or deformed parts) do not at all belong to a single period of creation, to a single, so-called pre-world, but they rather originate from very different

False teaching in the textbooks.

I5S

new periods, whose organisms differ as much from each other as from those of the present creation.".... (S. 413.)

The 4 so-called "Life Pictures", partly published in the 44th resp. 28th edition, remind at all of certain peep-show pictures. One sees many good and beautiful things there, but even more silly, bad, and to the highest degree lake-destroying things. Ordinary rationalists, such as Reinhard, Witschel, Zschokke, Tischer, even an L. Würkert and many others have deposited their material in it, not to think of worse.

353 To what judgment about the Saxon schools will a Lutheran Christian arrive in consequence of the facts mentioned?

To the judgment that there can be no question of true Christian, i.e. Lutheran, doctrine and discipline in it, that false doctrine prevails in it.

Can Christian parents with a good conscience entrust their children to such schools? Can Christian parents in good conscience entrust their children to such schools?

Impossible. Dr. Luther writes: "Where the Holy Scripture does not rule, I certainly advise no one to abandon his child. Everything must perish that is not driven by God's Word without ceasing..... I have great concern, the high schools are great gates of hell, where they do not diligently practice the holy Scriptures and drive them into the young people." (To the Nobility of the German Nation.)

160Summa of Doctrines,

355 In order that the horrible apostasy of the Saxon regional church may be recognized quite clearly, I ask you to enumerate again recently the salutary doctrines, firmly founded in God's Word and known by our dear Lutheran church, which are publicly denied in that regional church.

It is publicly denied in the Saxon regional church against the holy scripture and the confessions of the Lutheran church. It is publicly denied in the Saxon church against the holy scripture and the confessions of the Lutheran church:

1) That the Bible is the Word of God;

2) that the whole Bible is equally inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore infallible. Spirit and therefore free of error and infallible;

3) That all the scriptures are profitable unto salvation. Scripture is useful for salvation. 2 Tim. 3, 15-17;

4) That one can attain salvation through the Holy Scriptures alone. 4) That only through the Holy Scriptures, and not by the way of reason, education, and science, can one attain to the saving knowledge;

5) That the true, living God is one, inseparable being in three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit;

6) That Christ is true, natural God, of the same nature, power, and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit;

7) That Christ, according to His human nature, was conceived by the Holy Spirit without sin, and born of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit conceived him without sin, and that he was born of the Virgin Mary;

Which are denied in the Saxon regional church. 161

8) That Christ is not only a model, but the Redeemer and Reconciler of the whole human race, who suffered, died, and rose again for us;

9) That it is by grace alone, through the merit of Christ, and not through the merit of our works and sanctification, that we obtain forgiveness of sins and eternal blessedness;

10) That faith alone in JESUS Christ, the Saviour of sinners, and not a spirit living in us, our own virtue and worthiness, justifies us before God;

11) That sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and that this sin is propagated to all men through the fleshly birth;

12) That the inherent sinful corruption of man is so terribly great, deep, and pervasive, and in itself damnable;

13) That in spiritual things the natural man has no free will, no dispositions, and no powers for good, but is dead in sins and trespasses;

14) That God alone works conversion, and that man is in no way involved in it;

15) That regeneration is the work of God alone, and not also of man;

16) That holy baptism works regeneration;

17) That in baptism, and through the same, infants may obtain their own faith unto salvation."

162

Summa of the teachings,

18) That Christ gave to his church on earth the power to remit or retain sins;

19) That in the Holy Communion the true, essential body 19. That in Holy Communion the true, essential body and the true, essential blood of Jesus Christ, by virtue of His institution, are present, distributed, and partaken of orally for the remission of our sins;

20) that the Christian Church is actually and finally the congregation of truly believing and sanctified Christians, and therefore an invisible kingdom;

21) that the office of public preaching is not a special, sacred office, opposed to the Christian state, but an office of service, conferred by the Christian congregation as the holder of the spiritual priesthood and of all church authority;

22) that the Evangelical Lutheran Church alone is the true visible or orthodox Church of God on earth;

23) that the work of the Reformation is complete, that the doctrine of the Lutheran Church is pure and right in all its parts and not in need of or capable of any further development or improvement;

24) that the orthodox church has the sacred calling to continually combat the false teachings of the sects with the weapons of the Spirit.

which are denied in the Saxon regional church. 163 and could not enter into or tolerate any union with false believers;

25) That we Christians in the New Testament are freed from the Jewish Sabbath law through Christ;

26) That only the visible return of Christ to the last judgment is to be expected, but not a visible kingdom of glory on earth, in which the Jews have the preference;

27) That all who die in unbelief go straight to hell, and not to an outer court where there is salvation for some;

28) That there be eternal damnation.

This is a frightful sum. But say, are not other doctrines of Scripture denied or falsified in Saxony?

Ah, yes, such as the doctrine of angels, of the devil, of the election of grace, of the law, of Christian liberty, of repentance, of prayer, of the Antichrist, of the resurrection of the dead, and so forth.

357 But what can be sufficiently seen from the examples given?

That also in the Saxon regional church, as the Concordia formula says, "under the name of the Augsburg Confession damned errors have crept in", and have become dominant in it to the ruin of souls.

> 64

False teaching the greatest misfortune.

358 Is false teaching really the greatest misfortune?

Yes, for it is the most abominable and most grievous sin.

359. Why?

Because through them, as through no other, the name of God is profaned and the kingdom of God destroyed, the glory of God the Lord and countless souls are endangered or completely robbed of the salvation so dear to them through Christ's blood. False doctrine is always a murderous poison of the soul and works false faith, false hearts, a false ungodly life and, if God's unspeakable mercy does not still save the one entangled in it, eternal death.

(360) What, therefore, are heretical men, who bring up, propagate, and defend false doctrines, called in the holy Scriptures?

False prophets, 1 John 4, 1. liars, l Tim. 4, 2. false apostles, 2 Cor. 11, 13. wicked, deceitful workers, Phil. 3, 2. washers, Jer. 5, 13. ripping, abominable wolves, Matth. 7, 15: Acts. 20, 29. foxes and peelers, Ezek. 13, 4; Cap. 23, 11. dogs, Phil. 3, 2. dumb dogs, Isa. 56, 10. loose whitewashers, Ezek. 22, 28. fools, Hos. 9, 7. unclean spirits, Zach. 13, 2. false spirits, Mich. 2, 11. frogs, Rev. 16, 13. locusts, Rev. 9, 3. servants of Satan, 2 Cor. 11, 15.

361. Why are they called false prophets in particular?

How false teachers are called in Scripture.

165

Because they misinterpret and twist God's word, prophesying lies and keeping their own word.

362. Why are they called liars?

Because they pass off their false teachings and lying sermons as divine truth.

363 Why false apostles?

Because they may pretend to be Christ's servants, but they are not delivering Christ's message.

364. Why are they called evil, deceitful workers?

Because they are in the habit of doing their office for shameful gain, for honor or mammon's sake, seeking not the souls but the wool of their flocks, and defrauding them of the right pasture.

365. Why are they called ferocious, ravening wolves?

Because with the poison of false doctrine they snatch souls from the good Shepherd JEsu and murder them.

366 But why are they called foxes and peelers?

Because they go about niit roguishly, counterfeiting God's word and seducing innocent hearts with sweet words and splendid speech.

367. why dogs?

Because they rule harshly and sternly over the people, and are wont to lead out in a biting and insolent manner against weak and afflicted consciences. 368 But why are they called dumb dogs?

Because for fear of man or favour, and for the sake of good days, they hold their peace where they ought to speak; sin, false doctrine, and the Godly

loose life not quite seriously punish, do not warn, watch and resist the enemy.

369 Why does the Scripture call them washers?

Because they preach the doctrines of men and useless things?

370. why are they called loose whitewashers?

Because they preach neither Moses nor Christ, neither law nor gospel, neither repentance nor faith, neither rightly punishing nor rightly comforting and edifying, and therefore by their preaching make many false Christians.

371. why fools?

Because they corrupt themselves and others.

372. why unclean spirits?

Because they are neither driven by the spirit of truth, nor urged by the love of Christ.

373. Why do they call them lunatics?

Because they do not point to Christ and his righteousness alone.

374. Why are they called frogs?

Because they keep silent about God's grace and the great work of Christ, but make a great noise about the science, wisdom, virtue, power, work, and merit of men before God.

375. why are they called grasshoppers?

Firstly because of their large number and secondly because of their harmfulness.

167

376 Why, finally, are they called servants of the devil?

Because, lying and deceiving under God's name, they do the works of the devil, who is a father of lies and a murderer from the beginning.

377 What does Dr. Luther say about the unspeakable damage done by false prophets and false teachers?

"Such a wicked man can seduce a whole city, which has long had God's word, with one sermon, and make people forget in one hour what they have heard in ten years ... for the people (as I said) are easily persuaded with it, and without that are forward and lascivious to hear something new. (Walch V; 471.)

Further: "This is what poor people get from such teachers, that they are driven away and scattered, like a herd, into various superstitions and groups; in addition they perish and pine away, like the abandoned sheep without a shepherd, of whom no one waits with the divine, pure word. (On the 10th chapter of Zechariah, IV, 312.) 378. Should not perhaps the one or other deviating doctrine be tolerated, if otherwise the preacher is faithful and his preaching pure and right?

No, not even a false doctrine may be tolerated because, as God's word teaches, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Gal. 5, 9.

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379. how is this saying St. Pauli to be understood?

This is shown to us by Dr. Luther in these words: "Just as in philosophy, if one errs a little in the beginning, in the end it becomes a very great and intemperate error, so it is also the case in theology that a small error should corrupt and falsify the whole Christian doctrine. Therefore doctrine and life should be kept very distinct from one another. Doctrine is not ours, but it is God's, who alone has called us to be servants and ministers over it; therefore we should not, nor can we, give up or slacken the very smallest title or letter in it. ... For thus we all say, like St. Paul, A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. - Therefore in the same piece we cannot depart from it by a hair's breadth. For with doctrine it is so well circumscribed and measured that one can neither add to it nor take from it without great and perceptible harm; but with life it is so, that it may well take something upon itself, or else yield, do, or suffer something, as necessity requires. - Therefore the doctrine shall be, as a fine ring, wholly golden, hath no crack or fracture in it: for as soon as such a ring getteth a crack or fracture, it is no more whole. What does it help the Jews to believe that there is one God and Creator of all things, even that they believe all the articles?

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and accept the whole scripture, if they deny Christ? Therefore, as St. Jacob says, "He who sins in one is guilty of the whole. He that sinneth against one is guilty of the whole.' " ...

"If they (the false prophets and false teachers) sincerely and heartily believed that it was God's Word, they would not so lightly jest and play with it, but hold it in the highest honor, and believe without all doubt and disputation what it says and holds for them; They would also know that all God's words are one, and again that all God's words are one; they would know that all the articles of our Christian faith are one, and again that one is all, and that if one is left aside, the others will certainly all fall after it in time, for they are all attached to one another and belong together. ...

Therefore have no doubt, if thou deny God in one article, thou hast certainly denied him in all; for he cannot be divided piecemeal into many articles, but is altogether in each, and in all, one God. (Expository of the Epistle to the Galatians, VIII. 2652.) 380. But it must be confessed that some of the Saxon false teachers mentioned also speak God's word and many beautiful, excellent, Christian discourses. Should they then count for nothing?

Mark the wiles of the devil. He lets well

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but only that he may tell ten lies. Hear what Dr. Luther says:

"The devil's art is to make himself an angel of light, 2 Cor. 11:14, and to give false doctrine to false preachers and false ministers, under a pretence of right and wholesome doctrine. They call out the name of God in the world, pretending delicious things and crying out: The word of God, the word of God. Thus, under the glittering color, they drive their evil poison into the people, so that the righteous doctrine is completely eradicated." (Ill., 1605.)

All heretics know how to adorn their lies and errors with the Scriptures, and thereby make a mirror image of the people, so that they think it is all truth, and soon do noticeable, great harm, for their word (says St. Paul) eats away at them like cancer; but nevertheless their foolishness cannot last long, it must come to light in time. - Cause: they leave God's word alone, or interpret it according to their own pleasure, so that it must mean what they want it to mean ... in time Christians will notice this and beware of them." (VI, 513.)

381 What does God threaten all false prophets and heretics with if they persist in their sins without repentance ?

He proclaims woe upon them and threatens them with curse and eternal damnation, shame and disgrace, as can be seen: Ezek. 13, 15; Cap. 33 u. 34.

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Jerem. 23, 31. 32. Matth. 5, 19. Cap. 7, 22. 23. Gal. 1, 7-9. Phil. 3, 19. Rev. 22, 15. 18. 19 a. a. O. m.

0382 But what earnest warning doth the word of God unto all Christians, lest they be deceived of false prophets, and follow after their destruction?

God's word commands them not to have church fellowship with false prophets and false spirits, Ps. 26, 4-7; - not to take them home and greet them, 2 Joh. 10, 11, i.e. not to keep them as brothers in faith; - not to obey their words, 5 Mos. 13, 3; - not to follow them, Joh. 10, 5; - but to beware of them, Matth. 7, 15; - to avoid them, Tit. 3, 10; - to depart from them, to go out and separate, Rom. 16, 17. 18. 2 Cor. 6, 14ss.

(383) Why is the warning to beware of false prophets so very necessary?

Because the same are doubly dangerous because of the sheep's clothing in which they not infrequently come.

384 What is meant by the sheep's clothing of false prophets?

By this is meant the good, pious, holy appearance which they know how to give to themselves and to their false doctrine, e.g. by their legitimate profession, by their excellent gifts and profound learning, by their strict, pious life, their zeal for service, their kind, amiable

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The first is that they are so famous, so well known, and so popular, and especially that they speak so many beautiful Christian words, as I have said above. 385 Add another testimony by Dr. Luther of the great danger of this latter sheep's clothing.

"Yes, this is the sheep's clothing in which the false spirits clothe themselves and adorn themselves, so that no one comes to you who confesses that he would deceive the people and preach unrighteousness. They come with good, smooth, gentle words, saying how they are driven by the zeal of God, and how they can no longer see the misery of the poor people, because the truth has been withheld from them so long. The common man is not accustomed to such words from wicked men, and for this reason he soon bursts out laughing, and considers it pure holiness what such sneaks say and do. But a Christian should learn (as reported above) that the devil does not come as a devil, but as if he were God. So these wolves also do not come like wolves, but put on a sheep-shanty, that whoever does not know them, thinks them silly, pious sheep." (XIII, 1806.)

Furthermore: "There are always three predatory ships moving around us. First, our corrupt nature; second, the world; third, false doctrine. For the sake of these three pieces it is almost dangerous to be in the world. With the third piece, Satan needs people vsn great intellect and

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Their words are spreading like cancer. Therefore it is necessary to keep above the word and to pray, so that we do not accept the opinion of some people who say, "There is no harm in dealing with such people; this delusion corrupts very many. There is much harm in their company; the devil is under it." 386 To what judgment of the Saxon church do we arrive, since, as has now been sufficiently shown, false prophets and false doctrines prevail in it?

To the sad conclusion once again that the same is no longer a truly orthodox, evangelical Lutheran church, but a sect under a Lutheran name.

