# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1844 09 29_S9
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall pass away now and nevermore."

Published by C. F. W. Walther.
St. Louis, Mo., October 5, 1844.
Volume 1.
No. 3.

Terms: The Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar and twenty-five cents for subscribers living out of town, who are to pay half of this in advance and bear the postage themselves. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 6¼ cents.

On the Name "Lutheran."
(Continued.)

Question. Why do we insist on retaining this name?

Since in the earlier essays bearing the above heading we not only admitted that Luther himself, by his own declaration, did not wish the disciples of Christ to call themselves after him; and since we have also shown that not only those who bear this name are Lutherans, but that all true Christians are rather to be understood by it, whether they be called Lutheran, or Catholic, Reformed, Evangelical, Methodist, and so forth — many will perhaps now put the question to us with astonishment: How can you, after such concessions, still insist on retaining the Lutheran name? How can you in good conscience continue to bear such a name of separation, when you protest so decidedly against the charge of ecclesiastical separatism and sectarianism? It is time we explained ourselves clearly on this point.

To this we answer first, again, with a question: What, then, ought we to call ourselves, so that we do rightly by it? Surely everyone will grant that the name of a church should not be a meaningless title, but should truly express what it actually is — namely, what it believes, teaches, and confesses. If someone asks us: What and whose faith are you? then, unless we wish to be hypocrites, the name under which we appear must give a plain, clear answer to this.

Here some will say: Then call yourselves Christians. — We answer: So we do call ourselves; and we hold this name so high and dear that we are ready to sacrifice blood and life rather than this name. We have already become Christians through baptism, and this and nothing else is our highest comfort and glory. Whoever wishes to be no Christian, but a Lutheran, and to give up the first name for the second, understands the meaning of neither the one nor the other. We recall with pleasure once having read the following verses, in the German translation, in Young's Night Thoughts:

— — A Christian! — Most exalted name!
Most glorious title ever granted to man! And
do men still wipe you,
Holy Cross, from their brow, as though a disgraceful
stain?
Trembling, angels behold this, if angels ever
tremble,
Flee back from the lost soul, and who knows? whether more from astonishment,
Or from sorrow, they here, in despair,
give up their office.

There was indeed a time when it was enough to say: "I am a Christian." This sufficed, especially in the first three centuries of the Christian era, when one wished to confess the true faith of one's heart. In those days, such a confessor could already often expect the most agonizing martyr's death. But what is the case with this name now? Who knows now, when Christendom is split into a thousand sects, what we believe, if we only wished to confess: We are Christians! Do not even those still wish to be called Christians who nevertheless reject Christ and fight against him, who deny his eternal Godhead and his all-sufficient atonement? Do not many now merely pretend to be preachers of the Gospel, in order to win the gold of those who indeed no longer believe in Christ and his holy Word, but still wish to keep up the old custom of going to church? Indeed, if all were as honest, or rather as reckless and brazen, as a certain Mr. Ludwig in New York and a certain Mr. Koch in St. Louis, who publicly confess their inextinguishable enmity against the Crucified One and solemnly strike themselves from the roll of those who wish to have a share in the redemption of the Son of God — if, I say, all who in our day depart from Christ's Word were to confess this so plainly and renounce the name of Christian, then indeed no other name would be needed than that of a Christian, in order thereby to confess one's faith. But since now even the enemies of Christ adorn themselves with his name in order to eat his bread, everyone can see that a time has now come in which the friend of Christ must declare himself more plainly, if he does not wish to deny his most praised Savior before the world.

Here perhaps others will say: If you will not have that, well then, call yourselves Catholic. — To this proposal, however, we must reply: God forbid! It is true that Lutherans are often made the object of the ridiculous reproach that they stand closest to the Catholics; but who was it, actually, who first attacked the Roman papacy in public writings as the seat of the Antichrist, exposed it to all the world, and dealt it its mortal wound and overthrow? Was it Zwingli? Was it Calvin? Was it Wesley? Or any other founder of a sect? Was it not our Luther? Have not all the other true and would-be reformers merely gone on attacking the enemy from the fortresses which Luther, before them, had taken in hot battles? How, then, can Lutherans call themselves "Catholic," when the hereditary enemy of the Lutheran church now calls itself by that very name, in order to keep, by means of this beautiful name, the souls freed by Christ bound in the chains of its own devising over their consciences? For indeed the name "Catholic" is a glorious name, for it signifies the universal Christian Church, which was founded by the Apostles and spread over the whole earth, outside of which there is no salvation. No one, therefore, could truly be a Christian who refused to confess a church that was in truth the catholic, or universal, one. There was also a time when the true Church bore this name, and by this very name renounced all false teachers and their sects. In those days it also had a glorious ring. How gloriously the name "Catholic" sounded, for instance, in the mouth of an Athanasius or an Augustine, when they held it up against the Arian, Donatist, and other sects! How gloriously this name still sounded even in the time of the Roman bishop Gregory the Great, who altogether declined for himself the title of universal bishop of Christendom! This Gregory writes, among other things, to Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria: "You have caused the proud title to be placed at the heading of your letter, styling me the universal Pope. I beg that you will henceforth do this no more." (L. VIII, ep. 30.) In other places this Roman bishop, who died in the year 604, writes that none of the Roman bishops before him had ever consented to bear this title, since thereby the true faith would be lost, and

2