# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1858_S141
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Some Remarks on Joining the So-Called Lutheran General Synod, Etc. 141

of carnal reason, having torn themselves away from the clear Word of God
and the Lutheran confession to which they at first held. Moreover, the
Reformed, against all the demonstration of Luther and of his fellow
witnesses and successors in these and other erroneous doctrines, have
stiffened and hardened themselves, so that they, and they alone, are the
guilt and cause of the rift and breach that has since come into the camp
of the Evangelicals, having abolished the former unity of spirit and
markedly weakened the power of the united testimony against the
antichristian papacy in doctrine and practice.

Now since the so-called Lutheran General Synod has, in essence, made
common cause in several articles of the faith and of wholesome doctrine
with the Reformed — that is, with those who have wrought division and
offense alongside and against the doctrine which we Lutherans have
learned from God's Word, as it reads, from our fathers — such Lutheran
Christians act against the clear pronouncement of the divine Word cited
above, and thereby become disobedient to the mouth of the Lord, in that
they not only fail to avoid and withdraw from the false brethren, who
have already in fact departed from the Lutheran Church and who accuse it
in specific articles of its confession of popery, as the Holy Spirit
commands through St. Paul, but even establish and maintain church and
synodical fellowship with them. In doing so they at the same time sin
against another clear pronouncement of the divine Word, Jude 3, where the
orthodox believers are exhorted "to contend earnestly for the faith which
was once delivered unto the saints." For it can hardly be called
"contending for the faith" when one enters into an alliance with those
who from of old have destroyed the faith of Christendom in certain
articles of wholesome doctrine, and who do all they can to place the key
to the Lutheran articles of faith into the enemy's hands; and even should
they not succeed in this, they nevertheless, as faithless traitors and
covenant-breaking deserters, thereby join themselves to the enemy by
adopting their standard and watchword — that is, by, for example, denying
in the doctrine of the holy sacraments the orthodox Lutheran Church,
indeed reviling it as popish, and adopting instead the erring Reformed
teaching. Is not such a making of fellowship plainly done against this
saying, and rather a fighting against, than for, the faith that was once
(once for all) delivered and handed down to the saints? — For whatever
the Lutheran Church believes, confesses, and teaches concerning the
sacraments is essentially the faith, doctrine, and confession of the holy
Christian Church from the beginning, grounded on the written Word of God
as it reads.

Furthermore, such Lutherans as join the so-called Lutheran General Synod
also sin against the clear pronouncement of Christ, Matthew 7:15: "Beware
of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are
ravening wolves." For, in the first place, it is