387 How does the theological faculty of the old, orthodox Saxon university at Wittenberg describe the nature of a sect in 1619?

It says: "But a right pernicious sect is actually an error in doctrine, which is led against the foundation of doctrine by those who live in the church of Christ, and is stubbornly denied, and also causes division and vexation apart from sound doctrine, and cannot at all be rebuked, but those who adhere to such a sect persist in it, notwithstanding manifold warnings and admonitions issued to them on that account." (Oousil. I. col. 526.)

388 What then is the next bitter fruit of the prevailing false doctrine?

The prevailing false and ungodly practice.

III.

Of the false, ungodly practice prevailing in Salmon.

389. May not, through ignorance, lack of understanding, negligence and unfaithfulness of individuals, this and that false, ungodly practice creep into the orthodox church?

Yes, this may well happen, but the orthodox church will certainly not tolerate or even defend a practice which it recognizes as contrary to Scripture and the welfare of souls, but will severely punish and repudiate it.

390. What does Dr. Luther say about this?

"The holy church sins and stumbles, or even errs, as the Lord's Prayer teaches; but she neither defends nor excuses herself, but humbly asks forgiveness, and corrects herself as she always can; so she is forgiven, that her sin is no longer counted sin. If then, in obedience and hardened disobedience, I should not know nor distinguish the right church from the wrong, I know no more to say of any church." (XIX, 1579.)

391 Of what pieces of a false ungodly practice in the Saxon regional church would we have to speak here in particular?

1. of Unirt's practice of the Lord's Supper.

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2. full of the prevailing lack of confession registration.

(3) Of the total lack of church discipline commanded in God's Word.

4. of the manner of filling vacated church offices.

5. from the position of the church to the school.

392. What is understood by the Unirte practice of the Lord's Supper?

The admission of members of unbelieving communities (e.g. the Uniate, Reformed, Roman) to the celebration of the Lord's Supper within the Lutheran Church.

393 How are we to view the Holy Communion for the time being, in order to rightly recognize what a grave and abominable sin unrighteous communion is?

As the precious means of grace, wherein under the form of the blessed bread and wine the true, essential body and the true, essential blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is presented to us for the forgiveness of our sins. 1 Cor. 11, 24. 25.

394 But do the Reformed, the Unrighteous, and other false believers, for example, confess that they believe this mystery?

No, they do not confess, but deny this faith, as everyone knows.

What do they not distinguish in the Holy Communion? According to the words of the apostle, 1 Cor. 11, 29?

The body of the Lord.

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0396 What therefore can they not rightly proclaim?

The death of the Lord (1 Cor. 11, 26.)

397. What does that mean?

This, that they do not confess purely and rightly the holy work of redemption accomplished by the death of Christ on the cross, as is done by a faithful Lutheran Christian, but deny the same by their false teaching.

398 Why then is it such a grievous and abominable sin to administer Holy Communion to unbelievers at Lutheran altars?

Because they are thereby deceived into the unworthy enjoyment of Holy Communion, and so despise the most holy testament of Christ.

399) How are we to view the sacred sacrament of the altar in order to understand the grave sin of the practice of the Lord's Supper?

As the holy bond and sign of true unity in the faith, doctrine, and confession of Christ, therefore also communion is church communion, as the Scriptures teach 1 Cor. 10,,17; Cap. 12,13 and the Augsburg Confession Art. 13 testifies.

400) What do those confess by going to Holy Communion in a Lutheran church?

In this way they confess their complete agreement with the faith and doctrine of this church.

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401 But can the Reformed, the Uniate, or the Catholics confess this in truth?

As long as they are and remain just such and have not renounced their previous false-believing church fellowship, they cannot of course confess this.

402 To what dreadful sin, therefore, are they led by acceptance to the Lord's Supper of the Lutheran Church?

To the dreadful sin of hypocrisy.

403 What is denied by such communion with members of false churches?

The commanded unity of the church in faith and confession.

404 And to what purpose is the most holy supper shamefully abused?

To a hypocritical game of jugglery and a cloak of internal dissension and discord.

405 How is also by such unrighteous practice of the Lord's Supper just against the unbelievers themselves the commanded right love denied?

By admitting them to the holy communion, nran, instead of punishing their false doctrine, only strengthens them in it. The more they are admitted to Holy Communion, the more they are strengthened and entangled in it.

40V. What grave annoyance is thus given at the same time to one's own co-religionists?

They are thereby led to regard the difference between pure and false doctrine as small and indifferent.

- 12

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407 How, finally, does one make oneself liable to other people's sins through the unjust practice of the Lord's Supper?

By accepting unbelievers, with whom one goes to the table of the Lord, as fellow believers and thereby confessing their false doctrine.

408 Would it not be contrary to all love to deny the Lord's Supper in the Lutheran Church to members of unbelieving communities who may be Christians?

Don't you ban and heresy them with it?

Let that be far off. But he only punishes and clarifies their false doctrine as an obstacle to worthy, blessed participation in the right supper of the Lord.

400 With what words do our old Lutheran doctrinal fathers reject this united communion of the Lord's Supper?

"Because this sacrament is a public testimony and confession of the church, and because what faith, doctrine, and religion each one professes, he also holds to be the unchangeable truth, the sacraments are to be used in such a way that faith may come to him who believes the promises given through the sacraments, as the Augsburg Confession, Article 13, reminds us. Conf. art. 13 reminds us. Such faith, however, is not found in those who cannot believe the words of Christ's endowment and promise of oral administration and bodily presence. . One bread it is,' says Paul 1 Cor. 10, 17, 'so we many are one body, because we are all of one bread.

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But such Calvinists as they are described are not one body with our churches; therefore they do not belong to the partaking of this bread and of the holy supper. Supper. Those who do not bring Christ's doctrine are not to be taken home, nor are they to be saluted after St. John's memorial, 2 Ep. 10 and 11, lest their evil works be made partaker of; much less are they to be permitted to partake of the holy supper. Much less can they be allowed to partake of Holy Communion, who say that they cannot believe in the oral partaking and bodily presence which Christ has instituted and declared. (Oon8i1. 1656. II, 131.)

410. show now that in the Saxon regional church Unirte communion practice takes place and may take place.

This can be seen from the following story: When, during the occupation of Saxony by Prussian troops in 1866 and 1867, Prussian soldiers belonging to the Uniate Church received Holy Communion in Königstein, Leipzig and Bautzen from preachers of the Saxon State Church, which calls itself Lutheran, other more conscientious preachers and laymen submitted a petition to the Saxon Ministry of Culture on June 15, 1868. On June 15, 1868, various conscientious preachers and laymen submitted a petition to the Saxon Ministry of Culture, in which they "most solemnly" objected to the unrighteous practice of Holy Communion by the above-mentioned and asked the Ministry to prevent such occurrences in the future by means of an appropriate general ordinance. This request suggested 12*

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but the aforementioned Ministry of Culture in a decision of 20 May 1869 roundly rejected. It said among other things: Strict exclusion of unchurched persons from the Lutheran Lord's Supper was an unsuitable means of preventing confusion; - the Ministry could not exempt from the consequences those preachers who refused to admit unchurched persons to the Holy Communion. The ministry could not exempt from the consequences those preachers who refused to admit unchurched people to Holy Communion, and was not in a position to issue such a general decree. (Sachs. Kirchen- und Schulblatt. 1869. No. 45.)

Furthermore, when the then Lutheran Association in Dresden made the same request to the Ministry of Culture in October 1870, it was likewise rejected in a ministerial letter of December 21, 1870.

And when the Lutheran Association repeated the same on February 17, 1871, and substantiated it more closely, the Minister's answer of August 10, 1871, said again: that, however, one was not in a position to listen to the requests and petitions expressed in those presentations.

UI. What do you see from these notices of the highest Saxon church authority?

This, that the unrighteous practice of those preachers found protection and approval with her.

412) But did this practice of the Holy Communion find the approval of a large part of the Saxon preachers?

Yes, as can be seen from the negotiations of the Leipzig

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Lutheran Conference of September 24-26, 1872.

413. namely, what question was discussed here?

"Whether and how far can the Lutheran Church grant communion to members of other confessions, the Unirten ein geschlossen?" lAllg. ev.-luth. K.-Z. 1872. No. 42.)

414. What was the first answer to this in summa in the 5 first theses?

That communion between the Lutheran and other churches is absolutely unacceptable.

415. but what does it say in the 6th thesis?

"On the other hand, the Lutheran Church may, without endangering its confessional status, admit to its Lord's Supper individual members of the Uniate Church who are temporarily in its midst, if they share the Lutheran confession of the Lord's Supper and thereupon request admission to the Lutheran Lord's Supper. - Special reasons, however, may make it the church's duty of self-preservation to admit Unirte only on condition of withdrawal from the Union."

416. and what was finally pronounced in the 8th Thesis?

"That there are individual cases of necessity in which even those who do not share the Lutheran confession may be admitted to the Lord's Supper of the Lutheran Church.

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but these exceptional cases would have to be left to the pastoral knowledge of the individual clergy.

417 Who is the author of these theses?

The professor of theology Dr. Luthardt in Leipzig.

418: So what do I)r. Luthardt and with him all the Saxon pastors involved in the conference in the 6th and 8th thesis?

Quite the same as what the church government declared, namely that in certain cases also members of other (i.e. irreligious) communities were to be admitted to the Lord's Supper of the Lutheran church.

419. Should it not be possible, in case of necessity, for such an admission to be made without sin?

Nevermore. What is a sin in general cannot be right in an emergency. Unrighteous supper practice is, as we have seen, a multiple grave sin, therefore it can no more become a virtue in an emergency than lying or stealing. That conference, then, had an evil effect on the consciences of the individual clergymen.

(420) From what, furthermore, is it to be proved that within the Saxon regional church there is an irregular practice of the Lord's Supper?

In view of the undisputed fact that in various, especially larger, city communities, such as Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz, etc., not only members of other denominations have long been living in the church, but also in the church of the Church,

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The Holy Communion is not to be taken by unbelievers, reformers, or even Catholics, but even by obviously apostate Lutherans, Bible and Christ deniers, and other heretical and professedly unbelieving people.

The latter is especially appalling beyond all measure. Could the fact be established?

Yes, for it is certain that, for example, the Bible and Christ denier Ör. Sulze in Chemnitz and the Bible and Christ denier P. Binkau in Leipzig receive Holy Communion year after year with tacit approval or even from the hands of such preachers who want to be considered faithful Lutheran preachers.

422. O, of shame and disgrace without equal! What terrible sin do such preachers commit?

Through their own fault they make a mockery of the most holy and most salvific testament of Christ, deliver Jesus anew into the hands of the Gentiles to be crucified, condemn to life those to whom they should preach God's wrath and judgment, help them to the most unworthy enjoyment of Holy Communion, harden their hearts, and so plunge them themselves into the damnation from which they are called to save.

423. What cries God's word concerning such great prophets?

A terrible "woe!" i.e., curse, and the

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The blood of those deceived by them the Lord will require at their hands. Ezek. 33.

424 What does vr. Luther about preachers of this kind ?

"And in sum, that I come from this piece, it is frightening to me to hear that in the same churches, or at the same altar, the parts should take and receive the same sacrament, and one part should believe that it receives the same bread and wine; but the other part believes that it receives the true body and blood of Christ. And often I doubt whether it is to be believed that a preacher or pastor could be so obdurate and wicked, and be silent on this, and so let both parts go each in his delusion that they received the same sacrament, each according to his faith. But if there is one who has a heart harder than any stone, steel, or diamond, he must be an apostle of wrath. For Turks and Jews are much better, who deny our sacrament, and freely confess it: for thereby we remain undeceived of them, and fall not into idolatry. But these fellows ought to be the right high arch-devils, who give me vain bread and wine, and let me take it for the body and blood of Christ, and so miserably deceive. That would be too hot and too hard: God will soon throw down the towel. Therefore whosoever hath such preachers, or shall confide in them

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let him be warned against them, as against the devil himself in the flesh." (Warning to those at Frankfort. 1533. XVII, p. 2446.)

425. Will therefore a conscientious Christian be able to accept or retain such unfaithful stewards and corrupters of souls as his pastors?

Certainly not.

(436) What other false, ungodly practice is closely connected with this one just touched?

The almost total neglect of personal confession or communion, and consequent unfaithful and unconscionable administration of Holy Communion.

What does the Evangelical Lutheran Church mean by confession?

The salutary, scriptural order, according to which those persons who wish to go to the holy supper are obliged to register personally with their pastor beforehand. This is the salutary order according to the Scriptures, according to which those persons who wish to go to Holy Communion are obliged to register personally with their pastor beforehand, who then has to examine or interrogate them in an evangelical manner as to whether they have the right Christian knowledge, especially of Holy Communion, and whether they are in true repentance and in general so that they can partake of Holy Communion for the blessing of their souls. He must then examine or interrogate them in an evangelical manner to see whether they have the right Christian knowledge, especially of Holy Communion, and whether they are in true repentance and in such a way that they can receive the Holy Sacrament for the blessing of their souls. Sacrament for the blessing of their souls.

428 Why must every faithful Christian pastor necessarily make this confession?

Because, as a faithful teacher of our church shows from God's Word, "The preacher is not only teacher,

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but also shepherd, bishop and guardian (Eph. 4, 1t. l Tim. 3, 1. Ebr. 13, 17. Ezek. 3, 17-21), not only dispenser of the sacraments, but also house-holder over them (1 Cor. 4, 1), and has the serious command not to give the sanctuary to the dogs and not to throw its pearls before swine (Matth. 7, 6)." (S. C.F.W. Walther, Prof. tUooI. Pastoral Theology, p. 142.)

429. How do our confessions speak of personal confession and related interrogation?

In the 25th article of the Augsburg Conf. Conf. it says: "This custom is kept among us, not to administer the Sacrament to those who are not first interrogated and absolved."

In the fifteenth article of the Apology it is further said: "With us the people need the holy sacrament willingly, without imposition, every Sunday. Sacrament willingly, without hesitation, every Sunday, who are first questioned as to whether they know or understand anything about Christian doctrine, the Lord's Prayer, the faith, or the ten commandments.

430 What does also I)r. Luther in the lessons for the church auditors?

"No one should be allowed to go to the Holy Sacrament. Sacrament, unless he is interrogated by his parish priest in particular as to whether he is sent to the Holy Sacrament? Sacrament? For St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 11:27 that those are guilty of the body and blood of Christ who unworthily partake of it.

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take. Now not only do those dishonor the Sacrament who take it unworthily, but also those who give it with diligence to the unworthy."

431: How did it stand now before times in Saxony with the confession registration?

As can be seen from the VII. article of the Saxon. General Articles of 1580, from a synodal decree of 1624 and from a decree of the Oberconsistorium of 1713, private confession existed everywhere in Chursachsen, whereby the confessors were to be interrogated by the church servants, diligently questioned about the doctrines and main points of the catechism, also instructed according to need and then absolved. For this exploration and confession, the church children were to report to their confessor two or more days beforehand. Especially, however, the preachers were enjoined "not to pronounce absolution to a whole crowd at the same time without hearing." (Codex of the Church and School Law in force in the Kingdom of Saxony, Leipzig 1840. p. 25.26.63.119." 432. What has remained of this confessional registration along with interrogation today?

