# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 09 05_S2
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

[continued from Seite 1] ...had until now slumbered so sweetly will no longer be held back. A great struggle has broken out, which grows more general from day to day. Everywhere divisions are taking place; at the same time, however, a decided longing for the closest union is showing itself among those who hold to the right faith. We stand manifestly at the threshold of the most important, and, as we firmly hope in God, the most salutary decision for our church.

Those who now fight for the restoration of the Lutheran Church in its original form, especially as regards doctrine, are, admittedly, in comparison with those who fight against it, still only like a drop that remains in the bucket. But however few they may still be, however much their fellowship may be pursued with mockery and scorn, however much they may be made suspect to the people, and however much they may be represented — against their opponents' own better knowledge and conscience — as a new sect forging secret plans to lead the Lutherans back to Rome; however much they may therefore be called Old Lutherans, Puseyites, or even secret Jesuits and the like — we are of good courage! Let the spirit of lies bear itself ever so unruly: the Lord has set about helping his church back on its feet; neither numbers, nor power, nor cunning, nor lies and slander will stop him; he will carry out his work with almighty power. The truth will conquer, and the enemies of the truth will be put to shame. Amen.

Synodical Constitution.

Introduction.

Although it is certain that the church is founded and preserved not by any constitution, but only by the pure and unadulterated preaching of the holy Gospel and the right administration of the holy Sacraments, it is nevertheless just as certain that a sound constitution, one not contrary to Scripture, likewise contributes its part to the flourishing of the church.* Here in the United States of North America, for example, the individual Lutheran congregations, without a common church association, would in part scarcely be able to preserve the pure doctrine in its entirety and, on the basis of it, to withstand in the long run the pressure of the wavering and fanatical spirits of false belief; and in part it would be impossible for them, on the foundation of that same faith and through the cooperation of that same love, to pursue their aims jointly as well, for the furtherance of the holy church (see below, Chapter II, §6). Moved chiefly by these two reasons, the servants of the Lutheran

* For example, when about seventy or eighty years ago rationalism (the religion of reason) broke into the church, and unbelief was preached from many pulpits in place of the church's faith, it was the constitution and order of the good old days, it was the orthodox liturgical formularies for the conduct of public worship and of the special churchly acts, that nourished the faith and confession of the church in the hearts of believers, awakened it in those who were seeking, and preserved the fellowship of the praying and confessing church.

church who are named below now came together to draft a synodical constitution which should not rest merely on the outward signboard of the church's confessional writings, but which should demonstrate, in the whole of its execution, that all its parts were borne and vitally permeated by the unadulterated confession and the pure doctrine of the church — so that the confessing and teaching church might take up the enabling and furthering of every particular churchly purpose. By this a twofold evil was to be guarded against. The one is that, as has been said, the confession of the church is mentioned only outwardly and incidentally, without its exercising an ordering and shaping power over the whole constitution and over the entire conduct of the church, so that, for example, it does not become evident that and how the confession and the doctrine vitally permeate the common worship, the discipline and the government of the church in general, as well as particular purposes — among others the establishment of church schools of learning, the publication of church periodicals, the manner of examining candidates, the orderly appointment to the holy preaching office, inner and outer mission work, and so forth. And this evil we find in the constitutions of those existing synods which still show a certain outward respect for the church's confession and formally adopt it, although their churchly practice here and there grossly and in many ways contradicts it. The other evil is that, for the pursuit of certain churchly purposes — such as, for example, the administration of care for the poor and the sick, the mission enterprise, and the like — there so easily form, in this our age, quasi-extra-churchly private societies, which stand in no connection at all, or only in a very loose one, with the confession of the church, and mostly bear the stamp of the restless and overly busy Methodism.

