# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1855_S46
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

46                    On the Doctrine of the Holy Office of the Ministry.

...of the growing legislation, whereby, besides the ecclesiastical and political officials, they also ascribe to private persons from the so-called lay estate a seat and a vote, in due order — cf. Acts 15:22-23.) "And Christ says, in these words: Whatsoever ye shall bind, etc. etc., and thereby shows to whom he gave the keys, namely to the church: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, etc. Likewise Christ gives the highest and final judgment to the church, when he says: Tell it unto the church.*) From this" (namely, that the whole church has the power of the keys

*) Note. The text of Matt. 18 compels [this reading] by the "perspicuitas" [clarity] of its consistent content. Christ speaks to his disciples as disciples. He does not mention their apostolic authority at all (as it is exercised in Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 5:5;) — how else could he, in v. 17, regard them merely as members of the congregation? They had, after all, given offense through their ambition and strife among themselves (v. 1; cf. ch. 20:20ff.; Luke 22:24ff.). This leads the Lord from there to deal with the discipline of the church against sins that may cause another to fall, whereby the very one who commits them can be lost. He gives the power of the keys to the disciples insofar as they are his disciples, and thus in them and through them, wherever they may be, a congregation of Christ comes to be on earth. He says: If he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as a heathen man and a publican; with this he again clearly addresses the disciple as such, and not as an apostle, as in what precedes; for as the latter he would at least not have needed first to subordinate his own judgment to the pronouncement of the congregation. And thereupon he speaks in the plural: What ye — my disciples, of whom such a congregation consists — [shall bind] on earth, etc. Now the two reasons why all that the church binds and looses, according to the order prescribed by Christ, carries such weight before God in heaven that he declares it fully valid, certain, and binding, as though it had happened immediately through himself, are: 1. the power of believing prayer, which in spiritual matters is heard without condition, restricted only by 1 John 5:16 (v. 19); 2. as the cause of such wonderful power, the gracious presence of Christ himself, wherever only two or three are gathered together in his name. If v. 18 did not hold true of believers, then v. 19 could not be said of them either; for both verses stand in one and the same context. The Lord says: Where two of you shall agree as touching one thing; these are the same as in v. 18, and indeed, as has been shown us before, those who have experienced the gracious will of the Father (v. 14), who have known and confessed Jesus as the Son of God, and have received the Holy Spirit (ch. 16:16-17; cf. John 20:22). And even were there only two in a congregation — spouses, for instance — who become one and agree together concerning some matter they have to ask for, it will come to pass for them from the heavenly Father, in that they join their united strength of faith in prayer, especially with respect to binding and loosing. For where two or three honest men of prayer — and even that many might be hard enough to find in a congregation in a lean condition — are gathered together in his name, there he is (with all his grace, and thereby also the Father and the Holy Spirit) in their midst. And everything, therefore, that God still does for souls in such a congregation happens for the sake of the pleading of his children who are present in it. What, then, does it mean at all to gather together in the name of Jesus Christ and to pray in that name? It means to do something on the strength of his word, on his command, on his pledge and promise, on his intercession before the Father; for in his most holy, grace-bringing name is contained the openly great mystery of the descent of the Son in the flesh, just as in the name of God in general his hidden glory makes itself known to his creatures capable of receiving it, and that name comprehends within itself all the words and works of Jehovah. Where, then, only two or three are gathered together in that name, there is united in a particular