Un5: Lutherans not "partakers of errors of others"

      This continues from Part 4 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting an English translation of Walther's "Foreword" on Unionism to the 1871 volume of Lehre und Wehre. — Here Walther gets into the heart of his defense of the Lutheran Church, and warns those who err against Biblical Christianity. — Walther’s teaching that even in the Roman Church there can be true believers becomes a part of the defense against Unionism.

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With these principles of altar and pulpit fellowship, however, neither our Confession nor our theologians who are faithful to the Confession contradict themselves. If our church has constituted itself into a separate fellowship, it has not done so, nor does it do so now, because it thought or wanted to be Christ's church alone; but because it does not want to make itself partaker of the errors of others. It wants to be what every visible church should be, a confessional fellowship, and indeed a fellowship of pure confession. By its separate existence, therefore, it does not disassociate itself from the true Christians of the other church fellowships, but only from the errors of the latter. By its separate existence, it does not want to actually condemn and banish the believers in Christ among the erring [Irrgläubigen], or to shun them as heretics; it can only, while it considers itself inwardly most intimately united with them before God, so long as they stand in fellowship with the erring, in order not to deny the truth, not cultivate confessional fellowship with them, thus also not altar and pulpit fellowship. But just as he who separates himself from men for the sake of God's truth and honor is never to blame for the separation, but he who compels him to do so, so also the blame for the separation of the Lutherans from the true believers [Gläubigen] hidden among the erring lies not on the Lutherans, but partly on those who err, among whom some true believers are as if in captivity, and partly on the believers themselves, when they recognize the error of their fellowship and yet remain in it instead of leaving it and joining the banner of the orthodox. Those believers are suspended from the fellowship of orthodox believers by their involuntary membership in a sect, without being inwardly unworthy of this fellowship, just as, according to Matt. 5:23-24, those believers are suspended from Holy Communion without being in themselves unworthy communicants who are not yet reconciled to a brother; but those who voluntarily remain in the sect in spite of better knowledge suspend themselves from the fellowship of orthodox believers. The separate existence of our (page 8) church does not involve a schism, because it has not separated itself from the true church, but rather from the fellowships which had already caused "separation and trouble apart from the doctrine," in order not to share with them the sin of schism, but to remain in the unity of the true church.

This is also how our fathers viewed the matter. Thus, among others, the great Jena theologian Johannes Musaeus, who, as is well known, was often rebuked precisely because of his thoughtful stand against the Helmstadt syncretists, wrote, † 1681: 

“Concerning the communication in the doctrines of faith, although the disputing parties, as far as they are regarded as visible assemblies, do not communicate with the Lutheran Church, the true believers among them do communicate with it, who do not subscribe to the gross errors of the parties, but have and keep in their hearts the doctrine necessary for salvation, by God's grace, pure and unadulterated.... But concerning the use of the sacraments, other true believers cannot commune with us therein, unless the visible assembly, under which they are, communicate with us in the same, or they must leave the same and go out from it, as they are also bound to do, Rev. 18:4.” (Vertheidigung des unbeweglichen Grundes, dessen der Augsb. Conf. verwandte Lehrer zum Beweis ihrer Kirche sich gebrauchen. [Defense of the immovable ground, which teachers related to the Augsburg Confession use to prove their church.] Jena, 1654. p. 23. f.) 

How correct these principles are with respect to believing members of the Roman church, even the General Council will probably acknowledge; for we do not want to fear that in this body altar and pulpit fellowship will be considered permissible even with so-called Catholics, as long as they want to remain in the Roman church. But is it not a crying inconsistency not to extend this to all other erring fellowships? For if, for example, certain Reformed, as soon as and because they can be regarded as sincere Christians in love, are therefore to be admitted to our communion and to our pulpits, then one cannot, without contradicting oneself, exclude even a so-called Catholic, if he can be regarded as a Christian, whether he be a layman or a priest. 

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  This essay was published just before the final essay, in a series of 8 convention essays, that Walther delivered during the years 1866-1871. These essays carried the series title "The True Visible Church", a phrase that was used repeatedly in this essay. The two essays in 1868 were on the Lutheran Doctrine of Justification, and Walther here, in 1871, taught that this doctrine, and the Lord's Supper, must be protected from Unionism and syncretism. — In the next Part 6…