# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 08 04_S196
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

196

interpretation err are at once heretics. All heretics indeed err in respect of the faith; but not all who (thus) err are at once heretics; which Augustine expresses thus: "Not every error is a heresy, although every heresy that is regarded as wrong cannot be so without an error;" but elsewhere he writes: "I may be able to err, a heretic I shall not be." — Some with their error do not strike directly at the foundation of the faith itself, but, while they retain the foundation of the Church, which is Christ in His person and in His office, build thereon hay and stubble, 1 Cor. 3:11, 12; such as was the error of Cyprian, that those are to be baptized again who have been baptized by heretics; the error of Augustine, that children are to be fed with the holy Supper, etc. But to regard such at once as heretics is by no means fitting, since heretics seek another foundation apart from Christ, but these build the stubble of erring opinions upon the true foundation. — Some also reckon among the heretics those who privately cherish errors in the faith, although they do not scatter them abroad nor strive to draw others to their party. But although such err with great danger to their souls, they are nevertheless, properly and exactly speaking, not heretics; for these are thus described in the Holy Scriptures: that they come to others to seduce them, Matt. 7:15; that they come to the sheepfold of the Lord to steal, to kill, and to destroy, John 10:10; that they not only fall away from the truth themselves, but also overthrow the faith of others, 2 Tim. 2:18; that they err and lead others into the fellowship of their errors, deceiving and being deceived, 2 Tim. 3:13; that they privily bring in damnable sects, 2 Pet. 2:1; that they are deceivers who go forth into the world and bring a strange doctrine, 2 John 7 and 10. Finally, when obstinacy is not added to an error which conflicts with the foundation, it cannot yet be regarded and declared a heresy properly so called. For that vice is to be sought neither merely in the understanding, nor merely in the will. But as the true and saving faith comprehends knowledge in the understanding, assent and confidence in the will, so heresy comprehends error in the understanding and obstinacy in the will at once; whence heretics are thus described in Tit. 3:10: "A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself," that is, who is condemned by his own judgment. Of such it is said in 1 Tim. 1:19 that they have put away faith and a good conscience and made shipwreck concerning the faith, and in 1 Tim. 4:2 that they have a brand in their conscience. Augustine writes: "Those who defend their opinion, although it be false and perverse, yet not with obstinate zeal, especially if they have not hatched it out themselves in proud presumption, but have received it from parents who were led astray and fallen into error, but who seek the truth diligently, ready to be corrected when they find it; these are by no means to be reckoned among the heretics." (Ib. § 370.)

The Wittenberg theological Faculty of the year 1619 (consisting among others of Balduin, Meißner, Franz): "Now it is indeed the case that not every error in doctrine is a pernicious sect (or faction), for even the Apostles, before the visible outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon them, erred in doctrine, whom nevertheless no one held to be sectarians, since such error was committed by them out of simplicity and ignorance. So also there is many an error in doctrine which does not overthrow the foundation of the faith, which St. Paul compares to hay and stubble built upon the foundation and tried by fire, 1 Cor. 3:13. Such an error one cannot yet call a pernicious sect (faction) or heresy. A true pernicious sect, however, is properly an error in doctrine which is carried against the foundation of doctrine by those who live in the Church of Christ, and is stubbornly maintained, also causes division and offense contrary to the wholesome doctrine, and will not let itself be corrected therefrom, but those who adhere to such a sect persist therein notwithstanding manifold warning and admonitions which have been addressed to them on that account. Hence arise four distinct points which belong to a pernicious sect (or faction):
1. The error must run against the foundation of the Christian faith.
2. It must be defended wilfully.
3. The Church is thereby divided and offended.
4. A pernicious sect will not be corrected at all, but will be in the right, and so remains stubborn in its opinion.
The foundation of this description rests upon these passages of Holy Scripture: 1 Cor. 3:11. Gal. 1:7, 8. Rom. 16:17. 1 Tim. 6:3. 2 Tim. 2:18; 3:13. Tit. 3:11. (See: Consil. theol. Witebergensia. I. f. 526.)

Calov: "Between a faction (or sect) and a schism (or division) it is customary to distinguish thus, that a faction is a discord in faith, a schism however a discord in respect of customs, morals and love, or also in that which stands (only) in some relation to the faith (circa fidem) and does not directly concern the rule of faith. But a schism is taken either generally, and then it denotes every rending of the Church; or it is taken in the narrower sense, in so far as it is different from a sect. So that this (the sect) brings about a rending through disagreement with the rule and foundation of the faith; the schism however not indeed through discord in the faith, but in questions which relate to the faith, or in customs, yet so that the body of the Church is thereby rent. . . The words schism and faction, if one looks to the biblical usage, are related as a wider and a narrower concept. For a schism signifies in Scripture every separation, whether it occur on account of articles of faith or on account of ceremonies. A faction, however, signifies according to the manner of speech of Scripture a sect which errs in a chief article of faith, either actually, such as the sects of the Sadducees were, who denied the resurrection, Acts 5:17, and of the Pharisees, who perverted various chief points of the faith, Acts 15:5, whence also a man in this sense is called a sectarian (or factionist, heretic); or according to the opinion of the people, as one spoke of a sect or faction of the Nazarenes or Christians, Acts 24:5; 28:22; 26:5. According to ecclesiastical usage, however, a schism is commonly called a separation of the Church on account of ceremonies or slight disputes, on account of secondary doctrines, wherein the unity of faith is preserved, namely when no article of faith is overthrown, but love and unity of the Church are dissolved; a sect (or faction), however, when the truth of the articles of faith is overthrown. That difference is also proved by the passage 1 Cor. 11:18, 19. For that a faction is something worse than a schism the Apostle shows by the little word "also," which is here intensive: "I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you." The Apostle says, namely, that he readily believes that among them there are divisions and strife over matters of small importance, since among them there must be disputes or factions over articles of faith themselves. From this it is evident that here the words schism and faction are not, as some have thought, taken as synonymous, but are distinguished." (Bibl. illustr. ad Cor. 1, 10. et 11, 18. 19.)

From this it is evident that it is altogether unbiblical and unlutheran to give every schism at once the predicate of a faction; but this is all the greater abuse of the Word of God and all the more sinful if the schism had just causes. For if the separation from a communion takes place on account of its false doctrine, or because the communion accused those separating of false doctrine and condemned their pure doctrine as heresy, then the separation is a just one. Hence the old friend of Luther, the Bishop of Naumburg, Amsdorf, writes of the Adiaphorists, who yielded something to the Pope: "Since they call us secret factionists, we can receive no sacrament