# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 06 20_S171
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

171

wished to introduce again, has given us in the dear Dr. Harleß a man who not only has vividly recognized the high responsibility which his high office of watchman in our beloved Church of the pure confession lays upon him, but who also possesses as great a fidelity and simplicity as endowment in every respect, to stand as champion for the dearly won jewel of the pure doctrine of our Church at the head of the other combatants. —

We now let the Harleß theses themselves follow. Without the testimonies from Luther's writings standing beneath them; not because we should regard these as superfluous on account of the testimonies from Luther already given in our writing, "Die Stimme unserer Kirche"; rather we must confess that a considerable number of passages from Luther is found in Harleß's writing which we have not cited, and which set in a bright light several important points left obscure by us. We do not give the citations merely on account of the limited space of our paper, and we hope that at least all our pastors will procure the little work for themselves, in order thereby to be introduced ever more deeply into a doctrine which is in itself of such high importance, and about which, precisely now and precisely here, a struggle so decisive for the development of our Church is moving. We at least must acknowledge and confess with thanks to God that we owe to this writing not only strengthening in the truth already recognized, but also highly important further instruction.

The theses are eighteen. They are as follows:

§. 1. One must not begin, in the controversy over the doctrine of Church and Ministry, with Church, Ministry, spiritual priesthood, etc., but with Christ and the manner in which the Holy Ghost, who proceedeth from the Father and from the Son, has His work on earth and founds and builds Christ's kingdom. That leads first to the relation of the Holy Ghost, not to Church, Ministry, spiritual priesthood and the like, but to the Word of the Gospel.

§. 2. Certain is what Luther says: "the Word is the only bridge and path by which the Holy Ghost comes to us."

§. 3. This is the "bodily or written Word, comprehended in letters," no matter in the first place whether preached and heard, or read and considered. Where this Word is and works, there the Holy Ghost is and works, and where He is and works, there is the Church.

§. 4. If the presence of the Holy Ghost, effective through the Word, founds, builds and preserves the Church, then it must be determined above all what and where the Church is, and one must not let oneself be led astray by a perilous ambiguity of the word Church.

§. 5. If the Church is essentially the communion brought by the working of the Holy Ghost through the Word to faith in the Gospel, and in this faith a Christian, holy people, then it follows that in this its essential and actual existence it is invisible, and that the Church, the existence of a holy, Christian people (congregatio sanctorum et vere credentium) in this its essential actuality, is no article of sight, but an article of faith.

§. 6. But because Christ the Lord, in the power of the Holy Ghost, chiefly through the Word, then through the Sacraments as visible means, founds, builds and preserves His holy, Christian people, the "inward Christendom," the Church has consequently also its visible signs, by virtue of the God-ordained means of its founding and preservation.

§. 7. This connection of the invisible Church with its visible signs, offered and to be offered by it, better, means of grace, or the God-ordained reciprocal relation between the "spiritual, inward Christendom" and the "bodily, outward Christendom" (externa societas signorum ecclesiae), does not however stand as in the natural man the inseparable unity of soul and body, so that where the body is, the soul also must be, or where the visible signs of the true Church are, a really Christian holy people must also exist with natural necessity; but even there the actual existence of the true Church remains an article of faith, and indeed by virtue of the faith that where Word and Sacrament are pure, God does not leave Himself without witness. From the mere showing of the outward possession of the visible means of grace there follows as yet no visible proof for the existence of a truly believing, Christian, holy people.

§. 8. Because where the outward communion of the true signs of the Church, of the Word and of the Sacraments, exists, it does not follow with natural necessity that the Holy Ghost is received everywhere without resistance and has His work, so that also there the actual presence of a true Christendom is an article of faith, the only visible and infallible sign however remaining solely the existence of pure preaching and of the administration of the Sacraments according to the institution, therefore a visible unity and purity may not be made the sign of the true Church.

§. 9. The Church is therefore, in spite of all sins and infirmities, according to its outward calling and sign the right one, if it has and administers Word and Sacrament pure and clear; whereas as to persons, or according to the inner nature and subsistence of the Church, the Church is the right, true Christendom only if and where its members rightly recognize and confess Christ in unity of scriptural faith.

§. 10. This administration of the Word in believing confession, of the Word with its binding and loosing power, is in an original and fundamental way a calling of all Christians, of the whole holy Christian people.

§ 11. The special calling of the ministry in the congregation is rightly held fast only if one distinguishes well between priestly and ministerial calling, and on the other hand seeks the essence of the service of the Word in nothing other than in that which also belongs to every believing Christian by virtue of his priestly calling.

§. 12. From this, however, it does not follow in the least that what is by its nature the calling of all believing Christians is to be exercised uniformly by all. On the contrary, precisely because all have the calling to proclaim Christ and the virtues of Him who hath delivered us out of darkness, the individual must therefore not take it upon himself to do this arbitrarily before the congregation in public, but has to await for it a particular election or call, as the believing congregation already in an orderly way deems it its duty to provide for such election or call.

§. 13. Just as little does it follow from the orderly election or call, proceeding from the congregation, into the ministry that preaches reconciliation, that such an office is a mere congregational service, a congregational ordinance, a congregational authority; but precisely because the believing congregation recognizes in such service the institution, ordinance and authority of Christ, who through His Word and the service of His Word founds, builds and preserves His Christendom, it calls to such an office.

§. 14. While thus the believing congregation, the Christian people, waits upon order and appoints the offices instituted by Christ, it is rooted in this doing not at all in a law of order or a prescription of separation, but in a word of promise, by virtue of which the Lord promises at all times to give to His congregation the special gifts which are needful for the fulfilling of the particular offices; and the heir of this promise is not a particular, legally instituted estate, but the whole believing congregation, which the Lord, by fulfilment of His promise, separates member by member.

§. 15. One may therefore well speak of a particular authority, also of a particular endowment for the office, but not of a particular power and grace which dwelt in the office of itself; but where the office has and brings power and grace, there the same is rooted in the Word, which the office has to administer, and all power and grace of the Word is rooted in the living Christ, who is the Giver of the Word and Spirit and the Founder of the office.

§. 16. Because the Word, upon which the