Some quotes from Chapter 2: all emphases, except underlining, are mine:
- 18: Two women testify against Pastor Stephan: "…driven by their conscience, on the same day went to Pastor Loeber and made confessions to him, which contained a terrible revelation about Stephan's fleshly sins. It was strange that both persons confessed to Pastor Loeber at different hours and without having arranged to meet each other."
- 20: "Walther was also already willing to protest against Stephan's appearance as a bishop as soon as he wanted to pretend to be a jure divino (by divine right) superior over the pastors."
- 24-25: Pastor Stephan's sin discovered, relieved of his office: "All the listeners noticed that there was an indication of a serious offence that was only now coming to light. Only now did the rumor of Stephan's disgraceful way of life penetrate through the whole settlement,…Stephan was not only relieved of his office, but also declared to have lost his property and was expelled from the State of Missouri… Pastor Loeber visited him again, accompanied by Candidate Brohm, and tried to lead Stephan to repentance, but in vain.… 'If we have now previously defended this man in ignorance and voluntary devotion, we now, since God has opened our eyes to this through his gracious guidance, publicly renounce the fallen'."
- 28: Emigration in confusion: "They were reproached at first that they should have seen through Stephan's goings-on earlier, and instead they had joined in the hierarchical way, because the whole emigration was a sinful step, and so they, the preachers, also ran away from their congregations in Saxony, they had no call here in America, emigration was pure devil's work. One began to denounce the validity of the official pastoral acts, because the romanizing Stephanism had changed into Donatism."
- 31: Walther's great rediscovery of Lutheran doctrine on Church and the Ministry: "'In this distress, when they believed that they were no longer a Christian congregation at all, … it was one man who saved them, the aforementioned Ferd. Walther.'… for it (the congregation) is the bearer and owner of all spiritual goods."
- 37-39: The Altenburg Theses (8), and their result: "As important and meaningful as the Leipzig Disputation of 1519 (Luther with Eck) became for the Reformation, so important — I dare say confidently — this Disputation held here (in Altenburg) at that time has become for the whole subsequent formation and shaping of our Lutheran Church here in the West (of America)."
- 40: "…this new arrangement of things has brought about peace and order and a very pleasant relationship between the pastors and their congregations."
- 42: “… the Missouri Synod is now accused by the people on that side of being unbiblical and un-Lutheran radicalism and independentism. They say that because here in this country 'the curb of the state is missing', so the civil conditions of North America were taken into account, and the democratic desires were yielded to [see p. 48 below] by the fact that the Missouri constitution transfers church government and the power of the keys to the individual congregation!”
- 44: [Walther] …immersed himself in the study of Luther and recognized that the thing that made Luther so strong in his struggles, whereby he not only resisted the Pope but also stood firm against Zwingli, Calvin and the enthusiasts, was Luther's faith in the Bible and Luther's abhorrence of all hierarchism in the church.
- 45: “Walther began to cast light on the decayed conditions with the same light which Luther had once resorted, with the light of Holy Scripture! Therefore, “back to Luther, for whoever goes back to Luther will be led into the Holy Scriptures! His teaching is nothing but the everlasting gospel!”
- 48: “Because Christ dwells and reigns invisibly in the hearts of his believers, only Christocracy [not democracy] practiced by the Word and the Holy Spirit takes place here.”
 |
| G.H. Loeber, O.H. Walther, C.F.W. Walther, Martin Stephan, J. F. Köstering, E. M. Bürger, Th. Brohm, E.G.W. Keyl, Hoefling |
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The following is an English translation of C. Hochstetter's Geschichte… by BackToLuther utilizing the DeepL Translator with minor assistance from Dr. Fred Kramer's translation. All hyperlinks, highlighting and red text in square brackets [] are mine. All internal hyperlinks are active in this embedded window, external links should be opened in a new tab or window.
In the next Part 7, we present Chapter 3. — After the break below: (1) a commentary on Prof. Lawrence Rast's judgments regarding the subject matter of this Chapter 2, and (2) full very small print version of Chapter 2 for search engine searchability. —
"argued that the polity developed by our forebears was drawn directly from Scripture and the Confessions without any intermediary. American culture had no influence on its development whatsoever. The result is an uncritical linking of polity with ecclesiology."
Rast directly refutes Hochstetter (as well as Koestering) and promotes the idea of a "tyranny of the majority." This is essentially the same charge as that of Pastor Stephan, and the later opponents of Walther, Pastors Grabau and Loehe. How is it that Prof. Rast intends to defend Walther's Scriptural doctrine of Church and Ministry? I will take Hochstetter's term "Christocracy", not democracy, as the true form of a Christian congregation. Rast, in this essay, is justifying the rampant Romanizing tendencies in his own seminary. — At least Prof. Rast exercises better judgment when he also states on page 257 that "Apparently the evidence of his [Stephan's] crimes was solid and compelling." This is in stark contrast to the judgment of Walter O. Forster, in his Zion book, who harshly criticizes the "evidence" and the ensuing judgment by the congregations. — In the next Part 7, we present Chapter 3.
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The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884
By Christian Hochstetter
Chapter 2
= = = = = = = = = =
II.
Stephan's unmasking; [Walther chosen to confront Stephan (20); Walther’s first meeting with Stephan (22);]
Pastor Ferd. Walther's address to the congregation (23); [Council banishes Stephan (24); Settlement’s hardships (27);
Pastors reproached (28); Walther called to debate (30); and the ensuing Perry County doctrinal battle;]
The Altenburg Colloquium (32); Altenburg Theses (36); Opposition to Church & Ministry (42); Wyneken’s praise (49)
After Stephan had left for Perry County, Pastor Gotth Heinrich Loeber, who was distinguished by his thorough erudition and rich experience, took care of those who had stayed behind in St. Louis. He had been appointed by Stephan himself as his vicar. He belonged to the older ones among the Saxon preachers and on Rogate Sunday of the year 1839 he gave a serious sermon, which struck such a chord that some of the listeners, driven by their conscience, on the same day went to Pastor Loeber and made confessions to him, which contained a terrible revelation about Stephan's fleshly sins. It was strange that both persons confessed to Pastor Loeber at different hours and without having arranged to meet each other. It was evident that the deeply fallen Stephan drew these girls into his service for the first time, and even used the Word of God in order to seduce them into sin. The confessors promised, if necessary, to confirm under oath in court what they had confessed
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before Pastor Loeber. While Pastor Hermann Walther had accompanied Bishop Stephan, so to speak as his chosen chaplain, to Perry County, the younger Pastor Ferdinand Walther (at that time, in contrast to the older brother, often called little Walther) had stayed behind in St. Louis with the other preachers and candidates, with the exception of Th. Brohm. It was this man, today's Prof. Dr. Walther, whom Pastor Loeber first consulted regarding these revelations, which only now revealed what the Dresden police had not been able to prove. Loeber was like that of the Apostle John, inclined to doubts, even now he was afraid that what he had experienced would be based on slander. On a walk that led them out to the city, Loeber began his opening to Ferd. Walther with the following words: "My dear Walther, I must tell you something in the deepest confidence, which I wish that the birds under the sky will neither hear nor take away." After Ferdinand Walther had heard everything, he immediately declared: "Not only the birds under the sky may hear this, the whole world must experience it. This is about the salvation of thousands, whom this hypocrite would lead even further, if he were not exposed, into eternal ruin. It is morally impossible that these poor girls should have made up what they claim to have done. If they were found to be liars, they would have no other chance than to be immediately excommunicated and expelled from our fellowship. — I also recognize in the revelations that have taken place a glorious answer to my prayer. Even last night in my camp I cried out to God in a fervent way that he would save me from the misery of my conscience, either by revealing to me the baselessness of my scruples about Stephan, so that I could calmly continue to follow him, or, if Stephan was a false spirit, by exposing him in such a way that I could leave him with a clear conscience." — Through these words Pastor Loeber was completely calmed down and freed from his doubts
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as if the girls' messages could be lies and deceit. F. Walther further declared: "And if you all stay with Stephan, I will not go one step with him, not even if, as a result, I should die and perish in a ditch!" Then both promised each other not to leave each other and concluded their conversation under the holiest of affirmations, with a brotherly embrace, with hot tears. — The whole counsel of pastors and those who were at the head, then called the Council, were now summoned together. The rumor of Stephan's immoral change spread through the St. Louis congregation and it was devastating for all to suddenly have to regard a man, whom one had hitherto worshipped almost idolatrously, as a slave of vile lusts. The Council unanimously decided that the younger Pastor Walther should go to Perry County and, with the confessions signed by the girls in question in hand, publicly expose Bishop Stephan. This task was not a small one, because until then Stephan had always succeeded in portraying his accusers as slanderers.
