# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 07 05_S153
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

(Rev. John, Chap. 14., v. 6, 7.)

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away neither now nor evermore."

Published by the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Year 9.  St. Louis, Mo., July 5, 1853.  No. 23.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who are to pay the same in advance and bear the postage. - In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 Cents.

Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the Editor; all others, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent hither under the address Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

Excerpted Tabular Survey

of some manifest errors of Pastor Grabau, set forth in his own words and compared with the false Roman as well as with the pure Lutheran doctrine.

Doctrines of Pastor Grabau.

V.

Concerning the relation of the Office of the Ministry to the Church and to the spiritual priesthood of believers.

31. "The Missourian master also errs, in that he thinks that from 1 Pet. 1, 1. and 2, 9. it is to be concluded that to the scattered little flocks, though they were without the office of the ministry, yet by means of faith in Christ and Christ in them, the power of the keys, of preaching, etc., was entrusted. The Missourian master further infers that the power to preach, etc., is laid in every believing little flock. This, he says, Matt. 18, 20. declares. Such an assembled little flock, then, has (understand, in the receptacle of its faith in Christ) the keys, thus in its inward spiritual priesthood; for 'by virtue of faith Christ is in the midst of them.' Faith and the spiritual priesthood are therefore the middle cause, from whose (faith's) working follows, namely, the church-service or the pastoral office (understand, in the hand of the little flock), whereupon, by regular call of a per-

Doctrine of the Roman Church.

V.

Concerning the relation of the Office of the Ministry to the Church and to the spiritual priesthood of believers.

31. The Council of Trent writes: "If any one asserts that all Christians without distinction are priests of the New Testament, or that all are equally endowed with spiritual power, he seems to do nothing else than to throw into confusion the ecclesiastical hierarchy, which is ordered like the battle array of armies in camp, as if, contrary to the teaching of St. Paul, . . all were teachers." (Session 23, ch. 4.) To the words of the Council of Trent: "If any one says that all Christians have the power of administration in the Word and in all the Sacraments, let him be accursed" — Chemnitz adds in his Refutation of the same: "The words which they condemn in this canon they have drawn from Luther's book on the Babylonian Captivity; but they have both mutilated Luther's words and falsified his meaning, in order to make Luther's doctrine to the unlearned

Doctrine of the Lutheran Church,

which Pastor Grabau calls the Missourian.

V.

Concerning the relation of the Office of the Ministry to the Church and to the spiritual priesthood of believers.

31. Thus writes Polycarp Leyser: "Christ has left to the Church the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Matt. 18, 18. And we do not trouble ourselves here about the mockery and scorn of the Jesuits, who cry out: 'So then among you cobblers and tailors, all cooks and tradesmen have and use the right of the keys, and so you build Babel itself and introduce a complete confusion.' I answer: Who will deny that in a case of necessity every believer can baptize another believer, teach him, absolve him from sins, and so open to him the entrance to the heavenly city, as it were by means of the keys? . . But outside of a case of necessity nothing of the kind is permitted to anyone, unless he is a lawfully called and appointed minister of the church. For this would contend against the divine rule: 'How shall they preach, except they be sent?' Rom. 10, 15. Likewise: 'They ran, and I sent them not.' Nevertheless, however, there remains to each individual believer, even the least, his 'right' unimpaired, which he has from Christ's bestowal in the keys. For as all the citizens of a free imperial city, as many of them as inhabit the city, have a common 'right' and equal freedom, as concerns the republic, and as they nevertheless, for the sake of order, choose senators'