# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 11 14_S42
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

42

who at present recognize and confess the truth, whether they will also persevere steadfastly therein to the end, and therefore he prays not only for them all, but he also does what he can to point out to his beloved fellow-believers every enemy who lies in wait for their souls, and to warn them in good time. If, therefore, the "Lutheraner" seeks from time to time to acquaint its readers with the designs and principles of the Jesuits, this has its ground in nothing else than in faithful love and concern for their souls, for the less one knows an enemy, the greater is the danger of being overreached by him. As time and opportunity permit, therefore, some communications about the Jesuits and their ways will be made, now as before, in order not to leave the readers of the "Lutheraner" in ignorance concerning them. As to the thanks which the Catholic Kirchen-Zeitung promises for this, we shall come to that afterwards. First we must take notice of another point.

The Catholic Kirchen-Zeitung, namely, makes the demand that, if individual Jesuits have set forth such propositions as are not to be approved in form and content, it should be demonstrated that the Roman Church itself teaches the like and inculcates it upon its own. This demand, when it is made of those who ascribe the principles of the Jesuits to the whole Roman Church, is just; but this demand has also already been satisfied on various occasions, for, to cite only one example, in the "Lutheraner," Vol. 4, Nos. 20 and 21, the doctrines and principles of the Jesuits are cited from books which not only have episcopal approbation but are also introduced in the schools as textbooks; and moreover the Order of the Jesuits, together with its principles, is indeed confirmed by the Pope, and has therefore, according to Roman Catholic notions, the most complete ecclesiastical recognition which it could ever wish for itself. Hence all the theological doctrinal writings of the Jesuits also fall to the charge of the Roman Church, so long as it does not expressly reject them. — The Catholic Kirchen-Zeitung now indeed endeavors to represent the matter as though in the Roman Church the faith of the Church were the eternally unchangeable rule, by which every writing and every proposition, even of the most learned Catholic, must be judged, whereas the Lutheran Church lacks such an unchangeable rule and therefore depends upon the respective opinions and views of individual eminent men. But the matter stands exactly the reverse. For in the Roman Church the final and unconditionally to be accepted decision in matters of faith lies not with the common faith of the Church, but with the Pope, who is held to be infallible; he stands not only above the faith of the Church, but also above the Holy Scripture, for only as the Pope interprets the confessions of the Church and the Holy Scripture may and must both be interpreted and understood; consequently it is really the Pope who makes the Catholic faith, and upon whose personal views it depends what shall be Church doctrine in the Roman Church or not, and at least as often as a new Pope ascends the episcopal chair in Rome, the Roman faith of the Church runs the risk of suffering some alteration or other, as on demand more than sufficient testimonies could be produced that the popes have contradicted one another, and that even in matters of faith later popes have again abolished what earlier ones had set up, or also have ordained and asserted what earlier ones had refused and rejected.*) If, to be sure, every Pope by his ascent to the throne were really to become infallible and free from error in matters of faith, as the Papists assert, it would be reasonable to hearken to him; but that assertion will never be proved either by the Catholic Kirchen-Zeitung, or by "all heretics in the whole world together with the devil himself"; and so long as this does not happen, it remains the case that the Roman doctrine of the Church depends more or less on the personal views of that man who happens to occupy the papal chair in Rome, be that man ever so wise or so foolish, so pious or so godless as he may be.

In our Lutheran Church, God be praised, it is quite otherwise; for there is really one single unchangeable rule of faith and life present and acknowledged as such, that is, the written Word of God, and everything that deviates from this rule of faith and life is rejected from the outset by the Lutheran Church; but what agrees with it, that she joyfully acknowledges as a testimony of the truth, be it given by Dr. Luther or by the humblest and most unlearned Christian. Now because Dr. Luther was endowed by God with quite special fullness of faith and knowledge, his writings also, when compared with the Word of God, prove to agree with it, and for the sake of this agreement are held in high esteem by all who love the Word of God. But that a doctrine or an assertion should without further ado have to count as true for the reason that Dr. Luther is the author of it, occurs to no reasonable Lutheran to assert. But if even Luther's doctrines and views, to whose services, next to God, the Church owes her deliverance from the fetters of papistical darkness and tyranny, have worth and validity only insofar as they agree with the Word of God, then this naturally holds also of every other who knows himself called, or sets himself up, as a teacher in the Church. If, therefore, men arise who make the Lutheran name a cloak, in order under it to bring the thoughts of their own head and heart among the people, as indeed this has, alas, happened, and still happens, on this side and on that side of the sea with the most shameful impudence; then all such, together with those whom they seduce, have their sentence from the outset, that they have fallen away from the Lutheran Church and bear the name Lutheran falsely and by usurpation. The Lutheran Church does not recognize them as her brethren in the faith, does not go with them to the Table of the LORD, and in general makes no manner of fellowship in faith with them, but rebukes and condemns their false doctrines, even though the multitude of the apostates be ever so great. But the name she naturally cannot wrest from them by force, but must suffer that the wolves wear this sheep's clothing until a Stronger comes upon them and tears it off them. — All this the Catholic Kirchen-Zeitung perhaps knows also, or at least ought to know, but its miserable, merely outward conception of the Church has blinded its eyes. For because, according to Gregorian doctrine, the Catholic Church is as much as the sum of all the men who call themselves Catholic and take part in the outward forms of the Catholic Church, it applies this wretched conception of the Church also to the Lutheran Church, and understands thereby the sum of all the men who call themselves Lutherans. But it is far from being the case that this is really the Lutheran Church; for this is rather in essence nothing else than the one, holy, Christian Church, which alone exists at all, that is, she is the assembly of all true believers and is recognizable by the pure preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the holy Sacraments in accordance with Scripture. She has also among false-believing communions her members, that is, all those who have not let the erroneous element of the communion to which they belong by name come into their heart, and who have not yet left their false-believing communion only for lack of clear knowledge. She bears, however, in some places at present the name "Lutheran Church," because her publicly pronounced confession, publicly set forth in her Confessional Writings, agrees with that of Luther. Whose faith, therefore, stands in conscious contradiction to the confession of the Lutheran Church, he belongs neither to the Lutheran nor at all to the one, holy, Christian Church, whether he call himself a Lutheran or not; but whose faith agrees with those public Confessional Writings, he belongs to the one, holy, Christian Church and therefore also to the Lutheran, whether he now has the name "Lutheran" or not. Thousands and thousands of men may therefore refuse their assent to that confession, yea, thousands and thousands of men may have cast it off and now be its enemies, although they formerly agreed with it, yet the Church on earth may well thereby time-

*) Testimonies and proofs for this assertion we shall naturally publish in the "Lutheraner" only in the event that the Catholic Kirchen-Zeitung undertakes to accept them unmutilated, since it can serve the readers of the "Lutheraner" little to bring such things into closer acquaintance.