[↑] If a reader should ask why just this youngest among the Saxon pastors was entrusted with this mission, it should first be pointed out that Ferd. Walther could not bring it over his conscience to take an oath of service and obedience to Bishop Stephan, although he had joined the emigration with a small group from his parish in Bräunsdorf. Walther was also already willing to protest against Stephan's appearance as a bishop as soon as he wanted to pretend to be a jure divino (by divine right) superior over the pastors. Walther had only seldom seen the Pastor Stephan in Saxony, but through a letter received of pastoral counsel, through which he had been freed from years of fear of conscience, he knew that he was indebted to him, as is reported in the following chapter of this writing. From the very beginning, Stephan had been unhappy to see Ferdinand
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emigrate with his brother Hermann Walther. He feared the independence of the man, who, as it soon turned out, had a different spirit than Stephan. Already in Germany, Ferd. Walther had admitted to Stephan that he lacked personal trust in him. So that from then on, based on his knowledge of human nature, he looked suspiciously at Walther without him knowing it. When F. Walther had arrived in St. Louis, the candidate Klügel, who had received the secret order from Stephan to keep a sharp eye on F. Walther was assigned to him as a room-mate. He felt more and more depressed, *) yet he was tormented by the concern that his doubts about Stephan's sincerity might be based on sinful suspicion, to which the thought came, where do you want to go if you leave these Stephanists? Are they not the most faithful confessors of the teachings of our church? —
It was not a spiteful motive, but the love for the brethren that drove him to accept the order and to travel to Perry County in the week before Pentecost, unannounced and without first obtaining Stephan's permission (see above), accompanied by a single man, a Saxon shoemaker's apprentice [Schuhmachergesellen]. Ferd. Walther was 28 years old at that time and when he entered this settlement for the first time, the crew of his steamboat knew nothing more than to indicate the mouth of the Obrazo [Brazeau Creek] as the place of his destination. Since he did not know the area, he did not know that he had arrived late in the evening at this landing place, rather he believed to have landed on the Illinois shore. For this reason he was put ashore somewhat ungently together with his companion by the boatmen. The steamboat left immediately
———————————————
*) These words, along with other notes, are taken from a letter that the sainted Pastor J. F. Buenger wrote to the writer of this letter on December 28, 1881, shortly before his death. Since the then candidate Buenger traveled via New York, where several Lutherans had already immigrated elsewhere joined him, and only arrived in Perry County the week before Pentecost 1839, he too was saved from the folly of pledging obedience to Bishop Stephan in lieu of an oath.
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on its way down the river and Walther, along with his companion, still believed that they had been mistakenly abandoned on the Illinois shore. Meanwhile they were closer to their goal than they thought. Since the present Wittenberg on the Mississippi River was not yet built, it was customary to light a fire in the evening near the landing; F. Walther and his companion now directed their steps towards this fire. The latter's courage was waning when they suddenly found themselves in the thickest darkness of the night at the bed of a river (the Obrazo), which in spring carries a considerable amount of water from the backwoods to theMississippi. "Ah! Pastor! we are lost!" he exclaimed; but Walther replied: "No, this time we will reach our destination! He was aware of his calling. Quite unexpectedly, while groping around with his hands on the bank of the river, Walther got a rope in his hands, which led them to a little dinghy. Unconcerned, they let themselves into it, whereupon the dinghy started to sway so much that they were only kept intact above the deep river bed by a special preservation. When they reached the other side of the river, they soon found Bishop Stephan sitting around the fire among his faithful followers. Stephan was astonished by the unexpected visit. His guilty conscience might have been telling him something, but in the meantime, he sat down, saying to Walther, "See where you can stay this night," and hurried to his apartment. [↑] The following day, Walther went not only to the elders, who administered the communal affairs and the treasury, but also to Stephan, to his dwelling. When he arrived there, he saw his brother Hermann, who had been taken into the home of an American, coming towards him. They embraced each other in front of Stephan's house, but before the conversation had got under way, the door went out and Hermann quickly pushed his brother Ferdinand into the house, so that he might negotiate the necessary things with Stephan himself. Stephan first expressed his indignation that Ferdinand Walther had appeared at the settlement without being called.
