# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1855_S36
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

36 On the Doctrine of the Holy Preaching Office

There are indeed gifts of the Spirit that also descend upon those whose hearts are dark, without the bright light of the day of Christ, such as the faith that grasps only God’s omnipotence, but not His reconciled will of grace, and produces works in His kingdom of a striking, miraculous, or heroic kind and moves mountains of obstacles, Matthew 7:22; 1 Corinthians 13:1 ff.*); unjust and loveless people, without the truth that comes from heaven, asleep in sins and utterly dead, can nevertheless possess this faith and even, like Balaam, proclaim a divine word of knowledge and prophecy. But within the realm of the church this is possible only because the powers, gifts, and offices are a privilege of the saints, the chosen race. The first two, especially at the beginning of the New Testament, were also to be distributed among laypeople, male and female, without office; yet they, together with the offices, were to find their place only among those who honor the Son of Jehovah at least by their confession, for through this God glorifies the faith of His church. Cf. 1 Corinthians 12:1 ff.

How, then, can Wucherer nevertheless speak here of a mandate for office and a gift for office that Timothy, together with others, received through the laying on of hands? The former came to him through the divine call of the Holy Spirit given to Paul in apostolic fullness, who made it known to him (cf. Acts 13:2; 9:15). Timothy, like Titus, was not a bishop of congregations, but an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5) and an apostolic administrator of office; if they had not been designated as such by the Spirit of the Lord, the rite of ordination would never have made them so. Rather, through it they were blessed and consecrated for their office and merely confirmed publicly in it. The latter, by contrast, although as a gift it must be distinguished from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit—as the gift of the Spirit must be distinguished from the Holy Spirit Himself as a gift, John 20:22; see above, p. 6—is nevertheless one and the same with that indwelling in those to whom God has given the Spirit of power, love, and discipline, 2 Timothy 1:7. It is the result of the evangelical promises given once for all in the New Testament, which are hindered by unbelief but, through the believing prayer of clergy and laypeople without distinction, through spoken good wishes and truly Christian congratulations, and above all through the celebration and act of ordination, are awakened and directed toward the person called, provided that person is otherwise relatively receptive to them

*) Note. A particular aptitude for one or another function of the office—for liturgy, preaching, psychologically and pastorally distinguishing among and treating different people, directing congregations, understanding and interpreting the original languages of Holy Scripture, or comprehending and presenting dogmatic truths, etc.—may likewise constitute one or more such gifts in pastors who are spiritually dead while still alive and even sunk in sins of the flesh. In the same way, even secular government and the external arts are not passed over by God, and the spiritual gift of healing is still found here and there in Christendom. And our confessions rightly reject the proposition: “That a minister of the church cannot fruitfully teach other people or administer true sacraments unless he himself has been truly renewed, reborn, and made truly righteous.”