# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 04 02_S121
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall never pass away."

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

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 6.  St. Louis, Mo., April 2, 1850.  No. 16.

Terms: The Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for subscribers living at a distance, who are to pay the same in advance and to bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 Cents. Only the letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however, 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.

Luther on the Ban.

What the Ban Is.

1. The right Christian ban is that one shall not suffer open, obstinate sinners to come to the Sacrament or to other fellowship of the Church, until they amend and avoid the sin. (Smalcald Articles, Art. III., 9. Concordienbuch. New York Edition, page 311.)

2. In the "Instruction of the Visitors to the Pastors in the Electorate of Saxony, corrected by Luther," of the year 1538, it says: "It would also be good that the punishment of the right and Christian ban, of which it is written in Matthew 18, 17. 18., should not be allowed to fall into disuse. Therefore, those who lie in open vices, such as adultery, daily gluttony and the like, and will not leave off from them, shall not be admitted to the holy Sacrament. Yet they shall be admonished several times beforehand that they amend. Thereafter, if they do not amend, one may proclaim them under the ban. This punishment shall also not be despised. For since it is a curse, commanded of God upon sinners, one shall not esteem it lightly; for such a curse is not in vain; as Paul, 1 Cor. 5, 5., delivered him that had to do with his stepmother unto the devil for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. The banned may also well go to the sermon; for one lets even Jews and heathen go to the sermon."

3. The ban or separation, when it is rightly used, is rather a sign and token that the soul is given over to the devil and deprived of the spiritual fellowship of the Church. For it comes upon him who by mortal sin has himself deprived himself of all fellowship of love and has himself delivered himself to the devil; even as, on the other hand, reconciliation is an outward sign and token of the inward reconciliation and reception into Christian fellowship; hence it is true that the ban or exclusion of the Church does not first of all impose, but, as already present beforehand and recognized, declares that a person already stands beforehand in death and sins, that is, is in fact spiritually excluded from the fellowship of the Church. (Sermon on the Power of the Ban, of the year 1518. XIX., 1091.)

4. One who on account of the wickedness of his heart and public crimes is to be put under the ban is already excluded before he is yet visibly excluded. Accordingly the outward ban is only a mere sign of the inward ban. (XIX., 1121.)

5. The execution of the Word, and the carrying out and performing of Christ's command, is the ban. (XXII., 956.)

Who Shall Be Put Under the Ban?

6. The ban shall be pronounced not only upon those who are obstinate in the faith*), but upon all who sin openly, as is shown above from Paul, 1 Cor. 5, 11., who bids us put under the ban swearers, usurers, unchaste, drunkards, etc. (Sermon on the Power of the Ban, of 1518. XIX., 1118. 19.)

*) That is, who show themselves refractory against the pure doctrine and obstinately hold fast false doctrine.

7. If a pastor knows that the sin is public, known throughout town and country, he is bound not to admit such people to the Sacrament of the true Body and Blood of JEsus Christ, unless they first do repentance, that is, cease from sinning, and with true confession and fruits meet for repentance show and prove that they are enemies of sin and condemn it; yet a Christian and earnest admonition shall precede. (XXII., 965. 66.)

8. If he (the preacher) sees a fornicator, adulterer, drunkard, gambler, usurer, slanderer, or one otherwise notorious for some other public vice, he shall by all means exclude him from the Lord's Supper, unless he prove with childlike showing that he has changed and amended his life. But to the others, who now and then fall and return, and are sorry that they have fallen, one shall not only not refuse the Sacrament, but one shall know that it was instituted chiefly for their sake, that they may thereby be refreshed and strengthened. For in many things we offend all, James 3, 2., and one rightly bears another's burden, since one is burdensome to another, Gal. 6, 2. For I speak here of the despisers, who sin shamelessly, without fear, and yet nonetheless boast great things of the Gospel. (Weise, christliche Messe zu halten, und zum Tisch Gottes zu gehen, of the year 1523. X., 2766.)

9. The use of the ban is and shall be this, that one punish public vices, such as: robbery, adultery, fornication, murder, hatred, usury, drunkenness, likewise heresy, blasphemy and the like; as our LORD JEsus teaches, Matth. 18, 17., that the ban shall go forth upon those who will not obey the Church or their congregation: so the Church teaches nothing else than God's Word. (Vermahnung an die Geistlichen, assembled at the Diet at Augsburg, 1530. XVI., 1148.)

The Process of the Ban, or Procedure in the Ban.

10. The punishment of the ban must be begun out of the humility of the grieved, and not out of the pride and arrogance of cruel clergymen. (XIX., 1120.)

11. How, then, shall one proceed, if one would rightly use the keys, that it may be certain before God? There you have, Matth. 18, 15. etc., a sure text, where Christ himself so frames the office of the keys that you cannot err, if you follow it; but if you do not follow it, and take up a new way of your own, then know on the other hand that you err and have not the right keys. The text, however, reads thus: "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. If he neglect to hear the church