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The latter replied first of all that in the St. Louis congregation there had been great dissatisfaction with this compulsion, as if it were forbidden to come to the settlement, and with other regulations according to which the workers were not allowed to engage themselves for more than a few days; the present state of affairs could not remain as it was. Stephan replied: “This is the fault of Loeber, he is a cowardly sissy, he is letting the people rise too far,” from which Ferdinand Walther defended his esteemed friend Loeber all the more warmerly, blatantly told Stephan the truth and left unceremoniously. With the sincere veneration with which people then had looked up to Stephan, it was difficult to convince the few members of the settlement which Ferd. Walther visited and informed of Stephan's case. Theod. Brohm, who was there as a candidate, earnestly besought F. Walther with the request that he should stop believing and talking about his Reverence of such things, “you will be banished and cast out!" Brohm shouted to him. F. Walther replied: "It would be better to say: his Unvenerable, I am glad to have finally cleared my conscience. The lawyer Dr. Ad. Marbach, who until then had also blindly trusted Stephan, a strong man who had made many plans for the future, began to cry bitterly when Ferd. Walther handed him the confession signed by the two girls. Ferd Walther, however, lifted him up and showed him the right way to look at it with the words: “Now it will be good, because only now it will become clear that our emigration is a work of God, while we finally get rid of this tyrant of consciences.” [↑] Since Hermann Walther as Stephan's chaplain had to take care of the sermon on Pentecost Monday, he handed over this sermon to his brother Ferdinand under the circumstances, while he himself preached at the landing place where a missionary post had been established (the present Wittenberg). The young pastor Ferd. Walther was well known to the listeners
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who gathered under the great leafy canopy and God Himself confessed the Word, whose basic text contained the passage John 3:20: “Everyone practicing evil hates the light.” All the listeners noticed that there was an indication of a serious offence that was only now coming to light. Only now did the rumor of Stephan's disgraceful way of life penetrate through the whole settlement, and the fear of the St. Louis congregation that Stephan would still keep a large following and cause a great division in the congregation did not come true. The following Sunday, Stephan preached in the settlement, but found only two people listening. Already at this point he could see what a change of attitude had taken place. Ferdinand Walther had meanwhile returned from the settlement to St. Louis after his work and brought news of the present state of affairs. The greater part of the St. Louis emigration congregation set out on their journey and landed in two large boats in Wittenberg, accompanied by Ferdinand Walther. [↑] On the following day, the so-called Council (according to Stephan’s order) decided on Stephan's fate. The members of the Council went to him to show him his grave crime. On the advice of some legal scholars, who admittedly were more familiar with Saxon civil law than with the local state law, Stephan was not only relieved of his office, but also declared to have lost his property and was expelled from the State of Missouri as compensation for the money he had taken out of the communal treasury and wasted (he later obtained a replacement by court order only for the confiscation of his private property). He was also subjected to a personal investigation and a large number of gold pieces were found in his stockings. — It was sad, however, that this man, with apparent indignation, rejected even the most obvious proofs of his guilt as lies and slander, stating that he had only secretly provided himself with money because he had already foreseen that he would be accused of treason and malice,
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and that he would be cast out helplessly into the wide world. Thus he stood twice as gruesome as a stubborn denier of his guilt before the eyes of those who had given him their heart and trust for so long. — On the Illinois shore of the Mississippi is the so-called “Devil's Bake-Oven”, a dangerous cliff where many a ship has stranded; Stephan was lodged near this place for the time being. One of his female servants also followed him there. Pastor Loeber visited him again, accompanied by Candidate Brohm, and tried to lead Stephan to repentance, but in vain. Finally he preached in a small church on the Horse Prairie in Illinois. Plagued by terrible visions, Stephan died in 1847, in a severe agony, but without giving a sign of repentance.
The great majority of the emigrant congregation now took a different path. Only a few separated from the Saxon pastors and formed Donatistic conventicles in St. Louis, but the others listened to the voice that called the whole congregation to repentance. Especially Pastor Hermann Walther, who was gifted with a delicate mind and who was now appointed as their pastor by the St. Louis congregation, organized special penitential services in which the preachers presented themselves as the guiltiest, as they had also strengthened their leader in his security and tyranny, had fallen in many respects from God's Word to Stephan's Word because they, along with the listeners, wanted to put their trust in a man, made flesh their arm, and in a sectarian way to see the true Church of Christ in the Stephanist church fellowship! “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall!” 1 Cor. 10:12. This word was called out one to another in memory of Stephan. In order to correct the given scandal as much as possible before the whole world, the following revocation and public renunciation of Stephan was published in a public St. Louis newspaper, the Anzeiger des Westens, on June 1, 1839:
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"Only a few weeks ago, the undersigned felt urged to publicly contradict in these papers the many evil rumors that had been spread from Germany against our former Bishop Stephan, even here" (Stephan had been defended in the same paper soon after his arrival in St. Louis). — "Unfortunately, however, in the last few weeks we have had an experience which convinced us on the one hand that we had suffered ourselves to be shamefully deceived with respect to this man, and on the other hand filled our hearts with disgust and horror. Stephan is truly guilty of the secret sins of lust, infidelity and hypocrisy, and we ourselves were the ones to whom the unsolicited confessions have been made which expose him and of which we have now immediately informed others.
If we have now previously defended this man in ignorance and voluntary devotion, we now, since God has opened our eyes to this through his gracious guidance, publicly renounce the fallen. *)
We hope to God that He, who so far has so visibly taken care of our church and the church that emigrated with us, will avert all the harmful consequences of the great scandal that has occurred with us and others.
St. Louis, May 27, 1839.
Gotth. H. Loeber, Pastor
Ernst Gerh. Wilh. Keyl, Pastor
Ernst Moritz Bürger, Pastor
Carl Ferd. Wilh. Walther, Pastor
(also on behalf of her two absent ministers:)
Otto Hermann Walther, Pastor
Maximilian Oertel, Pastor
— – – – – – – – – –--
*) Since the pastors who accompanied Stephan to America were partly in the Mulde Valley and partly in the Saxon principalities, and had only rarely visited Stephan personally, it had been all the easier for him to surround himself with a false martyr's appearance and to portray the police prosecutions, from which Stephan apparently emerged without guilt,
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[↑] The consequences of Stephan's fall and exposure were felt even more severely in the settlement in Perry County than in the St. Louis congregation. On the one hand the physical need began to press. The communal treasury was exhausted; the communal economy was dissolved and thus more freedom of movement was created, but it was difficult for the new settlers to clear the forest and make it tillable. With bleeding hands the Saxon weavers in the evening returned home from the fields and woods, and often strong men were laid out on their sickbeds when they overworked in the hot climate. During the hot season there was usually also a lack of water; it was only later that people began to hew deep cisterns into the rocks. Before that the cattle often withered away. Indeed, Bürger writes in his book: "my wife and children did not have the drop of water in their feverish heat." All this, writes Pastor J. F. Köstering, *) the present pastor in Altenburg, had to happen so that people would get rid of their trust in Man and throw themselves into the arms of God's gracious care. This care did not stay away for long. The experience of the godly Pastor Buenger’s family was especially strengthening the faith. The parish widow Buenger had emigrated with seven children, one son was a physician, the present Altenburg physician, another was the candidate Buenger. The latter two did what they could to support themselves; but the dear widow's bright tears of melancholy ran down her cheeks when the children thought that they wanted to satisfy their hunger with roasted grains of corn, because the bread was gone. One of the brothers and sisters was sad, the others consoled themselves with the Word of God. And behold! the very same day
— – – – – – – – – – –--
as a suffering that he had to bear for Christ's sake. The suspicion, as if the pastors had known about Stephan's immoral change, can only come from malicious suspicion.
*) The Emigration of the Saxon Lutherans, Their Settlement, etc. in St. Louis, published in second edition, contains the most important documents from that time.
