# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1855_S173
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

How Are Truly Lutheran Congregations Founded, etc. 173

16.—for exposing and warding off false doctrine, the Lutheran Church has from the beginning been found faithful in this respect as well, and has wielded the two-edged sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, as skillfully as diligently, both against the superstitious additions of the Papists and against the unbelieving subtractions of the fanatics, by clinging simply and childlike to the Word of God as it stands and successfully upholding it as the supreme judge and court of final appeal in all controversies of faith and doctrine. And indeed, the truthfulness of the Lutheran Church keeps pace with its doctrinal character, for it holds fast to the sure Word and is thereby able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict it and stop the mouths of false teachers.

It is true that, through the salutary severity with which it refutes false doctrine, it has earned little gratitude not only from the Papists but also from the Unionists of recent times on both sides of the ocean; indeed, here in this country, for example, it also makes itself odious and hated among the false brethren and pseudo-Lutherans of the so-called Lutheran General Synod. But this must not confuse it, much less prevent it from maintaining its polemical position against the deceptive show and charade of this modern Union, just as against everything false and erroneous in general; for the Lutheran Church is in fact and in truth the rightful union, since it avoids and shuns the conflicting extremes and opposite errors of a Papacy that falsely materializes and a Reformed Church that falsely spiritualizes, brings together the correct scriptural understanding of the disputed doctrines, and thereby demonstrates the erroneous doctrines to be such. For the Lutheran Church is divinely certain that in its confession it bears witness to the pure doctrine of God’s Word and proclaims and propagates it as the pillar and foundation of the truth, whereas the false indifferentist Union of the nineteenth century, through its most famous recent representative and defender, Dr. Jul. Müller, now openly declares, without making any secret of it, that there is no absolutely pure doctrine at all, but only relatively pure doctrine—and indeed that, because of the sinful condition of human beings, there can be no other—so that error is therefore necessary. *)

The Lutheran, that is, orthodox Church, by contrast, which knows that the Lord Himself can bear witness to the divine truth unto salvation even through the unclean mouth of a Balaam or Caiaphas, upholds and defends this truth against old and new errors and heresies, chiefly for the following reasons:

First, because this truth: given to it by God Himself in His

*) It is clear enough that such an assertion naturally presupposes, at least tacitly, that Holy Scripture is obscure and unclear even in those matters pertaining to the salvation of souls; and in the end, lurking in the background, there is nothing but doubt as to whether Holy Scripture was truly inspired word for word by the Holy Spirit, since its writers, the prophets and apostles, were not perfect saints in their conduct either.