# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1858_S131
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Divisions in the Lutheran Congregations Here. 131

declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ." For it is with this that the trouble usually begins: that for the sake of the gifts or the shortcomings of teachers, strife and partisanship arise, in that one forgets that it is God who gives to each his gifts as he wills, and that he in his wisdom places every preacher exactly where, with his gifts, he can work best for the kingdom of God — and that "neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth," but God alone, "who giveth the increase." Luther says (XVIII, 37): "God, when he wills to make the world godly, chooses people, into whose mouth he lays his command, which they are to carry out. Alongside this preaching office God himself is present, and through the spoken word moves today this heart, tomorrow that heart. The preachers are nothing more than those who carry out the word. When God wills to move someone, he does it with the word. They are not the ones who are to make anyone godly; God alone does that. One should keep one's eyes off the person; but not off the doctrine. That is why he calls them carnal, in that they distinguish preachers by their person." If, in addition to these inner divisions, there now also comes the delusion of freedom and the spiritual pride of individuals who, because they do not recognize the divine bond that binds them to the congregation and to the preaching office established within it, therefore also will not submit themselves and conform, in all matters left free by God's Word — neither commanded nor forbidden — to the whole brotherhood, that is, to the majority, and thus despise the command of God, 1 Peter 5:5: "Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility" — then the whole mischief of separatism and schismatic fellowships is present. The evil becomes almost incurable, moreover, through the fact that such separatists are often received without further ado as members into other Lutheran congregations, or else, in forming opposition congregations of their own, are sent preachers by other synods — through which this sin is, as it were, sanctioned, all self-will, impatience, and insolence are given nourishment, and all consciences are thrown into the most dreadful confusion. God wills that every preacher should have his "κλῆρος," his flock entrusted to him, his "assigned" parish and a congregation, over which "the Holy Spirit hath set him, to feed the same," "and over whose souls he must watch and give account," which he is to "teach publicly and particularly," and "into whose office no one" is to "intrude." 1 Peter 5:2. Acts 20:28. Hebrews 13:17. Acts 20:20. 1 Peter 4:15. What, then, are preachers and synods doing — who receive proud and impatient separatists into their congregations, or who set up opposition congregations with them — other than "intruding into another man's office"; helping to destroy a flock entrusted by God to another shepherd; such parishes are not committed to them by God — into such a congregation has