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an English-speaking man with a horse carrying a sack of flour rode up to the widow's house and asked if they needed flour. Of course they said yes! but added that no payment could be made at the moment. The man left the flour in the house, and the people promised to pay; but they could never pay for it, for although they did all the research and were later put into better circumstances, it was never possible to find out who the man was, the good angel in the time of trouble. [↑] But on the other hand, the heat of temptation pressed many hearts and consciences even harder than the outer heat of the sun. Worldly-minded people had indeed felt outwardly free and comfortable after Stephan's unmasking, but in this settlement there were many noble and serious-minded souls who wanted to become saved and remain faithful to the Lord Christ and His Church; Stephan had promised that here in this country one could preserve the sacred treasures of the Church for their children and children's children. But now spirits appeared, which said "We are deceived and must bear the shame that falls on Stephan, we are no longer a church at all, but a house fallen to pieces!" It was the pastors themselves who suffered most from the mistrust that now took hold of their minds. They were reproached at first that they should have seen through Stephan's goings-on earlier, and instead they had joined in the hierarchical way, because the whole emigration was a sinful step, and so they, the preachers, also ran away from their congregations in Saxony, they had no call here in America, emigration was pure devil's work. One began to denounce the validity of the official pastoral acts, because the romanizing Stephanism had changed into Donatism. If one had believed until then that the visible church of Stephan was the only true church in the present, only through Stephan and the Stephanistic preaching ministry was the grace of God offered and the pure doctrine guaranteed, and only those who obey this ministry form the host of Christ and with this ministry together the church, then
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they did not know now, where salvation and grace would still be found. Although Stephan had taught, and added to his church order that no man could transfer the office (as if there were no mediated calling by the congregation!), that the office would endure even if no one should accept the preached Word, it was nevertheless, in spite of this hierarchical doctrine, this highly praised office, which according to that teaching was to give full power and validity to the Word and the holy sacrament, which had fallen together with Stephan, and there were people there who doubted whether the church of Christ, with its treasures and means of grace, was still present with them. *) Some felt like abandoned sheep without a shepherd, but others, like Dr. Vehse, Gust. Jaekel and Ferd. Fischer wrote a paper of protestation in which they complained that the spiritual priesthood of the Christians was being neglected and that the rights of the congregation were not being properly respected. The ministers and candidates got into a deep crisis of conscience at this state of affairs, most of them believed in their former form of church government in Saxony and had to turn back. They also published an apology and a renunciation of Stephan in the Pilgrim from Saxony, a church magazine still published in Leipzig today. Even Pastor H. Loeber staggered in these storms and was already dealing with the thought of resigning his office in Altenburg. The most detailed description was by Pastor E. M. Bürger [pic] who describes his state of mind in his Open Letter to the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Although he took up his ministry on the first Sunday in Advent 1840 with the consent of his congregation in Seelitz (near Altenburg in Perry County), and was thus rightly called, he suspended himself again, and refused to celebrate Holy Communion for some time, because he again had doubts whether he could regard his call as divine. So it was even less surprising that even sincere
— – – – – – – – – – – – –-
*) Pastor Ferd. Walther had never understood this concept of church, as the following will enlighten us.
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church members doubted their state of grace and went astray. Previously, under Stephan, the testimony from the mouth of the ordained preacher and the visible membership in the orthodox church was considered to be a main part and witness of Christianity, now they no longer knew where this true church was, because the head of the pastors, in whom they believed to have the chief mark of the true church, had fallen with his whole church system. Therefore, the Christians had a moral dilemma as to whether they could take part in the public services, and the whole newly established church system, without sin. More and more often, the disputes moved from right to left and the whole settlement threatened to dissolve into individual separatist groups. Pastor M. Buerger also kept himself separate at that time, but he took the right path again by working towards a theological discussion about the disputed points between the pastors, candidates and a lay member, as he writes on page 41 of his book. By the latter is undoubtedly meant the skilful lawyer Dr. Adolph Marbach from Dresden, who confronted Pastor Ferd. Walther at that important disputation until the testimony of truth, which he gave with convincing clarity, won the day. Accordingly, Pastor F. Walther on the one hand and Dr. Marbach from Dresden on the other hand were elected as colloquents. — [↑] What is perceived in the life of nations, that especially in times of misfortune men rise up through whom God sends help, is also reflected in the history of the Christian Church. The men whom God has chosen as His instruments must then come to light and, when the need is greatest, grow with the strength that God has entrusted to them. It was also God's providence that the same man who had already preceded him in the unmasking of Stephan should come back to the scene when the church upheaval wanted to tear apart all ties. The German (now deceased) R. Hoffmann writes in his pamphlet: The Missouri Synod in
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North America, Gütersloh 1881" [no lending library in the USA as of 2019], from that time: "In this distress, when they believed that they were no longer a Christian congregation at all, but a congregation that had broken apart, lost in time and eternity, it was one man who saved them, the aforementioned Ferd. Walther." [See Hochstetter’s 1882 LuW review of this essay here, translated here] The congregation lacked a firm doctrinal foundation, which is why their hearts could not become firm until they were secured in the truth of God's Word. Already under Stephan it was mostly fear that dominated many minds; it was said at that time: He who does not stand with us does not belong to the Church, he lies under the wrath of God! Now it was said: "We have stood by Stephan, and so we have shared in his errors and sins; the ruin in which we lie is too great for a reformation to take place within our community! While this side was causing the consciences of many to become so confused that they were happy to claim guilt when it was said that all your Christianity was no good, Pastor Ferd. Walther was against it. He endeavored to prove from God's Word and to confirm from the testimonies of the Lutheran Confessions that nevertheless, even in corrupt churches despite all abuses, Christians were present. Therefore a Christian congregation was also present, because the believing children of God make up the Church, not the wicked, not even the persistent false teachers! On the other hand, wherever efforts are made to put an end to abuses and to establish the true teaching office of the ministry, there is also a Lutheran Church, because the pure Word of God and the unadulterated administration of the sacraments are the only characteristics of the true Church. Thirdly, there is no doubt that the congregation has the right and duty to establish the public ministry of preaching in its midst, for it (the congregation) is the bearer and owner of all spiritual goods, and therefore, according to divine order, it has the power to entrust those who are capable of administering these graces and goods to the public administration, and such a call emanating from the congregation is certainly valid and pleasing to God. He said that the church, according to the VII and VIII articles of the Augsburg
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Confession is the assembly of all believers and therefore also does not consist in a pope or bishop or in a special class of ordained persons, that also the call into the ministry is not made by a special class of persons, also not by means of the outward act of ordination, but by the whole congregation which, because it possesses the spiritual priesthood, has also from the beginning and without means (according to the Smalcald Articles) received the spiritual power of the keys from God. Of this divine right to call the Smalcald Articles teach the following: "For where the Church is, there is ever the command to preach the Gospel; therefore the churches must retain the power to demand, elect and ordain ministers; and such power is a gift which is actually given to the churches by God and cannot be taken away by any human power of the church!” [From the German; Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, § 67]
[↑] In April 1841, the above-mentioned disputation in Altenburg took place in the newly built college blockhouse in front of many listeners. Pastor Ferd. Walther had written a public open letter for this discussion, which finally resulted in eight Theses (doctrinal statements), by which the doctrinal battle that had broken out was victoriously decided. Since Pastor Koestering's book, pp. 42-54, contains a literal section from this open letter, the following is reported:
"Because the wretched are troubled and the poor groan, I will arise, says the Lord; I will create a help, that they may teach with confidence," so it says, my dear brethren, in Ps. 12:6. According to the testimony of our theologians, this promise was fulfilled in the most glorious way, especially at the time of the Reformation. Certainly, however, we too may confess to the glory of the merciful and long-suffering and patient God that this dear promise has also begun to be fulfilled in us wretched and poor people. We were disturbed and were troubled; many sighed and over many there was sighing, and behold — the Lord, without all our merit and worthiness, began to create a help of which we were not aware.
