General Will of God's Grace; Reconciliation, Redemption of the Human Race

1874 Western District Essay

General Will of God's Grace; Reconciliation, Redemption of the Human Race

Proceedings of the Synod.

At last year's assembly of this district it was decided that we would continue the discussion of the theses in this assembly, which bear the heading:

"That only through the doctrine of the Lutheran Church is all glory given to God alone, an incontrovertible proof that the doctrine of the same is the only true one."

Ps 26:8, Rev 14:6, 7, John 5:44.

Last year, the Synod had reached the third point in the third thesis. After briefly repeating what had been discussed, the fourth point was dealt with: The doctrine "of the general will of God's grace," and showed how in this doctrine, too, the Lutheran Church gives all glory to God alone.

It is true that we could not accuse God if he did not want to save anyone. We could not say to God: You are unjust. It would be very wrong to say: If God is just, he must want to save everyone. If a person wanted to accuse God of not wanting to save everyone, God would say to him: "Who are you, man, that you want to be right with God? You do not know what God must be like." This is a great mistake of modern theology, that one thinks of God without God's Word and then says: This is how he is. It is therefore downright devilish arrogance to say: If God is just, he must want to save everyone.

But we know that he really wants to save all men; he has revealed this to us in his Word; and now we cannot praise God enough that he is such a tender Father that he wants to have mercy on even the most wicked man. The perfection of God, according to which he deserves the highest honor, is that his basic nature is love itself. God is eternal love. If we ask, for the purpose of comparison, in what does the highest perfection of a Christian consist? — The answer is: that he has love in his heart. This is his moral goodness. Love is the fulfillment of the law. No matter how holy a man may appear to be, if love is not in him, not a single commandment will be fulfilled by him. But by being brought back to love, we are brought back to the image of God. Through the doctrine that God's essence is love itself, he is therefore given the highest and all honor. According to Scripture and the confession of our Church, however, God is not like a person who is sometimes friendly, sometimes grumpy, but a being constantly glowing with love. While men rejoice that cruel persecutors of the Church go to hell and are rid of them, God has such a tender heart that his heart breaks against them, and that he still wants to receive them and save them.

This doctrine is clearly stated in our confessional writings. In the

The Formula of Concord, in the 11th article [12] of the Epitome, it says "The fact that many are called and few chosen is not because God does not want to save everyone, but because they either do not hear God's Word at all, but willfully despise it, harden their ears and their hearts, and thus obstruct the proper way of the Holy Spirit, so that he cannot have his work in them;

or, having heard it, they again cast it to the wind and do not heed it; for which it is not God or his election, but their wickedness that is to blame." (The Calvinists and Zwinglians say: You see that these and those are not saved; millions are lost; therefore one cannot judge otherwise than: God does not want them to be saved. Answer: If a man will not hear God's Word, will not go to church, will not even read the Scriptures, but mocks at the holy things, or if, after going to church or reading God's Word, he resists the Holy Spirit, God cannot save him. And the will of God to save him is nevertheless a serious one, i.e. God does not pretend to do so, but it is his real will. He wants to save all, but not to his dishonor, but in such a way that he remains God. A man can enter salvation only through God, and if he entered otherwise, God would cease to be the source of our salvation; and if an ungodly man entered heaven as such, he would not be in heaven. If such a person goes to church once, he will afterwards grumble about the priests and the word he has heard and go to the beer house, for example; he likes it where the devil is served. And if he were forcibly dragged into heaven by God, he would soon long to get out again so that he would have nothing to do with the "the cowards" there. God wants to save you in such a way that he brings you to faith in Christ and gives you a different heart; he also wants to keep you in this renewal until death. Then you can have joy in heaven.

Further it says in the

Formula of Concord:... "Because all things that are written (as the apostle testifies) are written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope, therefore we reject the following errors: 1. as when it is taught that God does not will that all men should repent and believe the gospel. (2) Again, when God calls us to Himself, that it is not His will that all men should come to Him. 3. that God does not will that everyone should be saved, but that, regardless of their sin, they are ordained to damnation by the mere counsel, purpose, and will of God, so that they cannot be saved." (foI. 250 f. [FC EP XI, 16-19]) Here three pieces of Reformed false teaching are cited, which we reject in our confession and of which the opposite is therefore taught by us. —

Thus the

Augsburg Confession teaches in the Fifth Article (of the Ministry of Preaching): "To obtain such faith, God has instituted the ministry of preaching, given the Gospel and the Sacrament, through which He gives, as a means, the Holy Spirit, who works faith, where and when He wills, in those who hear the Gospel." There it is, say the Reformed, in

your own confession, you Lutherans, that God only wants to have mercy on a small number of people. Answer: It does indeed say: "where and when he wills", but not: in whom he wills. If this were so, God's crown would be taken from his head and we would burn our confession. But the noble Augustana only wants to say this: God alone wants to work faith in people, in all of them without exception, but he does not allow time and place to be dictated to him. Therefore, these words also contain the important admonition: If you want to be saved, don't put it off; don't say: I can still hear God's Word later. But know this: God wants to save you, but not against his order. "When I call you," says God, "answer me; when I greet you, thank me." Thus, according to our confession, God makes no distinction here between people, but only with regard to time and place. But the reason why our confession says that God converts people where and when he wills is because, according to Scripture, it is God alone who works our salvation: "It is God who works in you both to will and to do, according to his good pleasure." Phil. 2:13. But far be it from us to think that God does all things, so that we may be sure, the apostle gives this as the very reason why we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling; for the whole passage is: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do, according to his good pleasure." The words "where and when" in our confession reject all Pelagian doctrine, according to which it is held that people also do something in order to be converted.

It is well known that some false Lutherans consider our Luther to be a particularist, i.e. someone who believes that God basically only wants to be merciful to some people and have mercy on them and save them. They extract this, like the spider the poison from the sweet flowers, from Luther's writing: "That Free Will is Nothing." [I.e. The Bondage of the Will] Admittedly, if one reads this writing only cursorily, one may well get the idea that Luther believes that God does not want to save everyone; but if one reads it with proper attention, one soon sees that Luther has only one purpose in that writing, to show that God does everything alone in the work of saving a person. In this writing Luther also speaks of a hidden will of God, but in a completely different sense than Zwingli and Calvin. The latter said that God had revealed a will to men with which he was not serious at all; he said that he wanted to have mercy on all, but he was not serious; he actually did not want everyone to believe; Christ had not died and risen for all; and

when God let the preaching of the gospel resound, it was only so that the elect might come to faith. According to Zwingli and Calvin, therefore, God would have spoken differently than he meant; according to them, God would be a hypocrite. But because many things happen that cannot be reconciled with his general will of grace, Luther speaks of a hidden will of God alongside the revealed one, but by no means because the latter really contradicts it.

Luther therefore writes: "Some interpret the words ('Many are called, but few are chosen') thus: 'Many are called', that is, God offers his grace to many, but 'few are chosen', that is, he allows such grace to be bestowed on few, for few are saved by it. This is a godless understanding. For how can it be possible, if one does not think and believe otherwise of God, that he should not become hostile to God because it is only because of his will that we are not all saved? But if you hold this opinion against those who first come to know the Lord Christ, you will find that they are vain, devilish blasphemies. For this reason there is another meaning about this passage: 'Many are called, but few are chosen'. For the preaching of the gospel goes generally and publicly to all who will hear and receive it; and God has it preached so generally and publicly that everyone may hear it, believe and receive it, and be saved." (XIII, 475. F.; [House Postil, St. L. 13a, 201])

This is Luther's teaching. Often, of course, Luther flies in that book as high as a solar eagle, so that the sparrows cannot follow; but let him fly, he will come down again in his own time. — "Not everyone," says an old teacher quite rightly, "can walk in Luther's shoes." [Walther flies with Luther.]

