# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1856_S165
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Obligation to the Church's Confessions, etc. 165

...aversions which may have taken hold of them, perhaps during the religious instruction of their youth, under the sway of certain tendencies and ways of thinking, or otherwise through especially strong impressions, and which imperceptibly exerted influence upon their conscience — for instance, upon their exegetical conscience. "And would such a recognition at once move us to believe, say, the Lutheran doctrine of the Supper, do you mean?" — so someone may perhaps object to me, contending that it is not yet faith when one holds a doctrine, such as the one just named, to be true. Nevertheless I answer the question in the affirmative. We are speaking here of Christians who already stand in faith in the Lord Jesus; these, however, have already yielded themselves to obedience to the whole Word of God, and therefore do not refuse to accept a doctrine as soon as they recognize its scripturalness. Even if they have thereby achieved only this much — that they hold such a doctrine to be true — this is, in them, who already believe in Christ, nothing dead, but rather the beginning of living faith; nor will it come about without repentance for their previous disobedience. Slowly, then, and amid hard struggles, one may go on to grant to the Word thus believed one's assent and trust with a full and joyful heart, and the experience of the comfort contained in it, and the strengthening of faith that follows from it, perhaps comes only gradually to clear awareness — yet this blessed growth, too, does not fail to appear in all those who by God's grace believe and hold fast to faith. We have experienced this ourselves, but we do not speak of it because we thought ourselves superior to our brothers, but because we wish to praise to them the grace of God, which can and will help them, as it has helped us, toward accord with the Church. Or is it not, after all, a matter of great concern to them to confess with the Church? A saying circulates among many theologians, as though not so very much weight need be placed upon the doctrine in the Church, since Christianity consists in the personal impartation of the life of the Lord Christ; this sounds so beautifully Christian, and relieves those who really let themselves be taken in by it of the trouble of striving for agreement with the doctrine of the Church. It is, indeed, certainly true that the Lord Christ himself, personally, with his life, bodily even, makes his dwelling with us, provided we believe in him. But this personal impartation of life (to use once more the expression that has become fashionable) takes place, in truth, only through the means of grace, the Word and Sacrament, whose content and essence always come to expression in the Church as doctrine. To take away from the Word and the Sacraments anything of this their significance — for instance, to place alongside them, as their equal, means of edification, even the most effective ones, prayer, the fellowship of the Church, spiritual contemplation, or even church orders, the preaching office, and the like — not to seek the moral power of the Christian faith wholly and solely in the Word of God, which it receives and preserves — this would mean being at variance with the Lutheran Church even in the very ground of faith itself, and would have to be given up altogether before real accord with her in the individual articles of faith of her confession could even once be held out in prospect. Precisely