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God removed a great disturber from among us, to whom we had entrusted ourselves against God's will as a guide to heaven. But what would have become of us if God had not continued to take care of us? — The wretched were still being disturbed, and the poor were still sighing" — — — In the following, he acknowledges with heartfelt thanks of that writing of Dr. Vehse, Fischer and Jaekel which was already mentioned, and which was initially viewed with distrust by most of the Saxon preachers. — But what now arouses concern in Pastor Walther is mainly two things: First of all, several of us are now trying to completely blur the difference between the seducers and the seduced. Do we not often demand of the seduced that they confess a guilt that rests only on the seducers? Do not many simple-minded souls have a conscience about errors of which only the private secretaries of Stephan were aware? Do we not often paint the picture of the most shameful Stephanist clubs, and then cry out: this is the church that you make up? — Do we not often treat those who bleed under the scourge of conscience of the Stephanists as if they were not much better than those who cruelly wielded this scourge over them? Do we not often demand of the simple-minded a knowledge and confession of sins of which they cannot be guilty? Does one not often make a particularly high degree of recognition of sin a condition of grace and salvation? Is it not often the case that we seek to suspiciously guard among us all our previous Christian experiences and the certain effects of grace of the Holy Spirit as horrible self-deceptions, simply because at that time we did not yet see through our seducers? — If we add to this the condition of our congregations, which are used to being beaten and frightened, then it is not difficult to get people to admit everything, including sin, that they are not yet convinced of in their consciences, in order to avoid being considered stubborn and impenitent. Oh, a grain of true poverty of spirit is worth more
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than a thousand talents of head-knowledge of sin! Matthew 9:36 [sic - was 9:26]: ‘But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.’ The second thing that causes me great concern is that several of us are now making it clear, either as a matter of concern or as a foregone conclusion, that there is no Christian church, nor congregation, nor ministry, nor right sacrament, nor divine absolution, nor call, nor spiritual priesthood among us. So we are not only denied that there is still a Lutheran church here, but also that there is a Christian congregation at all and that the goods of the Church are not administered here. Far be it from me from wanting to make someone's scruples into sin, but we should at least not make those who do not share these scruples dismayed by stormy excuses. — It is a very unfortunate thing to reveal mere reservations to everyone without need. This is why Luther said in his 1528 letter on re-baptism: ‘For Satan also now does nothing else through the enthusiasts (die Schwaermer) except to bring forth all kinds of uncertain things, thinking it is sufficient if he is able to speak proudly and scornfully of us, as the Sacramentarians do. No one wants to make sure about his presumptions and prove them, but they devote all their efforts to make our understanding suspect and uncertain. Suspiciones docent, non fidem, (they teach conjectures, not faith), and then call it Scripture and Word of God. The devil strikes into dust, and would like to create a fog before our eyes, so that we should not see the light; and in the fog he presents nothing but will-o'-the wisps to us, in order to deceive us. That is to say, because they have formed their opinion they exercise themselves to pull the Scripture by the hair in order to make it agree with that opinion.’ So far Luther.
It is even more irresponsible than publication and revealing of such scruples if one passes off doubt as truth and downright denies the validity of the baptisms carried out among us two years ago, absolutely denies the divinity of the absolution now spoken, etc. — Of such
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activities Luther testifies: ‘It is a sin and tempting God to teach uncertain delusion as sure truth; such a one is as much a denier as one who publicly speaks against the truth, for he speaks what he himself does not know, nevertheless he wants it accepted as truth.’ So far Luther. — The clearer it has now become from day to day for me how the plague of sin-seeking and the domination of conscience will creep in among us anew, and how great the danger is that most souls will be thrown into the abyss of doubt about everything, that all solid foundation will be made unsteady, that all the certainty and power and validity of the divine means of grace and ordinances are made dependent on human worthiness, that if one continues in this way, we can finally all nowhere and never become certain whether we have received the true sacraments, whether we have messengers of Christ or of the devil before us, whether we are in a Christian or in a heathen congregation, in the church or in an idolatrous temple, whether we can be saved in any fellowship or not. The clearer it became to me that the danger of such a confusion of conscience was increasing daily among us, the more irresistible it became in me the desire to contribute something to the control of this unspeakable misery and to place many a now restless and timid conscience on the immovable foundation of the divine Word! It was this desire that prompted me to send the present letter to you, my dear brethren in Christ, etc. The purpose is not to justify myself or the whole congregation in all points. No — it is about this: I want to defend myself against making the sins of individuals into the sins of all; — not making the harlots, rogues and school of lies the core of our entire community; that people may not say, they were all in it, but on the contrary, this school of Satan had been in our Christian congregation. I want to show what a great difference it is whether a church is purified or whether it is called a true church, that such a church can be very corrupt and still be called a true congregation.
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I do not want to show that the dyed-in-the-wool Stephanists and the unconverted among us were the Church, or that they truly belonged to the Church, but that it was precisely the most simple, the least respected, who were the main persons among us, and that "they constituted the Church.” I want to help that these so often despised children of God are no longer overlooked among us, but that we know that we have all, so to speak, lived by their grace. I want to defend against the idea that we finally nowhere can be steady and nowhere can we be sure whether we are Christians, whether we are Lutherans, whether we are in a Christian congregation, whether we are called to join in the calling and establish the divine worship or not, whether we hear a messenger of God or the devil, whether we are called by the synagogue of Satan or by the church of Christ, whether we remain in our office or have to leave it, whether we are against God or whether we fight for Him, yes, whether we are baptized or not. I want to prevent the terrible madness from taking hold among us, as if the power and validity of the Word and God's interventions were based on man’s truthfulness and worthiness. I want to defend that even the clearest things are not made dark, the most certain things doubtful, the lightest things difficult, and the clearest things inexplicable and insoluble. So here it is a matter of appeasing consciences, of warding off false doctrine that tries to creep in under the guise of humility, — — it is not a matter of honour and justification for any man, but of God's honour; it is a matter of whether He is faithful, even if we become unfaithful. — [↑] The decision of the points in dispute among us is mainly based on the correct application of several points in the doctrine of the Church, ecclesiastical authority, call, office, banishment, heresy, etc. The doctrines themselves, from which the application to the present circumstances was then made, in this letter were based on the Word of God and confirmed by the testimonies of the Confessions and the Lutheran teachers. The eight doctrines established by this are as follows: [Concordia Cyclopedia]
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§ 1.
The true Church, in the most perfect sense, is the totality (Gesamtheit) of all true believers, who from the beginning to the end of the world, from among all peoples and tongues, have been called and sanctified by the Holy Ghost through the Word. And since God alone knows these true believers (2 Tim. 2:19), the Church is also called invisible. No one belongs to this true Church who is not spiritually united with Christ, for it is the spiritual body of Jesus Christ.
§ 2.
The name of the true Church also belongs to all those visible societies in whose midst the Word of God is purely taught and the holy Sacraments are administered according to the institution of Christ. True, in this Church there are also godless men, hypocrites, and heretics, but they are not true members of the Church, nor do they constitute the Church.
