# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1857_S232
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

232   How Are Truly Lutheran Congregations Founded and Brought Up?

...necessary (as they had been disturbed, according to v. 1, by Judaizing false teachers) to be circumcised after the manner of Moses in order to be saved. Thus they were received in Jerusalem, v. 4, "by the congregation," and thereafter a congregational assembly was held; for although in v. 6 it merely stands written, "But the apostles and the elders came together to consider this matter" — namely the assertion of those who had come to faith out of the sect of the Pharisees, "that it was needful to circumcise the converts from among the heathen and to command them to keep the law of Moses" (v. 5) — yet v. 12 says, after Peter, following his evangelical instruction from v. 7 onward, had pronounced the comforting concluding sentence of v. 11, "but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they" — "then the whole multitude kept silence"; from which it clearly appears that at this consideration of that assertion, carried on upon the ground of the Gospel and particularly by the apostles and elders, and at this first evangelical decision in v. 11, the body of hearers was present, and indeed not merely as a silent listener but as a participating, active fellow-deliberator; for when it says in v. 12, "then the whole multitude kept silence," it is plain that previously this and that member of the congregation out of their number had spoken, although they held no office in it — which, for good measure, is also evident from v. 7; for those who "disputed long with one another," according to the wording of the Greek text, who carried on a "long common investigation and discussion," were surely not the apostles and elders alone, but at the same time those whom Peter afterwards addresses as "Ye men, dear brethren," namely the whole assembled congregation, among whom there were surely not a few, as is clearly to be seen from v. 10, who had gone over to that unevangelical and legalistic assertion of those converted from among the Pharisees, v. 5.

Finally, after the whole assembled congregation had been sufficiently instructed in an evangelical manner by Peter and James, it came to a congregational resolution; for v. 22 says, "and it pleased the apostles and elders, together with the whole congregation," to choose men and through them to send to the congregations from among the heathen a short evangelical letter of instruction and comfort, whose heading read: "We, the apostles and elders and brethren, send greeting to the brethren from among the heathen who are at Antioch and in Syria and Cilicia. Forasmuch as we have heard that certain of our number went out and troubled you with teachings and unsettled your souls, saying, 'Ye must be circumcised and keep the law' — to whom we gave no such commandment — it seemed good to us, assembled with one accord" (thus not only the apostles and elders, but also the brethren who joined in sending the letter, that is, the representative body of hearers of the congregation) "to choose men and to send them to you," and so forth. Thereafter it says: "For it pleases the Holy Spirit