The means of grace and the enthusiasts.
The Christian doctrine of the means of grace is eliminated by all enthusiasts, that is, by all those who suppose a revealing and working activity of the Holy Spirit apart from and besides the means of grace ordered by God. We already saw that the Calvinistic Reformed, as a result of their denial of gratia universalis, have no means of grace either for all men or even for the elect. Not for the former, because grace is supposedly not available for all men; not for the latter, because grace available for the elect supposedly operates without means. Zwingli can be considered a type of the separation of grace from the means of grace with his well-known assertion that the Holy Spirit has no need of a "chariot" (vehiculum). And he says this not only with respect to the sacraments,575) but also with respect to the word of the gospel. Zwingli asserts very firmly that faith does not come from the preached Word of God, but by the immediate operation of the Holy Spirit, ipse tractus internus (whereby we come to God) immediate operantis est Spiritus.576) The later Reformed accomodate themselves more in the idiom of the Lutheran doctrine of the means of grace, without going factually beyond Zwingli.577) More recent Calvinists, as we have already seen, also maintain very firmly that the actually saving divine efficacy of grace does not take place through the means of grace.578a) The separation principle is most consistently developed by the Quakers. The Quakers believe that on the certain day of the Visitation, the Holy Spirit directly enlightens man without the Word, thus enabling man to grasp the Word of Scripture,
574) Augsb. Conf., art. XX, p. 45, 23 [Trigl. 55, Augsb. Conf., XX, 23 🔗].
575) Fidei Ratio; in Niemeyer, p. 24.
576) Zwinglii Opera (Schultheß) IV, 125.
577) Winer, Kompar. Darst.3 , p. 117. For more, see the section, "Summary Assessment of the Reformed Means of Grace Doctrine."
578 a) p. 141.
151 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 128]
which is otherwise a dead letter. The Quakers therefore have so-called "silent meetings". About these meetings their theologian, Robert Barclay († 1690), says: "In meeting together, the great work of each and all should be: to wait upon God, and, withdrawing from his own thoughts and imaginations, to feel the Lord's nearness. … There no man restricts the Spirit of God, nor does he bring forth his own memorized and collected stuff, but everyone brings forth what the Lord puts into his heart. It may happen among us, and has often happened, that many meetings have taken place without a word being spoken, and yet our souls have been greatly edified and refreshed, and our hearts overwhelmed with the secret sense of God's Spirit and power, which has been delivered without words from one vessel to another."578b) And yet, even the Quakers are not entirely consistent with regard to their silent meetings. Schneckenburger correctly remarks: "According to these [Quaker] principles, one should not really expect any common worship of God at all, in that time and place are already something determined by one's own election."579) — Among the enthusiasts [Schwärmern] are also all the newer theologians who, like Ihmels, reject the origin of faith in Christ through the word of Christ alone and maintain that faith is produced in man through the person of Christ, the historical efficacy or appearance of Christ, and so on. Ihmels says: "Even today only that is real faith in Jesus Christ, which is forced upon man by His appearance itself." 580)
If we put together the arguments that are put forward for a salvific efficacy of the Holy Spirit outside the means of grace ordered by God, they are mainly the following: One thinks that the means of grace are superfluous, because the Holy Spirit can also work without means (vehiculum). Furthermore, it is thought that it is not proper for God to bind His revelation of grace and the efficacy of grace to the external means of grace. Furthermore, from the fact that faith does not arise in all the hearers of the Gospel, one thinks one may conclude that the Holy Spirit separates his efficacy,
578b) In Günther, Symbolik 4, p. 273.
579) Kleine Religionsparteien, S. 90.<w:t xml:space="preserve">580) Central Issues, p. 89.
