# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1857_S85
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Distinction between the Essential and the Non-Essential in Doctrine. 85

...or stand with it in a certain necessary connection, or — which amounts to the same thing — that agreement in all fundamental articles be required, whether these be so in themselves, positively and directly, or on account of another, indirectly and negatively, or be so called; which is the same as saying that agreement be required in the whole of Christian doctrine, which is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that a man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. The reason for this matter lies at hand. In the making of ecclesiastical peace, regard must be had not only to those parts of doctrine of which no one can be ignorant without prejudice to faith and salvation. For the Church, which is the mother of believers, requires for the preservation and edification of her body more than the aforementioned chief articles of Christian doctrine, which it is necessary for each and every one to believe. For it is the duty and task of the Church, as the mother of believers, that she bear children to God, that she rear those who are born in the faith, that she suckle the young children with milk, that she nourish the grown with stronger food, that she strengthen the doubting, that she raise up the tempted and those visited with tribulation, that she awaken the secure out of the sleep of sin and bring them to repentance, that she lead the erring back onto the way of salvation, that she preserve them all therein; for the discharge of these tasks she needs not only those parts of doctrine which are necessary for the simpler folk and for those who, either from lack of capacity or of instruction, cannot attain to the understanding of the rest, but the entire body of Christian doctrine, which — just as Scripture, without the exclusion of any part — is profitable for teaching, for reproof, etc., so that thereby the body of the Church may be built up, according to Paul's admonition in Eph. 4:12. Thus, for example, the Reformed deny that it is necessary for all men to believe unto their salvation, and that God wills the salvation of all, that Christ died for all, that God is willing to impart faith to all — provided only they do not themselves put up a barrier and hinder in themselves the working of grace by which He would impart faith to them. We are not now speaking of whether these disputed parts of doctrine are absolutely necessary for all to believe unto salvation; but this much is certain, that the aforementioned doctrines are necessary for the Church, for the building up of the body of Christ. For if, for example, someone, on account of a sense of sin and because he is tempted, has no sense of faith within himself, and begins to doubt the grace of God and his own salvation, then it is indeed the business of the Church to raise up such tempted persons. But she will never be able to raise them up without calling to her aid the promises of the universality of grace and of the merit of Christ. It is therefore incumbent upon the Church to keep these parts of doctrine inviolate — even though it may perhaps, particularly in the opinion of the Calvinists, not be absolutely necessary for all to believe them. In