# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1844 09 23_S5
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

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

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 1.

St. Louis, Mo., September 23, 1844.

No. 2.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar and twenty-five cents for out-of-town subscribers, half of which they must pay in advance, in addition to bearing the postage. — In St. Louis, each single issue is sold for 64 cents.

On the Name "Lutheran."
(Continued.)

B. What Does It Mean to Be a Lutheran?

In the previous number of our paper we showed that we did not give ourselves the name "Lutheran," nor do we attach to it any sense in which bearing such a name would be sinful. We showed that we do not refuse to let ourselves be called Lutherans — not, first of all, because we wished by this name to set ourselves apart from other orthodox believers, as the Corinthians did; further, not because we grounded our faith upon Luther; and finally not because by it we meant to indicate that we confessed a new doctrine and constituted a new church, that is, a sect.

The question therefore now arises: in what sense, then, do we actually call ourselves Lutherans? To this we answer briefly: nothing else is meant by it than that we are Christians who hold to be right that doctrine which, through Luther's ministry, was in this latter age brought again to light out of God's Word. Whoever confesses this doctrine with his mouth, him we call a Lutheran; but we regard as a true Lutheran only him who, through the working of the Holy Spirit, also believes it from the heart and holds the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. A true Lutheran and a true Christian, the Lutheran Church and the Christian Church, God's Word and Luther's teaching — all this is for us therefore one and the same. With joy and confidence we therefore make that well-known verse our watchword: "God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never pass away." Not as though we meant thereby to say that Luther spoke and wrote as an apostle out of immediate illumination of the Holy Spirit! — rather, we intend hereby to testify that Luther's teaching, as we have come to recognize, was drawn from God's Word, and that through him, accordingly, the reformation of the Church, acknowledged by everyone as necessary, was brought about. As indeed Luther himself once counseled the Lutherans who in the year 1528 were called by Duke George to give an account of their faith, that they should say: "They wished to abide by the holy Gospel. — So will Luther himself not be Lutheran, except insofar as he teaches Holy Scripture purely." (Luther's Works, Halle, XXI. 234.)

We know quite well what we may expect in these days for such a declaration — that with the firmest conviction of heart we hold the Lutheran Church to be the true Church of Jesus Christ on earth. Our mildest adversaries will say: Yes, a church, but we do not hold the Lutheran church to be the Church of Christ. — But the belief that there are several true churches we leave to those who can never be certain of their own doctrine, since in their conscience they feel themselves guilty of false teaching; who therefore must comfort themselves in secret with that sweet dream of many true churches, and thereby seek to quiet their crying conscience. Indeed, we leave it to them to confess openly for themselves that they cannot regard themselves as the Church of Christ, but only as a sect. We for our part thank God that he has brought us into the fellowship of his true Church and has made us certain, comforted, and joyful to confess before all the world that we belong to it, and not to a sect.

Here, however, many others will perhaps say: There, we hear it! We already know this language; the sectarians talk just the same way; that is exactly the surest mark of a sect, that one so shuts oneself off, wishing to be alone the church that makes one blessed, and damning all who believe differently. There you see it — that you Lutherans are proper arch-papists, for is not the assumption of a sole church that makes one blessed a thoroughly popish principle? See, thus you betray yourselves! — All who raise this objection against us we ask not to rush to judgment, but first to let us finish speaking, and not to conclude their judgment until we have set forth our actual meaning and they have duly weighed it.

We are by no means so fanatical and so limited in our knowledge of the invisible kingdom of Christ as to think that it consists only of those who call themselves Lutherans. Oh, no! It is for this very reason that our church is so great and so glorious to us; for this reason we cling to it with the whole assent of our hearts; for this reason we, for our small part, are willing to bear public witness for it, to pray, to fight, and, despite all the reproach that lies upon it, to remain with it to our last breath — because we know that this church is not confined within the bounds of a human name, a country, or an age, but embraces the whole inheritance of Jesus Christ.

The Lutheran Church is, in the first place, not limited to those who have borne this name from youth or have later adopted it. To every one who submits himself without falsehood to the whole written Word of God and carries in his heart, and confesses before the world, true faith in our dear Lord Jesus Christ, we extend the hand, regarding him as our fellow believer, our brother in Christ, a member of our church, a Lutheran — under whatever sect he may lie hidden and captive. We know quite well that God can preserve thousands of his children even where everything seems to have been swallowed up by the worship of Baal. (1 Kings 19:9–18.) We know that God's Word is so powerful that children of God are born even where this Word is preached only very sparsely and mixed with many doctrines of men; indeed, that Christ rules in the midst of his enemies (Psalm 110:2). We therefore condemn no one, whatever he may call himself, but proclaim only the divine verdict: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." It is one thing when we are asked: By what mark is the church known, and where does it become visible? It is another: Who is the church? To the first question we answer: it is known by the pure preaching of the divine Word and by the right use of the holy Sacraments. To the other: the Church is the assembly of all believers. (Cf. Augsburg Confession, Articles 7 and 8.) Accordingly our forefathers, in the preface to the symbolical books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, say among other things thus: "As for the condemnations, rejections, and repudiations of false, impure teaching — especially in the article concerning the Lord's