Luther also writes: "Human reason conceives an unequal will of God, as if God were like a tyrant who caters to certain favorites who are pleasing to him, whether they be good or less so, and on the other hand he hates the others, they do as they please. So one should not think of God's will." (X, 2001. [St. L. 10, 1710])

Luther thus condemns the assumption of two opposing wills in God. It is true that what God wills must come to pass, rather than everything must perish. But Luther calls the hidden will of God that which God has not revealed to us in his Word and has thus kept to himself, while Calvin and Zwingli call the hidden will of God that according to which God should not seriously will the salvation of men and inwardly think differently than he speaks. They believe that God loves only those who have been chosen by him from eternity to eternal life, but that he hates all others; he has decided that he wants to vent his wrath on them to glorify his righteousness.

Luther further writes: "John says: God himself is love, and his nature is pure love; so that if anyone wanted to paint and depict God, he would have to make such an image that would be pure love; as if the divine nature were nothing but a furnace and fiery heat of such love, which fills heaven and earth; and again, if one could paint and depict love, one would have to make such an image that would not be real, nor human, yes, not angelic, nor heavenly, but God himself." (Yes, "God is love", Calvin would scratch out this Bible verse if he could; but he must leave it for the consolation of all poor sinners).... "He himself has also painted such a picture in nature and his works. For thus also the natural masters" (the naturalists and geologists), "who have experienced and described the nature of animals, say of the little bees that the king among them has no sting at all, even though all the others in the hive cut and sting, and leave their lives over it; but he alone is without wrath. However, even if he does not feel sorry for anyone, nor can he, he must have around him those who can sting and keep him safe, for if he were to go so bare, the foreign bees or bumblebees would kill him: In the image of God there is no wrath in his nature and being, and certainly nothing but pure love and goodness; but that he lets all kinds of plagues go, hail, thunder, fire, water, evil monstrous beasts, famine, war, pestilence, plague and the devil from hell, he needs these as stings around him, so that he remains with his majesty and protects and comforts his own. Otherwise the devil would be too powerful and would seize his honor and crown and dampen his kingdom, so that no one would know what God is and can do, and Christ with his gospel and Christians would be suppressed. Thus you stand, as it is said: God is love; that everyone must see and grasp it if he only opens his eyes. For all his goods are daily before your eyes, wherever you look: sun and moon and the whole sky full of light; the earth full of leaves, grass, grain, and all kinds of plants, prepared and given to you for food; again, father and mother, house, farm, peace, protection and security through the rule of worldly authorities, etc.; and above all, that he gives his dear Son for you and brings you home through the gospel to help you out of all misery and distress. What more could he do for you, or what more or better could you desire? This, I think, is a fire and fervor, that no one can reach such great love with thought. And whoever does not see and respect these things must either be stone blind or stone dead and dying." (Sermon on 1 John 4:16 ff. IX, 1264. 1268. Ff. [St. L. 9, 1682-83, 1686-87)])

Luther also writes: "If you are in danger and temptation, run here and accept Christ, so you will be preserved and not judged (but if you do not want to, you are lost) and let Christ punish you. For when he punishes with His word, He does so that he

may not be condemned. When He says, "Woe to you!" it is so that He may save him and urge him with harsh words to give heed to the love of the Father." (On John 3:17, Erl. Vol. 47:25 [AE 22, 378]).

So when Christ cries out woe over the ungodly, this too, according to Luther, is a voice of his saving love, just as the law and the judgments of God in Scripture and in the history of the world and the church are nothing but proofs of God's love and goodness in desiring the salvation of men. But it is not God's fault that such things are evil to the wicked; just as it is not one's fault if one gives another a knife to cut bread, but the latter misuses it and stabs himself with it. If God's judgments of wrath are pronounced in order to frighten the world in a salutary way, and the world only gets angrier about it, God is not to blame. Of course, these kinds of judgments of wrath only belong to the time of grace; when this is over, the time of wrath begins. Therefore writes

Gerhard: "Every doctrine that aims to promote the glory of God and the mediator of Christ alone, while holding down human pride and arrogance, is truly holy. But now the Evangelical-Lutheran doctrine aims solely at the glory of God and the mediator of Christ, while holding down human pride and presumption. It is therefore truly holy. This principle is proved from John 8:49, where Christ says that He honors and glorifies the heavenly Father through His teaching, and from this proves the truth and holiness of His teaching..... The other assertion (that the Evangelical-Lutheran doctrine has this characteristic) can be proved by many specific examples.. In the article on predestination we praise the gracious will of God towards all, that he earnestly desires all men to be saved, and for this purpose has sent his Son to the whole world as Savior, and offers the benefits of the same to all in the word of the Gospel. The papists, however, especially the Jesuits, advocate with the Calvinists an unconditional election counsel, by which that gracious will of God against all is denied." (Loc. theol. de ecclesia, § 254.)

The Reformed write the following in the

Swiss Confession: "The Scriptures do not refer the purpose of God to have mercy on all individuals, but limit it to the elect alone, with the express exclusion of the rejected, such as Esau, whom God regarded with eternal hatred. Rom. 9:11." (Form. Consens. Helvet., Corpus Symb. Reform., p. 447.)

Let us realize how terrible it would be if God did not wish to save all men, but regarded most men

with eternal hatred. If we do not know that God wants to save everyone, we must forever doubt whether we are in a state of grace, whether our faith is right; for what is justifying and saving faith other than the conclusion: God wants all men to be saved, I am a man, therefore he wants me to be saved too? Christ has redeemed all men, I am a man, therefore I too am redeemed? the Holy Spirit calls all men to believe in Christ, I am a man, therefore I too should believe? God forgives the sins of all men and makes all who believe truly saved, I am a man who believes, therefore my sins are forgiven, therefore I too am saved? If one of these preliminary propositions is omitted, then all subsequent propositions are also omitted, so our faith lacks foundation. But even if the individuals whom God wants to save are not named in the Bible, it still says that God wants to save all people, etc. Thus the faith of each individual has an irrefutable foundation.

Furthermore: "The Presbyterians confess in their symbol: “The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, whereby He extends or withholds mercy, as He pleases, for the glory of His sovereign power over His creatures, to pass by; and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praised of His glorious justice." (The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. of America. Philad., 1840. p. 21-27 [Also the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chap. III, Art. VI and VII])

According to this article, it would not be true that God is love. He would appear like a tyrant, fattening most men, to slaughter them in his time, i. e. to condemn them.

Some Reformed, the so-called supralapsarians, teach that God, in order to reveal his divine attributes, has decided to create two kinds of people, those in whom he wants to reveal his love and those in whom he wants to reveal his justice and his wrath; to let them all fall, and to arrange it so that they must fall. For those, God has decided, I will send my Son into the world to reconcile them to me; to them I will give my Holy Spirit, compel them to believe by irresistible grace and keep them in it until death. But the others I will not redeem, and therefore I will not lay their sins on my Son; he shall not atone for them, nor suffer, die and rise again for them. I will indeed give the word without distinction, but I will make it ineffective for the rejected, so that they cannot come to faith; at most I will give them a sham faith, but I will not give them the Holy Spirit, I will not call them inwardly, I will not enlighten them, in short, I will not see to it that they are saved. Others, the so-called infralapsarians, say that God did not

originally create anyone for sin and damnation, but, foreseeing the general fall, decided to have mercy on only some of the fallen, to have them redeemed, to call them powerfully, to bring them to faith and to keep them in it, but to pass by all the others with his grace. Through the teaching of the Supralapsarians, Christ's redemption is made an empty spectacle, which could just as well have been absent, since God proceeds according to them entirely at will. But through the teaching of both these and the infralapsarians, God is turned into a hypocritical God and the tears of Christ over Jerusalem into hypocritical tears. What an abominable dishonoring of God!

*) Here begins the protocol written by Pastor Große.

*) What great consolation lies in this teaching that God is love and wants all people to be saved and enjoy his love forever! Severe temptations often arise in the heart. The heart often feels the wrath of God over sin. Then it asks: May I also be comforted by God's love? Am I too, poor worm, redeemed? In such temptations we should point out that such thoughts are truly not to the glory of God, but are a great dishonor to him, who is eternal love itself. If, on the other hand, we overcome such temptations precisely by holding God's general will of grace before us again and again, clinging to it in faith, then we give God all the glory. Therefore, it is the sacred duty of every preacher to work with all faithfulness and diligence to keep the goal constantly before his eyes, so that every single soul entrusted to him may be constantly comforted by God's love and even become divinely certain of his salvation. It is precisely this that the devil primarily seeks to hinder by always plaguing the heart with doubt; from this one can also see how infinitely important and how precious and valuable this very doctrine of God's general will of grace is.