§ 3.
The name Church, and in a certain sense the name true Church, also belongs to such visible societies as are united in the confession of a falsified faith and therefore are guilty of a partial falling away from the truth, provided they retain in its purity so much of the Word of God and the holy Sacraments as is necessary that children of God may thereby be born. When such societies are called true Churches, the intention is not to state that they are faithful, but merely that they are real Churches, as opposed to secular organizations [Gemeinschaften].
§ 4.
It is not improper to apply the name Church to heterodox societies, but that is in accord with the manner of speech of the Word of God itself. And it is not immaterial that this high name is granted to such societies, for from this follows : (1) That members also of such societies may be saved; for without the Church there is no salvation.
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§ 5.
2) That the outward separation of a heterodox society from the orthodox Church is not necessarily a separation from the universal Christian Church or a relapse into heathenism and does not yet deprive that society of the name Church.
§ 6.
3) Even heterodox societies have church power; even among them the treasures of the Church may be validly dispensed, the ministry established, the Sacraments validly administered, and the keys of the kingdom of heaven exercised.
§ 7.
Even heterodox societies are not to be dissolved, but reformed.
§ 8.
The orthodox Church is to be judged principally by the common, orthodox, and public confession to which the members acknowledge themselves to have been pledged and which they profess.
A few years later, Pastor A. Schieferdecker, who witnessed this disputation, can be heard in a synodical convention address as District President: "It did not take more than this to free the consciences from severe distress, to raise up the already almost sunken faith in many hearts again and to make it come alive as if from death. It was the Easter day of our hard tested congregations, where they saw the Lord again as once the disciples did, and were filled with joy and hope in the light of his grace and in the power of his resurrection. There are still many here present who certainly remember this day with tears of thanksgiving to the merciful God. There are still present here some of the faithful warriors who fought for the cause of Christ and his poor, torn flock, including the dear brother (Walther), whom God needed as the most noble instrument in his cause. As important and meaningful as the
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Leipzig Disputation of 1519 (Luther with Eck) became for the Reformation, so important — I dare say confidently — this Disputation held here (in Altenburg) at that time has become for the whole subsequent formation and shaping of our Lutheran Church here in the West (of America). What was won and conquered at that time as the jewel of truth has proven its worth in all the subsequent battles our Synod has fought." (see pages 53 and 54 in Pastor Koestering's book) — Pastors G. H. Loeber and E. G. W. Keyl were also filled with new joyfulness as a result of the happy ending of this religious discussion. They were well aware of the fact that the Lutheran pastor in his spiritual office needs no other power than the power of the Word, for the power of God to save does not lie in one's own strength or worthiness, but only in the Gospel. The sainted Pastor Loeber writes of this: "Because our pastors had already made sufficient confessions of their sins before that public meeting and had purified themselves before God and men because of the sins they had committed, their present congregations had no hesitation in formally calling them to the spiritual pastoral ministry and recognizing them as their rightful shepherds. And so, under the good hand of God, the various temptations and frictions, through which the enemy had undoubtedly thought nothing else but to drive us away, had to serve us to serve us for our good, so that we learned to remember God's Word and Luther's doctrine even better, and our consciences were cleansed of many previously unrecognized sins and fortified against all kinds of doubts, while many erring persons were counselled and the weak and fearful were comforted. But not all of them wanted to be counseled and corrected, but some went their own ways after that and no longer walked with us. — In the newly settled Saxon congregations it was now recognized that the exercise of the church government, i.e. the power to set and order everything that promotes and serves the administration of the Word of God and the holy sacraments — according to divine
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right belongs to each individual congregation; it was known that the churches are the sole property of the Lord Christ, who said: "one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren", Matt. 23:8; that they therefore did not need to inquire of to any human person or authority (be they called pope or bishop, or whatever a so-called higher church government may call itself), as if they were first and foremost subject to such an authority and then only to the Lord Christ. For Christ the Lord wants to remain the only mediator and says Matt. 18:20: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The same Christ also gives, as the Smalcald Articles say on the basis of this passage, the highest judgment to the congregation with the words; “Tell it unto the church”, Matt. 18:17.
Since it is not uncommon in Germany, in particular, to think that these teachings, which are certainly scriptural, would undermine all order in the Church, and that an arbitrary majority rule in the Church would be brought about, it must be briefly noted that in the congregations of Saxony, this new arrangement of things has brought about peace and order and a very pleasant relationship between the pastors and their congregations. After the congregations had gained the right understanding of the freedom they have in Christ, of their spiritual rights and duties, they also began to make the right God-pleasing use of the spiritual power which Christ gave not only to the ministers, but also to His Church on earth (as the Small Catechism already teaches).
The settlement in Perry County was divided into delimited parishes. Altenburg, which grew up fastest to become a village, now definitely called Pastor H. Loeber; Frohna together with Wittenberg called Pastor E. G. W. Keyl; in Dresden and Johannisberg Pastor Ferd. Walther had been stationed until then. Pastor Bürger preferred to leave for Germany, but was detained on the way there in the city of
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Buffalo, where a small congregation whose beginnings had been gathered by Pastor Krause, who had returned to Germany at the time (Silesians and incoming Pomeranians), was left without a preacher and had been pressed from the beginning into opposition to Pastor Grabau. After careful consideration and only after he had also visited and heard Pastor Grabau, Pastor Buerger accepted the call of this Lutheran congregation in Buffalo. Pastor Oertel, who was very unhappy with the new circumstances, left Perry County during the summer, his former parishioners joined the other parishes, but he himself later became a full Roman Catholic and worked in New York as a bigoted papal servant at a Catholic newspaper. A new addition, however, was the parish of Pastor C. F. Gruber, from Reust in the Duchy of Altenburg. The same one landed in Wittenberg shortly before Christmas with 141 Lutherans, and with them they built the village of Paitzdorf. — A rich Christian life blossomed in these congregations in which the pastors built on the one cornerstone, namely Christ; it became more and more evident that the true Church, precisely where one lives one's faith, also appears visibly, because it says: “I believed, therefore have I spoken.” [Ps. 116:10] Christians recognized that the pure Word of God was also familiar to them, that they should profess it. Church discipline and eventually the ban were exercised according to the words of Christ, Matt. 18:15-18, against manifest and wilful sinners in such a way that it was not necessary to use the arm of the secular government, as it was believed in the German state churches to be necessary. The forest which they had cleared amid manifold hardships for cultivation now rang with the voice of the Lord! Psalms 29:8-9. For some time the Saxon Lutherans had to be scolded by the world as Stephanists, but in the face of this disgrace, which they no longer deserved, what Christ the Judge sings of the Christians was fulfilled in them:
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It shines in the Christian's inner life,
Although they are burnt by the sun on the outside;
What the King of Heaven gave them
Is known to none but themselves.
What nobody feels,
What nobody touches,
Decorated their enlightened senses,
And led them to divine dignity.
