# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1858_S82
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

82 On Lay Elders or Congregational Overseers.

Therefore we should learn to hold the majesty and glory of the Word in high and great regard; for it is not so slight and trifling a matter as the fanatical spirits of this age suppose, but a single word is greater and worth more than heaven and earth. Therefore here we ask nothing about Christian unity or love, but forthwith make use of the judgment seat, that is, we curse and condemn all those who falsify and shift the majesty of the Word even in the very least point, for "a little leaven leavens the whole lump." But if they leave us the Word whole and unshifted, we are ready not only to have love and unity with them, but we further offer that we will heartily and gladly be their servants, and do everything we possibly should; but if they do not want this, then may God grant that they and all the world, yes, even we together with them, perish and be cast into the abyss of hell, rather than that God should not remain true in his Word. If he remains, then life and salvation also remain; and besides, those who believe the Word will also remain well and be preserved, even if they were in the abyss of hell." (Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians 5:9–12, from the year 1535. VIII, 2852, ff.)

Now that we have recognized that every split and separation for the sake of false doctrine is a good work commanded by God — holy, salutary, promoting God's honor and the welfare of the church — let us now turn our attention to the harmful, godless divisions, by which God's will and order are just as much perverted as the salvation of souls is endangered.

(To be continued.)

On Lay Elders or Congregational Overseers.
(Continuation.)

1. Johann Andreas Quenstedt (professor at Wittenberg, d. 1688): "The presbyters were in earlier times divided into clerical and lay presbyters, or into teaching and governing ones; the former occupied themselves with the Word and the sacraments, the latter kept watch over the morals of the believers. The blessed Dr. Hülsemann (professor at Leipzig, d. 1661) rightly says in his Breviarium of Theology, chapter 19, thesis 18: "'In every particular church, in accordance with an arrangement of the apostles, lay presbyters were appointed, also chosen with the consent of the civil authority, to whom the office of preaching God's Word or administering the sacraments was not entrusted, but who were to direct their attention solely to the outward morals of the Christians, to order in the church, and to the maintenance of sound public doctrine, and who, alongside the pastors, were to both discern and judge in these matters, 1 Timothy 5:17.'" (Antiquitates biblicae et ecclesiasticae, Wittenberg, 1688, p. 88.)