In most cases no more than an empty shadow. For usually and predominantly the thing is handled in such a way: Who wants to go to the holy. He who wants to go to Holy Communion may register for it or have it registered if he wants to. These registrations happen with the pastor, (perhaps also with

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(The church is the only church in the district of Dresden), or also with the churchman and insist (here and there against deposit of a few pennies or groschen) in indication and recording of the name and thus good. In addition to this, in many cases there are no certain parochial boundaries (as, for example, in Dresden itself), so that someone can go to Holy Communion today in this church, another time in that church; today with this pastor, another time with that pastor. In many cases the pastors do not even know or care to whom they administer the sacrament, and even less about the state of the communicants' souls.

433 What then is the consequence of such faithless, certain loose practice?

That the sanctuary is thrown to the dogs in innumerable multitudes, that thousands and thousands of the obviously unworthy enjoy the holy supper for judgment year after year. That people, in the most terrible ignorance, in professed unbelief, in self-righteousness or lying in public vices and sins; mockers, perjurers, drunkards, enemies, revenge-seekers, fornicators, adulterers, usurers, and the like - that the poor souls are thus neglected in the most shameful manner; And so the poor souls are most disgracefully neglected, and sure, impudent, impenitent sinners are more and more hardened and hardened, and sorrowful, affrighted, and troubled hearts are driven into ever more grievous distress.

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434 In what events does this abomination come so glaringly into the light in the holy place?

At the military communions in the garrison towns, whole or half companies come to the altar, without a chaplain having tried to find out beforehand, even with a single word, whether those who come here are penitent Christians, or cursers, fornicators, drunkards, and scoffers.

435. But who bears the guilt and responsibility for such appalling misery?

The faithless, lazy, belly-serving preachers who do not keep from personal registration and interrogation what their sacred stewardship obliges them to do.

(436) It is nevertheless objected that it is absolutely impossible for preachers to conduct such a confession with all individuals, simply because of the large size of the congregations. What is the answer to this?

This is only a vain pretext. For how easily would this need be remedied, if one would neither divide such oversized congregations into 2, 3 or more parishes, nor appoint the number of assistant preachers necessary for a faithful care of souls, or finally avoid large mass communions by celebrating Holy Communion quite often, for instance on Sundays. The faithful fathers made it possible. What the faithful fathers made possible, a faithful pastor can also make possible today. Such "clergymen," of course, who are used to hold unspiritual or yet

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Those who find plenty of time for highly superfluous lectures, or for writing useless books, or for farming, or for political demonstrations, or for attending balls, theaters, and concerts, or for unnecessary trips to the baths, or those who prefer to go to a drinking house rather than to a house of lamentation, or those who regard their preaching ministry mainly as a career, a breadwinner, and a business, and who pursue it as a craft, - such will under all circumstances have no time left to take care of the souls of their confessors.

437 Of what false, ungodly practice in the Saxon regional church would we have to speak further?

Of the total lack of scriptural church discipline.

438 What then is understood by church discipline according to the Scriptures?

This can be seen in the following verses: Tit. 3:10, 11: "Avoid a heretical man, when he is once and again admonished, and know that such a one is perverse and sins, as he that condemned himself."

1 Cor. 5, 11. 13: "If any man be called a brother, and be a fornicator, or a covetous man, or an idolater, or a blasphemer, or a drunkard, or a robber, neither eat ye with him. . . . Put out of yourselves them that are evil."

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Matth. 18,15-18: "If your brother sins against you, go and punish him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have won your brother. If he does not hear you, take one or two more to yourself, so that the whole matter may rest on the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he does not hear them, tell the congregation. If he does not hear the congregation, consider him a Gentile and a tax collector. Verily I say unto you: Whatsoever ye shall bind from earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose from earth shall be loosed in heaven." 439 Which persons, therefore, according to this clear and definite command of God, are to be excluded from the Christian church and its goods, excommunicated, or

...to put you under the spell?

Public and impenitent sinners, whether their sin concerns doctrine or life in particular.

440. To whom hath the Lord Christ given commandment, power, and right to exercise such church discipline?

To every Christian congregation, as He saith, Tell the congregation.

441 In what words is all this made known in our Small Catechism, in the 5th principal part?

"The office of the keys is the peculiar ecclesiastical power which Christ gave to his church out of the earth, to forgive sin to penitent sinners, but to retain sin in the unrepentant, so long as they do not repent."

192Mattgelof church discipline.

Likewise, "I believe what the appointed ministers of Christ do to us by his divine command; especially when they exclude public and impenitent sinners from Christian worship, and again release those who repent of their sin and desire to amend, that it is thus strong and certain, even in heaven, as if our dear Lord Christ himself had done it with us. 442 With what words do the Articles of Schmalkalden confess that every local Christian congregation in particular has the right and power to exercise church discipline?

"In regard to this it must be confessed that the keys (and therefore also the power to put the ungodly under banishment) do not belong to one man alone, but belong to and are given to the whole church, as this can be sufficiently proved by certain clear causes. For just as the promise of the gospel certainly and without means belongs to the whole church, so the keys belong without means to the whole church, since the keys are nothing else but the ministry, by which such promise is communicated to everyone who desires it. ... And Christ saith in these words: What ye shall bind, etc., and signifieth to whom he hath given the keys, even to the church: Where two or three are gathered together in my name... (First appendix.)

443. will this church discipline, which is commanded to every Christian congregation, now also be observed by the Saxonian regional church

Communities practiced?

Lack of church discipline. 193

No, there can be no question of this, especially since long ago the individual congregations gave up their sacred right and duty and left them to be exercised by "some but persons," namely, the church government.

444 In what way was church discipline handled by the church government in former times?

About this the Saxon General Articles instruct us. General Articles thus: The pastor of the parish shall first admonish the sinner with all diligence. If there is no improvement, the pastor is to report this to the superintendent, who, together with "two political persons from the same place," is to send the angry person to the church again and punish him. Since this will not help either, these reported persons shall bring everything to the general superintendent in writing, so that he may have the action further brought to the consistory. The Consistory shall then exhort the sinner for the last time to repentance and correction, and in the event that this also remains fruitless, then the person shall be recognized by the appointed persons in the Superior Consistory and Oonventu Luxarntten- ltsutiuiu in a common assembly, which is held twice a year (but all with our (the Elector's) prior knowledge and consent) into the church punishment, i.e. banished. (See Gen.-Art. XI. Codex of the Church and School Law Saxony church and school law. S. 31.)

194

Lack of church discipline.

In the revised synodal general decree of 1673 it further says literally:

If, however, the pastors suspect and know that there are such persons in their parishes whom they do not in good conscience dare to lay hands on: they should at the proper time inform and warn such persons, who use the degrees against them, and if they cannot be powerful with such persons, let the matter come to their superintendents, who will either, for the sake of the admittance (admission), provisionally confine the parties themselves, or, if they find sufficient cause for the suspension, recover themselves from our consistoriis, among which they belong, Ubsolndion. (Codex p. 100.) Accordingly, the congregation with its pastor is not even granted the right to "suspend" an ungodly person from Holy Communion, much less to exclude him. All decision lies in the hands of the church regiment.

445. zrann mau es dann wohlgethan heißen, dass die Kirchenzucht in dieser Weise ausgeübt worden?

Certainly not, since it does not correspond to the order of Christ, Malth. 18, and especially that the congregation is excluded from all decisive participation. 44V. Should not, however, the members of a church government, cousistorial and high consistorial councils, secret church councils, doctors, professors and lawyers have somewhat more right to decide in cases of church discipline than simple pastors and parishioners, farmers, shoemakers, etc.?

Tailors and the like?

Lack of church discipline.

195

To which Dr. Luther gives this in reply:

"God wills to be unconnected with multitude, greatness, height, power, and what is personal with men, but wills to be alone with them that love and keep his word, and should be vain stable-boys. Why does he ask for high, great, mighty lords? He is the greatest, the highest, and the mightiest alone. ... We have here the Lord himself over all angels and creatures: who saith they shall all have equal power, key, and office, even two bad Christians alone, assembled in his name." (XVII, 1346.) "The keys are for the whole congregation of all Christians, and for every one that is a member of the same congregation, not only according to authority, but also according to custom, and according to all manner of things that may be, lest we do violence to the words of Christ, who speaketh straightway and in common unto all: He shall be to thee, etc.; item: "All that ye shall bind." (X, 1846. 47.) "And he that usurpeth the keys thereof is a true, cunning sacrilegus, a robber of the church, whether it be the pope, or whosoever he be." (Booklet on Confession, 1521.) "To know and to judge about doctrine belongs before all and every Christian, and that in such a way that he is cursed who offends such right for one little bit. (XIX, 424.)

is*

196

Lack of church discipline.

447. might it not perhaps be objected that, since the ecclesiastical government has not usurped the good right of the churches, but only administers it for them, the free exercise of ecclesiastical discipline should now be restricted to the churches?

is unnecessary and superfluous on the part of the latter ?

Now and never can it be superfluous, since the Lord Christ has given it to the church, even commanded it. Dr. Luther therefore also says: "The congregation that is to keep such an (ungodly) ban should know and be certain how he deserves the ban and has come clean, as Christ's text gives here; otherwise it might be deceived and accept a lie ban, and thereby do injustice to its neighbor. This would be to blaspheme the keys, and to profane God, and to fail in love toward the neighbor, which is not to be suffered by a Christian congregation. For it also belongs to it, if anyone is to be banished from it, says Christ here, and is not guilty of believing the official's note, nor the bishop's letter (the verdict of the consulter), indeed it is guilty of not believing here; for men are not to be believed in the things of God. Thus a Christian congregation is not the servant of the official (the consistory), nor the master of the bishop's staff, that he may say to it: Grete, Hans, had me this one or that one in the ban. Awe, yes, be welcome to us, dear Official! In worldly authority such a thing would have an opinion,

Lack of church discipline.

197

But here, as it concerns souls, let the church also be with judge and wife." (XIX, 1181. 1182.)

448) What is the explanation for this state guardianship of the individual congregations, which can be seen in the still valid Saxon church constitution, especially also in the exercise of the church discipline commanded by Christ?

This can be explained by the "after Lucher's death, unfortunately, more and more in the Lutheran Church torn mixture of state and church, of spiritual and secular government, whereby the church is brought to her ruin more and more again under a papal yoke.

Yes, that is unfortunately only too true. But we do not want to speak of this lamentable disenfranchisement of the regional church now, but only ask: Does the present Saxon church government, instead of the congregations, exercise church discipline only somewhat with the seriousness prescribed by the General Articles? Are public and unrepentant sinners, heretics, or people lying in obvious works of the flesh and vices, whether preachers, teachers, or laymen, excluded from the church and put under ban?

No thought of that. None of this happens. Such church discipline is called a thing long overcome, incompatible with the present milder, more tolerant, more liberal spirit of the times, unsuitable, offensive, dangerous, and quite impossible, and is generally ridiculed.

Lack of church discipline.

450 With what words did the same court preacher Dr. Langbein confirm this saddening fact shortly before his death?

He writes: "To exclude such (ungodly) until they repent, is the duty of the church, a duty, to be sure, the exercise of which becomes a bare impossibility in a time like ours, where, unfortunately, almost all church discipline has fallen away." (The Christian Faith rc. Lectures by B. A. Langbein, because. Doctor of Theology rc. Leipzig 1874. second half. S. 301.)

451 What is the consequence of this total lack of church discipline?

That the wild swine ravage and destroy the vineyard of God (Ps. 80). Unrestraint, an insolent, wild nature, unrestrained lust for the world and the flesh, pagan abominations, vices and sins are running rampant in the national church; Heretics and false spirits, scoffers and blasphemers, cursers, drunkards, fornicators, adulterers, usurers, miserly and unforgiving people, socialists and freemasons remain unmolested in it year after year, have access to the altar and baptismal font, even to the aems, honors and dignities of the church.

452 But does not at least the latter seem to be contradicted by the Church Council and Synodal Regulations for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saxony, published on March 30, 1868?

It is true that in Z 8 of the same to all voting

The Riesa case.

199

and elective fathers of the house, that they have not given public offence by contempt of the word of God or dishonourable conduct, which could not be removed by lasting correction, - that they are men of good reputation, proven Christian sense and ecclesiastical insight; indeed, the church boards § 19 are made responsible to maintain discipline and manners and to revive the Christian sense in the church community, (see Dr. L. R. Feller and Synodal Regulations, p. 82) - but because precisely Matth. 18 commands church discipline, this is taken out of the hands of the congregations. L. R. Feller, Kirchenvorstands- und Synodalordnung, p. 68. 82) - but because the church discipline commanded in Matt. 18 has been taken out of the hands of the congregations, but is not exercised by the church government, these new as well as the more serious old ordinances remain, as experience teaches, a dead, forgotten letter.

453 But how then, if a faithful preacher in his congregation still wanted to keep to serious discipline and custom'?

Then such a preacher would most likely be duly reprimanded by the church government out of consideration for the spirit of the times and the great multitude, and if necessary would rather be abandoned than supported.

454. Can any evidence be adduced in support of this?

Yes, in 1872 the pastor Julius Böttcher was forced to resign from his pastorate in Riesa, because he had publicly arrested three men who had fallen away from Christianity (members of the Free Religious Church of Riesa).

200

The Riesacr case.

Uhlich's Rotte) could and would no longer tolerate in its church council, but nevertheless did not obtain their removal from the church regiment. The latter explained that the positive provisions of the church order did not provide a legal means to compel them to resign from the church council.

There we see how faithfully the church regiment exercises church discipline instead of the congregations, and how betrayed, sold, and deceived a congregation is that leaves its keys in the hands of such a church regiment.

455. How did the "Pilgrim from Saxony" speak at that time about this case, etc.'?

"So the pastor, who is faithful to his office and confession, must give way, and the free-religious agitators and root-diggers keep the field. The church authorities see through the whole abomination and, because of the inadequacy of the provisions in the law, believe, in spite of the best will (?), that they are not in a position to provide help. That is the factual condition of our church; that remains for us as a devastating certainty from the present case! As one often reproaches the newer laws, - so it is also true of many a church law that it opens the door to the rummagers and destroyers and makes the honest and faithful members outlaws, and leaves them at the mercy of the unbelieving mob, where these

The Großenhain Synod in 1872.

201

is the stronger in head count." (Pilgrim a. S., March 31, 1872.)

456 What did Pastor Auerswald of Ponickan, among others, declare on the occasion of the above Riesa incident at the Diocesan Synod in Großenhain on September 30, 1872?

He explained: "The matter at hand does not only concern the congregation of Riesa, it concerns the whole regional church. As is well known, the church councils have to vote for the synod. If the decidedly unbelieving succeed in penetrating into the church councils and asserting themselves there in spite of their obvious denial, they can also penetrate into the synod (as already happened in July 1871 in Dresden), possibly gain the majority there, and exert the most harmful influence on the entire state church. Then the Landeskirche of Saxony will soon cease to be a Lutheran church. Then the faithful members of the Lutheran Church, if they want to remain Lutherans, will have only one way out left: to leave the Landeskirche." (Sächs. Kirchen- und Schulbl. of Oct. 17, 1872.) 457. What application did the Pastor Auerswald make to

the aforementioned diocesan fan assembly?

