# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 11 04_S33
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never now nor evermore pass away."

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

Volume 4.

St. Louis, Mo., November 4, 1847.

No. 5.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, for the annual subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who are required to pay it in advance and to bear the postage. — In St. Louis, each single number is sold for 5 cents. Only letters containing communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however, which contain 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 Prof. Wolter.)
"Who told you that this (the Bible) is Holy Scripture?"
(Conclusion.)

We now wish to answer in a few words the question of who is to decide, given the acknowledged divinity of Holy Scripture, when a dispute arises over the meaning of biblical statements.

The countless variety of sects which, almost without exception, appeal to Holy Scripture, must serve the Roman Church as proof of the necessity of a highest visible tribunal that is to decide the disputed meaning of Holy Scripture, so that the unity of the Church may be upheld and its complete dissolution prevented; and the Roman Church rides this hobbyhorse all the more gladly because, on the one hand, an unlearned person is easily dazzled by the appearance of truth, while on the other the Roman clergy thereby most infallibly secure for themselves dominion over men's minds. Nevertheless, the whole claim rests on the twofold error that Holy Scripture is not intelligible through itself but is dark and unclear, and that a number of visible members of the church—or even a single one (the Pope)—of whom one cannot even know whether they are truly living, true members of the Church, are guided by the Holy Spirit in their deliberations and decisions regarding matters of faith. But if Holy Scripture were not sufficiently intelligible for anyone who reads it with an upright mind and under invocation of the Holy Spirit, to learn from it the way to salvation with unquestionable certainty, then the Holy Spirit would either have been unable, or unwilling, to speak as plainly and simply as would have been necessary—and to assert either would be blasphemy. From this alone it already follows that the Bible has no need whatsoever of a supreme judicial tribunal before which the correct understanding of its words would have to be sought; rather, Christ's word—"Search the Scriptures, for you think you have eternal life in them, and it is they that testify of me"—obligates every person to draw divine truth for himself from the source of Holy Scripture itself, because he can find it there. This does not deny that there may be passages in the Bible that are not equally clear to every reader, even a devout one; it asserts only that the Bible contains, entirely clearly and intelligibly, everything that a person needs to know and believe for salvation. Accordingly, the simple rule holds for the interpretation of questionable and difficult passages: that one interprets them according to the rest of the clear words of Holy Scripture, and allows no interpretation that contradicts another clear word, because the Holy Spirit cannot contradict himself. This is called interpreting according to the rule of faith, as Paul prescribes in several places.

In saying this, it is by no means our opinion that each individual should approach the study of the Bible in arrogant isolation, without regard to the testimony which the church presents to him concerning the doctrines of salvation—for by that very arrogance he would hinder the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Rather, our opinion is that a Christian is obligated first to test, according to Holy Scripture, the doctrines of salvation which his church presents to him, and, if he finds them to agree with it, to abide by them and to build his faith upon them, and thus, by God's grace, to say with the Samaritans in John 4:42: "Now we believe, not because of your saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world." But if, after a serious, conscientious, and careful examination, he finds that the church fellowship in which he was raised stands in some manifest contradiction to the clear Word of God, then he is obligated, for the sake of his salvation, to point this out to his fellow believers, and, if they will not be shown otherwise by him, to join that church fellowship in which he finds no doctrine contradicting the Word of God. — In this duty and this right consists the precious jewel of freedom of conscience and of faith, which, by God's mercy, was restored through the Reformation to a Christendom enslaved by human ordinances, and which no believing Lutheran can or will give up for the sake of the external unity of the church. For it would indeed be a fine thing if the Church of Christ also presented outwardly a well-ordered whole, as it is one in spirit—if, in particular, a certain uniformity prevailed in ecclesiastical acts and customs—but far be it from us to trade this earthly, dispensable good for the indispensable good of freedom of faith, and to exchange obedience to the Word of God for bondage to men. If Christ our Lord, the Head of the Church, had to go about in the form of a servant, why should not his Bride, the Church, do the same, so long as he permits it for her purification? But if Christ, in the form of a servant, overcame the world and trod Satan underfoot and made a triumph of him, precisely at the moment when the self-righteous Pharisee and the unbelieving Sadducee, and indeed all human reason, considered his cause lost, why should not his Church likewise be led from deepest humiliation to the most glorious victory, and overcome the self-righteous Papism that struts about in outward pomp, just as well as fanaticism and unbelief of every kind? Yes, she says confidently with the Apostle: "As chastened, yet not killed" (2 Cor. 6:9); and with the royal singer (Psalm 71:19ff.): "God, your righteousness is very high, you who have done great things. God, who is like you? For you have shown me great and sore troubles, and you revive me again, and bring me up again from the depths of the earth. You increase my greatness, and comfort me again," etc. Compare Psalm 18:31ff.; Psalm 118:18.