# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 09 29_S17
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never pass away."

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 4.

St. Louis, Mo., October 5, 1847.

No. 3.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at an annual subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay it in advance and bear the postage themselves. — In St. Louis each single issue is sold for 5 cents.

Only letters containing contributions for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however, containing business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent here under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Submitted by Th. Brohm.)

The Book of Concord.

God willing, a series of brief essays is to follow here, whose purpose is to give readers a simple, generally comprehensible instruction concerning the "Book of Concord," or "the confessional writings of our Evangelical Lutheran Church." They are not intended for professional theologians, who have more thorough resources at their disposal, but are meant for laypeople — yet for such as wish to be, even if not learned, at least well-instructed Christians. In this we have a twofold aim in view: on the one hand, to draw the Lutherans' attention to the great treasure — perhaps unknown to them — which they possess in the so-called Book of Concord, and to move them, where possible, to learn to value this treasure better than has been done heretofore; on the other hand, to offer those who already know and possess it a guide that might be of some use to them toward a correct understanding of it. Should this final purpose be achieved even only in part, that would already be an overabundant reward, and we would thank God for it heartily."

May these essays also serve to most warmly recommend to our kind readers the edition of the Book of Concord intended by Mr. Ludwig in New York.

1.

What is understood by the Book of Concord?

Those of our readers who already know the answer will forgive us for raising this question, and will grant the answering of it to those who still need it, for whose sake the question is being asked. Some have perhaps scarcely ever heard the word "Book of Concord," or have never formed any notion of it other than that of an old, worm-eaten book which they occasionally saw at their grandfather's house, but of whose content and worth they have no idea. Let such, then, be informed: the Book of Concord is the collection of all the confessions of faith on which the Lutheran Church is founded, as distinguished from other church communions standing alongside it, and by which it certifies and proves its connection with the apostolic church, that it is the true visible Church of Christ. The Book of Concord is therefore the point of union for all Lutherans; whoever contradicts it, whoever rejects it, can lay no claim to membership in this church.

Whoever cares to learn what the Lutheran Church is, what it believes, teaches, and confesses (and who should not care about that?) can learn it most surely and reliably from this source. To be sure, thank God, there is still a great abundance of splendid books from which one can learn the very same thing; but who would not rather drink from the first, fresh spring itself than from the streams derived from it? Besides these, however, there are also many books, written by Lutheran theologians, in which the water has been more or less clouded by human admixture; how necessary, then, in order to drink pure water, to go to the original spring itself! The Book of Concord, to state it provisionally, contains: 1. the three ecumenical creeds, 2. the Augsburg Confession, 3. its Apology, 4. the Smalcald Articles, 5. the Small Catechism, 6. the Large Catechism of Luther, 7. the Formula of Concord. These are the confessions to which either the entire Lutheran Church, or, as concerns the Formula of Concord, the greater part of it, has publicly professed and, wherever it still exists, professes, and according to which it wishes to be regarded and judged. Now although these confessions were composed at the most various times and by the most various persons, yet one and the same spirit, one faith, one and the same opinion, prevails in them all; there is no inner contradiction, everywhere the most lovely concord, one part supplementing, explaining, completing, and defining the other. Therefore we rightly call it the Book of Concord — that is, the Book of Harmony; harmony reigns in the individual parts of the Book of Concord — harmony, and indeed the right harmony on the basis of one faith, is what is attested by the Book of Concord, a harmony which is meant to be attained and preserved through it in Christendom. If all who call themselves Christians were united in it, then sects and factions would have ceased; but as long as there are still adversaries of the Book of Concord, so long will sects and factions also not fail to appear.

2.

The Importance of the Book of Concord for All Lutheran Christians in General.

That the Book of Concord is, for the most part, a hidden, unknown treasure is unfortunately a glaring fact. This is doubtless due, among other things, to the mistaken opinion that the Book of Concord is a book, at most, for preachers, but not for the laity. That it is, however, a book for everyone — for hearers as well as for preachers, for the unlearned as well as the learned — is not hard to see, for the following reasons: 1. From the generally important and generally comprehensible content of the Book of Concord; for it contains no secret doctrine, no subtle theological questions that could interest only scholars, no inessential secondary teachings that the layman could do without, but rather it contains the chief and fundamental articles of the saving Christian faith, of which every Christian must have knowledge. In addition, the language and style, with few exceptions, are so simple and easily understood that no one may complain of being unable to understand them. Just as Christ, Baptism, the Gospel, and the Kingdom of Heaven are the common property of all Christians — indeed, in their final purpose, of all mankind — so too is the Book of Concord, which is, at bottom, nothing other than a simple, faithful testimony of Christ and of the grace and truth that is in him. It was, to be sure, not originally the intention of those who composed it to write a doctrinal or devotional book (for it was meant to be a confession), but through the gracious hand of God it has become both —