"The diocesan assembly declares that it may not meet together with the district churchwardens of Riesa."

458 But what did Pastor Auerswald finally do when the assembly rejected his proposal?

He left the meeting with some others

202

Lack of church discipline.

as a congregation no longer purely Lutheran, but mixed of Lutherans (?) and freedmen.

459 What, however, should be done in equity by all conscientious preachers of the Saxon regional church who are denied the scriptural exercise of church discipline?

They were not only to resign their office, but also to withdraw from the national church - as a church that was already no longer Lutheran - and thus to annul all ecclesiastical fellowship with the unbelievers.

460 Why, nevertheless, is this not done by many?

Because the belly is their god and they want to feed themselves more than the flock of Christ.

(461) Others, however, seek to justify their continuance in the ministry and in the national church precisely by pretending that after their departure there would come terrible wolves who would not spare the flock. What is the answer to them?

What the Lord says: Obedience is better than sacrifice. As long as a preacher is not allowed to keep the churches and doctrinal discipline commanded by God, he cannot carry out his ministry in obedience to God's word, i.e. not faithfully and pleasing to God. But if he cannot do this, he should not do it at all. He is not responsible for what follows.

462 But how, if still others pretend that strict doctrinal and church discipline is not so necessary and useful. One

Lack of church discipline.

203

The Lord Christ Himself says in the same way in Matth. 13: You shall not go and pull up the tares, lest you pull up the wheat at the same time that you pull up the tares. Let both grow together until the harvest, and so on. What is to be noted against it?

That this saying of Christ is misapplied here. For the Lord speaks here of the weeding out of the "field of the world" (v. 38), but not of the exclusion of heretics and unbelievers from the church. Rather, it is written of this: Put out of yourselves them that are evil. 1 Cor. 5, 13.

But what does God's Word say about such preachers who, out of fear of man or favor, out of fear of battle, the cross, and shame, or out of desire for temporal peace, advantage, honor, or comfort, absolve public and unrepentant sinners, accept them for Holy Communion, and so willingly take their Holy Communion? They accept Holy Communion and so willfully betray their holy office. Who are they? Are they not guilty of the same thing?

Silent dogs they are, who can not punish, are lazy, like to lie and sleep.... . They, the shepherds, know not understanding: every man looketh to his own way, every man is covetous of himself in his own state. Isa. 56, 10-11 Woe unto you, that make pillows for men's arms, and pads for their heads, both young and old, to see the souls. When ye have taken the souls of my people, ye shall promise them life; and ye shall deliver them.

204

sanctify me among my people for a handful of barley and a morsel of bread ... And ye do sanctify them that should not live by your lies among my people, which love to hear lies. (Ezek. 13.) If I say unto the wicked, Thou wicked man shalt surely die; and thou sayest not unto him, that the wicked man may be warned of his nature: the wicked man shall surely die for his wicked way, but his blood will I require at thine hand. (Ezek. 33.)

464 You also mentioned above the Freemasons in the Saxon regional church. What would be here

about the Freemasons?

Freemasons are usually called the members of the secret, unchristian societies (lodges) branched out over the whole world, which partly bear a certain religious character, partly have only bodily support in mind, and, according to time, kind, custom and occasion, appear with an outward appearance or in a fool's jacket.

465 Why do you call the Masonic lodges unchristian societies?

First of all, because in them pagans, Jews, Turks and apostate Christians have fraternized to form a false idolatrous world and fetish religion, in which the one true Christian religion, the triune God, denies the person and work of our Saviour Jesus Christ,

Freemasons in the national church.

205

the Bible is misused, the name of God is blasphemed, the sacred is made mean, but man is led to self-deification, vain trust in man, and mammon service.

466. why further?

Because they are contrary to the word of God (Joh. 3, 20. 21. Ephes. 5,11.12), either they keep their purposes or their means secret.

467. Why third?

Because they require and take an oath from newcomers before they have acquainted them with the duties to be assumed, which is strictly against God's word and all morality. 468 Therefore, can a Lutheran Christian, without severe

Violation of fine conscience to belong to a Masonic lodge?

He can no more do this than he can in good conscience walk in the council of the wicked, and sit where the scoffers sit. (Ps. 1.) 469 Can the true, orthodox church, therefore, leave its members in secret societies with impunity, and without finally interfering with church discipline?

This can't possibly happen.

470 But what is the situation in this respect in the Saxon regional church?

Not only have various Masonic lodges existed in Saxony for years, whose members are and remain at the same time well-liked members of the national church, but even preachers of these lodges are subject to the same rules.

206

Marriages contrary to scripture.

support and glorify the secret societies by participating in their festivities, as, for example, Pastor Claus of Neustadt-Dresden helped to "consecrate" the Lodge "zu den branen Säulen" there. Indeed, as the general rumor goes, not a few preachers and teachers in Saxony are themselves lodge brethren, without even one moving to call them to account for this disgraceful denial, or even to demand that they be disciplined and deposed.

471) From what is the lack of discipline in the Saxon church further to be proved?

From certain ecclesiastical marriage laws, which also permit and order marriages expressly forbidden by God (Deut. 18, 6) (such as that with the deceased brother's wife or with the deceased wife's sister and others of the same degree) to be contracted and blessed after a previously obtained dispensation; yes, even the marriage of adulterers and adulteresses even during the lifetime of the innocent yet unmarried part, - which is especially a great abomination, Matth. 5, 31. 32: Cap. 19, 3-9. (See Codex of the Church and School Law in force in the County of Saxony, p. 196; Rescript of August 13, 1804. p. 202; Regulativ of Jan. 15, 1808. § 18. Further: Schreyer's Supplement to the Codex 1852. p.216.. 217. a-ä. Weber. Sachs. Kirchenrecht 1829. III. p. 1137. 1296.) 472. Kaun denn ein Prediger solche von Gott verbotene

Bless marriages with a clear conscience?

Marriages contrary to scripture.

207

He cannot bless what God condemns as sin, and if he does so, he blasphemes God, takes his name in vain, makes himself a party to other people's sins, and gives many times more grievous offence.

But should not a preacher of the country church be able to satisfy his conscience with the high dispensation or permission of the authorities to perform such marriages?

Certainly not. The worldly authorities, who are called to govern the state and not the church, the body and not the soul, can and may, for the sake of their hardness of heart and to prevent greater disgrace and sin, permit the rough, savage people to do such things as are civil and unpunished, which are ungodly according to Scripture, e.g. usury, divorce, and the marriage of adulterers. For example, usury, divorce, and the marriage of adulterers, but it never follows that Christians are permitted to do or bless these things. Men cannot dispense their consciences from anything that God does not dispense.

474. there are now in the Saxon regional church such

Preachers who perform marriages contrary to Scripture, forbidden by God?

Yes, unfortunately, because they obey men more than the living God.

475 Is it not permitted to conscientious Saxon preachers to refuse such marriages contrary to Scripture?

There's nothing written about that. Probably

208 Bon Filling of completed church offices.

...in which case they'd be put out of office immediately.

476. what other piece of state church practice in Saxony does not agree with Scripture and Lutheran

Confession?

The manner of filling vacant pastorates and school offices.

477. What does that mean?

In the first place, the right of suffrage is withdrawn from the individual ecclesiastical congregations, or else it is curtailed to the utmost. 478. 478 According to the Word of God and Lutheran doctrine, who is entitled to an unrestricted right of ecclesiastical suffrage?

Every local Christian church.

479. how do you prove this?

1) That the Lord Christ has given to the whole church, i.e. to all Christians and therefore to every congregation of believing Christians, the office of the keys and with it all spiritual and ecclesiastical powers and rights, and consequently also the power to choose church servants. See Matth. 16, 15-19. Cap. 18, 17-20. Joh. 20, 22. 23.

2) that all Christians, as is clearly and expressly taught in 5 places in the New Testament alone (1 Pet. 2, 5. 9 and 10. Ostb. 1, 6. 5, 10. 20, 6.) are spiritual priests, who as such should teach God's word, sacrifice and pray, and according to Christ's order and command have the irrefutable right and duty to carry out these priestly works for the public benefit.

Of filling completed church offices.

209

The church is to be entrusted to one or several competent persons and thus to elect them as preachers and pastors themselves.

3) That preachers are a gift given to the church by Christ Himself (Eph. 4, 8. 11. 12. 1 Cor. 3, 21. 22), from which it necessarily follows that every Christian congregation has the right to choose, call and hire its own preachers.

4) That preachers are not masters, but servants and stewards of the church (1 Cor. 3:4, 5, 21, 22. 2 Cor. 4:5), whom the church, and each individual congregation, has the unquestionable right to elect and appoint to their service. (See the article on "the congregational suffrage" in the "Lutheran," journals of the Lutheran Synod v. Missouri, Ohio rc. Vol. XVII.)

480 In what words then are all these things testified in our public confessions?

In the first appendix of the Schmalkaldic Articles it says: "About this it must be confessed that the keys do not belong to one man alone, but are given to the whole church, as this can be sufficiently proven with light and certain causes. For just as the promise of the gospel certainly and without means belongs to the whole church, so the keys without means (i.e., originally and directly) belong to the whole church, because the keys do not belong to one man alone, but to the whole church.

210

Of filling completed church offices.

The keys are nothing else than the ministry, by which such a promise is communicated to everyone who learns it, as it is in the work for eyes that the church has power to ordain church ministers. And Christ saith in these words, What ye shall bind, etc., and signifieth to whom he hath given the keys, even to the churches: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, etc."

Furthermore, Appendix 2: "For where the church is, there is always the command to preach the gospel. Therefore the churches must retain the power to demand, elect, and ordain church ministers. And such authority is a gift actually given to the churches by God, and cannot be taken away by any human authority of the churches, as St. Paul testifies, Ephes. 4, where he says: He ascended on high and gave gifts to men. And among such gifts, which are proper to the churches, he numbereth pastors and teachers, and hangeth upon them that they should be given, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Therefore it follows, where there is a true church, that there is also the power to elect and ordain ministers. ... Here belong the sayings of Christ, which testify that the keys of the whole churches are given, not to some, but to persons, as the text says: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Bon Filling of Completed Church Offices.

211

Lastly, this is also confirmed by the saying of Peter, when he says, Ye are the royal priesthood. These words actually concern the true church, which, because it alone has the priesthood, must also have the power to elect and ordain ministers. The common custom of the churches also testifies to this: for in former times the people elected parish priests and bishops, and in addition the bishop came and sat in the same place, or near it, and confirmed the bishop elected by laying on his hands."

Apology, Art. 13: "The church hath God's be miss, that she should appoint preachers and deaconus."

Schmalk. Article, Appendix 1: "1 Cor. 3 Paul makes all church servants equal and teaches that the church is more than the servants" ...

"How can the pope be over the churches according to divine rights, since the choice is with the church?"

481 Why is it so necessary that the right of every Christian congregation to choose its own preachers and teachers should be left unabridged to be exercised?

Primarily because all Christians have the right and duty to judge about doctrine, to distinguish the right from the false teachers, and to accept the "first," but to flee and avoid the others. (See Matth. 7, 15. Joh. 10, 4. 5. 27. 1 Thessal. 5, 19-21. 1 Joh. 4, 1.) (Lutherans XVII. p. 195.^ But all this they cannot do quite faithfully, if 14'

212

The Saxon municipalities

the right of suffrage is taken away from them, or at least shortened. And so the churches fall into the imminent danger of being devastated by false spirits or tyrants.

482. What, therefore, do the Schmalkaldic Articles also testify?

.. As soon as the right judgment and knowledge (judgment) is taken from the church, it is not possible that one could control false doctrine or unrighteous worship, and for this reason many souls must be lost, i First Appendix).

483 Is it also to be shown by examples of the Holy Scriptures that the election of church servants is a matter for the individual congregations?

Yes, because from Acts. 1, 15 ff. it can be seen that not only the apostles but the whole group of disciples (the names of 120) participated in the election of Matthias to the apostleship. Likewise from Cap. 15, that not only the present apostles and elders, but the whole congregation of Jerusalem took part in the election of the deputies to Antioch.

484) How many parishes of the Saxon state church now enjoy the unrestricted right, according to the teaching of the Bible and our confessions and according to apostolic practice, to choose their preachers and teachers themselves?

deprived of the unrestricted right to vote.213

Not a single one, because "at the moment the co! lature (transfer or occupation) right stands at

388 geiftl. places to the ministry of the Cultus,

518--Lord of the manor ,

179--Town Councils,

53--Officers,

5--alternating, andwhich is

with 1 post to the Ministry 8a. 1143 posts and a city council, with

4 posts to the Ministry and owners of manors."

(vr. L. R. Feller, Kirchenvorstands- und Synodal- ordnung für die evang.-luth. Kirche des Königreichs Sachsens 1868.)

In more recent times, however, "greater participation of the congregations in the election of their clergy has been deemed necessary" and has even been decreed by law.

What is this greater involvement?

The collator is to nominate three candidates "taking into account the needs of the congregation concerned", according to the number of candidates, or without regard to them. The church council is then to elect one of the named within 6 weeks "in case of loss of his election right" (?). If, however, no suitable "applicant" is found, or if the collator and the board cannot agree on the person to be elected, the position shall be filled by the Landesconsistorium or by the church council, without further involvement of the collator or the church council.

214

commissioned ministers of state filled. (See Church Law, an amendment to the provisions of § 25 of the Church Board and Synodal Regulations concerning the filling of clerical positions, April 15, 1873. 1-7.)

486 In whose hands, even with this "greater" participation of the community, is the entire electoral right of the same?

It lies, contrary to the confession of our church, in the hands of "some but persons. 487 But should not these newer regulations of the church government concerning the so-called greater participation of the congregations perhaps be based on the now better recognized biblical right of congregational suffrage?

Not even that. Not because the Bible demands it, but because the spirit of the age and politics demand it, do they give the congregations a little suffrage, for "these provisions proceed from the principle of respecting the existing legal relations," but of increasing the moral weight of the congregation even where the calling itself does not belong to it." (Feller in the explanations of the K. V. u. S. order. p. 96.) Further, in the "general points of view" p. 14, he says: "The demand of late, which has frequently arisen, for a complete abolition of the patronage rights, or yet their limitation by returning the parish election to the congregations, seems to be prompted more by political party considerations than by truly ecclesiastical motives. For from the theoretical

deprived of the unrestricted right to vote.

215

From the point of view of the church, the right to elect a psar is at least not an absolutely necessary component of the independence of the congregation; it comes into question only in the second place, and after that it will be sufficient if only a certain participation of the congregation can be conveyed. Practically speaking, however, the transfer of this right from the congregations must be considered questionable because of the feared abuses that repeatedly occurred during attempts in the years 1847-49 and because of other impediments threatening the reputation of the clergy and their justified claims."

488 Might it not be objected that from time immemorial, even in the best of times, the right of election and appointment has been exercised by the sovereign consistories and ecclesiastical patrons, and that for this very reason this practice is entirely justified?

No. First of all, because the congregations unfortunately did not want to support their preachers from their own resources and yet could not remain without preachers, the pious sovereigns and church patrons exercised the right of election for the congregations as a matter of necessity and paid the church servants. But it does not follow from this that it is their duty to do both and that they now have a right to withhold the election and appointment of preachers from the congregations, as has happened to the great ruin of the church.