Although the constitution of the Evangelical Lutheran Missouri Synod took place only six years after that Altenburg Disputation, it was nevertheless rightly noted that the entire Missouri Synod was based on the same doctrinal foundation on which the Saxon congregations had built up from that time on. It cannot be a source of dishonour for this synod that it has held fast without wavering to the Word of God and to our scriptural Confession also in the doctrine of the Church and of the holy Ministry. [↑] Nevertheless, until the most recent times there are no lack of opponents of these teachings, because, as Dr. A. Broemel remarks in an essay, there is a Catholic [Dr. Fred Kramer participated in doctrinal discussions, e.g. with Roman Catholics on “Papal Primacy” in 1974.] (hierarchical) procession through the world; “they want to bring us a Lutheran hierarchy that is diametrically opposed to the old Protestant view.” In the same way that the Jesuits present the Reformation as a rebellion and revolution, the Missouri Synod is now accused by the people on that side of being unbiblical and un-Lutheran radicalism and independentism. They say that because here in this country "the curb of the state is missing", so the civil conditions of North America were taken into account, and the democratic desires were yielded to [see p. 48 below] by the fact that the Missouri constitution transfers church government and key authority to the individual congregation! This is also the reproach of the late R. Hoffmann, who must confess that one must not only acknowledge without bias the external blessing God has given this Lutheran Synod, but also the reverence with which the Missouri Synod upheld the sacred treasures of Old Lutheran doctrine! Wilh. Rohnert speaks similarly, who
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believes that the Missouri Synod borrowed Hoefling's theory of ministry, *) but finally concludes his very one-sided and erroneous account with the words: "the exclusively Lutheran direction of the Synodical Conference has been a great blessing for America" — Should this stance, which holds the Old Lutheran doctrine as a sacred treasure (because it is founded in the Holy Scriptures) indeed be comfortable with democratic desires? Should Dr. Walther's effectiveness really be destructive, revolutionary, libertarian, etc., as Pastor Grabau portrayed him in Germany and everywhere else? How does the concession of beneficial effectiveness fit with the accusation that Missouri doctrine and practice must undermine the Lutheran Church? One can see from the history of the Saxon emigration that after the unmasking of Stephan, a disintegration of the congregation and a revolution threatened, and this Donatism and rapturous fanaticism, which wanted to reject church and the preaching ministry, was, as demonstrated above, averted by Dr. Walther's effectiveness at the right time! Walther did not act in the manner of a church politician; such a politician would have said: we want to make concessions to the dissatisfied and introduce a new church order! Walther went into the Holy Scripture, and showed from it and from the testimonies of the Confessions that it is not the external bond of a constitution by which the true church is held together, that the true church as the assembly of all believers is not bound, like an external government, to this or to that country, also not to this or to that minister, also not to an organized synod, yes, not even to the name Lutheran; but that Christ's church is recognized and visibly appears
— – – – – – – – – – – –-
*) That the symbolic doctrine of the Missouri Synod is very different from Hoefling's theory was proved by Prof. Walther partly in his travel report from Germany, where he visited and refuted Prof. Hoefling, partly from the Buffalo Colloquium in November 1866. One should therefore refer to later reports.
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where the teaching of Christ is in progress and in use. Where the word and the holy sacraments are not found at all, there is certainly no Church; but while these means of grace are still present, there are certainly children of God, even if only a few! It is the spiritual treasures which, according to Christ's will, gather, maintain and spread the church of God; it is the spiritual fellowship of the Word and the Sacrament which distinguishes the Church from every secular community and constitution. Dr. Walther recognized that the spiritual power of the Word is strong enough to rebuild the Church in this very country, independent of the state, according to the genuine evangelical principles of the Reformation.
Soon after settling into his small Perry County parish, he fell ill with a malignant, nervous bilious fever, the aftermath of which was a persistent intermittent fever, and now went to see his brother-in-law, the sainted Pastor E. G. W. Keyl, who had brought a rich library from Germany. In the few hours without fever, he immersed himself in the study of Luther and recognized that the thing that made Luther so strong in his struggles, whereby he not only resisted the Pope but also stood firm against Zwingli, Calvin and the enthusiasts, was Luther's faith in the Bible and Luther's abhorrence of all hierarchism in the church. Luther did not ask about the council decisions and opinions of the Roman teachers, who are today again praised as authorities, nor did he wait until a council would have spoken, which the emperor and the humanists of his time were recommending; Luther also did not ask whether a doctrine was offensive to reason and the heart, as Zwingli did, and deviated from the Word of the Scriptures; Luther well knew that the Holy Scripture is the only source, rule and guideline of faith, therefore God's Word alone should provide him with articles of faith, as he testified in the Smalcald Articles. When Ulrich von Hutten offered him bodily help against the spiritual tyrants, he replied: "The world is overcome by the Word, the church is preserved by the Word, the church will also
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be rebuilt by the Word! The Saxon preachers saw themselves without human assistance, when it seemed that with Stephan's downfall all trust had also fallen away! All human support and authority had sunk away, and Walther began to cast light on the decayed conditions with the same light which Luther had once resorted, with the light of Holy Scripture! Therefore, “back to Luther, for whoever goes back to Luther will be led into the Holy Scriptures! His teaching is nothing but the everlasting gospel!” This is what Walther proclaims in summary, again in the name of the newly constituted Missouri Synod in 1849, in the Foreword to the fifth volume of Der Lutheraner. *)
If the church of Christ were a visible earthly kingdom, it would be essential and original, consisting of a commanding and an obeying state, divided into spiritual authority and subjects. Now, according to the Catechism, the Church is nothing other than the congregation of the true believers and saints scattered throughout the world, who are under one Head, namely Christ. Therefore the Church is the spiritual body of Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven of our Heavenly King, invisible in its nature, recognizable by the pure Word and Sacrament, which is not governed by human statutes and ordinances, but only by the Word and Spirit of Christ. According to Art. VII of the Augsburg Confession, the Church confesses in the same sense that she has always been and always will be present, and that all believers belong to her. It follows that the particularistic and Romanizing doctrine according to which our Evangelical Lutheran Church, as it has been historically present in the world for only 350 years, is not meant under the Church in Art. VII of the Augsburg Confession. Rather, the Augsburg Confessors also want to testify in this article
———————
*) Dr. Walther writes in the preface to the book on Church and Ministry [p. viii]: "We have not modelled the teaching of our Church on our own circumstances, but have ordered it according to the teaching of our Church. Whoever doubts this, we confidently call out to him: “Come and see”
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to their ecumenical, truly Catholic faith by stating that they do not profess to the adherence to the Pope, but to the universal Christian Church, for this Church, to which only truly believers, but also all believers of all times and all countries from the rising to the setting of the sun belong, this Church is the right one! Since there is no such church of pure believers in outward appearance, but rather hypocrites and godless people are always mixed in with them, Article VIII of the Augsburg Confession refuses to accept this, as if the means of grace were not effective and valid if they were administered by a godless person who does not belong to the Church. Such persons dispense in the stead of Christ, and not for their own persons, as the Apology says. But although the Church is never completely purified from the admixture of hypocrites and evil Christians in earthly life, these are not members of the Church! The gathering of all true believers can also only be a spiritual gathering, because here the Roman view of believers does not apply, which under the Church means all those who obey the Pope, not even all those who listen, but the true believers who are cling to Christ through the Holy Spirit and faith. — Very important is also the second part of Art. VII – Of the Church: “And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. As Paul says…. Eph. 4:5-6.” In the state churches, where the Church is essentially understood as a visible institute, the opposite of this sentence now applies, as if to say: "It is not necessary for us to teach in harmony. Everyone can teach what and how he wants, as long as he does not punish false doctrine (which is on an equal footing with the truth)! It is enough, therefore, to be obedient to the supreme government of the Church and to the Bishop of the country, observing its statutes, and to be conformable to others in human ceremonies. This is where
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the wrong concept of the church leads. It substitutes a hollow building in place of the spiritual temple built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and the One Cornerstone of Christ.
