# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 02 09_S70
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...has lapsed and is not sought again, then such a preacher's administration of the most holy sacraments of Jesus Christ is invalid; these institutions of the Son of God may indeed be celebrated according to his word and his institution—yet if they lack our seal, then God's Word is powerless, God's institution is nothing, God's promise is in vain.

Such an abominable doctrine is not held even by the Old School Presbyterians,* nor even by the Papists; the false doctrine of the latter—that the valid administration of a sacrament requires the "intention" of the one performing it—is still golden compared to this one pronounced by a "Lutheran" conference.

The Papists themselves recognize the baptism of heretics as valid, and yet that conference itself declares the baptism performed by one who, in their opinion, was not lawfully called, to be invalid! Does the conference, then, know the doctrine of Holy Scripture and of our church so little that it does not know that there is a vast difference between rectum and ratum, that is, "lawfulness and validity"—that an administration of office can be unlawful, and yet remain valid, if it takes place according to God's Word and institution? Does the conference not know that the power of the Word and of the holy sacraments does not depend on men, not on office and calling and its lawfulness, still less on a human ordinance? Has the conference then not learned that well-known short saying of St. Augustine, received by our theologians: "Accedit verbum ad elementum et fit sacramentum," that is:

The Word is joined unto the element,
And thereby it becomes a sacrament?

Has the conference also not considered how terribly it will wound and confuse consciences by such a resolution? For who can be certain of his baptism, of his communion, of his valid marriage, if that conference resolution were true—that a mere irregularity in the call already makes all of this invalid? Woe then to all Christendom, for who can know everything that may perhaps have gone irregularly, even unchristianly, in the calling of a preacher? But blessed are the Christians, for they have no human, uncertain, wavering ground for their faith in the validity of the sacraments they have received, such as that conference would impute to them; they know that the worthiness or unworthiness of those who administer them can neither add anything to them nor take anything away.

May every candidate be warned by this example not to let himself be licensed against all divine order, as is customary here, and thereby build his divine calling upon men, making himself a servant of men instead of Christ.

* These, as is well known, have "resolved" that the baptism of a Roman priest is invalid, because such a one is not a minister of the true church, since Rome must be struck from the list of such churches. They thus ground Christ's institution not upon his Word, but upon the church. See Lutheraner, Volume 1, No. 25, page 3.

In conclusion, we share an important testimony on this matter from Luther's precious writing "Of the Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests" of the year 1533. Luther writes as follows:

"The holy place, or church, teaches thus: that neither priest nor Christian makes any sacrament, nor does the holy Christian church itself make one." ...

"Thus the baptizer makes no baptism, but Christ has already made it beforehand; the baptizer only administers and gives it. For there stands Christ's institution, which is, as St. Augustine says: Accedit verbum ad elementum, et fit sacramentum—when one takes water and adds his word to it, then it is a baptism, as he commands, Matthew the last chapter, verse 19: Go forth, teach all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—

This command and institution do it; they make it so that water and word are a baptism; our work or doing, ex opere operato, does not do it. For it is not called a baptism because I baptize, or perform the work, even if I were holier than St. John or an angel. Rather, my baptizing is called a baptism because Christ's word, command, and institution have so ordained that water and his word shall be a baptism ....

"So also, that bread and wine become Christ's body and blood, is not the doing of our action, our speaking, or our work, much less due to the chrism" (still less to an American license) "or to consecration; rather it is due to Christ's ordinance, command, and institution: he has commanded (as St. Paul says, 1 Corinthians 11:23) that when we come together and speak his words over bread and wine, it shall be his body and blood; so that here too we do nothing more than administer and give bread and wine with his words, according to his command and institution. And such a command and institution is able to and does bring it about that we administer and receive not mere bread and wine, but his body and blood, as his words state: "This is my body, this is my blood"; so that it is not our work or speaking, but the command and ordinance of Christ, that makes the bread into the body and the wine into the blood, from the beginning of the first Lord's Supper to the end of the world, and it is administered daily through our service or office" ..

"For we must believe and be certain that baptism is not ours but Christ's, that the preaching office is not ours but Christ's, that the sacrament is not ours but Christ's; for he has spoken all this and left it behind in the church, to be practiced and used until the end of the world, and he does not lie to us or deceive us: therefore we can make nothing else of it, but must act according to his command and hold to it. But where we change it or improve upon it, it is nothing, and Christ is no longer present there, nor his ordinance; and I will not say, as the Papists do, that no angel nor even Mary could consecrate, etc., but I say this: even if the devil himself were to come (if he were pious enough that he wanted to or could do it)—yet I say, that if I should afterward learn that the devil had crept into the office in this way, or had let himself, in the form of a man, be called to the pastoral office, and had publicly in the church preached the gospel, baptized, held mass, absolved, and had, as a pastor, practiced and administered such office and sacrament according to Christ's command and ordinance—we would nevertheless have to confess that the sacraments were valid, that we had received true baptism, heard the true gospel, received true absolution, and taken the true sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. For our faith and the sacrament must not rest upon the person, whether he be pious or wicked, consecrated or unconsecrated, rightly called or having crept in, the devil or his mother, but upon Christ, upon his word, upon his office, upon his command and ordinance. Where these proceed, there it must proceed and stand rightly, be the person who and however he may be or is able to be." Luther's Works, XIX, 1547ff.

The Right Way to Deal with Simple Folk.

When Luther, on his church visitation journey, sometimes examined citizens and peasants himself, a peasant once recited the articles of faith to him and said: "I believe in God the Almighty," Luther asked what "almighty" meant. The good man answered: "I do not know." "Well, my dear man," replied Luther, "I and all the learned do not know either what God's power and almightiness is. But do you believe in simplicity that God is your dear, faithful Father, who, as the wisest Lord, is willing and able to help you, your wife, and your children in all their needs."

The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States will hold its first session on the Monday after Dom. Jubilate, April 26, 1847, in Chicago, Illinois.

Announcement.

The new "Church Hymnal for Evangelical Lutheran Congregations of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession," edited by several Lutheran preachers in Missouri and published by the local Lutheran congregation, will leave the press within three months. This in answer to inquiries repeatedly made to us on this matter. More on this shortly.

Paid:
First half of Vol. 3: Mr. Alt (2 copies).
Vol. 3: Rev. J. G. G. Kranz, Landwehr, J. F. Meyer, Rev. Wier.

Received for the Heathen Mission on the Cass River, Mich.
From Mr. Neidenberger, $1.00.

New Addresses.
Rev. J. G. G. Kranz, Mercer P. O., Mercer Co., Pa.
Rev. F. Lochner, Edwardsville, Madison Co., Ill.

Printed by Weber and Olshausen.