# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 12 24_S68
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

68

forbids so strictly any departing from this one faith and confession that it has laid a curse upon it, Gal. 1:8. And just as sharply it forbids us church-fellowship with such as stray from the one faith and confession, from the one truth of the Word of God, who are not of one accord with us in the holy Gospel of Christ, the Son of God, 2 John 10, 11.

Quite falsely, therefore, is the passage in the Acts of the Apostles 10:35 understood, and shamefully misused, when one thinks to be able to prove from it that difference in doctrine and confession matters not at all. For it does not say there: all manner of faith and confession, but "in every nation he that feareth God, etc., is accepted with him"; that is, whoever, be he by birth of what land and people he will, with the fear of God submits to the Word of God, which testifies of Christ, that all the world should hear Him, Matt. 17:5, that besides Him there is no salvation, Acts 4:12, and now believes on Him and acknowledges Him right in all His words, he shall, even though he formerly stood in relation to the Lord, be saved through the Word of Christ in faith, John 5:24; 3:36. So did Cornelius. He sought the apostle of the Lord. He received the Word of Christ without resistance. He doubted not the preaching of Christ, however much his reason might struggle against it. Therefore he also was saved, although he was not of the people of God, but originally a Gentile. Does now that which is said of this believing, humble Cornelius fit false teachers, who do not, like this Cornelius, allow the power of holy Baptism in obedience to Christ's Word, Mark 16:16, but, contrary to the express declarations of the Lord and of His apostles, John 3:5, Gal. 3:27, Eph. 5:25, Acts 2:38, Titus 3:5, regard it as a mere sign of our fellowship with Christ, who do not let the holy Supper be what it is according to Christ's Word, Matt. 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, 1 Cor. 11:23; 10:16, but make of it likewise mere signs, which in and of themselves have no power? No! There rather has its application what St. Paul says, 2 Tim. 2:21, of such persons as Hymenaeus and Philetus, whom Christians are to avoid, because they "concerning the truth have erred" (2 Tim. 2:17, 18): "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified." — If the apostle, who so highly praises love (1 Cor. 13), commands his congregations to avoid Hymenaeus and Philetus, because these bring forward the one false doctrine, "that the resurrection is past already" (2 Tim. 2:18), may we then well hold church-fellowship with such persons as, like the "Reformed," err concerning the truth not in one, but in many points? Is it, then, a small matter whether the sacraments are held to be effectual means of grace, as they are according to the holy Scripture, or mere symbols and ceremonies, for which the "Reformed" false teachers give them out? Is it so unimportant whether a Christian congregation believes that Christ, also as man, by virtue of His Godhead is omnipresent, as He promised, Matt. 28:20, or whether one with the "Reformed" tears His humanity and Godhead apart and therefore holds it impossible that the whole Lord Christ, also His holy body, should give Himself to us in the holy Supper? Is it all one whether 1 Tim. 2:4 holds in a congregation, or the false doctrine of Calvin, the foremost teacher of the "Reformed," that God does not will that all, but only a certain number of men determined from eternity, should be helped? Can one, without blasphemy of the holy name of God, accept with the "Reformed" that God wills and works evil? To say nothing of their other false doctrines, which they hold and which, in spite of thorough refutation, they have not revoked to this day.

By this I would say only that we may stand in no church-fellowship with the Reformed so long as they remain Reformed and will not let go their false doctrines. If the Reformed would give up the false doctrines which their false teachers have brought up, they would be heartily welcome to us. They need then only declare as much, confess themselves to the Lutheran Church, and renounce their former name "Reformed," which, however fair it is in itself, yet has once for all come by custom to denote something objectionable and resembles the deceptive stamp of a false coin.

This is by no means a hardness toward the Reformed, but our Christian duty, for which the Reformed themselves will thank us, who by such a confession are convinced of their errors and let themselves be led into the truth. But even if they do not thank us, even if they hate and persecute us for it, we are nevertheless bound to confess the Lord and His truth without reserve, as we read Matt. 10:32-37. But whoever loves the peace of this world more than the truth can easily buy the ease of his flesh; he need only put the Word of the Lord under a bushel. But let him know that the price he pays is his soul and salvation.

Now if a Reformed man should object that he does not himself know the false doctrines of his false church and is of the opinion that the Reformed are of one mind with the Lutherans in all points, as, indeed, with the prevailing ignorance in spiritual things the delusion has taken hold all too commonly and quite generally that the only difference between Lutherans and Reformed consists in the Vater Unser and Unser Vater, in the host and the plain bread at the holy Supper; then such a one, if only he is convinced of the truth of the Lutheran doctrine, can without any scruple confess himself to the Lutheran Church.

"Hit in the face" is therefore no Reformed man, "struck," when the Lutherans are obedient to God's Word and hold to one and the same confession and purity from all false believers. If the Reformed feel offended thereby, it is just their resistance against the truth that makes it so; merely misled but otherwise upright souls among the Reformed will soon be convinced that the Lutherans for conscience' sake must give up church-fellowship with those who do not confess themselves with them to one church. For everyone sees this, that no one can serve two masters. Withal one can get along well with the Reformed in all civil and earthly affairs, show them all love and fidelity, counsel and help them. But to go together with them to the holy Supper, if they will not accept with us one faith, that one cannot do. For church-fellowship presupposes one and the same faith, and without unity in faith and confession is an accursed work of men, which is put together out of hypocrisy and many other sins, and because it has no promise from the Lord cannot stand.

Many cannot wonder enough how it is possible that against the one holy doctrine of the Word of God so many kinds of errors are raised up, which yet all pretend to God's Word and assert that they proclaim nothing else than God's Word. You, my friend, have in yourself a living example of how this is possible. It comes about namely solely from this, that passages of Scripture are torn from their connection and falsely applied. Thus you have done with two glorious Bible passages in your letter. How you have wrongly interpreted the one, Acts 10:35, has, I hope, become clear to you. At the close you have likewise misused the precious passage 2 Cor. 3:6, 7. Read it through completely, and you will soon recognize that if here the ministration of the Spirit is expressly called the ministration of the New Testament and as such is set over against the ministration of the letter, this latter, the ministration of the letter, is none other than that of the Old Testament or of the law, so that by "the letter" is to be understood the letter of the law, the sum of the commandments of God in contrast to the Gospel. That not all letters are meant by it, the apostle shows in that he himself wrote this very passage with letters, wherewith he surely did not wish to kill the Corinthians. Mark this well, my friend! You will thereby be freed from many errors which have been put into your head by the misuse of this passage. From the beginning, namely, all fanatics have taken this passage as a cloak for their knavery. "The letter" is in this passage, as verse 7 plainly says, none other than the letter of the law engraven in stones (namely in the two tables, Ex. 31:18). But the law is called the letter because it was given by God in written letters upon the tables of the law to the people of Israel, whereas the Gospel was at first proclaimed only in oral speech. This letter (the law) killeth, that is, pronounces over us the sentence of death, condemns us. For