216TheSaxon municipalities

489. what does this damage consist of?

Although the congregations, as long as confessing, godly and zealous princes and dukes took care of them, were generally provided with devout, pious church servants, under this tutelage they lost more and more the knowledge, the awareness and finally the pure doctrine of their spiritual rights and duties, as well as the right love for the church and faithful vigilance over doctrine and life. Later, however, and until recent times, they had to put up with innumerable cases in which they were shepherded by cruel wolves, false prophets, disgraceful tyrants and stomach monkeys, who often devastated the poor herd for life, without it having had the power to get rid of them.

490. But would it be well to give the unabridged right of suffrage into the hands of the present-day congregations of the national church?

How could it be evil, since God promises it to his church? Since, of course, the present congregations of the national church are for the most part unrighteous, due to shameful neglect, in which unbelievers and godless people, or false spirits, evidently rule and lead the great word, nothing would be improved by burdening the right to vote, unless at the same time pure doctrine and church discipline in accordance with the Scriptures were seriously observed.

deprived of the unrestricted right to vote.

217

494 Is there any hope for the restoration of the same in the national church'?

This hope has, of course, disappeared completely.

492 What, therefore, is left for Lutheran Christians in Saxony and elsewhere, if they wish to enjoy the rightful use of their suffrage and the blessings that flow from it?

Nothing short of separating from the state church and gathering into free, orthodox, Lutheran congregations.

493 Above you mentioned the "applicants" for ecclesiastical offices. Just tell me, who is to be understood by this?

This leads us to consider a new piece of ungodly practice in the Saxon regional church. In Saxony, not only candidates for the office of preacher, but also church servants who have long been in office and profession, appear as "candidates for spiritual offices".

494 Should it be censured "if any man desire the episcopate, which is a goodly work" (I Tim. 3:1)?

Certainly not if he desires it according to God's will and in His order. But this saying of St. Paul applies only to those who do not yet have a bishop's or preacher's office.

495. But what is said to them whom the LORD hath already called into the vineyard of God, and set in office?

"Feed the flock of Christ, as ye are commanded, and see well, not compelled, but

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willingly; not for shameful gain, but of the heart." 1 Petr. 5, 2.

496. what may well induce many preachers already in the church service to be anxious about the

Waare to apply for the parsonages offered?

All kinds of things, e.g., weariness with what has gone before, shyness about work, battle, and the cross, or good prospects for an increase in income, for more pleasures of life and social pleasures, for more honor, influence, and career, or family considerations, or the fear of being forgotten and set back by God and man, or other thoughts of one's own wisdom.

497 To what evil suspicion, therefore, do they expose themselves with their "solicitations"?

The evil suspicion that they do not believe in the divinity of their former profession.

498. Is then the call to the preaching office really a divine call?

Certainly. As the office itself, so also the calling to perform it is not of men, but of God. It is true that it no longer comes directly from God, as it did in the past, but through the ministry of the church; but that even such an indirect calling is a truly divine calling is clearly and definitely taught in Scripture, Acts 20:28, where the apostle Paul describes the calling of the church at Ephesus as "the ministry of God. 20, 28, where the apostle Paul calls out to the preachers chosen by the congregation of Ephesus at their farewell: "Take heed therefore.

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upon yourselves, and upon all the host, among whom the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops, to feed the congregation of God, which he hath purchased by his own blood." But as it is God the Lord who, by the ordinary calling of the church or congregation, sets his preachers where, when, and how he wills, so it is God alone who wills and is able to relieve them of their office at his time and hour.

499. How can this happen, for example?

In various ways, partly by a different, unsought profession, partly in consequence of their infirmities and incapacity, partly by death.

500 What, therefore, will a godly preacher, who has rightly discerned his divine calling, shrink from as a grievous sin?

He will shy away from somehow dissolving this Bern of his, according to his own desires, will, and nobility, and by his own doing will bring about another one.

501. what would he not be able to comfort himself with in that case?

Of the most needful grace and blessing of God.

502 What further evil appearances do all such "advertising and trial preachers" give?

They give the evil appearance that they, as hirelings, belly servants and enemies of the cross of Christ, do not love their congregations, and that they regard and practice the precious holy ministry of preaching as a trade.

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and seek therein not the things that are of God, nor the things that are good for the church, but only their own.

503 Can there be talk of faithful official administration of such tenants?

No, but even as the prophet says: "They feed themselves, they eat the fat, they clothe themselves with the wool, they slaughter the fattened, but they will not feed the sheep. They do not care for the weak, they do not bandage the wounded, they do not fetch the lost, and they do not seek the lost, but they rule harshly and severely over the sheep, which are scattered and have no shepherd, and become food for all wild animals, and go astray, and there is no one to ask about them or pay attention to them." (Ezek. 34:2-6.)

504 What do such clergymen not infrequently do when they have reached the age required for retirement?

They are in the habit of letting themselves be emeritus, i.e. they give up their service to God and the Church and retire - with their sprightly age and unbroken strength.

505 Is it to be wondered at, when such hirelings and belly-servants - indeed, for their sake the whole preaching profession comes more and more into contempt among your people?

No, because it is the natural consequence of this "application" and emeriti r practice of the national church.

506 What must one therefore think of the same?

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That it may bring shame and dishonor and ruin to the church.

After all, what does the old blessed Dr. Conrad Porta, in his "Pastorale Lutheri", mean by such advertising and trial preachers?

"But those who ... are easy to get greater honor and more pay, and who beat their commanded flocks and parishioners into the grass without timidity and cheap thought, and often go away unawares and unexpectedly, they must be highly aproned, where they want to escape from the company, which St. Paul Philippians 3:19 describes with just harsh words, namely, that the belly is their god, that their honor is put to shame, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, and not much will be lacking that they will become brethren. Paul Philippians 3:19, that the belly is their god, that their honour is put to shame, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ; and they will not lack much to be brethren of them that make of godliness and holy preaching a trade and a craft; a little trade saith Ln therus in the margin, that they may seek honour and goods, and not serve God alone. So they will also run almost like the hirelings, which Joh. 10 described, and with the same also receive without doubt the wages of unfaithful servants in his time. (Noerdlingen 1842. p. 36.)

508. what new great damage is. recently still to the Saxon regional church from its connection with your

State grown up?

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The community school Staatsanstalt.

The separation of the elementary school from the church and its transformation into a state institution.

50S. How is this to be understood?

This can best be seen by comparing the former and the new public school laws of April 26, 1873.

510) What was determined, among other things, in the former, namely the laws and ordinances of June 6 and 9, 1835?

The pastor as such was the inspector of the church and secondary school located in his parish, - the superintendent as church servant was the district school inspector. The church regiment was supervised by the provincial church authorities, which were connected with the district directorates, and which were especially responsible for the examination and oath-taking of the candidates for the school office. (See Codex of the K. u. S. Law in the Kgr. S. p. 411. 438. 39 ff. )

511) What provisions, among others, does the aforementioned new law make against this?

The administration of the local school is in the hands of a school board elected by the representatives of the political community, which the preacher belongs to, but only presides over if he is elected to do so. The preacher also supervises the local school, if this is not done by the local school director - however not as a servant of the church, but on behalf of the church.

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of the state. As the former, he has only to supervise the religious instruction in the school, the district school inspection is in the hands of proven specialists, to whom the obligation and instruction of the teachers is also due to the state. (See the "Königl. Sächs. Volksschulgesetz" manual edition).

512) Now what do you see by comparing these two laws, the old and the new?

This is that, according to the new law, the participation of the church in the instruction and education of school youth is limited to the smallest degree, in that the administration and supervision of the schools, as well as the examination, employment and obligation of the teachers, have been taken away from the church and its servants as such, and the state has been appointed master over all this.

513. How did this new law come about?

By resolution of both Houses of Parliament. 514. What is the State guilty of by this?

Of an interference with the cause and good right of the church.

515 How do you prove that the teaching of the people or of the elementary school is the business of the Church?

Because God commanded not the state, but the church, that is, the Christians, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for such is the kingdom of God." Marc. 10. Likewise, "Raise them up in discipline and admonition to the

224The GemeülLeschulc State Institution.

LORD." Ephes. 3. likewise, "But if any man care not for his own, and especially for his own household, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than a heathen." 1 Tim. 5:8.

5t6. What, therefore, is the sacred duty of the Church?

It must see to it that its children are faithfully instructed in God's pure Word for salvation in Christian parochial schools, especially by godly and skillful teachers, and that they are educated in all things according to the Holy Scriptures to become righteous Christians. Secondly, that the children also receive the necessary education for civil life.

517 What indisputable right, therefore, has the Church iu intention to the teachers of her youth?

To have the same trained, examined, appointed, supervised, installed and removed.

518. who, in the name and on behalf of each parish, shall be responsible for the supervision of the children's schools and their

Teacher too?

To the preacher and pastor, as the LORD saith, "Feed my lambs. ... Feed my sheep." Joh. 21. Likewise, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and unto all the host, among whom the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops (overseers), to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased by his own blood." Acts. 20.

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519. shall the right of the state or the authorities to take care of instruction and education be hereby denied?

of the youth to grieve in any way?

Not at all. For since the state has the profession of providing for the temporal welfare of its citizens, it can and should also see from this that the schools do not hinder but promote this purpose.

520) But into what has the Saxon state now perverted the right of supervision over the municipal school?

The law of property, of institutions, and of administration, to the great detriment of the school and the church, and even of the state itself.

521. how so this latter?

It is easy to understand that if the Christian church no longer has a free hand, power, and right to cultivate its school with right doctrine and discipline and to protect it against the wolves, it will soon enough go wild and become more and more a planting garden of barbarous paganism. But to the extent that the church loses its rightful members, the state also loses faithful, good citizens.

522. What will have driven the state to the new elementary school law?

The unbelieving spirit of the age in its enmity against the Bible, Christianity, and the Church. 523 But how did the Saxon church receive this deprivation of its good right, duty and freedom?

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The community school Staatsanstalt.

At the Landessynode in Dresden in 1871, before the new law was published, some members of the synod protested seriously against it and demonstrated the imminent dangers of it.

524 But how did the same members of the synod speak about this law at their meeting last year, after it had been introduced in the meantime in 1673?

This time they were quite satisfied with this and were simply content with the decision that the church government should everywhere safeguard the right and duty of the church in supervising religious education and help to prevent disputes over competence between state and church supervisory officials as far as possible. (Pastor Meurer's motion.)

525. How, for example, did Pastor Leonhard! et al. express himself?

.... "I consider it the duty of the Reverend Synod to recognize this ground of the law, which is now given for now, as such also unapologetically and unreservedly. The School Act is now a tait aeeomxli (a settled matter) and as such we must regard it. That is why my proposal is based on consensus and not on the dissent of the state and ecclesiastical supervisors of the elementary school.

526. How did Superintendent Dr. Meier begin his speech?

"Gentlemen! This is the second time we have dealt with the question before us.

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in the peculiar position of having to reckon with unknown quantities. When we first discussed this highly important matter, the unknown quantity was the school law that had not yet been published; today it is the implementing ordinance and instruction that have not yet been published that will have to be given to the person concerned. Nevertheless, the situation has been substantially clarified by the school law that has been published in the meantime" (the Liberals in the Landtag were, of course, aiming for a more radical one) "and it is also perfectly clear to me that we have to accept the once completed fact as it is and that we enter into the new order of things, even if not with a rejoicing, but not with a bitter heart. It would be foolish and wrong to find fault with this order; it would be unfruitful in the highest degree. We clergy, especially we ephors, certainly have a lot of resignation to practice, but we have first of all the satisfaction that under the previous ecclesiastical inspection the school has not gone backward, but forward," and so on.

527. What did Superintendent Schaarschmidt say, among others?

"It was also necessary to point out that it must be nn ser most intimate and heartfelt desire to stand and abide in this new order of things in the most intimate agreement mild Lord."

!5*

228Thecommunity school Staatsanftalt.

528 How could the unbelieving Professor Dr. Eckstein of Leipzig now let off steam in the face of these statements by the faithful representatives of the Church and its rights?

"Gentlemen! I feel quite different today than when we first discussed the school question here. A spirit of peace runs through this assembly. It now rightly places itself on the ground of the law which has made our elementary school question no longer a church question, but a state matter in the fullest meaning of the word. But if the Synod expresses itself approvingly, I regret very much that it is no longer the old Synod at all, and that precisely what it demanded the last time, I am sorry to say for myself, it is tacitly issuing this very day. You decided last time, gentlemen, that the Regional Consistory should be granted the supervision or oversight not only of religious instruction, but also of moral-religious education in all educational institutions of the country. Today, apart from a reorganization of the school system in general, they are content with the law on elementary schools, today they are content with the fact that religious education is the only subject of discussion. Perhaps they rejoice in this in their hearts; I rejoice aloud that the influence on moral-religious education in the broadest sense, in which the same

The community school state institution.229

was required at the time, is not again brought out. .... Yes, gentlemen, let us really approach the matter in this spirit of peace." ....

529 How did the "faithful" receive this mockery of the unbelieving but sharp-eyed doctor?

The chamberlain of Erdmannsdorf thought to ward off deu blow with these words:

"But since I am also one of those who fought at the last Synod for the supervision of the Church over moral-religious education, I consider myself obliged to reply to Prof. Dr. Eckstein quite simply for myself alone, .... that, as I fought at the last Synod for the supervision of the Church over moral-religious education to be preserved, so we act as loyal, dutiful citizens of the State towards the law which has now become perfect, and I believe this fact deserves a different treatment from that which it has received from Prof. Dr. Eckstein."

530. in what, then, after these and the bor- ganies of 1871, do the country-church believing synodals seem to regard their first and highest duty?

In this, that they under all circumstances only do not come into conflict with the spirit of the times and the state, one good and right of the church after another may thereby also perish.

531 With what was the speech of the unbelieving Dr. Eckstein repeatedly interrupted?

230Other wrong practice.

With "hilarity" - "bravo" - "very true" - "very good".

532. and the answer of the Lord of Erdmannsdorf?

Likewise with "applause!" and "very good!"

533 But what will a confessing Lutheran have to say to this?

"Thou smitest them, O LORD, but they feel it not." Jerem. 5, 3.

534 Could not now, apart from these mentioned, other pieces of a practice contrary to Scripture within the Saxon regional church be named?

Yes, e.g. irresponsible neglect of Sunday catechism examinations and confirmation classes, disregard of public preaching by tolerating so-called spiritual speeches by unqualified persons at funerals, etc.; Unionist associations and tracts; imitation of the English-American Sunday-school system, etc.

535 But what can be sufficiently seen from the above?

That the ecclesiastical practice in Saxony, as the fruit and consequence of the false, godless doctrine which prevails there, is also thoroughly in a sorry state.

Let us now return to the beginning of our little book. What proof should be given in it?

The proof that the Saxon Regional Church is no longer truly Evangelical Lutheran, but a

The withdrawal from the apostate national church is necessary. The church community has fallen away from the truth of the gospel and is therefore a false believer.

537. what was that supposed to be proven with?

1. with the abolition of the old good oath of religion and the introduction of a new formula of vows in Saxony.

2. with the false, godless doctrine prevailing in Saxony.

