# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1844 11 18_S23
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

that she is born and preserved through them, and that hers is the office of dealing with them. God's Word, then, is not founded upon the Church, but the Church upon God's Word. God's Word is not to be recognized from the Church, but the Church from God's Word. All this the Papists must at least admit in practice, since their missionaries certainly do not first preach obedience to the Church to the heathen, but rather preach from the Word of God, from which they demonstrate to them the existence of a Church of God on earth and her dignity. One does not seek the Church, as Mr. Oertel imagines, in order first to find the Word; rather, because one has already found the Word and has come to know the Church from it, one now also seeks her out. It is not the Lutheran, then, but the Papist who here gets caught in a circular argument. For the Papist says this: You must hold our doctrine to be true, not because you find that it agrees with Holy Scripture (for on that you cannot decide at all), but because we are the Church and have so decided. But if one asks him further: How, then, do I know that you are the Church which I must hear? the Papist answers: You see that clearly from the Word of God. He thus proves the Bible and its doctrine by the Church, and again proves the Church by the Bible and its doctrine.

But enough of this; let us return to our subject. It remains for us, first, to answer the objection that the marks we have mentioned cannot be the right ones because false believers, too, appeal to them. To this we answer as follows. It is true that all sects boast of having the pure doctrine; but what does that have to do with the matter? Are having, and saying that one has, in Mr. Oertel's view, one and the same thing? Did not the heretical Donatists also boast of being the Catholics, and do not the Greek congregations still boast of apostolicity just as much as the Roman Church, which nevertheless decisively excludes them? Does the rightful owner cease to possess a thing because a man in a fever imagines that he possesses it too? What true mark would there then be, if only that could be such a mark which no one else ever falsely claimed for himself? What is it, then, that would set a limit to the presumption of a fanatical mob? — We maintain, on the contrary, that precisely because everyone cries out, "We have these marks," our statement of them is not thereby made false; rather, this is in fact proof that they are the right marks. For precisely because all sects know very well that they can be reckoned as belonging to the fellowship of the true disciples of Christ only if they abide by Christ's words and institutions (John 8:31–32), they therefore imitate the true Church in this and boldly claim it for themselves as well. Precisely because the false prophet knows that the true one is recognized by the pure divine doctrine, he too pretends to have it. What, then — should the true prophet, because of the false prophet's pretense,

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no longer be recognized by his own true doctrine? That would indeed be a fine piece of reasoning! — Hence also Augustine writes, disputing with the Donatists: "There are divine books concerning whose authority there is no dispute between us; in these we both believe, to these we both submit; here let us seek the Church, here let us argue our case." (On the Unity of the Church, ch. 3.) And again the same writer: "All heretics try to defend their false and deceptive opinions by Scripture, but it is by the perfectly clear and unanimous voice of the divine testimonies that they are condemned." (On the Trinity, Book 3.)

Yes, says Mr. Oertel, but in that case "the very thing that is disputed and still called into question is made the foundation and identifying mark of the Christian faith, whereas every scientific proof must be built upon certain and indisputable principles, so as not to set up the whole system without any support." If Mr. Oertel has ever said anything unchristian, this is truly it. For by this he blasphemes God and accuses him of having given us a dark, uncertain, wavering word, on which no one can plant his feet with certainty, on which he can confidently rely before all the world and, over against it, trample all human opinions underfoot. Poor, pitiable world — has God, then, deceived you too? Given you, in his Gospel, an anchor that does not hold when storm and tempest rage about you? A will-o'-the-wisp which you may follow only in doubt, not knowing whether it will lead you to the heights or lure you into the abyss? But how so? Because the sects still call the pure doctrine into question and dispute it, should it therefore be a baseless foundation? Because the fanatics treat the Bible like a wax nose that can be shaped into any form one pleases, should it therefore actually be nothing else? Because people misuse and twist God's Word, should it therefore itself have no probative force? Is this not dreadful to hear? Truly, only an unfortunate soul could speak so — one who has let himself be tempted to drink from the reeling cup of Antichristianity — only a Papist, who regards nothing as certain, not even God's own Word, except what pope and bishops have stamped as such. Ah, poor deluded friend, that is not the voice of the true Church! She does not regard the revelations of Scripture as a matter open to question; she says with David: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119); and with Peter: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts"; and with Isaiah: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20). We Lutherans pay no heed whatever to the thousand different beliefs of the whole crowd of fanatical sects; the dreadful confusion of this latter age does not trouble us in the least; we attribute it in no way to any obscurity in Scripture or to freedom of interpretation, but to the perversity, blindness, and wickedness of men, who do not submit themselves simply and unconditionally to the testimony of Scripture, but instead wish to correct the Holy Spirit according to the strange notions of their corrupted reason or the diseased feelings of their perverse hearts. Let the sects, then, go on forever quarreling and disputing over what the pure doctrine is — what is that to us Lutherans? Let others doubt and remain uncertain about it, waver and totter — with false doctrine it cannot be otherwise — but we are certain, for we know that God's Word cannot deceive; on it one can rely and build securely.

But Mr. Oertel will say: Who is judge here? Who shows the right sense of Scripture? We answer: No one but Scripture itself; she interprets herself. It is in vain that men call out to us Lutherans: "Thus says the Church; woe, therefore, to him who will not hear her!" We answer: If we hear from your mouth what God's Word says, if you prove your propositions to us from Scripture — well and good! then we hear the Church, and we will gladly be obedient sons of our mother; but if we hear instead a foreign doctrine, we remember the word of our Lord: "Beware of false prophets, which..." and so on, and we declare to you: Be silent, then, with your clamor of "Church, Church!" You are not the Church; here it is not Christ who speaks, but the spirit of lies speaking out of you. Yes, we say, a church that demands obedience without giving proof from Scripture is not Christ's church but the tyrannical church of the devil, whose way it is to set himself above God and his Word. Woe to him who obeys such a church; she gives birth to him unto eternal death.

One may indeed keep saying: How can a layman find his way out of the confusion of the various doctrines of the sects? How can he decide where the truth lies? Is it not necessary for him to have first found the Church, to whom he can then surrender himself even blindfolded, and by whom he can allow himself to be confidently led, without needing to fear being misled? Only one who does not know what faith means can talk this way, for true faith may be grounded on no human being, however holy and wise he may be and however high an office he may hold in the Church; even the simplest layman stands in true faith only when he knows and holds fast to this: Thus it is written; thus says God; this the faithful and truthful One in heaven has promised.

It is indeed true that, especially in this latter, wretched age, it is no easy matter to recognize the true Church by the pure Word and Sacrament, since on every side so many sects arise with a great semblance of Christian doctrine and a specious holiness; but, as we have already noted above, "God gives success to the upright." Scripture is clear on all points that concern the foundation of our salvation; let him, therefore, who seeks the true Church take this touchstone in his hand, and call