It is true that the Calvinists pretend that they promote God's glory the most through their doctrine by presenting God as a completely free being who can do as he pleases, who can cast away and condemn the one and save the other as he pleases.

Of course, we do not deny that God has the power to act as he pleases. Paul says in Romans 9:20-21: "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" — Indeed, anyone who denies God this power is a damned man! But it is a completely different question: where has God revealed that he wants to act according to this power? Nowhere. Rather, God has revealed that he wants to have mercy on all men; everyone, everyone

shall come and have all his mercy. We may say that if God were to lump us all together and throw us into the abyss of eternal damnation, we would only get what our deeds are worth. But that is not the way God works. He does not send anyone to hell, but people throw themselves into it. God did not actually build hell for people, but for the devils. That is why he once said to the damned: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." [Matt. 25:41] He does not say: prepared for you, but for the devil. There should actually be no place in hell for humans. That's the devil's reasoning. And yet man is so blind and foolish that he himself runs into hell. But God the Lord will not bring such a person out again.

On this point it should also be noted that we say: "Through the doctrine of the Lutheran Church of God's universal will of grace, all glory is given to God alone." For the Universalists say: Yes, you Lutherans do indeed give God great glory through your doctrine of God's universal will of grace — but we give God much more glory by teaching that God, according to his infinite love, finally saves all men, even the ungodly and the unregenerate. But does this honor God? Oh no! Universalists deny the redemption of Jesus Christ. They only speak of a love of God apart from Christ. They obviously claim that God saves people without his justice having been satisfied. They therefore deny God's holiness and righteousness. We, on the other hand, teach that God wants to save all men in a certain order, and not in such a way that it is against God's own nature, because it is against his holiness and justice. What kind of God would that be, who would save people according to his love and in doing so would desecrate and deny his holiness and justice! The unspeakable greatness and glory of God lies precisely in the fact that he only wants and does what is in accordance with his nature. God is holy, therefore he only wills and does holy things. God is goodness itself, therefore he only wants good and only does good. God has given a law that everyone should and must keep. Man has become a sinner and cannot possibly fulfill the law. But God's law must nevertheless be fulfilled. For what would it be if God gave a law, threatened all transgressors with severe temporal and eternal punishment and then spoke when it was broken? Well, it happened once, what good is it? It cannot be changed, I will let people go and not punish them. No, as true as God is God, it is true that his law must still be fulfilled by every human being today. That person who does not fulfill it will not go to heaven. Are we therefore wretched people? Oh no, blessed, exceedingly blessed are we! For in Christ we have a

guarantor who has fulfilled the law in our place. Therefore the Universalists are reprobates when they teach that all men, good and bad, believers and unbelievers, even devils, will finally be saved. With such doctrine, as much as there is in them, they set God aside, make Him a devil, the prince of darkness, the lover of sin and all wickedness. The doctrine of Christianity, however, brings everything into the most beautiful harmony.

It has been pointed out that at the time of the Reformation the two doctrines of God's general will of grace and of the election of grace were taught purely and simply, and yet it was possible that the most abominable false doctrines on precisely these two points arose through Calvinism and became so widespread. Now that, by God's great grace, the pure doctrine has been so gloriously restored to us, we too are certainly in great danger of violating one of these two doctrines in one way or another through the devil's cunning. Let us therefore be diligent in alerting each other to such dangers. To this end, the question was raised: How was it that the Calvinists at the time of the Reformation, with such a bright light of pure doctrine, fell into such darkness of false doctrine? The answer was as follows:

Zwingli and Calvin were philosophers who, like the philosophers of today, wanted to solve the riddle of the world. But at that time they did not dare to do so without the Bible. For at the time of the Reformation, the Bible was still generally regarded as the Word of God. Even though Zwingli and Calvin were philosophers, they always seemed to take the Bible as their basis and thus gathered a crowd of Christians around them; indeed, they were very successful. Calvinism flooded Switzerland, France, England and Holland in particular. Many of the most splendid Lutheran congregations were transformed into Calvinist ones.

The philosopher first creates a system from which he then wants to explain all phenomena. He looks at the world, at dead and living creatures, he compares the history of peoples and individuals and asks himself: How can I reconcile all this with my system? The atheist says: I cannot find a God. It is all nothing. Theists still confess a personal God who created the world and leads it to a certain end. Zwingli and Calvin were also such theists. They presented their doctrine as the solution of the Bible. But this is only a pretense. They saw that the Bible says: "God wants all people to be helped", and yet they also saw that thousands and millions were being lost. In the church they noticed how some people accepted the Word of God, others rejected it — indeed, despite all the preaching, they only got worse and worse. So they thought to themselves: God lets his

word be preached to all and offers his grace to all, but only means those who are to be saved and must therefore be brought to faith; the others are not meant. Therefore, when the Bible uses the word "all" or the expression "without distinction" or when it says: "God wants to save sinners", it always refers only to the elect. So they thought they had happily found the bridge over the abyss for our reason. For it is inexplicable to our reason that the Chinese, for example, who have almost become a civilized people, have been without the preaching of the Gospel for so long. Only a few missionaries have been there from time to time. Our reason speaks: why doesn't God send angels with his Word to every village, to every house in China? If that were to happen, then I would believe that it is God's serious will that all people should be saved. Furthermore, how can I believe that one man lives a shameful life for eighty years and finally converts and is saved, while another lives thirty, forty or fifty years in a godly and god-fearing manner and then falls into fornication, persists in this sin and is eternally damned, or is stabbed to death the very next hour after committing the sin and can no longer convert? Is it not marvelous that God gives that man eighty or ninety years and this man not a quarter of an hour to repent?

There is a father who has buried twelve children in their early childhood. They are all in heaven, and another father has twelve children who fall into unbelief, sin and shame and all go to the devil. Who can rhyme this with our doctrine of God's universal will of grace? See, this is the abyss the Calvinists could not get over. Stop! they thought, we have to build a bridge. But they built a devil's bridge, for they blamed God for not allowing all to be saved, for not forgiving all their sins, for not bringing all to faith. That is why a few go to heaven and the majority to hell. But this is what the devil taught Calvin. Of course, Calvin's doctrine looks like a harmonious whole that solves all the riddles of reason. Reason must consider it an admirable system. Luther's doctrine, on the other hand, fits reason neither back nor front. Of course, the apostles and prophets are to blame for this, and if we want to go even further, we must blame God himself, who gave it to the prophets and apostles. But that is God's pedagogy, i.e. how God teaches in the world. You should not know this, you arrogant spirits, says God. Wait in humility and the fear of God and accept my Word with simplicity. Then you will know everything later. In eternity you will speak: Yes, God, you are eternal love! You have done everything to save this man, but he could not be saved." —

Therefore we ask nothing about the harmonious whole of Calvin's doctrine. For Calvin is quite the same as our modern philosophers, except that he still cites Bible verses for his cause. These philosophers, such as Kant, Schelling, Hegel, are therefore actually better, for they do not attach Bible verses to their philosophy. —

So what do we have to be particularly careful of? That we do not seek a doctrine that forms a system, like philosophy. Philosophy is a closed system of doctrine. It begins with a supreme proposition from which everything is developed. Christianity, however, is not such a science. Rather, there are as many passages in Holy Scripture as there are principles. Here it says: God wants all men to be helped; in another place, that most will perish. There it is written that it is God alone who converts men, and here it is said that man himself is to blame if he is lost. Now let us not start with one principle and judge everything by it. The devil will thank us if we want to bring a connection into these sayings that God has not made. Of course, we Missourians are therefore despised as stupid people who have left science in Germany and roam around here like wild Indians. In Germany, on the other hand, no one is despised who brings even the most horrible teachings into a system. If he only proceeds in a strictly philosophical manner, it means: respect for the great theologian! But the future will reveal by what kind of teaching the church has been built and the glory of God has been promoted. May God keep us only in humble faith.