3. with the false, godless practice prevailing in Saxony.

538. has this evidence been provided?

Yes, and in such a way that every sincere and truth-loving Lutheran Christian can well be convinced.

539 But what follows from this for every Lutheran Christian who has hitherto belonged to the national church and who shares this conviction?

This, that he should leave this apostate church without delay, that he should not be made a partaker of her denial, and that all her plagues should not come upon him.

But it is a big and very responsible step. Is it not possible to raise all kinds of concerns and objections to the withdrawal?

That could be possible. In any case, it would then be good to hear and briefly answer these objections and concerns.

IV.

Lon some objections" and misgivings about separation from the national church, and their refutation.

1st Objection.

It seems to me to be questionable to call the national church a false church and to leave it. For though there are false prophets in it, yet many precious truths of God are taught by others. For the sake of these, should not one and the other

can bear the error?

Response.

Listen to what Dr. Luther writes: "The children's faith says that it is a holy Christian church and St. Paul 1 Cor. 3, 17: 'The temple of God is holy, which is you-, but whoever corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt him/ Therefore the holy church cannot and may not suffer a lie nor false teaching, but must teach holy, true, i.e. only God's word; and where it teaches a lie, it is already idolatrous. ... For the church ought not and cannot lie nor teach error, not even in a little; if it teaches a lie, it is altogether false, as Christ saith, Luc. 11:35, "Take heed lest the light that is in thee be darkness; if therefore thy body be altogether light," that it have no part of darkness, "it shall be altogether light," i.e., it must be altogether light and not dark.

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

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There must be light and no darkness. The church must teach only God's word or truth, and no error or lies. And how could it be otherwise, since God's mouth is the mouth of the churches? And again, God cannot lie, so neither can the church." ... (Against Hans Wurst, 1541.)

Second Objection.

However, the state of the national church is not good. But I was born, baptized and confirmed in its midst, so I intend to remain there. It is shameful to leave one's church.

Response.

It is, of course, shameful and disgraceful to leave the true church and thus Christ and His Word Himself, but to leave a false, apostate church is God's holy commandment (2 Cor. 6:17), a true Christian honor, and no more shameful than the conversion of a man from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Or was it shameful for Paul when he left Judaism, or for Luther when he broke with the papacy?

But a preacher is said to have said that he would break his oath of confirmation if he separated from the national church and joined the separated Lutherans.

Response.

Not so, the thing is rather the other way around. Because in your confirmation, you didn't go

234

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

The Lutheran Church of Saxony swore to the Lutheran Church of Saxony, but vowed to remain faithful and steadfast to the Lutheran Church and its pure catechism until death. From this, however, the Saxon regional church has now evidently fallen away. Therefore, you remain true to your vow of confirmation precisely when you separate yourself from the Saxon regional church and adhere to confessedly faithful Lutherans.

It seems to me that by leaving, the whole national church is declared to be an unchurch and all the members of it are condemned. I think that is wrong. For there are yet many Christians in it. And the Savior speaks.

Judge and condemn not!

Response.

You're wrong. Even the national church is still a church; only not a true-believing, Lutheran church. By leaving the church, the dear Christians who are in it, not the individual persons and congregations, are judged and condemned (if they have not already judged themselves by their obvious apostasy, as Mr. Sulze and others have done), but only the unfaithfulness, the false teaching and practice in the Saxon church, and every Christian is called upon to judge this. 1 Joh. 4,1. 1 Cor. 10, 15. 16.

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5" Objection.

But there are still good Lutherans in the national church. Would it not be unkind to part with them?

Response.

That there are still many dear Lutheran Christians in the Saxon regional church is undoubtedly certain, and with them the faithful, separated Lutherans remain inwardly and actually united, one body and one spirit. That these, however, leave the outer false, national church association in which those are still stuck, is not uncharitable but rather acted quite lovingly towards them, because thereby they are encouraged all the more to take the same step of faithfulness.

I often think that it would be much more faithful and Christian to persevere in the national church and to fight the evil enemy than to become a deserter, to separate and leave the field to him.

Response.

This sounds quite nice and yet they are human thoughts. As long as a church fights the evil enemy, no Christian will part from it. But if, like the Saxon church, it has long since given up the good fight, has cleared the field for the enemy, has surrendered to him the banner of the pure confession and all the sanctities, then it says: "Flee from Babel, that every man may save his soul.

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and you will not perish in their iniquity." Jerem. 51, 6.

7th Objection.

I cannot consider the situation in the Saxon regional church to be quite so bad. There are so many things happening for the better.

Response.

A great deal is happening, but as long as doctrinal discipline, purity and unity of doctrine are not taken seriously, but only "fencing with mirrors," nothing is being done for the better. "I hold," says Luther, "that such patchwork is, as Sirach says in the 22nd part, like patching up broken pieces. And indeed there have already been many cobblers who have subjected themselves, but have also worked in vain, and have lost both wire and stitch." With fine speeches and scholarly writings, with lame protests, conservative associations and Meissen tolerant conferences, with constitutional paragraphs and liturgical experiments, with interesting spicy lectures, Sunday schools, deaconess institutions and other works and little works of inner mission alone, the unclean spirit is by no means driven out. Yes, while one is enjoying such things, the evil enemy is all the more surely dragging away one piece of booty after another.

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

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Eighth Objection.

But there are still in the regional church such men as Dr. Luthardt, vr. Ahlfeld, Dr. Kohlschütter, Dr. Rüling, Pastor Meurer, - Pastor Siedet, Senior Pastor Lehmann and others; - famous theologians and faithful, excellent preachers. - As long as these hold out in the national church, things must not be so bad for it.

Response.

Conversely. The very fact that even such men can remain calm in the Saxon state church and hold church fellowship with a Sulze, Binkau and the whole bunch of unbelieving Protestant unions shows how wrong they themselves are and how great the ruin has become. Incidentally, these men themselves, as proved above, lie in grave errors of doctrine, and a Sulze, for example, can sneer at a Kahnis and Luthardt and exclaim about the latter's doctrine: "Well then, if one has already come so far, what is there to prevent one from going completely over to us?" (Leuchte 1874. No. 22. p. 370.) Sulze aptly compares Luthardt's teaching to a venerable cathedral, in which, however, one finds nothing but modern salons.

9th Objection.

Well, my preacher is at least a faithful, believing man who preaches only God's pure Word. If I stand by him, I know I will stand right and not be harmed.

238Refutedobjections and concerns

Response.

That's right. I will gladly believe you. But if your preacher is such a man, then he will confidently and loudly raise his voice against all false doctrine and practice in the Saxon regional church, - with the false prophet Sulze and others, publicly revoke the church and communion, demand their immediate dismissal and, in addition, the revocation of the new denial formula and the new school law, as well as the introduction of serious doctrinal and church discipline, and if that remains unsuccessful, resign without delay. But if he does not do this, believe me, you cannot stay with him either, for listen to what Dr. Luther says: "He who holds his doctrine, faith and confession to be true, right and certain, cannot stand in the same stall with others who lead false doctrine or are devoted to it, nor can he ever give good words to the devil and his scales. A teacher who is silent about error and yet wants to be a true teacher is worse than a public fanatic, and with his hypocrisy does greater harm than a heretic and is not to be trusted; he is a wolf and a fox, a hireling and a belly servant, and may despise and hand over doctrine, word, faith, and sacrament, churches and schools; he either lies secretly with his enemies under the influence of the devil and his dandruff.

Rebutted objections and concerns. 239

A blanket, or is a doubter and a wind-farer, and wants to see where it will end, whether Christ or the devil will prevail, or is altogether uncertain in himself, and not worthy to be called a disciple, let alone a teacher, and wants to anger no one, nor to speak his word to Christ, nor to hurt the devil and the world." (XVIII. 1477. cit. in Pros. C.F.W. Walther: Church and Ministry p. 129. 1. excerpt).

10th Objection.

I cannot at all see how far a believing Lutheran of the Saxon Regional Church holds fellowship with Sulze and other unbelievers, if only he does not belong to their congregations.

Response.

This is nevertheless easy to understand and follows from the participation in the sacrament in the national church. For Holy Communion, according to God's Word, 1 Cor. 10:17, is a sacred bond of fellowship and unity in the church. Now whoever partakes of Holy Communion in the Saxon national church, in whose fellowship even a Sulze may stand, confesses by this very act also to the fellowship of Sulze - yes, to all the false prophets, false doctrines, and sins of this national church, and makes himself partaker of them.

Eleventh Objection.

Sometimes it seems to me that doctrinal differences are not so important, but that the main thing is the pious life. I have also heard this from others.

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Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

Response.

Then you have heard the voice of the unrighteous, even of the devil, but not the voice of God. There is much to be gained from a godly life, but there is much more to be gained from the pure, unadulterated teaching of the word of God. For through this alone, as Scripture testifies, Rom. 10, 17. Gal. 3, 2, God works first of all faith, which makes us Christians and blessed people, and then also, as the necessary fruit of faith, the new, godly life with its works. Without pure doctrine, therefore, there is neither faith, nor life, nor eternal blessedness. False doctrine, however, comes from the devil and brings about false faith, evil living, and eternal damnation. Therefore, as dear as our salvation is to us, we must above all keep to pure doctrine and ward off false doctrine, and as Luther says: "Life is man's, but doctrine is God's." (John 1:9). The life, alas, is all too wrong; but the doctrine must be absolutely right and certainly without all sin. Therefore nothing must be preached in the church, but only the certain, pure, and unique word of God. Where this is lacking, it is no longer the church, but the devil's school."

The many doctrinal disputes are abhorrent to me. I do not care about them and prefer to keep it with peace, with faith and love.

Rebutted objections and concerns. 24)

Response.

This is a whimsical speech. The controversy about doctrine is a controversy about faith. If thou art in earnest about thy faith, thou shalt also, as the apostle teaches, "fight earnestly for it," lest the devil snatch it away from thee through the lusts of the world, and through the lying arts of wicked prophets. But if thou wilt have foul good days, and be not a right warrior of Christ, hope not for victory and crown. Consider, therefore, the words of Luther, who was a good fighter: "How should things be where the devil rules, and where, in addition, the Evangelius is todtfeiud? - Therefore hope for no peace and tranquility as long as Christ with his gospel is in the devil's kingdom. And woe to the prosperity and good chamber which they now desire and covet, for this is a sure sign that the devil reigns with all authority, and that there is no Christ." And again, "It is a blessed strife, sedition, and tumult, which the word of God stirreth up."

Eighteenth Objection.

And yet, I often think, it would be more fitting to Christian humility to remain in the national church and send ourselves to the existing order, even if we do not like it.

Response.

Where are you going! Then notice dock), what Dr. Luther in his interpretation of the 2nd Cap. to

242 Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

to the Galatians: "This we could well suffer, if necessity required, that they should rob us of our temporal goods, honour, life, and whatsoever else we have; But that we should allow ourselves to be robbed of the dear, comforting gospel, of faith, and of Christ himself, is too much, and we cannot, nor should, nor will suffer it, and must only be eternally cursed into the abyss of hell, the damned injurious and blasphemous humility, which in this matter will allow itself to be pressed and give way; but every man, if he will not otherwise deny Christ, be in this only proud, courageous, stiffnecked, and defiant."

Fourteenth Objection.

I still think it is premature to leave. The safest thing for me to do is to wait for God to bring about the fall of the country...

church reveals itself even more clearly and gives the sign to leave.

Response.

I don't like your speech. You're waiting for signs and wonders from heaven. You will wait in vain. If you do not see the abomination of desolation in the doctrine and practice of the Saxon state church, and if you are not moved by the clear, explicit word and command of God in holy scripture to save your soul from it, then your eyes slumber and do not consider what serves your peace. Thou art like unto them who, notwithstanding the revelation of the Antichrist through the

Rebutted Objections and Concerns. 243

blessed Reformation of Luther are still waiting for the revelation of him and do not want to see how he has already been sitting in the middle of the temple of God as a god for over 1000 years, calls himself pope and has also given them to drink from the wine of his fornication, i.e. has infected them with his poisonous, antichristian teachings.

Fifteenth Objection.

I must confess to you that I also have misgivings about joining a free church. It seems to me that the church has no right to break the bond that has bound it to the state for centuries and to exist as a free church.

Response.

I maintain the opposite: the church always has the right to be as it was founded. - When Jesus Christ, our One Lord and King, says, "My kingdom is not of this world," he teaches that his church is to be free and independent of all worldly rule, power and authority. - No one can deny, therefore, that Christ's church was born a free church. It should certainly become a people's church, but never a state or national church, like the Saxon church.*)

*) Note. In answering this and the 6 following objections, the excellent theses of the Hon. Mr. k. F. Wynecken, of Cleveland, Ohio, taken as the basis of last year's doctrinal proceedings of the middle DgMct of the Lutheran Synod of Missouri, on the right, privileges, and duty of the Free Church, have been used. F. Wynecken at Cleveland, Ohio, have been used.

244

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

Sixteenth Objection.

The national churches, however, came into being under God's gracious guidance and have been preserved for centuries. Even if these venerable churches have their great defects, they are still the historical given and have a historical, i.e. historical right to exist.

Response.

Speak in regard to the foundation and preservation of the state church as such, not of God's gracious event. "God's providence had no more to do with it than with any other folly of men." Further, note: "In spiritual things there is no historical or historic right." Otherwise the devil and sin and all heathenism, Jewry, and Turkism would have far more right than the national church, because their history is far older. In spiritual matters only "divine law" applies, and that "never lapses," i. e. here: the Free Church always retains a divine right.

Seventeenth Objection.

What am I to think of this? I have always heard that the highly enlightened man of God, 1)r. Luther, himself, was chiefly instrumental in establishing the national church. How was that possible, if, as you say, this institution was a folly?

Response.

Who ascribe to Luther that he himself had established the state church, bound the church to the state, and subordinated it to the secular authorities.

Rebutted objections and concerns. L45

They do not really know Luther's teaching and work, or the history of the Reformation in general. "Luther was far from handing over to the secular authorities what he had won from the pope according to the Word and through the Word of God, contrary to God's Word." He always protested against the authorities, as authorities, interfering in church matters. He did indeed ask the Elector of Saxony, as a matter of necessity, to have a church visitation made, but, he said, the Elector was not obliged to do so according to secular authority, but out of Christian love and for God's sake. Luther granted the believing authorities the right to appoint church servants, but not "because they are authorities," but because they are members of the church. Consistories were indeed established on Luther's advice (1539), but without jurisdiction, i.e. without power to prescribe laws for the church and to administer justice in church matters; thus consistories only as advisory authorities. And when later the authorities wanted to govern the church through the consistories, it was Luther who declared: "We must tear up the consistories, for in short we do not want the lawyers and the pope inside." - "The Lutheran national churches (as such) therefore did not arise from the principle of the Reformation, but from the fact that the principle was not carried out." When, after Luther's death, "church and state were blended together, it was known that

246Refutedobjections and concerns.

one did not what one did; but one joined what God would have separated."

Eighteenth Objection.

But it cannot be denied that the national churches have done much good, that we owe them rich blessings.

Response.

