# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1856_S168
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

168 "In, With, and Under."

...nature, she imposes this limit upon herself, and thereby, on the other hand, only gains for herself an all the wider domain. For she is to bind herself only to the doctrinal content of the confessions; the form is left to her for further perfection, and thereby ever new views of Christian truth open themselves before her eyes, the greater the compass of the dogmas becomes. The freedom of theology is not destroyed but rather established, when theologians carry out their scholarly labor in agreement with the doctrinal content of the church's confession, and thus comply with the obligation which the Church, with such full right, demands of them.

"In, With, and Under."

(Conclusion.)

When a Christian, or a community of Christians, a church, publicly and in plain words renounces an error, indeed solemnly and without reservation condemns it, it is certainly not in keeping with love and fairness if one nonetheless wishes to burden such a Christian, or such a community of Christians, with this error, merely because they happen to use words into which this error can be read. Such unlovingness and unfairness is earnestly forbidden in God's Word. The holy Apostle writes expressly to his Timothy: "Remind them of this, and solemnly charge them before the Lord not to wrangle about words (μὴ λογομαχεῖν), which does no good, but only subverts those who listen." 2 Tim. 2:14.

Since, then, the whole Lutheran Church, both in her public confessions and in the private writings of her recognized orthodox teachers, has renounced and condemned the doctrine that in the Holy Supper a consubstantiation or impanation takes place, love and fairness alone already require of her opponents that they cease wishing to impute those errors to her again and again.

This would hold true even if the words "in, with, and under," which the Lutheran Church employs to analyze the Lord's words, "This is my body, this is my blood," were suspect apart from any explanation. But the latter is by no means the case. When the Lord, handing to the disciples the bread he had blessed, said, "Take, eat, this is my body," and, handing them the blessed cup, said, "Drink of it, all of you; this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matt. 26:26–28), then the Lord either — which no Christian will say — spoke an untruth, or else, since that which he visibly handed them was not, by nature, his body and his blood, he called it his body and his blood for the reason that