*) Continuation of the minutes of Secretary Kleppisch.

*) Finally, it was noted on the fourth point: the doctrine of God's general will of grace seems to contradict reality. We see that many children are deceived and lost, and that millions of Gentiles do not come to faith because they have never been given a spark of the Gospel. But it is important to note that there is a mystery here which will only be revealed to us in eternal life. Rambach says in: "Erläuterung über Freylinghausen's Grundlegung der Theologie", a humble man is content with the general statement: "God wants all men to be helped", a very angry man is punished by having to worry in vain with a thousand doubts.

Before the Synod proceeded to the discussion of the 5th point in the 3rd Thesis, the question was put to them whether it was not advisable to discuss the 12th point (of election by grace) now, since the Iowans continued to maintain that only the leaders in our Synod held the doctrine of predestination (election by grace)

presented in our journals, while the other Synod members held a different doctrine. But since we can only really recognize how the Lutheran Church gives all glory to God alone in the doctrine of election by grace when we have gone through the other doctrines that precede it in the third thesis, and since the mouths of the Iowans cannot be stopped even by the most compelling reasons from God's Word, it was resolved to maintain the stated order.

In the fifth point we hear how the Lutheran Church also gives all glory to God alone in its doctrine of the reconciliation and redemption of the human race. This doctrine is now without doubt the crown of all Christian doctrine and the real triumph of the Christian religion. All religions show man a way in which he can escape the misery of sin and become blessed and happy. But while all religions except the Christian religion show man how he must do this himself in order to come out and be saved, the Christian religion, on the other hand, teaches not only how people are to be eternally saved one day, but how they are already saved. According to the teachings of the Christian religion, man is already redeemed, already freed from sin and all misery, and God is already reconciled with him. The Christian religion says to man: You do not need to redeem yourself and reconcile God with yourself. Christ has already done all that for you. Nothing is left for you but to believe this, that is, to accept it. This is precisely what distinguishes the Christian religion from all other religions. The Jew says: If you want to become righteous, you must keep the law of Moses; the Turk says: If you want to be saved, you must follow the Koran; the Papists say: If you want to go to heaven, you must do good works, repent of your sins and do enough for them yourself, and if you want to get really high, go into a monastery; and all sects that falsify Christianity without exception impose something on man that he must do in order to become righteous and saved before God. The Lutheran Church, on the other hand, says to man according to God's Word: Everything has already been done; you are already redeemed, you are already justified before God, you are already saved; therefore you have nothing to do to redeem yourself first, and you do not have to reconcile God with yourself and earn your salvation first. You only have to believe that Christ, the Son of God, has already done all this for you, and through this faith you shall be made partaker of it and be saved. To be saved by faith means to be saved by the righteousness of another, namely Christ, in that it becomes man's own property. Thus, by ascribing the reconciliation and redemption of all people to God alone and denying and taking away everything from man, the Lutheran church also gives him alone all the glory in this doctrine.

God, on the other hand, is deprived of his glory

We Lutherans, on the other hand, teach, as I said, that the whole world is already redeemed through Christ, the whole work is already finished; but faith is the hand that makes redemption one's own. Thus it says in the

Formula of Concord: "God has decreed in his purpose and counsel, 1. that the human race is truly redeemed and reconciled to God through Christ, who by his innocent obedience, suffering and death has earned for us the righteousness that is valid before God and eternal life." (FC SD 11, 14-15)

So this is not the Lutheran doctrine that Christ, through his fulfillment of the law, through his suffering, death and resurrection, has brought it about that the good Lord now regards faith as something so excellent and high that it is for the sake of it that we must first be reconciled with man. On the contrary, the Lutheran Church teaches that everything that was necessary to reconcile and redeem us happened through Christ. Christ suffered in the place of all humanity and acquired the righteousness that is valid before God. When Christ suffered, all men suffered in him, for he suffered in their place. When he hung on the cross, all hung on the cross in him; when he died, we died, and when he rose again, we rose again. When God says to us in his Word: Sins are excluded from the kingdom of heaven, they must be atoned for; we can now answer: In Christ my sins have already been atoned for; he has done enough for them as my substitute. If God says in his Word, "But the law must be fulfilled," we can now answer, "It has already been fulfilled in Christ. If God says in his Word, "You must die because of your sin," we can answer, "I have already died: I have already died, for I hold to your word, since you say, "If one died for all, they all died" (1 Cor. 5:14). If God says in his Word, "If you want to go to heaven, you must be righteous," we can answer: Christ carried my sins to the grave and came out of the grave righteous in my place. He is my substitute and surety in his suffering, death, and

shedding of blood: so is he also in his resurrection. To this, of course, the sects and enthusiasts say: Then, you think, there is no need to do good works. But we answer: Good works should be done, but not to propitiate God, not to redeem oneself, not to obtain forgiveness of sins and the adoption of God, but out of gratitude to Christ and God for the redemption that has taken place. After all, what I do to gain a reward is not a good work at all. It is very important that the testimony quoted from the Formula of Concord does not say that the human race is truly to be redeemed and reconciled with God, but rather: "redeemed and reconciled with God." Therefore, for example, writes

Calov writes: "All men are liberated, as far as God's and Christ's purpose is concerned, by the freedom acquired for all through Christ; but the fact that some do not actually enjoy it is not because Christ died for all, as if all had already died, but rather that they subsequently make themselves guilty of death in another way." (Socinismusprofligatus, p. 386.)

What is most important here is that Calov says: "that subsequently", after they have been redeemed, "they are guilty of death in another way." In Christ they are all redeemed, in Christ they are all reconciled, in Christ they have already acquired salvation, in Christ they are already saved. That is why the damned in hell will one day have to say: I did not go to hell because I was not saved, but God had given me everything in Christ that makes a person saved. I did not go to hell because I was such a great sinner, for my sins were blotted out by Christ; but I was cast out because I did not want to accept the salvation I had received from God's hand, because I did not want to believe.

The same Calov writes: "We are not redeemed, reconciled, or reconciled to our sins on any condition, but unconditionally, perfectly, completely, as far as the merit and acquisition is concerned; although, as far as the actual fruit and appropriation is concerned, faith is necessary; which is nothing else than the appropriation of that desacralization, satisfaction, and reconciliation of Christ. For if one died for all, it is the same (in God's judgment) as if all had died. 2 Cor. 5, 15." (Biblia illustrata ad Rom. 5, 10)

We should not say to people: You are saved on the condition that you believe; but the other way around: Because Christ has redeemed you, you can now believe that you have been saved. No one believes that he will receive an inheritance because it is to be promised to him first, but because it has already been promised to him. So also here: Not the belief that one is first to be redeemed is the right, saving faith, but the faith that accepts the redemption that has already happened through Christ.

Therefore, as certain as the Gospel is the doctrine that tells us that man has been reconciled and redeemed, it is also certain that redemption and reconciliation have already taken place. The enthusiasts say that this is why one is saved through faith, because through it one receives a different heart, becomes holy and pious. Of course, it is true that faith must result in all these things, otherwise it is not true faith. But the honor of salvation or redemption is not due to faith as a work of man or for the sake of its good qualities and consequences, but I am to believe that I am redeemed because Christ has already redeemed me. Therefore I am to believe that God is reconciled to me, because God in Christ has already reconciled himself to me. Therefore I should believe that my sins are forgiven because they have already been forgiven in Christ. It is therefore terrible when the sects say: I have all this on condition that I do something to bring it about.

Kromayer writes: "In the article of Christ we give God the glory of mercy that he has had mercy on us all and has bestowed in his Son an admirable means of regaining salvation." (Scrutin. religionum, etc. p. 334.)

Quenstedt writes: "As Christ reconciled God to us by dying for us on the cross; so he reconciles us to God by virtue of his death, by converting us through the word of the cross." (Theol. I, 435).