This is certainly true, and God is to be thanked for it from the bottom of our hearts. But this rich blessing does not come from the union of the church with the state, but from the fact that God, in spite of this union, has ruled over it in grace. For "the advantages which are ascribed to the union of the Church and the State are really only of a civil nature, and on the part of the State." Yes - experience has taught that the church is better under the sword of the tyrant than in the arms of so-called state nurses and wet nurses." God, indeed, has given the promise to His Church, "And kings shall be thy nurses, and their princes thy nurses" (Isa. 49:23). But when the authorities, by reversing the divine order, i.e., by mingling the spiritual and the temporal government, wish to take care of the church, an abominable tyranny arises from it; and in such a condition the rulers are not nurses and nursemaids, though they may call themselves so and be called so; but, as experience teaches, tyrants, under whom the church is worse off than under the sword of tyranny.

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

247

ran. For of this situation the ancient Church Father Tertullian could say in truth, "The more we are mown down, the more we become. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." - —

Nineteenth Objection.

Nevertheless, the national church must have great advantages over the Free Church, as Dr. Luthardt wrote in the preface to the 1871 edition of his church magazine: "The Free Church would be a serious danger to our people - we are convinced of this. To ours!

Program includes the preservation of the national church at any possible cost."

Response.

Dr. Luthardt would not write thus if he trusted the crast of the holy gospel more than the cane of secular protection. For a truly Lutheran Christian recognizes "that all the church is and has for time and eternity is the gospel alone." Now in the Free Church alone can the Gospel have complete free course. "In it alone can purity and unity of doctrine, right church discipline, self-government of the local church, and union of the individual churches be brought about and maintained by the right means and in the right way. While the church is always free in itself, it has the full use of its freedom only as a free church. And this is the summa of all the bor features of a free church position."

248

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

20. Objection.

Surely you do not want to ascribe the life and existence of a free church to its constitutional paragraphs and the efficiency of its members'?

Response.

That, he said, was remote. "Only by God's grace alone, and not by human merit or art, does the Free Church come into being or exist. Therefore let no one in it boast against others, but let everyone in great fear bear the high responsibility for the right use of freedom.

Twenty-one. Objection.

I am not convinced that I can disagree more with your statements concerning the national church, and especially the Saxon church. I am convinced with you that the state church, and especially the Saxon church, is a miserable thing. Only, to be honest, I am still afraid of separation and the Free Church, because both have their great dangers no less.

Response.

You're absolutely right. Separation, too, has its dangers. "Even through the free church constitution the church has not escaped the danger of decay. Yes, she has to fear that Satan, for the sake of the greater grace that God has shown her, is pursuing her all the more and striving to fill her." - Whoever therefore excludes himself from separation and the free church also has a share in its dangers and therefore needs to be quite faithful in watching, praying, fighting and holding his ground.

249

in the word, he also has the certain comfort that God will protect him. The prospect of danger, however, will not be able to prevent any Christian from leaving the apostate national church according to God's command.

22. objection.

Admittedly, the separation from the national church is a rather ugly thing. I have heard that it is scorned, ridiculed, laughed at, and persecuted, not only by the brute world, but also by the faithful. One is scolded as a "dissident" and thrown into the same pot with freethinkers, scoffers and social democrats. In addition, one is said to have to experience a great deal of distraction from pastors and the authorities, or even all kinds of business disadvantages, loss of customers, work and income. All this is very painful and makes me worry.

You should be heartily ashamed of yourself because of this precariousness. It is true that the "persecution and discrimination" of the separated Lutherans in Saxony is not as bad as you think, but if it were really so, or if it should happen again in such a way, then they would truly have reason enough to thank God sincerely that he considered them worthy of the undeserved grace to suffer something sensitive for the sake of Jesus. For in this way the Lord gives them such a comforting testimony that they are his true kingdom companions and heirs of his glorious promise: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, because of me.

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Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

they lie in it. Be glad and of good cheer: for ye shall be well rewarded in heaven: for so they persecuted the prophets that were before you. Matth. 5, 11.12. Likewise, "And whosoever shall leave house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, the same shall take it an hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life." Matt. 19:29: But he that in separation hath not his soul only in view, but temporal honour, and goods, and comfortable and good men's days, let him abide in them.

There is another thing that hinders me. As a result of the separation, I would disturb the peace of the family, the good understanding with relatives and friends, and cause serious annoyance.

Response.

Be of good cheer. It is not you, who obey the word of God, who cause trouble, but those who want to prevent you from doing so. This is hard enough to bear, especially by those who are nearest to us, but it cannot be helped in the kingdom of God. Do not be misled, but remember the word of the Lord: "I have not come to send peace, but the sword. For I am come to provoke a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the cord against her husband. And of the

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

251

Man's enemies shall be his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whosoever shall not take up his cross, and follow me, is not worthy of me." Matth. 10, 34-38.

And if I nnn also wanted to leave, what should become of me then? Where will I find church and school again for me and my children? One can't stand alone like that and remain without preaching and communion. I love to go to church, but that would have to stop. So what is to become of me and mine?

It is this very concern that makes it so hard for me to leave.

Response.

First of all, we must obey God's word and break away from all fellowship with the false church, without worrying about the consequences. This is how we show our faith and honor our God. And God will then honor our faith again and will provide for our souls and the souls of our children. If you can no longer go to the local church, you must familiarize yourself with the reading sermon - for instance, from I>r. Luther's, H. Müller's or other new teachers' postils, at home. On this, however, rests far more blessing than on listening to a sermon in church from the mouth of a Jrrlehrer or Miethling. Kön-

252

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

If your children no longer go to the local school, instruct them all the more faithfully in the wholesome teaching of the catechism at home. - Many thousands of orthodox Christians have already had to make do in a similar situation, and the Lord has not let them perish. Besides, He has already seen to it that you do not have to entirely do without the pure preaching of the Word of God and the holy sacraments. Sacraments. There are, for example, the two separate congregations in Dresden and Planitz, with which you can enter into fellowship, which you can join before the hand, or whose preachers can call on you if necessary.

25th Objection.

One does not hear much good about these separatists. They are said to be arrogant and damning people.

One must "bear in mind" to join them.

Response.

You should not ask and listen first to who, what and how the people are, but to whether the pure, unadulterated preaching of the Word of God and the scriptural use of the holy sacraments are in their midst. If this be the case, as it is by the grace of God, only hold thou thy ground confidently, in spite of the people. For these means of grace alone, and not the people, make thee blessed. If you then get to know the people, you will discover how much truth there is in the rumors. It has become so fashionable today, that one",

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

253

who are sure of their faith as arrogant, and to declare those who punish false doctrine with earnestness to be addicted to condemnation.

Twenty-sixth objection.

It especially frightens me that some of the "faithful" preachers of the national church have called the separated congregations a "sect" and "boils" on the body of the church. It is too terrible to belong to such an ugly sect.

Response.

Secte means according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 11,18.19; 2 Petr. 2, 1. 2 as much as a mob and heretical society (üairesw in Greek) of such people who deny and counterfeit the Lord Jesus and His pure Word. When, therefore, "believing" preachers of the national church, such as K. Kittan at Crim mitschau and Sup. Franz in Dresden, call the separated Lutherans, who by God's grace faithfully profess the pure Lutheran doctrine, a sect - and that only because they have separated themselves from the national church, - while the same preachers call men such as the unbelieving Peter, (who stands with the believing Franz at one church), Sulze, Binkau, Katzer, and others, who deny the fundamental articles of the Christian faith, as members of the church, because they stand in the national church, they thus reveal a degree of blindness, because of which one can only pity them in the deepest way and pray for them: "They know and understand" it not, where your divine Word

254

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

and light does not show the way to it." The separated Lutherans, however, bear the blessed reproach of the first Christians, who were also called a "sect. Nevertheless St. Paul openly confessed to them and said (to Felix): "But this I confess unto thee, that after this way, which they call a sect, I so serve the God of my fathers, that I believe all things which are written in the law and in the prophets." Acts 24:14. 24:14 Go and do likewise.

27th Objection.

But even quite carnal men are said to have appeared among them and to have fallen away from them again and that is not a good sign.

Response.

If such people could not stand it in the separated congregations and were either excluded or ran away - this is certainly sad and a very serious reminder to plead with a sincere heart for work in the separation process - in fact, this circumstance is neither a disgrace nor a harm for the congregations themselves. Both would only be the case if, as in the national church, public and unrepentant sinners were tolerated with impunity or even justified.

28. Objection.

Mau speaks of all kinds of fights and quarrels having already taken place among them.

Rebutted Objections nnd Concerns.

255

Response.

That's right, but you can only see how angry the devil is with these little churches and how much he wants to get rid of them. Therefore, do not let the fight and the quarrel frighten you, and only help to pray that the quarrel may be right. Such strife against the devil, the world, and the flesh is a spiritual sign of life and better than the church peace of the national church.

The only thing that worries me is that these Separates have got involved with the American Missourisynod, because the whole world is upset about it.

Response.

The latter is not a bad sign for the Missouri Synod. By the grace of God, it takes religion seriously, faithfully and simply adheres to God's Word and Luther's teaching, does not want to know anything about all the modern religious stuff, and punishes and rejects without any consideration everything and anything in doctrine and life that conflicts with the Holy Scriptures and our confessions. This is the reason why all the world is incensed at them, reviles and blasphemes them. Truth seldom finds good lodging and many friends on earth. You can only rejoice that the Separates have got involved with the Missouri Synod. Surely they could do no better.

256

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

Thirty. Objection.

In 1873, however, Dr. Sulze, in Nos. 16 and 17 of his "Leuchte," called the connection of the Separates with America a "deplorable alienism" which "even the pagans of antiquity would not have tolerated," yes, he even threw the Separates together with those who would like to "unleash the Pope from Rome, or the French, or the murderers from all over the world on their German brethren. It is therefore well to consider whether one could join these Separates.

Response.

When Dr. Sulze from Chemnitz is mentioned in such matters, I always have to think of Or. Luther's saying. - "What is the use of the cow Muscatine," i. e., what is the use of a man like Dr. Sulze, who has fallen away from the Christian religion and church, speaking of the Lutheran church, of separation, etc.? He speaks of it as the blind man speaks of color, and in his "light" only illuminates his thick spiritual darkness and foolishness. According to Dr. Sulze's great wisdom, Christ himself would have been a "miserable foreigner" when he commanded his disciples to preach the gospel not only in Jerusalem and all Judea, but also in Samaria, and among all nations to the ends of the earth. Or also the apostle Paul, when he preached the word of God in Macedonia, in Athens and Rome; or the Britons, the Danes and Swedes, etc., who called on German Lutherans in the time of the Reformation in order to break down the papacy in their homeland.

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

257

and to help preach the gospel,-or, at last, the mission which deputes German missionaries to the heathen countries. Do you not see how Dr. Sulze is numbered among the worldly wise of whom God's Word says, "Thinking themselves wise, they have become fools." Rom. 1:22.

Thirty-one. Objection.

And yet I must once again mention Dr. Sulze. He says in the same number of his "Leuchte": "The first and the third Napoleon have truly had glorious times of prosperity and both have died abandoned. That it will be the same for the separated Lutheran congregation in Planitz is quite certain to me. He who leaves his father and mother is always an erring and lost son, even if he would like to be better than his father and mother." Dr. Sulze has sharp eyes.

Response.

And I also say again: What is the use of the cow muse? Moreover, I will turn the tables and say thus: He who, like Napoleon the First and the Tread, Dr. Sulze, and every unbeliever, forsakes his father and his mother, namely, the living Triune God and the holy Christian church, is always a lost and prodigal son, even if he were even wiser than Dr. Sulze. But of a congregation which, like the separated congregation of Planitz, has the true God for its father and the true church for its mother, of such a congregation the Scriptures prophesy, in spite of Mr. Sulze

258

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

and of all lying prophets: "God is with her in this, therefore she will remain well, God will help her early." Ps. 46, 6.

Thirty-two. Objection.

I think you're being a little too rough and rude with Dr. Sulze. He's a doctor of philosophy, a licentiate of theology and a famous priest. Such men should be treated a little more humanely. I thought that required the love and toleration, the "finer, nobler, scientific education" of our time.

Response.

Let time demand what it will. A man like Dr. Sulze, who so rudely and unashamedly offends the eternal majesty of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who publicly blasphemes my God, who, as a ravening wolf without sheep's clothing, tears the last remnant of Christian faith from the hearts of my fellow redeemed countrymen in Chemnitz, and publicly mocks a small harmless Christian congregation in Planitz, cannot demand that a believing Christian waste many tender compliments on him. Therefore, whoever wants to answer his polite chatter should only follow the rule of the wise Solomon, Prov. 26: "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also become like him. But answer the fool according to his folly, lest he be made to think himself wise.

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

259

33rd Objection.

I've heard the Planitz Separates called "saints." That's offensive to me. I don't like to be called that. Saint means something like "Pharisee".

Response.

God forbid. This is a false explanation. Saints are Christians who are sanctified by faith in Christ, who have forgiveness of their sins, and who, in the power of the Holy Spirit, strive to live chastely, righteously, and godly in this world. You see, "saints" is therefore quite a glorious, excellent name. God only grant that the separated, who by their nature are not a whit better than other sinful children of men, may be and remain rightly created saints through living faith, so that they do not bear the name unjustly.

34th Objection.

But they are supposed to publicly claim that their separate congregation is the only church that can save. That is too much for me.

Answer.

My friend, you've been set up. Do not believe it. The Planitzers call not their congregation, but only their doctrine, the only one that saves, and that is what every true Lutheran Christian who is sure of his faith does. There are not two or three or more beatific doctrines, but only one - and that is the Lutheran doctrine, because it agrees in all respects most exactly with the Lutheran doctrine.

17*

260

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

of the Bible is true. Whoever denies this is not a Lutheran, but at least a unionist zealot.

35th Objection.

From another side one also hears that the Planitz Separates made Luther their god.

Response.

Believe me, such silly rumors are usually spread by those who are not quite faithful to the true God that Dr. Luther preached, and are therefore malicious enemies of the pure, scriptural, Lutheran doctrine.

Thirty-sixth objection.

By the way, Mr. Körner from Zwickau brought the most important message to last year's state synod that the Separates "living" in Planitz hold their church service in a former barn. It is not to be expected of a decent person that he should go with them into a barn.

Response.

Let not the barn vex thee. There have been times when the true church has had to seek refuge in the deserts, on the mountains, in the clefts and holes of the earth, Ebr. 11:38. Those times can easily return. The people of Planitz can thank God for their barn church, in which empty straw is not threshed out, as in many a magnificent, large city church, but the imperishable seed of the Word of God.

Rebutted objections and concerns. 261

37th Objection.

But the Dresden congregation even holds their church in a dance hall. This I find completely indecent and unedifying.

Response.

The Dresden congregation had to do it this way because they could not obtain any other local. In addition, the city council of Dresden is not as kind to them as it is to the unbelieving German Catholics. For while it has hitherto granted the latter the use of a city church, it has refused the faithful Lutherans the request for the same privilege, only because of their separation. By the way, look at the matter in the right light and consider who acts most indecently, whether the separated Lutherans who sing, pray and hear God's word in the hall or the youth of the state church who afterwards serve vanity and sin in it.

Thirty-eight. Objection.

Pastor Fröhlich in Dresden, who is known as a devout man, is said to have said that the Dresden congregation consists only of cobblers and tailors who have no understanding of church matters. Would it not be a daring thing to join such a congregation?