Yet it was necessary, in the drawing-up of this synodical order, to emphasize the foundational and all-permeating character of the church's confession, not only for the sake of the highly precious and important matter itself, and not merely for the sake of guarding against this twofold evil, but also chiefly for the sake of the Schmuckerians, that is, the so-called Lutheran General Synod — which, as is well known, has recently openly declared its falling-away from the Lutheran, that is, the churchly, doctrine of the Sacraments, and to which the confession of the church appears to be something changeable and ambiguous, as though it did not rest upon the unchangeable and eternal Word of God — let alone that it should orderingly and vitally permeate the entire practice of the church.

The names of those Lutheran preachers who, for the drafting of the following synodical constitution, assembled in the first half of July in Fort Wayne for a deliberative conference, are as follows: Löber, pastor at Altenburg, Perry Co., Mo.; Dr. Sihler, pastor in Fort Wayne, Ind.; Knape, pastor in Defiance, Henry Co., O.; Schmidt, pastor in Cleveland, O.; Ernst, pastor in Neuendettelsau, Union Co., O.; Walther, pastor in St. Louis, Mo.; Brohm, pastor in New York, N. Y.; Schneider, pastor in Marion, Marion Co., Ohio; Selle, pastor in Chicago, Ills.; Hussmann, pastor in Marion Township, Allen Co., Ind.; Crämer, pastor in Frankenmuth, Saginaw Co., Mich.; Trautmann, pastor in Danbury, Ottawa Co., O.; Hattstädt, pastor in Monroe, Mich.; Detzer, pastor in Williams Co., O.; Burger, pastor in Willshire, Van Wert Co., and in Mercer Co., O.; Jäbker, pastor in Adams Co., Ind. Besides these, the following, who could not be present, had their hearty agreement with the undertaking assured to the conference: Gruber, pastor in Paitzdorf, Perry Co., Mo.; Keyl, pastor in Frohna, Perry Co., Mo.; Fürbringer, pastor in Elkhorn Prairie, Washington Co., Ills.; Schieferdecker, pastor in Monroe Co., Ills.; Bünger, pastor in St. Louis and Central Township, Mo.; Lochner, pastor in Toledo, O. Finally, the following candidates of the holy preaching office were also present: Lehmann, Schuster, Böhm, Wolf, Scholz.

The constitution that was drawn up reads as follows:

In the Name of Jesus.

Constitution of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

Chapter I. Reasons for the Formation of a Synodical Union.

§1. The example of the apostolic church. (Acts 15:1–31.)

§2. The preservation and promotion of the unity of the pure confession (Ephesians 4:3–6; 1 Corinthians 1:10), and the joint warding-off of separatist and sectarian mischief.* (Romans 16:17.)

§3. The protection and safeguarding of the rights and duties of the pastors and congregations.

§4. The bringing-about of the greatest possible uniformity in church government.

§5. The will of the Lord, that the manifold gifts should show themselves for the common benefit. (1 Corinthians 12:4–31.)

* Separatists (schismatics), or those who separate themselves, are such as, at first, do not separate themselves from the doctrine, but only from the outward fellowship of the church, because hypocrites too are mingled with it — as though the church were able to separate these lip-Christians from itself, especially where their hypocritical faith has not broken out into manifest sins. Rather, she must then, according to Matthew 13:29–30 and according to the Lord's manner of dealing with Judas, leave the judgment to him. For only open and stubborn sinners does she finally cast out from herself, after every degree of correction according to Matthew 18:15–17 has proven fruitless.

Sectarians, on the other hand, or heretics, are those who separate themselves from the pure doctrine and who, in this or that article, put forward or spread doctrine contrary to Scripture — that is, false doctrine — or who cling to it and stubbornly defend it. These the church, after admonishing them once and again in vain, is to avoid and put away from itself. Titus 3:10, Romans 16:17; indeed, according to Galatians 1:8–9, she is to curse them — not, to be sure, unconditionally, as regards their persons, as though they could never again come to repentance, but as bearers of soul-destroying false doctrine. — It happens often enough, moreover, that separatists eventually become sectarians.