God is already reconciled with us through Christ's suffering and death; no one needs to reconcile Him with himself now. God is no longer angry with mankind. That is why 2 Cor. 5 does not say: Let God be reconciled to you, but: "Be reconciled to God." [2 Cor. 5:20] That is, you believe that God is angry with you, but he is not angry. If you do not believe this, then he is certainly an angry God to you. For as I believe God, so He is. If I believe that God is gracious to me, he is gracious to me; if I believe that he is ungracious to me, he is ungracious to me. That is, God is gracious to me through Christ's redemption; and through faith, by virtue of which I place my trust in such redemption, God's grace becomes mine. On the other hand, God is ungracious to me if I reject the reconciliation that has taken place through unbelief.

Luther therefore writes: "If Scripture says that God is angry, it is nothing other than that he is felt to be so." (Erlanger Bd. 33, 168 [St. L. 3, 143]) "As the conscience holds itself against God, so is He. If you think He is gracious, then He is gracious; if you fear Him as a terrible judge, then He is... Because this is how it changes between me and Him, even though God's nature otherwise remains unchanged. But everything is to be done for the sake of faith." (ibid., 237 [ibid, p. 202 f.])

Luther further writes: "Now this is the benefit of Christ's suffering and resurrection,

that he did it not for himself, but for the whole world, that he trampled the devil and my sins, which clung to him on silent Friday, under foot, that the devil also flees before the name of Christ. If then thou wilt have need of such great goods, well, he hath already given them thee: do him so much honor, and accept them with thanksgiving." (XII, 2048 [St. L. 12, 1586])

All these glorious goods: righteousness, life, salvation, are already there, Christ has already given them to mankind with his Gospel, as Luther also says in the 95 Theses. "The true treasure of the churches," it says in the 62nd thesis, "is the holy gospel of the glory and grace of God." [AE 31, 31] The point is simply that we need these glorious goods. What use is it to us if we keep bodily goods that are given to us in boxes and crates and do not need them? It is the same here in the spiritual realm: The glorious goods of Christ have already been given to us; remember, they have already been given to us, and they are always there for us, even if we do not believe. If I take something that has not been given to me and that is not for me, it is wrong; I am a thief. But forgiveness of sin, righteousness, life and salvation, these heavenly goods, are not only offered to us like a commodity for sale, but they are already given and bestowed upon us. That is why Luther says here: "If you want such great goods, well, he has already given them to you: just do him so much honor and accept them with thanksgiving."

The enthusiasts now say: "Not only the Lutheran Church, but we also believe that Christ has redeemed the whole world and reconciled it with God, and that redemption is complete." But what they say is not true. Why do they rage so fiercely against the teaching of the divine Word on Baptism, Absolution and the Lord's Supper? Why do they rage and blaspheme when we say: sins are forgiven in Baptism, sins are forgiven through the mouth of the preacher in Absolution and in the preaching of the Gospel, and in Holy Communion we are not only given the body and blood of Jesus Christ to eat and drink, but also forgiveness of sins? To this they say: Then, of course, it would be easy to go to heaven if one obtained forgiveness of sins by a little water or by eating and drinking or by the preacher opening his mouth. But in doing so they immediately indicate that they do not believe that Christ has in fact and truth redeemed the whole world through his suffering and death on the cross and reconciled it completely with God. The heavenly goods which Christ has acquired for us are presented to us in Baptism, in Absolution, in the general preaching of the gospel, in the Lord's Supper, just as, to use an image, physical, edible things are presented to us on a wooden plate. Then

the fanatic says: What use is the wooden plate to me? Why, because he does not believe what is on it? He is against the means of grace because he does not believe in grace itself. Yes, says the enthusiast, I cannot believe that God gives such great goods through such small, insignificant means. To this serve for answer: This is precisely because you do not believe that Christ has acquired forgiveness of sins and God's grace for all men; for if Christ has acquired such goods, will he leave us without means by which he makes those goods our own? Certainly not. So that we do not need to ascend to heaven and fetch the Lord Christ and his goods from there, He wants to be in the Word and everywhere where his Word is practiced. He has placed all his goods in Baptism, in Absolution, in the Word of the gospel, in Holy Communion. Can you, says Christ to the redeemed, therefore lack the assurance of the forgiveness of your sins? No, you can now be completely sure of God's grace. Baptism is my hand, Absolution is my hand, the Lord's Supper is my hand, the Gospel is my hand, with which I give you these great and glorious goods. And it is not an empty hand, but a hand filled with all kinds of spiritual goodness. We humans should truly rejoice, sing and leap when we hear this from the mouth of Christ. But that we are so lazy and cold to hear the Word of the Gospel; that we value so little the absolution pronounced by the preacher; that we have so little desire to partake of Holy Communion: this is because we do not believe in the reconciliation of the whole human race through Christ and its fruit. The reason why we are always so full of doubts, why we struggle with our many worries, why we are disillusioned, at odds with God and the world and dissatisfied with our situation in the world, is always because we do not believe that God is reconciled with us through Christ, that salvation is already prepared for us and that it is offered to us in the means of grace. The only difference here between us Christians and the enthusiasts is that our faith is so weak that we cannot grasp the greatness of Christ's good deed as we should, while the enthusiasts blaspheme and trample this heavenly truth underfoot. They do say: We agree with you Lutherans on the main point of Christianity; we believe just as well as you do that Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of all men and that he has brought about a perfect reconciliation; we only differ on secondary points, which do not matter much, such as the Lord's Supper, Baptism, and Absolution. We cannot believe what you teach because it is contrary to our reason. But if that were really the real reason why the enthusiasts here disagree with us,

we would soon agree with them. But that is by no means the real reason. They confess, for example, that they believe in the triune God; but this article is the greatest mystery to human reason. They also believe that God created the whole world out of nothing. Why then do they not believe in the power of Absolution, Baptism and the Lord's Supper? — Because they do not believe from the bottom of their hearts that Christ has redeemed and reconciled the whole world and purchased righteousness, forgiveness of sins, God's grace and eternal life for all people. Would to God that we ourselves had grasped this doctrine in a truly living way! We preachers in particular should call upon God daily to equip us to proclaim this doctrine with great joy, so that our listeners may recognize the great goods of salvation by faith and be compelled to exclaim after every sermon: "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messengers who proclaim peace, who preach good news, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'Your God is King! Isaiah 52:7: They shall not preach: If you do such and such, if you do such and such, you will be freed from your sins: The letter is here, God is reconciled, you are already freed from your sins, God now looks with favor on the whole human race. It is true that most people retain the wrath of God; but this is not because God is really still angry with them for their sins, but because they do not want to believe. This is why the Savior says: "He who does not believe the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God will remain on him." John 3:36 We say: I must first become another man, for I cannot come before God as I am; — but no! First you must believe that Christ has completely redeemed you from all your sins, only then can things change with you. "Your blood, the noble sap, has such strength and power that even a tiny drop can cleanse the whole world, even set it free, and liberated from the devil's jaws."

Another proof that the enthusiasts do not believe this doctrine is this: When they, e.g. the Methodists and the Presbyterians, especially the new school, have worked on a person and brought him to the point where, full of desire for grace and deliverance from sin, he does not know how to be helped, weeps, sighs, wrings his hands, they do not ask him: What do you believe? — but rather: How do you feel? If a man says that he feels well, then according to them Jesus is there; if he does not feel well, then he is not yet there; so they go on with the work until he has a feeling as if Jesus is there. But if a person is crushed by the law of God and is therefore ready to repent, they should point him to Christ and say, "Only believe! As soon as you believe, you have all the goods of Christ. You are already redeemed; forgiveness is already obtained for you; it is offered to you in every word of the gospel; you are baptized, and

in Baptism God has already given you all the benefits of Christ and made an eternal covenant of grace with you: hold fast to this! and now go to the Lord's Supper to strengthen your faith; for there the most precious pledge of God's grace is given into your mouth, the ransom itself paid for all the sins of all men, the Son of God's body and blood. But this is precisely what they lack, and make repentance the means of reconciliation with God. But the repentance that was necessary to earn God's grace for us was already made by Christ in Gethsamene, when he bore the sins of all the world and sweated a bloody sweat for their sake. It is only because we are so full and disgusted with the means of grace that God must first crush us with his law and work repentance over sin in our hearts. For only then does grace taste good. Therefore, and only therefore, does God work repentance in man.

