# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 09 18_S9
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

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

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 6.  St. Louis, Mo., 18 September 1849.  No. 2.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for subscribers living out of town, who are to pay in advance and to 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 addressed to the Editor; all others, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, moneys, etc., are to be sent hither under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

Preface of the Editor to the Sixth Volume of the "Lutheraner".

(Continuation.)

Now that we have laid before our dear readers, in the last number, in what respects we Lutherans must reject the reproach of an exclusive character, many will perhaps present us with the following: Granted that you Old Lutherans are not falsely exclusive in those respects mentioned, have you not, however, declared many times over that your Lutheran Church is not merely one church, but the Church, namely the only true one, the One holy universal Christian Church, and that, on the other hand, all non-Lutheran communions are false, heterodox churches or sects? Have you not often declared Lutheranism and Christianity to be of equal meaning? Do you not lay claim, for your little Luther-church, to all the high names and all the glorious promises which are given solely to the whole of Christendom, to the kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth? Do you not call your church the bride and the body of Christ; the One, who alone is his dove (Song of Solomon 6:8); the true Zion of the New Testament; the Jerusalem which is above, the free, which is the mother of us all (Gal. 4:26); the kingdom of heaven on earth; the city, the house and the congregation of the living God, a pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15); the vineyard of the Lord, etc.? Do you not say that your church cannot perish, by virtue of the precious promises of Christ: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against my congregation. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world"? —

To this we answer: It is true, we have hitherto always asserted this; and we confidently add: we will, by God's grace, assert it still further, so long as our heart can still beat, our mouth still speak, and our hand and pen still write. Yes, we say, woe unto us, if we should ever let this glory and comfort be taken from us!

What? many will perhaps now exclaim, can there then be a more intolerable exclusive character than you Old Lutherans have? Are these not plainly Roman principles? Do you not, according to this, make of one branch the whole tree, of one member the whole body, of one part the whole?

We admit that the matter sounds suspicious. But we beg the dear reader that he not break off here, lay the paper aside in indignation, and cry out into the world: Behold, the Old Lutherans themselves have then confessed that they alone are the Church, they alone the true Christians, they alone the elect children of God, and that all non-Lutherans are damned and lost! Rather let the reader hear us further in quiet, and he will, we hope, judge otherwise, and perceive that we Lutherans can set forth the above assertions without thereby necessarily holding ourselves alone, in shameful arrogance, to be good Christians, and condemning all other Christians beside us, passing judgment upon their hearts. Our real opinion is this:

1. By the Church we understand nothing else than the communion of all who truly believe in Christ, and since faith is nothing visible, we hold that the Church also is not a visible institution, but the invisible kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth; it is not an object of the senses, but of faith. Hence Luther writes: "All Christians in the world pray thus: ""I believe in the Holy Ghost, One holy Christian Church, the communion of saints."" If the article is true, it follows that no one can see or feel the holy Christian Church; neither may one say, lo, here or there it is. For what one believes, that one neither sees nor perceives. As St. Paul teaches, Heb. 11:1. Again, what one sees or perceives, that one does not believe." (Luther's writing against Emser and Murnar. XVIII, 1654.) When we nevertheless maintain that the Church is invisible, we do not wish to say thereby that it is an empty figment of thought, which exists nowhere but in the heads of Christians; we say rather that there really is such a holy congregation, whose members are scattered over the whole world, and that there must always be, as surely as the promises of the divine Word are truth and can never deceive, that the congregation built by Christ upon himself, the eternal Rock, shall not be overcome even by the gates of hell. We believe at the same time that this congregation, invisible in its essence, indeed never becomes visible here, but yet becomes (definitely) recognizable by the pure Word of God, which is preached in a communion, and by the holy Sacraments, which are administered in it according to Christ's institution. (See: Augsburg Confession, Art. 7.)

2. We believe further, according to God's Word, that the true Church is only One, the One bride (Eph. 5:23 ff.), the One body (1 Cor. 12:13), the One flock (John 10:16) of Jesus Christ. This unity of the Church is most completely set forth by Paul, when he writes: "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith*), one baptism, one God and Father of all." Of this Gerhard makes the beautiful paraphrase: "The Church is therefore called One, because, brought by One Lord through One baptism into One mystical (hidden, spiritual) body under One head, governed by One Spirit and bound together by the unity of faith, of love and of hope, it has One faith

*) We cannot refrain from communicating here Gerhard's beautiful exposition of how far faith is One. He writes in his Loci: "We say that faith is only One: 1. according to its object (according to the thing in which one believes), because one and the same doctrine of faith is set before all to believe; 2. according to its kind and its essence, because the small and weak faith is joined no less with assent and confidence than the firm and strong faith. Peter says of all believers that they "have obtained like precious faith", namely according to its essence and object. For the weak faith lays hold of Christ just as well as the strong, though not in the same degree." (De justif. § 113.)