# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 11 23_S50
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

50

here, or only there is His Church and His promised gracious presence. When the African sect of the Donatists once asserted that the true Church had died out everywhere and had been preserved only in Africa, that is, in themselves alone, the holy Augustine answered them: Not Africa, but the whole world is the domain of the kingdom of Christ; for it is written of Christ: "Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession." Ps. 2, 8. But as there is no single people and no single city and no single land, yea, no single quarter of the earth of which one could say: Here alone is the Church, outside of which there is no salvation and no blessedness; so there is also no single visible communion of the Church that could boast of this for itself. Let a single visible church have God's Word ever so pure above all others; let it administer and use the holy Sacraments ever so faithfully above all others; let it shine ever so gloriously above all others by Christian discipline, order and wealth of good works: yet it cannot say: We alone are God's house, here with us alone is Christ's Church; for God's Word says that Christ rules in the midst of His enemies (Ps. 110. 2.), that is, Christ has His subjects also there where His enemies, unbelievers, scoffers, seducers, heretics and tyrants, rage. Therefore, when the dear man of God Elijah thought that he alone was left of God's Church, because he saw all Israel led astray by the priests of Baal and serving Baal instead of the true God, he received the divine answer: "I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal." (Rom. 11, 1-5. 1 Kings 19, 1-18.) Everywhere, therefore, where God's Word still counts as God's Word, Christ has His believers, though false teachers pervert and falsify it. Christ is no such poor king as to be king only in one city, in one province, in one land: wherever in all the world the Word of His grace resounds, there He makes for Himself subjects and founds, in defiance of the gates of hell, the blessed kingdom of His Church.

We Lutherans too must therefore confess, and we confess it with joy: also outside of the visible Lutheran Church Christ has His kingdom; also outside of the visible Lutheran Church Christ still has believers; also outside of the visible Lutheran Church there are souls that will be saved. —

But how is this? my hearers, did we not celebrate the festival of the Lutheran Church Reformation only eight days ago? — If it is true that many are saved who do not bear the name of Lutheran, why do we still celebrate the day on which Luther once laid the foundation stone of the work of Reformation, as a festival of jubilee and joy? If it is true that the visible Lutheran Church is not the universal holy Christian Church, outside of which there is no salvation, why do we still hold fast to our confessions of the Church? why do we not tear down these walls which separate our Church from all other communions? Why do we still remain within the narrow bounds of our Evangelical Lutheran Church? why do we still separate ourselves from all other parties in Christendom? Why do we not extend to all members of these parties the hand of brotherly fellowship? and why do we accordingly not take part in the Union, now so highly celebrated?

Many indeed think, when they hear that God's Church is properly invisible and spread over the whole earth, that one may therefore confidently turn one's back on the visible orthodox Church and hold fellowship with all religions and sects. But, my dear friends, this follows as little from that, as little as from the proposition: Christians also are sinners — it follows that therefore a Christian has the liberty to sin knowingly and willingly. But let me explain this to you somewhat more closely in the present hour.

Text: 1 John 2, 19.

Already in the time of the holy Apostles, my hearers, false teachers arose, who beside the orthodox churches founded by the Apostles set up congregations of their own, so that in them they might, unhindered and unpunished, interpret and set forth the Word according to their own mind. These false teachers mostly surrounded themselves with a great halo of sanctity. They went about, as Paul says, often in humility and worshipping of angels (Col. 2, 18-23.). By this even members of the orthodox congregations were sometimes deceived, left these congregations and joined the communions of the false teachers. What now does the holy Apostle say to this in our text? Does he declare it a matter of indifference whether one remain with the orthodox congregation or not? Does he declare that such apostate Christians nevertheless remained good Christians and, if not to the true visible, yet belonged to the true invisible Church? No; with great earnestness he writes: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." Herewith the holy John declares: he who falls away from a visible orthodox congregation proves thereby that he is no upright Christian, and therefore no member of the invisible communion of saints; for whoever is that, remains with it. After this let me now answer the question:

Why should and can the belief that the true Church is properly invisible and scattered over the whole world not mislead us into forsaking the orthodox visible Church?

I answer: because those who would belong to the invisible Church have a twofold obligation:

1. The duty to separate themselves from those who falsify God's Word and obstinately persist in their errors, and

2. The duty to hold to those who faithfully abide by God's Word and confess the true faith purely and clearly.

But Thou, LORD JESUS, be pleased to grant that the Word preached in this hour be lost upon none of us; that those who have already fallen away from Thy orthodox Church be wholesomely alarmed, the lukewarm and indifferent in matters of religion and church be awakened, those standing in doubt be made certain, and the faithful confessors of Thy name be strengthened, that we all may attain the end of our faith, which is the salvation of our souls. Hear us for the sake of Thy grace and truth. Amen.

1.

However dangerous an error it is, my hearers, when one thinks that the visible Lutheran Church is the Church outside of which there is no salvation, and that therefore only the so-called Lutherans can be saved, it is nevertheless just as erroneous when one believes, on the contrary, that because many people are saved who are not members of the visible Lutheran Church, it is a matter of indifference to which visible church one adheres; that whoever is in a heterodox church can remain in it without danger to his soul, and whoever belongs to the orthodox Lutheran Church can leave it again without danger to his soul and exchange it for another.

It is indeed true that the true Church is properly invisible and scattered over the whole world. But this belief should not and cannot in any wise mislead us into forsaking the orthodox visible Church, or into esteeming fellowship with it lightly and as a matter of indifference. For precisely those who would belong to the invisible Church have two important holy duties standing opposed to this, namely, 1. this duty: to separate themselves from all those who falsify God's Word and obstinately persist in their errors.

Let us go back to the Church of Adam, and follow the whole history of the Church from the beginning to the last of the Apostles, the holy Evangelist John, and we find that the orthodox have by God's command always separated themselves from the false believers, and that God, when the orthodox at last allowed themselves to be enticed into fellowship with the heterodox, not only took no pleasure in it, but also always visited it with heavy judgments. Hardly had Cain set up false worship, when the orthodox Church of Adam separated itself from