Luther therefore writes: "The enthusiasts of today also all practise the first commandment; they say: We also proclaim grace and mercy through Christ, and do not reject the article of the first commandment; and say, I, Lutherus, am lying to them." (Here Luther declares the doctrine of reconciliation and redemption, of the grace and mercy of God, to be the article of the first commandment; for: How does the first commandment begin? "I am the Lord your God." These are evangelical words. For if God is my God, I must be righteous before him, I must have forgiveness of my sins. And because these words belong in the Gospel, Luther also omitted them from the first commandment in his catechism). "But stand by them: they confess Christ died, who hung on the cross and saved us, that is true; but they deny that by which we receive him, that is, the means, the way, the bridge and the path, which they break off.".... The enthusiasts also say much about God, about the forgiveness of sins and God's grace, and also that Christ died: but how I receive Christ and how grace comes to me, that I receive it, that we come together, they say: The Spirit alone must do it; they lead me astray; they say that the outward and oral word, baptism and sacrament are of no avail, and yet they preach about grace. This is to proclaim the treasure to me, and to speak well of it, but to take away the key and the bridge by which I am to come to the treasure." (III, 2501. F. [St. L. 3, 1692 f.]) Of course God wants to seal His grace in me, but only through the Word. And the Holy Spirit wants to testify in the heart; but this also happens through the Word; otherwise I could not know whether it is the Holy Spirit or the feelings of my own heart. Whoever, at the hour of death, does not keep to the Word but to the "spirit", has only a phantom, a figment of the imagination, and must go to hell.

Gerhard also writes concerning the Reformed (Calvinists): "Against the honor of the high priestly office of Christ the Calvinists offend: 1. In that by their dangerous allöosisthey refer Christ's suffering, which he endured for the sins of the whole world, solely to his human nature. For if this is certain, then the merit of Christ cannot have its value and efficacy, since Christ's suffering is the most perfect satisfaction for sins precisely because it is not the suffering of a mere man, but of a God-man, that is, of the Son of God himself, who endured it in his assumed human nature." (Disput. theol. I, 160. ff.)

For Zwingli first said that when it says in Scripture that "God purchased his church by his own blood", or "the Jews crucified the Lord of glory" and "killed the Prince of life", or "God gave up his own Son", we should not take the words as they read, but that here we find the figure of alloeosis, i.e. the way of speaking, since one says something quite different from what one means by his words. The Calvinists then followed him and said: When it says: "Christ" has suffered, it is meant to say: Only his humanity suffered. But that is just as foolish as saying that a person has died: Not the man, but only his body has died; for when man dies, body and soul are separated from each other, and so the death of man also affects his soul. So also here with Christ. Christ is the true God and eternal life and at the same time true man. Now, according to Scripture, the whole Christ, the God-man, died, of course according to human nature; just as a man dies, but according to the body. Thus the Son of God truly suffered for sins, shed his holy and precious blood and redeemed mankind. If only that which was human in Christ had died, then redemption would not be valid; for the blood of man cannot reconcile God with the whole world, the death of man cannot earn forgiveness of the sins of all the world and make all the world righteous, but only the blood of God and the death of God can do this. But if we say that, according to the Calvinists, only a mere man died for mankind, this is not wrongly attributed to the Calvinists, but the following words of Calvin clearly prove that he considered the suffering and death of Christ to be merely the suffering and death of a man. Calvin blasphemously writes thus: "I confess that if someone wanted to oppose Christ to God's judgment per se, there would be no merit, because in a man (!) the worthiness would not be found that could earn God's favor. Therefore, when we speak of Christ's merit, the root cause is not placed in him, but we

ascend to the fact that God has so ordained it, which is the first cause." (Institutes II, 17, 1.) Calvin's meaning is: Whoever would rely only on the fact that Christ died and shed his blood, and would therefore be certain of his salvation, would draw a false conclusion; for a "man" (namely Christ) cannot earn forgiveness of sins for all men before God. God, he wants to say, accepts the suffering and death of Christ only as a perfect satisfaction for the absolute election of grace; in fact, it has no such high value and worthiness as to be able to take away sins. And why does Calvin think this? Because, according to his false doctrine of predestination, he attributes it only to the unconditional eternal counsel of God that God brings a man to heaven, not to Christ's truly perfect satisfaction. Here it also becomes obvious that the true Reformed do not believe that Christ is true God and man in one person.

Gerhard continues: "2. by placing the ground of merit in a mere approval of the Father, which follows from the first doctrine." (That is, the Reformed believe that Christ's suffering and death have such great power only because God so approves of it; as if God thought: "The satisfaction of the man Christ is admittedly small compared to the great and many sins, but I will accept it in this way. — But this is the glory of God's righteousness, that men could not enter heaven until all their sins were truly and completely blotted out by the suffering and death of the Son of God).

Gerhard continues: "3. by denying that Christ's merit and satisfaction was for all men without exception, but claiming that it was provided only for a few by unconditional decree. (4) In that some of them exclude the active obedience of Christ from meritorious causes." (That Christ lived so holy and fulfilled the law, some Calvinists say, he had to do so because he was also a man. But because Christ was a man who was also God, he was not subject to any law. But he allowed himself to be put under the law so that he might acquire for us the righteousness that we lacked. Thus, not only the suffering obedience of Christ, but also his active obedience benefits us).

Gerhard continues: "5 Some of them think that Christ has earned something for himself." (They claim this because they do not believe that Christ is true God and man in one person).

Finally, Gerhard says: "6. in that some of them ascribe salvation to the Gentiles without

the faith that takes Christ's merit; for if the Gentiles are saved without Christ's merit, then this was not necessary for our salvation." (Disputation, theol. I, 160 ff.) Yes, then we Christians would be worse off than the Gentiles. It would then be better if we had not heard the gospel. An honorable life would then also be sufficient to be saved. Zwingli writes that he hopes to see Cicero, Aristides, Theseus, Numa Pompilius and Hercules again in heaven. (A pious jurist has said with reference to this: I do not wish to go to heaven, where Hercules is supposed to be with his club).

Concerning redemption itself, the Methodist Nast writes blasphemous words in his explanation of the Gospel of Luke, p. 213: "The idea that ‘the suffering Son of God really had to feel the wrath of the Father and taste the torment of hell, yes, that God's wrath made Christ suffer just as much as the whole world of sinners deserved’, we consider unfounded in God's Word." — But as our surety, Christ had to pay and atone for our sins, and since he proclaimed on the cross, "It is finished," we know that he paid and atoned for them in full. But the enthusiasts say: Not so. — Of course, if we could not rely on the word of Christ, "It is finished," no Christian could say, "Christ has done enough for every one of my sins. —

We should rejoice and leap for joy that we have recognized the blessed truth and can preach it in our church. What a grace of God! Only in the Lutheran Church is this truth taught. What an incentive for us to continue confidently in the work of the Lord! While we are blasphemed and reviled by the enthusiasts and false Lutherans because of this doctrine, we have the joyful awareness that God has given us an unspeakable grace with this doctrine. For this teaching is pleasing to God. How confident we can be in our work and our struggle! We have a doctrine that seeks God's glory, while the counter-doctrine reviles and blasphemes God.

God created the world for His glory and placed man in it solely to seek and promote the glory of God. But through the fall into sin, God's glory has been taken away. How can man now come to restore the glory of God? God himself has ensured that he can be honored by man again. Although the sparks of God's glory still shine in nature, this is nothing compared to the work of redemption. Here God has been restored to his full glory. Christ has reconciled God with us and taken away everything from us humans that diminishes his glory: all sins, the curse of the law, death and eternal

damnation. And only where this is preached is the glory of God rightly proclaimed. God has revealed his glory through nothing so gloriously as through the redemption and reconciliation of the whole human race. Christ bore all sins, both original sin and all other sins. That is why we confess in the interpretation of the Second Article: "He has redeemed, purchased and won me, the lost and condemned man, from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy and precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death." [Triglotta p. 545] So God has not, as the enthusiasts say, only done something for the redemption of all people, so that his work is incomplete and we still have to do something in addition.

