# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1858_S116
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

116 On the Divisions in the Lutheran Congregations Here.

Luther (XVII, 1444): "In sum, to the preaching office, or ministerio evangelii, through which God works and which is present among us, one owes true, heartfelt reverence with proper humility; and it is the highest service to God to help sustain this ministry with support, protection, and all goodwill. Therefore God has also promised rich reward to those who fear Him and show kindness to the ministry; as Christ says: 'Whoever gives the least of these little ones a drink of water for the sake of the teaching, shall be rewarded for it.'" —

Luther (XII, 584): "Since preachers have the office, the name, and the honor of being God's fellow-workers, no one should be so learned or so holy as to neglect or despise even the least sermon, since he does not know at what hour the moment may come in which God will do His work in him through the preachers."

Luther (XXI, 357): "You yourselves may well consider this: that a good fellow who has studied his whole life long, spent his father's estate, and endured every hardship, should become a pastor at Zwickau — as they have let it be heard — only so that they should be lords, and the pastor their servant, sitting every day on the Schudel: if Mühlpfort wished it, he would stay; if not, he would have to go. No, my dear sir, that is not what you shall bring it to, or else you shall keep no pastor at all. We will neither do this nor suffer it, unless they confess that they do not wish to be Christians. From heathen we are willing to suffer it; from Christians Christ Himself will not suffer it."

Chemnitz (loc. theol. de eccles. III, 331): "Furthermore, just as it is the lawful manner to call someone to church service, so it is likewise the lawful manner to remove someone from office, or to transfer him from one congregation to another. — In our congregations too, many do not rightly understand this matter. For just as someone who hires a servant has the right to dismiss him whenever he wishes, so some think that they likewise have the right to dismiss a preacher, even though they have no just cause . . . But just as the right to call is properly reserved to God alone, even when the call takes place through means, so it is likewise properly God's own affair to remove someone from office or to dismiss him. So long, therefore, as God tolerates His servant — one who teaches rightly and lives blamelessly — in office, the church has no power to dismiss another's servant. But when he no longer builds up the church, whether by doctrine or by life, but instead destroys it, then God Himself removes him from office. Hosea 4:6; 1 Samuel 2:30. There are therefore two causes for which God deposes unfaithful servants from their office: first, with respect to doctrine, when they teach falsely (Malachi 2:4) — when he himself casts away this (namely, the pure doctrine), then he in turn will be cast away by God; second, with respect to life, when they act in such a way that God—