Since the entire Article VII resists the sectarian narrow-mindedness which the Church wants to turn into a visible particular church (such as the Roman one), the important words it is enough, and so on, are to indicate the Christian freedom of those who truly believe in Christ. However beautiful and lovely some ceremonies and ecclesiastical customs may be, the use or non-use of them must not be made a sin, and so pastors, too, must not act contrary to Christian freedom when they wish to introduce such ceremonies or liturgical customs. In the area of the free church, too, distraction and bitterness have often been caused by the unevangelical urgency and coercion of some ministers. Finally, the particular form of the constitution, the synod ordinances and the like also belong among those things which are not necessary for the true unity of the Church. It is a common experience in this country that even those who consider themselves good Lutherans substitute the interest they take in their Synod for the spiritual edification of the Body of Christ; human party-pushing, often accompanied by jealousy and ambition, makes the dividing walls which rise between the various Synods ever higher. Sectarians and mere name Lutherans are always much more strict about the constitutional form in which they are registered or parish priests, and about some of their favourite statutes, "instituted by men", than about the right unified faith!
According to the Large Catechism of Luther, the meaning and summary of the article “Of the Church” as the communion of saints is: “I believe that there is upon earth a little holy group and congregation of pure saints, under one head, even Christ, called together by the Holy Ghost.” It follows from this that these saints under their One Head and Master have only one status
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as Christians and that they originally and immediately proclaim the ministry, the goodness of the One who called them from darkness to light: to carry on, confess and preach the Word which they have accepted in faith. This congregation of the faithful, which is undivided by its very nature, is the bride and the honor of Christ's house; without distinguishing between so-called laymen and clergymen, the congregation as such is the holy Church of Jesus hidden in the visible crowd of the called, the true owner and bearer of all heavenly goods, rights, offices and powers that Christ gave to His Church. Because Christ dwells and reigns invisibly in the hearts of his believers, only Christocracy [not democracy] practiced by the Word and the Holy Spirit takes place here. R. Hoffmann misunderstands the whole situation, because he thinks that the dark side of the Missouri Synod is the democratic constitution, according to which one has "transferred" church government and the Office of the Keys to each individual congregation. But here nothing is to be transferred by people in the first place, but only to confess what the true Christians as spiritual priests and kings already originally have from Christ. *) It is therefore not merely a constitutional issue that is at stake! The difference between the neo-Lutheran Romanists and the real Old Lutherans lies in the answer to the question: with whom is the original spiritual power, the power of the keys, which includes all church government? Is this power given by Christ to his Church on earth, or does it originally belong to a pope, a special higher church government, or similar privileged status? Pastor Grabau attributed this power
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*) Smalcald Articles. [Tractate concerning the power and primacy of the Pope (§ 24), from the German translated:] “In the same way as the promise of the Gospel belongs to the whole Church without any means (principaliter et immediate, original and immediate), so also the keys belong to the whole Church without any means, because the keys are nothing else than the ministry (Amt), and therefore such a promise, is communicated to anyone who desires it.”
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exclusively to the doctrine, and although a church or congregation must first exist before a church government or synod or consistory can meet, the congregation of the saints is nevertheless to be burdened only with the object or goal from which and on which the so-called church government is to work, and at least the church as a whole or the state church is to be placed as a legal authority or spiritual authority over the congregations. Meanwhile the congregations have received their spiritual power not through the Church as a whole, but through and from Christ, and the Smalcald Articles confess that every congregation has such a command from God. Even if only two or three Christians were gathered together in Jesus' name, they have command and power from Him to deliver the public sermon. Matt. 18:20 and 1 Peter 2:9 are given as basis and proof because the spiritual power is principally with the Christians as spiritual priests, it cannot be with the pope or the bishops alone. If even the Apostle Paul says that he administers the keys for the sake of the faithful, in Christ's place, 2 Cor. 2:10, today's ministers of the Church need not be ashamed of this either. The Saxon pastors have also experienced that it brings more blessings to be called for the sake of the congregation, as Luther writes, than by Stephan. The official priestly pride, which creeps into the heart of the preacher by virtue of hierarchical principles, is much more dangerous and much more to be feared than the so-called "spiritual priesthood", a frightening image, with the best help of which our genuinely evangelical doctrine of the Holy Church and ministry is often rejected without examination. A spiritual priesthood is a contradiction in itself, because spiritual priests do not want to rule but serve the Lord and His Church; they legitimize themselves as spiritual priests only by the fact that their actions are founded in the Word of God; they surrender themselves, together with their pastor who has to administer the public service, to the Word of God and let themselves be shown the way they have to go as Christians. The
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The Church, as our confession also teaches, is the little sheep that hear the voice of their shepherd! Where only the word of the Supreme Shepherd of Jesus is heard and accepted, where the flock of the Lord knows the voice and hears the voice of no stranger in the voice of the shepherd, then for this reason, but only for this reason, it will gladly and willingly obey the servant of Christ, through whom the mouth of the Lord and Supreme Shepherd speaks to it. Where all are kings, that is, in matters of faith directly under Christ, there can certainly be no talk of one individual lordship over the others; where all are brethren, there is only one master, Christ! — [↑] “What would have been gained,” exclaims the sainted [F. C. D.] Wyneken in the Synodical Address of 1852 [LCMS files p. 201, 205 ↑; German & English text], "if a legal submission to a human authority, displeasing to God, had been forced, but not the Godly, inner, willing obedience of a heart born of God had been achieved. It would also be easy for us to catch our consciences and force them into external obedience, and to establish discipline and order in a way more comfortable for the flesh.” — “It is precisely our correct and Scriptural doctrine,” it further states, “that represents the office of the ministry in its right, high and divine dignity. For this dignity does not consist in exercising an external authority over the congregation, which would be the privilege of the minister as a class, and would force the obedience of a servant, but in the dignity of the minister, which is alive and strong, fresh and joyful in the power of the Word moves in the midst of the congregation, pouring out the heavenly blessings that the Lord has placed in His Word, and introducing the souls entrusted to Him more and more into the knowledge and blessed enjoyment of the freedom of the children of God from law, sin, death and the devil. In this way also the love of the child of God, moving in the glorious freedom, learns to accept, tolerate and carry everything that does not go against faith.” — As Christians, the members of the church will always be concerned that their pastor, who is given to them by God (according to Ephes. 4:11),
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will remain protected and honored in his rights; the preacher in turn will watch that the church remains in its rights, he will ward off the encroachments of individuals and always lead the way in serving love, according to Philippians 2:4: “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
In the next Part 7, we present Chapter 3.
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