# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 02 17_S103
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

103

essentially and originally just as little share as a child has in the birth of its mother.

Nor do we in any way deny what the Inf. says further: "and that such office is presented to the person regularly called, by virtue of the Gospel, from Christ Himself, namely by means of the regular call."

But as to this call itself, the second point, the Inf. does not express itself more closely upon it, and refers only to Art. 14 of the Augsburg Conf. and to the ordinance of the N. T.

Since now the closer explanation of this article of doctrine, in connection with the foregoing and with the doctrine of the Church, without which it cannot at all be grasped in the right connection of evangelical truth, will shortly appear in the little book mentioned above, we would hereby have referred the impartial reader beforehand to it.

Let this only be remarked provisionally here, that the writer of this is wholly unable to perceive any contradiction between the following two propositions:

1. The holy ministry is of divine command and origin; of divine institution and ordinance, and where, according to the appointment of the LORD Christ, it is set up in any place, there the bearer of it receives it mediately from Christ's hand.

2. This mediation, however, or the mediate regular call to the holy ministry, consists in this, that the Church of Christ, in this or that smaller or larger local assembly, by virtue of the authority and divine prerogative of the keys and of the ministry received from the LORD Christ in Matt. 18:18 and transferred to her, transfers the same to a person found orthodox, apt to teach, and of blameless walk, for public administration. And in this transference and presentation of the ministry every individual member of such an assembly does indeed take part, inasmuch as each, as united with Christ by faith, is also, as Luther says in the Large Catechism, "partaker of all the goods which she (the Church) has, and joint-possessor." It is therefore by no means the case that the individual church member, in fellowship with the others, be they 2 or 3, 200 or 300, is a mere beneficiary of the ministry set up in their assembly without his co-operation, but rather, as a joint-possessor of all the goods and rights of the Church which she has from Christ, he is also a joint-performer of this setting up.

Let it finally be permitted, for the better illustration for the simple, to make clear by two similes yet that and how there is no essential contradiction between those two propositions.

If a householder goes on a journey and hands over to his housewife right and power over all his goods and treasures, together with the special command, according to his rule and plumb-line, to appoint stewards over these goods and treasures, then these receive their office and service indeed properly and originally from the will and ordinance of the absent householder, yea, essentially from himself, but yet through the mediation of the housewife, who therein carries out the will of her husband, who by virtue of the marriage vow and fellowship has made her a partaker, as joint-possessor, of all his goods and treasures.

Similarly, when the Emperor has given to the citizens of a free Imperial city, among other privileges, this also, to choose their magistracy from among themselves according to his rule and prescription, in order to govern them according to imperial laws and under his sovereignty, and these citizens then, as equally entitled to such office and service, comply with this will of the Emperor: then the magistracy thus chosen does indeed receive its office essentially from the hand of the Emperor, but yet only by the means of the citizens, entitled equally by the Emperor to the appointment of such a magistracy.

Even so it is now also in the Church of God, in the kingdom of Christ, where every believer, as a free citizen and spiritual priest, has the right and the power to the ministry; but the office and the calling are held only by those who, at Christ's command and according to His rule and prescription, are appointed to this service by their spiritual fellow-citizens in the kingdom of God.

Thus Christ is and remains always the Cause and Giver of the holy ministry, but He does this by means of the Church, that is, essentially the congregation of believers, which by His free favor and grace is also, in each individual member, co-holder and joint-possessor of all the goods, gifts, rights and offices which He essentially possesses and administers.

This connection is also clear enough to everyone who has an evangelical, clear view of the proper nature of the Church of Christ, namely, that she is the assembly of saints, the congregation of believers, as such an explanation is grounded in Holy Scripture and attested by our symbolical books.

But whoever beholds the Church, according to her proper nature, only in a certain temporal form, under the image of a particular earthly constitution (as, for example, the Papists and Episcopalians can think of her in no other way than under the government of the Pope and bishops, or as this and that Lutheran dogmatician sometimes speaks thus of the three so-called Christian estates, as though their existence and co-operation belonged also to the setting up of the ministry, (to the proper nature of the Church), he proves by this very thing that he has either not yet gained, or has lost again, that only true, scriptural, sound, evangelical view of the nature of the Church, as the guiding truth for the right knowledge of the nature of the ministry, and therefore must consequently, according to his view of the Church, fall also into the corresponding error concerning the Ministry.

4. The Inf. charges the Lutheraner, or really the writer of the Preface, with "blasphemy and slander," because he wishes to the editor of the Inf. that, the sooner the better, "the much and unjust excommunicating, system of spying, informing, etc., may cease.

As to the excommunicating first mentioned, our Synod has unhappily had experience enough of it, as will in its time also be publicly set forth, that Pastor G., in consequence of his false doctrine of the ministry and its authority, and of a correspondingly unjust extension and application of Heb. 13:17, "Obey them that have the rule over you," etc., has excommunicated people who by no means were manifest to the whole congregation as hardened, impenitent sinners, who in spite of right knowledge persisted in evil will.

But that he probably calls pastoral prudence what we and other simple people, who hold to Matt. 18:15 and also point others to it, call informing and a system of spying, we cannot help; and let him by no means scorn the opportunity for a new and thorough self-examination, even though it be given him by the hated Missourians, whether his so-called pastoral prudence has always been paired with the simplicity of the dove, and still is.

Finally, moreover, Pastor G. should be sincerely entreated, if possible, not to let any personal aversion hinder him from reading with the greatest possible impartiality and freedom from prejudice the little book mentioned above, printed in Germany, which will hopefully soon be here, and which furnishes, in right connection, the proof of our agreement in doctrine with the Lutheran Church of the Reformation.

"What must I do to be saved? Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

Acts 16:30, 31.

What has God promised thee, O mortal man? That thou shalt attain eternal life. Thou wilt not believe it? O believe, believe! It is already more, what He has done, than what He has promised. What has He done? He died for thee. What has He promised? That thou shouldest live with Him. It is more incredible that the Eternal One should have died than that the mortal should live in eternity.

St. Augustine. Enarrat. Ps. 148.

Dr. Martin Luthers vollständige Auslegung der Epistel St. Pauli an die Galater.

Edited by Solomon S. Miles.

Whoever knows this masterpiece will be highly delighted that through this new American edition it becomes known also in our new fatherland, yea, as it were rises again from the grave. But whoever does not yet know this masterpiece, let him buy it and read it