Response.

If Pastor Fröhlich really said that, then he was making a highly inappropriate joke, because only a haughty priest can say such things seriously.

2li2

Rebutted Objections and Concerns.

39. Objection.

I must assume that Pastor Fröhlich meant it seriously, because on another occasion he said: The Dresden congregation has no right to exist.

Response.

If this is the case, then remember: 1. that God has not given Pastor Fröhlich the right to exist. 2. that according to God's Word the separated Lutheran congregation in Dresden has a thousand times more right to exist than Pastor Fröhlich's deaconess house.

40th Objection.

It can hardly be assumed, however, that the number of the separated will grow particularly. What is the use of joining a cause without a prospect?

Response.

Whether the number of separated Lutherans will decrease or increase is in God's hands. Most likely they will remain a small, despised group, but Christ's word applies to them: "Do not be afraid, you small herd," etc. and then Luther's word: "The right true church is a small group, has no or little reputation, lies under the cross. But the false church is splendid, glorious, flourishing, and has a beautiful, great reputation like Sodom. Therefore let us pray in the church, with the church, for the church; for there are three things that the church

Rebutted objections and concerns. 263

receive and actually belong to the church. First, to teach faithfully; second, to pray diligently; and third, to suffer earnestly." - Whoever does not want to dare to do this with the small group, let him stay away from it.

41st Objection.

How can it be in these separated congregations? There is no consistory, there is no superintendent, there is no real church government. Who keeps discipline and order there?

Response.

Only God's word keeps the order and I should think that is enough. If you want to learn more, you can get the "Gemeinde-Ordnung für die separirten evang.-lutherischen Gemeinden ungeänderter Augsburgischer Consession zu Dresden und Planitz" (available in H. Naumann's bookstore in Dresden). From this you can see who alone is in charge of the separated congregations and how everything is done in an "honest and orderly" manner.

42nd Objection.

There is one more thing that causes me serious concern. I hear that in the separated congregations one has to sacrifice money year after year in order to maintain preacher and teacher, church and school.

Response.

This is correct and in accordance with God's word, with your faith and with love. Do you now fear with wife and child

264

Closing request.

If you have to die of hunger and perish, I advise you once again not to bother with the separated church, but also not to say that you are a Christian who can confess the three articles from the bottom of his heart and pray the holy Lord's Prayer.

43rd objection.

No, I'm ready to leave, but I want to wait until we have more than one.

Response.

In things which God has commanded, it is not for one to wait for another. If you have clearly recognized your departure from the national church as God's will and commandment, then you must also carry it out and not wait at all for what others do. If you make the step you are to take dependent on the steps of other people, you are not doing it in undoubted faith for the sake of God's word and your soul's salvation, but as a servant of men for the sake of men, and then you cannot take comfort in God's good pleasure and blessing. For the Lord allows only the sincere to succeed.

Closing request.

So show then recently how the decisive step of separation from the apostate Saxon regional church could be done by me in a God-pleasing way.

Response.

"Now, my dear Christian, does God Himself give you the testimony that you are nothing other than His

Closing request.

265

If you seek glory and are serious about becoming blessed, first call upon him in fervent prayer, present your whole matter to him, the faithful, gracious Father in heaven, pour out your heart before him, and ask him for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives us enlightened eyes of understanding and guides us into all truth. In particular, ask the Lord to protect you graciously from all deceit of the devil and of your own flesh in the contemplation and examination of this so important matter of your soul, to purify your heart from all erroneous and perverse thoughts of man, to make known to you his holy will, way and path clearly and surely, and finally to give you a firm and confident heart to follow in faith the truth once recognized. For the rest, take the Bible, the confessional writings of our church and perhaps also this booklet at hand and examine honestly and conscientiously the present state of the Saxon regional church in doctrine and practice according to the infallible guide of the Word of God. Do not let it annoy and hinder you if you have to condemn and throw away many a hitherto held view and opinion, many an old-established order of things, as erroneous, false and harmful. In all things bow humbly under the letter of Holy Scripture, and let one word of it be much more dear to thee than all the wise talk of men. Consider, my dearest Christian, how

266

Closing request.

how much the merciful God has done for you in order to save you from the authority of darkness and to make you a child of grace and light; - how precious your poor soul must be in His sight, since He has bought it for Himself at the most precious price of the blood of Christ, His only begotten Son, and has ordained for its proper pasture the pure, sweet, blessed Gospel. Consider God's unspeakable good deed to you, that He has called you, too, unworthy and guilty of eternal death, without any merit on your part, out of pure, divine grace, to the glorious light of this gospel and into the fellowship of His true church. Consider what riches of eternal goods, what abundance of spiritual, beatific knowledge, of consolation, refreshment, strength, and tempest for your soul in life and death is also opened to you and your children in the purely preached Word of God and the rightly administered sacraments, and how you then, if you faithfully and steadfastly hold to it from the bottom of your heart, how you can be so joyful and certain of the forgiveness of your sins and of your state of grace, how you can take the right, certain steps and steps pleasing to God in your life, how you can fight the enemies of your soul victoriously, how you can bear your cross undauntedly and patiently, and how you can one day die so blessedly as a dear child of God. But on the other hand, also consider how all these noble goods of your soul will be given to you in your life.

Closing request.

267

The truth is that the faith of the community of a false church can be shortened, withheld, damaged, made uncertain or even completely robbed by false prophets and their false teachings. Consider how all and every false doctrine, even the most subtle and insignificant, is invented by the father of lies and is a deadly poison that leads to extreme destruction, to unbelief, false faith and ungodly conduct, to selfish and self-serving righteousness, or even to the destruction of the church: It is a deadly poison, invented by the father of lies, and works as a deadly poison to the most extreme corruption, to unbelief, unbelief, and ungodly conduct, to selfishness and self-righteousness, or to carnal security and worldly love, even (if God's hand of grace does not prevent it) to complete apostasy and eternal damnation. See, therefore, in what great peril of soul all those are who are exposed to the influence of false doctrine and its shameful fruits in the false-believing communities, and what a swift condemnation they incur from God's righteous judgment, if they persist in it with courage. Consider, moreover, with how many urgent, earnest, heart-stirring words of God your good shepherd Jesus and his holy apostles warn you against all fellowship with falsehood, and exhort and encourage you to the faithful confession of the truth, promising you the crown of heavenly honors as the glorious reward of grace for true fidelity to faith and confession. Consider, then, in sum, how the word of God, your own faith, your blessed Christian profession, the glory of God you are to promote, the praise and grateful love you owe Him, and the faithfulness you have already shown Him, are all worthy of you.

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Closing request.

at your holy baptism, demand of you that you renounce a community in which the Word of Christ is falsified, and that you, as a faithful Evangelical Lutheran Christian, confess with heart and mouth the Church of the pure Word and Sacrament, our dear Evangelical Lutheran Church, that is, for whose holy goods our fathers once gladly gave up life and limb, honor, goods and blood, and all temporal glory.

If you now go about this examination in right integrity, you will soon be convinced by God's Word in your conscience of the frightening apostasy of the Saxon regional church and of the necessity of your resignation. And once you yourself have become certain through the grace of the Lord, help your own to become certain as well. Then act in God's name and be confident and undaunted. Do not confer with flesh and blood, nor with men who cannot help. Do not wonder long and hard what others will say, what they will think of you, and what they will judge of you. Do not wait to see whether and how many others will take the same step with you or after you. Do not worry and grieve over all the possible consequences of your departure, but walk cheerfully and confidently on the right path you have recognized, honor Christ your faithful Savior through childlike trust, and say in faith: it is not my way, but His; it is not my cause, but His.

Closing request.

269

He will already lead them out gloriously for His glory and my eternal blessedness. He has shown me the way I should walk, so he will also guide me with his eyes and not let me become a disgrace. - What you finally have to say to your former preacher concerning your departure, God will give you at your request and protect you from two evils: from impudent, insolent speech, which does not improve but emboldens, and from fear of man, with which one robs God of honor and burdens the conscience. For the rest, do not engage in pointed, long disputations to which you are not equal.

Finally, my dear Christian, when you have escaped from the babel of the national church and have again professed the fellowship of the orthodox Lutheran church, do not forget that it was not due to your running and working, knowledge, work and merit, but due to God's mercy and free, undeserved grace in Christ that it came to this with you. Therefore, from now on, boast and praise nothing but this grace, and honor your Redeemer, the Holy One in Israel, through sincere faith, through a walk of unconditional love and humility, through a good fight and patient suffering of the cross of Christ. Whoever is faithful in this to the end, he alone is a righteous, separated Lutheran, in whom at last the promise of the faithful and true witness is fulfilled.

270Finalrequest.

I will confess him before my heavenly Father and before his angels. And I will make him a pillar in the temple of God, and will give him a good testimony, and with the testimony a new name written, which no man knoweth, save he that receiveth it. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the new Jerusalem, the city of my God; and I will give him to eat of the hidden manna, of the wood of life which is in the paradise of God; and I will keep supper with him, and he with me; and I will give him to sit with me in my throne. I will give him the gift of life." (Revelation 2. 3.) Therefore:

Hold out, hold out, Zion keep thy faithfulness, Let not thou be found unfaithful.

Come on, the jewel is approaching? Come on, leave what's behind? Zion, in the last fight and bouquet Hold out, hold out. Amen.

ßsomething

from

Joh. Lapaci, Pfarrherrn zu Langcnberg, "Wahr- haftet Prophezeiungen dcS theuern Propheten und heil. Martin Luther."

"I will not prophesy unto Germany out of the heavenly bodies, but proclaim unto her God's wrath out of theologia and God's word rc."

"Germany must also be punished because sin cries out to heaven and does not let God rest, so that he must be angry and say, 'I gave you my dear Son, my highest and dearest treasure, and would gladly speak with you, teach you and instruct you in eternal life. But I have no one to listen to me; therefore I must suffer punishment, as the Lord himself testifies in John 3: "This is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their works were evil."

"It is certain that God the Lord will seek Germany for idolatry, although we do not know the time when it will happen, as we have the example of the Egyptian churches, the Syrian churches, the Asiatic churches, and the churches of the Holy Spirit before our eyes.

272Lutheri Prophecy.

Greek, also almost at the Hungarian churches, which the Turk has destroyed."

"There is no doubt, if the churches in Germany shall continue to abuse the gospel, that God will forsake them, and will choose him another nation, which shall be better thankful for such high gift. Let us not therefore be secure, but let us fear God, and love him as the kind Father which receiveth sinners."

"There shall be multitudes, and the pure word shall be lost again; and then shall men seek Christ the Lord, and shall not find him."

"The true Christian religion will again be taken from us. First, because of our ingratitude, so that the benefits of God, which we have received through the dear gospel, will soon be forgotten. Secondly, by the great certainty that now reigns everywhere among men, so that there is no longer any true fear of God, and no one wants to be punished by the word. Thirdly, by the worldly prudence, who would rule the church after their own head, separate the cross from the gospel, make much profit by sins, and keep peace and unity against God."

"We have now planted the word a little. The devil does not like that, because

Lutheri Prophecy.

273

he does not sleep. The caterpillars and the cheese-makers will come and pelt Werdens. But it must be so; Christ will test his word and try who has grasped it, or not."

"The devil will go on and attack more articles, as he is already sparkling with his eyes that baptism, original sin, Christ is not."

"Teusel is not asleep; he will do much more of this thing; he does not celebrate, but looks around and endeavors to bring it about that no right doctrine remains in the church; and will bring it about that, if one went out and through the whole of Germany, that one will not be able to find a right preaching seat, that the word will be preached as before. He is afraid to let any right doctrine arise, for he cannot bear it."

"It is hard to escape from the enemy; he lurks and looks in all places, and drives it so hard that even the learned fall, and the elect stumble, as Moses, St. Peter, and the apostles. We think we are safe, we let it slip, no one respects it, no one cares for it. We ought to pray and call upon God to preserve the gospel, and to let his holy name continue to be preached; but no one cares, no one asks that it may continue. So it shall come to pass, that God will "leave us and the devil in multitude"; and we shall be done for; he shall cast us down to the ground, and come to us.

274

Lutheri Prophecy.

we are therefore in such misery through our presumption and wickedness."

"Therefore let this rule be remembered, that at all times, when sins abound, the wrath of God must come. Let him that hath an office therefore take heed that he look not through the fingers of any offence, however small; but when sin and wickedness have the upper hand, let him flee from it, lest he be made partaker of other men's sins."

When thou seest men that have the word, and despise the same, as the sodomites, and ask neither for threatenings nor for promises, remember that thou must save thy soul, that thou perish not with such despisers. For since they are like those of whom Solomon says, "They struck me, but I did not feel it," calamity and destruction are not far from them; Pharaoh, who was obstinate, perished in the Red Sea, and Samuel wept for Saul the king in vain. Now therefore they that are given into a perverse mind are to beware of, lest we be made partakers of their sins, and perish with them. Wherefore in John's Revelation the church is called to go out from Babylon. And St. Paul commandeth 2 Cor. 6, Come out from among them, and separate yourselves: that he may look without doubt on this command of the angel, Save your soul; as if he would say, Remember,

Lutheri Prophecy.

275

how thou mayest be preserved and saved: for that thou shouldest care for others, how they may be saved, is in vain."

"Thus saith St. Paul, Titus 3: Avoid a heretical man, when he is once and again admonished, and know that such a one is perverse. And Rom. 12: Give place to wrath; as if he would say, If unbelievers will be damned and imperfect, they go away. Nevertheless our adversaries are brought to confess that our doctrine is righteous and true, so that they no longer sin out of weakness, but out of hardened minds and malice. Therefore let us separate ourselves from them, and go out from them: for they have known the truth, and yet persecute it. Who then would doubt that their fall is not nigh at hand?"

"Go thou also, O noble tender fruit, and find that which thou seekest, and wilt not lack, nor have otherwise; we are easily parted; we cannot keep thee; so wilt thou be displeased; so sing we with the angels over Babylon (Jerem. 5), We have long healed Babylon; but there is no healing. Therefore we let her go, and depart."

"Well, dear Germans, I have told you enough, you have heard your prophet. God grant that we may follow his word, to the praise of God.

276 And thanks be to our dear Lord for his dear blood, so mildly offered for us, and keep us from the abominable vice of ingratitude and forgetfulness of his benefits."

"Now whichever German will follow my faithful counsel, let him follow; and he that will not, let him not. Hereby I seek not my own, but your, the Germans', salvation and happiness."

Printed by Johannes Herrmann in Zwickau.

Lrrstu.

On p. 77,line20v.o.read: tiomo instead of "bome".

-83 ,-3v.o.read:still yield instead of "otherwise stillyield".

155, - 16 v. o. read: der Jrmischere instead of "Jrmschcrschc".

155, -17v .o.read: Dr. Kurtz instead of ,Kurz".

155,-22v.o.read:held instead of "held"

213,-15v.oread:Saxony instead of"Sachsens"

214,-10v.oread:sonderer instead of"but"

- 256, -9v .u.read:Evangelium instead of"Evangelio".

- 256,-21v.uread:connectcan instead of"connect

could."

- 269, - 15 v. u. read: entronnen bist instead of "entronnen".

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