# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1856_S134
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

134 The Obligation to the Ecclesiastical Confessions, etc.

falsely attributed to it — as though it taught a spatial existence of the
body and blood of Christ alongside the bread and wine in the Holy
Supper. Under the bondage of this habit, one often yields, quite
unconsciously, in all matters of doctrine, to the rationalistic
inclination of the heart; hence it is not to be wondered at that the
opponents of the Lutheran dogma of the Holy Supper likewise reject the
doctrine of our confession concerning Holy Baptism, and show not the
least understanding for the statements of the Augsburg Confession and
our other Symbols concerning church orders and ceremonies. It is out of
simple obedience to God's Word that our confessions regard Holy Baptism
not merely as a picture or pledge of cleansing from sin, but chiefly as
a means through which God imparts to us, unto regeneration, the
forgiveness of sins and the power for the believing reception of that
forgiveness. To separate, on the other hand, the working of grace from
Baptism, and to see in the latter only a pouring of water as a picture
or pledge of the former, cannot be learned from Scripture, but only from
human misgivings — from the enthusiast's scruple, for example, that
God's high grace may not be held to be bound to earthly means; from the
scruple of self-chosen anxiety, that baptismal grace would make people
carelessly secure Christians; from the scruple of calculating reason,
that children cannot come to faith in God's grace. It is, further, out
of complete obedience to God's Word that our confession binds
consciences only to God's Word and the holy Sacraments, not to any
church orders or customs whatsoever, such as private confession,
exorcism, and so forth, nor even to the church orders of the Old
Testament, such as, for example, the observance of the Sabbath, since
these have been fulfilled by the Lord Christ in the New Testament. On
the one hand, therefore, no Christian, nor any church, ought to have
imposed upon them any church order, form of worship, or devotional
practice as a command of God; and only in times of persecution must
customs that have become particular marks of the confession be firmly
maintained. On the other hand, it is thoroughly unevangelical to forbid
Christians, as sinful, church customs that are not contrary to God's
Word — unless adversaries meant to smuggle in false doctrine by means of
them, or unless other Christians, out of genuine weakness and not out of
obstinacy, were to take offense at them. Our confession has no thought
of asserting faith in any church customs whatsoever apart from the
preaching of God's Word and the holy Sacraments; but it does not fail to
recognize the value of good ecclesiastical and liturgical forms for
edification, and therefore declares itself, for example, in favor of
retaining private confession — not for the sake of any supposed divine
command, but on account of the absolution, that is, on account of the
opportunity thereby given to pronounce, to the individual in particular,
the forgiveness of sins. It also tells of other customs observed in the
evangelical churches — for example, of the retention of the ceremonies
at the celebration of the