# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1856_S293
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Distinction of Estates in the Church.                    293

(What all belongs to it, according to Mr. P. Grabau's teaching, is well
known; e.g., the parochial ruling that a school building and other "ecclesiastical
matters" are to be carried out, "which are not contrary to God's
Word.") "The whole Church shall hearken to the same" (whom? — the
preacher, or the Word of God?) "and be obedient. In the household estate
the calling proceeds to preserve, for the" (naturally, preached by
that preaching office) "Word of God, its validity and its obedience in
life, and to testify against sin. In the estate of the magistracy stands the
protecting authority for God's Word and the just ordinances of the
Church. Thereby it shall carefully tend the Church, and break the willfulness
of the unruly. But with this the question arises: Is it not questionable
to join the three together into One government?.. We answer: The
question here is not whether the members who lead the government of
the Church are still sinners and at times not in agreement, but the question
remains whether and how our God has joined these three members
together on the body of his Church?... Furthermore, God is also a God
of order and of peace within the Church's government itself. The first
member, which is to teach the whole Church, shall open its mouth first;
the second, which is to bring the doctrine into life, shall follow after with
counsel, faith, and wisdom; the third, which is to protect doctrine and a
godly life, shall give, with its wisdom and divine authority, support and
emphasis among men to what the Church says." (From this too it may
be seen that in the proposed so-called joint government of the Church,
the preachers are set up as the rulers, and the heads of households and
magistrates as their servants and executors in the house and in the
street!)... "These three members must also, in the constitution of the
Church, if they wish to remain in agreement, carefully distinguish that
God will make use of each estate for the government of the Church only
according to the compass of its calling, not according to the compass of
its wishes, its will, and its advantage.. Therefore the late Luther wished
that from all estates the most capable be taken for the government of
the Church, men full of faith and the Holy Spirit and wisdom.. Therefore,
according to the custom of the Lutheran Church, only the three
members — pastors, heads of households, and magistrates — should be
admitted to the government of the Church; and by no means the so-called
independent or voting-eligible persons of twenty or twenty-one
years; young people, who ought to be subject to their parents." (Ought
not older people also be subject to their parents? And were there not
consistorial councillors of twenty-one years?) "Our old church orders
know nothing of this; it is an abuse which the new doctrine of the invisible
Church has gradually smuggled in, against the church order. Furthermore:
from these three estates ordained by God, our church authorities
too should, so far as possible, always be composed, and one member
should hold the other in high esteem, and regard one another mutually
as a gift of God for the blessing of the Church. It must also be considered
here, for the unity of the church authorities and their members, that the
church authorities