152 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 129]
which aims at the production of saving faith, from the Word..581) But all the arguments are based on rationalistic human considerations. As for the opinion that the means of grace are superfluous, it should be noted: It is not at all a question of whether God cannot also work in the spiritual sphere without means. The only question is whether God says in his revealed Word of God that he wants to work through certain means determined by him and has directed us men to these means. In theology it is not valid to assert possibilities against the facts revealed by God in his Word. Zwingli's objection that the Holy Spirit does not need a chariot is already a theological derailment in principle. The same is true of Ihmels' argument: "It cannot be said seriously enough that if Jesus is really the one as whom the church confesses him, he must also be able to convict of this reality by his reality." 582) Quite untheological is also the argument according to which an efficacy bound to external means is supposed to be unworthy of God. What is worthy or unworthy of God we men do not know a priori, but must learn a posteriori from God's revealed Word, since we are not sufficiently versed a priori in the code of divine ethics.583) And as for the conclusion that God must have detached his efficacy from the external Word because not all who hear the Word become faithful, it is based on the error of gratia irresistibilis. According to Scripture, there is a divine effect of faith and salvation through the means of the gospel even in those who remain unbelievers and are lost.584) This effect, however, because it does not take place in revealed divine majesty but through means, can be resisted. In direct contradiction to Scripture stands also the assertion that the word of the gospel is only to be considered as "an attending circumstance" in the rebirth, and that what
581) So also already Zwingli, Opp. IV, 125: Sic esse (namely that 'faith arises through the direct action of the Spirit), etiam usu deprehenditur, quum quotidie videmus, quosdam evangelii praedicationem audire quidem, sed nihilo magis credere. [Google]
582) Central Questions, p. 89.<w:t>583) 1 Tim. 6:16.
584) Matt. 23:37; Acts 7:51; 13:46. Cf. the section "Conversion can be prevented by man," II, 557 f.
153 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 130]
precedes the rebirth and its succession is effected by the word, but not the rebirth itself.585) When the Scripture says: άναγεγεννημένοι … διά λόγον ζώντος ϑεοΰ,586) and: διά του λόγου αυτών εις εμέ [πιστεήοντες]587) and: ή πίστις έξ άκοης, [Google]588) the word of the gospel is not called "an attending circumstance," but the means through which regeneration comes about, resp. faith is worked. Also, these scriptural statements do not address things that precede and follow the rebirth, but the rebirth itself. As for the passage Joh. 3:8: "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear its sound, but you do not know from where it comes and where it goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit",589) , in this word of Christ the rebirth is described as a "mysterious" process, which, because it is not caused by us, cannot be "rationally comprehended and explained" by us. But expressly it is also said in this passage that the new birth comes "of water and the Spirit," εξ νδατος καί πνεύματος. There is, therefore, a misuse of this passage when it is used as a proof of an immediate effect of regeneration.590) But as the extra enthusiasticum is contrary to Scripture, so it is also devoid of any natural rational sense. This Extra is afflicted with an obvious self-contradiction. Luther's characterization in the Smalcald Articles is completely accurate: "Our enthusiasts condemn the outward word and yet are not silent themselves, but chatter and write the world full, just as if the Spirit could not come through the Scriptures or oral word of the apostles, but through their writing and word He must come. Why also do they not leave their preaching and writing until the Spirit himself comes into the people without and before their writing, as they boast that He came into them without preaching the Scriptures?"591) The main pity, however, is that every detachment of the divine
585) Hodge, System. Theol. II, 685.<w:t>586) 1 Pet. 1:23.
587) Joh. 17:20.<w:t>533) Rom. 10:17.
589) Zwingli also cites this passage for the direct effectiveness of the Holy Spirit. Fidei Ratio; in Niemeyer p. 25.
590) Hengstenberg correctly remarks on Joh. 3:8 that the tertium comparationis is the incomprehensibility.
591) 322, 5. 6.
154 > The Means of Grace. [English ed. ~ 130-131]
revelation of grace and the effect of grace from the external Word of God necessarily drifts into Roman waters, namely, it bases the certitudo gratiae on the gratia infusa instead of on the gracious disposition of God existing through Christ and promised in the means of grace, and therefore lets a forced emotional certainty take the place of the certainty of faith in justification, which nevertheless fails in serious distress of conscience. By separating grace from the means of grace, all enthusiasts come to understand saving grace as an instilled spiritual matter, for the appropriation of which faith as an act of apprehending grace (actualis apprehensio gratiae) is not necessary on the part of man. On this version of grace is based the assertion of the Dordrecht resolutions that the saving grace is still present in man even if man loses the exercitium fidei through gross sins. Saving grace and saving faith are conceived as a good quality inherent in man and resting in him. Only the process of infusion is different in Rome and among the enthusiasts in that it takes place on the enthusiastic side without the means of grace ordered by God, on the Roman side primarily through the means of grace made by the "Church".