That is why this thesis also says: "Only through the Lutheran doctrine of the reconciliation and redemption of the human race is all glory given to God alone." For by means of all the aforementioned obscurations of this doctrine by the enthusiasts, God's honor is attacked. And that is also what the devil wants. In paradise, through his false doctrine, he would have led men to rob God of his glory, and now that God has shown his love to men in such abundance and thereby regained his glory, he seeks to obscure, indeed, to destroy the word that reveals this through the enthusiasts and false Lutherans. Sometimes he does not want Christ to be God, sometimes he wants Christ not to have suffered and died for all men; he is always trying to undermine that blessed teaching here and there.

But that the enthusiasts do not believe in a complete redemption is also evident from the fact that faith is held in such low esteem among them. We preach about faith because Christ is then preached. Everyone should only say yes and amen to such preaching: — that is what God wants from us. That is why the angels at the birth of the world's Redeemer and Reconciler know nothing else to proclaim than: "Glory to God in the highest"! Only then do they cry out: "Peace on earth and good will to men." The holy inhabitants of heaven knew that God's glory, which the devil had deceived people into robbing, would now be restored. This is why we also read in Scripture that the angels are attributed a special joy in the Gospel. 1 Peter 1:12 reads: "Which also the angels delight to behold." For even in heaven there is probably no work by which God is more honored than the incarnation of the Son of God. That is why Christ says with great wonder: "God so loved the world." He gives his Son to the godless, cursed world, which has become hostile to God, and lets him suffer shame, death and the torments of hell for it. O great, incomprehensible love of God! —

But that the Calvinists expressly deny the perfection of redemption and reconciliation is evident from the fact that, among others,

the Presbyterians confess: "No other is redeemed by Christ, powerfully called, justified, brought to adoption, sanctified and made blessed, except the elect alone." (The Constitution etc., p. 22.)

*) Written Mr. Pastor Große.

*) The Swiss Confession further states: "He (Christ) alone, according to the Father's counsel and of his own free will, went to meet the dreadful death for the elect; he alone brought them back into the fold of the Father's grace; he alone reconciled them with God the Father, who was offended, and freed them from the curse of the law." (Formula Consensus Helvetica, see Corpus lib. symb. Reform. Edit. Augusti p. 450) And in another place it says: "It is also rightly said that it is his (God's) will that everyone, whoever sees the Son and believes in him, should have eternal life. (John 6:40) Although this "everyone" is only the elect, and although God has not made a general decree without the determination of persons, and Christ therefore did not die for all individuals, but only for the elect who were given to him, he nevertheless wants that to be generally true which follows from his special and definite decree (ex speciali et deninitoejusconsilio). But that, when the will of God is thus generally presented in the outward calling, only the elect believe, but the rejected (reprobi) are hardened, this comes solely from the discriminating grace of God." (L. C. p. 454. f.)

What a shameful hypocrisy it is when they first say: "It is also rightly said that it is God's will that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him, should have eternal life"! Thus they present themselves as if they were one with us Lutherans. But they immediately add: "Although this 'everyone' alone is the elect." But you cannot know that you are an elect, for you have not been in God's council chamber and have not found your name in the Book of Life, nor do you find it in the Bible. But the truth is that you are leading poor sinners by the nose. If God had only redeemed the elect, why should he not have said so in his Word? For if only two criminals in a penitentiary are to be pardoned and I am to bring them the message, I will not say: all the criminals in this penitentiary are pardoned. The whole world is also one big penitentiary. We humans are all poor, lost, damned sinners. And yet God has commanded to preach to all that they are all pardoned. — But the Calvinists say: No, these "all", these "everyone" find only the elect. Then the condemnation of many does not come from the fact that they recklessly resist, but the grace of God

makes the difference. In one person it gives power to the word so that the sinner accepts it and believes. With another, grace withdraws so that the sinner remains in unbelief and is condemned. What a terrible doctrine, by which all honor is taken from God! Thus the Reformed deny what all angels have admired for nearly two thousand years and will marvel at for all eternity, what has hitherto been the theme of their heavenly songs. Luke 2:14.

But there is one more thing we must be aware of in this matter of the redemption of the whole world, by which God is robbed of all glory, as by nothing else: It is the ungodly doctrine of the Romans concerning the sacrifice of the Mass. The sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest abomination of papism. While Christ called down from the cross: “It is finished” — the nefarious priests of the Antichrist say: It is not yet finished. We must now repeat the sacrifice until the Last Day. Whoever wants to be saved, let him pay, then we will sacrifice Christ for him in an unbloody way. And they declare this to be the greatest, most glorious and most exquisite work. Campegius said: He would rather be torn to pieces than give up the Mass. The devil also knows very well why he preserves and elevates the Mass so powerfully, namely to remove Christ's sacrifice from the church. Christ's sacrifice is said to have been nothing but an empty spectacle. Christ may have sacrificed himself once, but now he must be sacrificed a million times and this sacrifice has the same power as Christ's atoning sacrifice. Every priest must say Mass at least once a day. Some do it thirty times. What an atrocious desecration of Christ's sacrifice!

Our Church also confesses this in the Apology: "We teach that the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross was sufficient for the sin of the whole world, and that we have no need of any other sacrifice for sin." (Ap 13, 8, Triglotta p. 311)

Further: "It is the greatest dishonor and blasphemy of the Gospel and of Christ that the evil work of the Mass ex opere operatoshould be a sacrifice which propitiates God and is sufficient for sins; it is a most horrible, ugly preaching and teaching, and a great unspeakable abomination, that the evil work of a priest should be counted as much as the death of Christ." (Ap 24, 89; Triglotta p. 415)

Truly, it is impossible to say with the tongue of man what an abomination the Mass is. The wretched priest, the child of the devil, comes along and says: "Oh yes, Christ's sacrifice has brought much benefit, but the main thing remains that we sacrifice him again every day. Thus the wretched man says to Christ: Your little suffering on Golgotha is not enough, you must now be sacrificed in many thousands of places. The Romans therefore also call the mass: sacrificiumpropitiatorium, i.e. a

sacrifice of atonement. Such a lousy clergyman and knave of shame, who perhaps lives daily in fornication, elevates himself to a Savior of sinners, who can offer an atoning sacrifice that is to complement Christ's sacrifice, indeed to a greater Savior than Christ is. For he who can offer such a sacrifice must be a greater Savior than Christ. Christ had to sacrifice himself with much suffering and bitter death. But the Roman priest only says a few words and the story is finished in a flash: the sacrifice is offered. In describing his journey to Rome, Luther recounts that in Italy the priests had already said seven masses before the devout Luther had finished one, and then mockingly called out to him: Passa, passa(quickly, quickly), send our dear lady's son home again soon. This gave Luther, who was still trapped in popedom, a stab in the heart. He thought to himself at the time: How! If the pope himself were so reckless in Rome, how finely you would be deceived! As he thought, so he found. For the priests were nothing but mockers of religion, who ridiculed the people for giving their money for such a game. If it were not for the money, the mass would have been abolished long ago, for it is inconvenient for the lazy priests, since the law exists: The priest must be sober if he wants to say mass. This is why many a priest hastens to say Mass so early so that he can eat and drink soon.

Gerhard also writes about this abomination of the sacrifice of the Mass: "1. Scripture ascribes this honor to Christ, that He is the one and only, actually so-called high priest and priest, apart from whom no one offers a propitiatory sacrifice, whom God has made the only example of all Levitical priests. But the Papists, besides this one so-called priest of the New Testament, make innumerable others subordinate (secundarios) priests, teaching that Christ's body and blood are offered daily in the Mass in an unbloody manner by the priests of the Mass for sins, and that they make their priests of the Mass mediators between God and men, whose sacrifice has the same validity as the one sacrifice of Christ offered on the altar of the cross. 2. Sacred Scripture ascribes to Christ the honor of having offered himself once for us as a gift and sacrifice, to God as a sweet savor. The Papists say that Christ is still sacrificed often and daily at Mass. 3. Scripture ascribes this honor to this single offering of Christ, that it is the perfect propitiation for sins. The Papists, however, teach that Christ is still offered daily to God in the Mass for the attainment of reconciliation." (Disputat. theol. I, 60. f.)

The Mass is therefore the real hellish core of the antichristian papacy. If one wishes to save a Catholic, one should seek above all to make him realize that the Mass is the most horrible abomination

on the whole earth. Luther therefore rightly says of himself when he was made a priest to sacrifice for the living and the dead and read his first mass: "That the earth did not swallow us up was due to an all too great patience on God's part."

Even in the Heidelberg Catechism there is a special question about the Mass. In the answer, the Mass is called an abominable idolatry. Of course, Ursinus and Olevianus did not write this question and answer themselves. For when they brought the first copy of the Heidelberg Catechism to the Elector for his perusal, he declared that there was no question about the Mass. Since the Elector was a mighty lord, they did not dare to object and allowed this question to be included. Now in America, however, this question has been thrown out again as an annoying and offensive matter. And yet this alone is the best thing in the entire Heidelberg Catechism.

The Synod recognized that it was extremely important and necessary to deal with the Mass in greater detail and therefore decided to have theses on the greatest abomination of the sacrifice of the Mass drawn up for the next sessions and, as soon as the discussion of the present theses was finished, to base a detailed discussion on them.

The Synod also pointed out that in most of the sermons of the modern preachers the doctrine of salvation is so much neglected. Indeed, there are quite a few Lutherans who believe that this doctrine should be handled with care; this would only make the listeners safe. One should preach more about conversion. But how did the Reformation of the Church come about? How are people converted? By giving God the glory he has given himself in the work of redemption, by believing this redemption from the heart and accepting it. For anything else is not conversion. Just as God has given himself the highest glory through redemption, so men should now also begin to give God the glory, and this happens through faith. For through faith, it says in Scripture, Abraham gave God the glory. No doctrine is therefore so worthy of diligent and thorough study, so worthy that the preacher should present it in a more attractive and lovely way, than the doctrine of the redemption of the world through Christ, in which the listeners are shown how God became the sinner of all sinners and took upon himself all shame, curse and wrath. Where this doctrine is not preached purely, God is shamefully reviled, and again, where this piece shines gloriously, God alone is given all the glory. The apostle says of the preachers: "We are therefore ambassadors for Christ." He does not call them mere teachers, but ambassadors who are to bring the joyful message of the gospel to the world. They are not simply to instruct the world, like the philosopher. No, the main thing, the real task is for the preacher to come as a

messenger of God and say: Oh, dear people, be happy, you are saved, don't you know it yet? Well, I come as a messenger of God to proclaim it to you: God is reconciled with you. But this is now being preached less and less in the churches. At best, the listeners are instructed, but usually they are only beaten up, given rules, punished harshly and given a great goal. So it is no wonder that people are reluctant to go to church. For even the righteous feel oppressed and, weighed down in their conscience, leave the house of God because they have once again realized that they are not as they should be. But the preachers themselves are to blame. They are too few messengers of God, forgetting that their main office is to show how much God has done for us poor sinners in infinite love, and that we should only believe it. And let no one doubt that this is the main thing, that we believe: we are redeemed! For before Christ ascended into heaven, he gave his disciples the main instruction, as it were the summa summarum of his whole religion: "Go into all the world and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. All in all, this is what a preacher has to preach. If he does not seek to make each of his listeners divinely certain of his salvation, he is not doing what he is called to do. Admittedly, if a preacher now presents himself as quite pious, punishes sins terribly, can pray quite unctuously and with tears, prays for half an hour so that people think he wants to pull heaven down with his prayer, and at the same time conceals, even rejects Christ's perfect redemption, most people say, "That's a preacher I'll put up with.” But such a preacher is only a hindrance in the kingdom of God and we do not want to know anything about him. If, on the other hand, a preacher proclaims Christ Jesus, exalts this man, and makes people rejoice from the heart that they have such a glorious Savior, that is the right man, he is an ambassador in God's stead. We preachers should imagine ourselves as if we had been with the Lord Jesus on Calvary, had seen and heard everything as Christ exclaimed, "It is finished," and then the Savior called out to us from the cross, "Go, tell the world what you have seen and heard. If we look at ourselves in this way, we will enter the pulpit in a completely different way and proclaim with a fiery tongue: What blessed people you are! You are saved. Only do not do the one thing, that you reject it in unbelief!

No doubt this is also the reason why many preachers have so much trouble preaching. They have the wrong goal in mind. If they thought: I want to magnify Jesus and his Word and his love and mercy to my dear listeners, they would not

have enough space on the paper and enough thoughts would occur to them. That always remains the main thing. That must ultimately be the reason for everything we do and say, as Luther rightly says: Even when the Lord Jesus proclaims woe, he does so in order to be able to save. He paints the eternal torment of hell for us so that we do not enter it. Who will be surprised if I call out with a loud voice to a blind man who is walking towards an abyss? Stop, stop, where are you going? Go back, or you will die. Wouldn't it be foolishness if the blind man said: Why are you shouting at me like that? On the contrary, such a one would thank me for having called him with all the power of my voice. So the preacher also cries out loudly, as it were, when he is sharpening the law for his listeners. But he should only use it as a means to lead his listeners beyond the law to the gospel. Unfortunately, however, many sermons are now nothing more than miserable babble that is supposed to be Christian. It is easier to listen to a preacher of pure nature than to a washerman who talks in a jumble without having the right goal in mind. Sometimes he punishes, sometimes he comforts, sometimes he indulges in serious woe, sometimes in shouts of glory. But his first and last aim is not to present Jesus Christ, the core and star of the whole of Holy Scripture, to his listeners in a glorious and lovely way. The Holy Spirit can certainly bless such preaching if it still speaks of Christ and his work, but it is quite another matter whether a preacher merely babbles about the gospel like a child or whether one notices that he is filled with holy earnestness for the cause of the gospel. He is constantly heading for the goal: to save people. It is impossible for a church to die a spiritual death.

But, of course, it is not enough for the preacher to merely make up his mind to do this; above all, he must experience daily in his own heart what a sweet treasure the gospel is. Then it will be said with him, as it was with the apostles: I can't leave it alone, I must go out again today to praise the redemption through Jesus Christ. It is also a wonderful, fruitful means of preparation for this if the preacher diligently studies Luther.

The preacher should take care that he does not speak so coldly and dryly about this glorious act of God of redemption. He should not be content with merely presenting salvation in simple, dry words without any evidence. He should do so in the proper manner, like a lawyer. He is not satisfied with the fact that he has only simply presented his case; he uses all the reasons he can find and exerts all his strength to convince. So let the preacher also make every effort to convince his hearers of this glorious act of God in salvation. He should try to draw his listeners away from the devil's kingdom and over to God's side. It is also

the Holy Spirit who, as Luther translated it, punishes the world, i.e. convinces it of unbelief as the main sin, of the only valid righteousness and of the overthrow of the devil and the infernal kingdom. That this is the task of a preacher is also clearly indicated by Paul in his words to the Galatians: "to whom Christ Jesus was set before the eyes." The reason why Christ is painted before the eyes so little or not at all in the modern preaching books is undoubtedly that people seek their own honor. They do not want to be poor lost and damned sinners. Truly, if a preacher is a poor sinner, he thanks God eternally for his sweet gospel and praises it to his listeners without ceasing. But this is precisely what the devil tries to prevent preachers from doing. For he does not want sinners to come to true glory. Rather, he wants them to seek their own honor and thus go to eternal shame and damnation.

This can be seen so clearly in the terrible teaching of the Iowans, since they claim that everything depends on man's decision and not on God and his grace. Such terrible teaching gives glory to man and robs God of all His glory. God protect us from this! For our salvation depends solely and exclusively on Christ and his eternal mercy.