# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1860_S300
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

300                                                    Indirect Declaration by Löhe concerning His Position within the Lutheran Church.

...drive on earth, whereunto it is called. Pray for the peace of the world and for the fulfillment of the Church's holy calling in the midst of the enemies of JEsus."

II.

"We all know, dear brethren, that in the course of the centuries, but especially in the last centuries, through the devil's envy and the fault of those who hold the truth in unrighteousness, the Church of God has been torn apart and divided into manifold confessions, which stand not merely estranged from one another but even hostile to one another. It is also known to you that many consider it downright a virtue to nurture the old hatred,*) and therefore revile it as a lack of love toward the confession to which one belongs, when one speaks of a unity among Christians that goes beyond confession. And yet it is one thing to fight false doctrines that newly arise, and another to reject old, long-standing errors to which those in whom we find them have, for centuries, become accustomed through the example of their fathers and through upbringing. The distinguishing doctrines of the confessions are still, as they were centuries ago, to be firmly held by those standing over against one another insofar as they correspond to the Word of God — and to be rejected as heresies insofar as they stray from the truth. But the treatment of heretics must become different, once the times have brought forth so many grounds for mitigating the judgment of persons. Just as one must, toward those who are freshly straying from the truth, emphasize the sharp opposition and exercise discipline,**) so must one, with regard to Christians long separated from us, be mindful of the unity that need not first be established but already exists, so that one may seek it out in the strength of love, and that measure of fellowship and sense of fellowship be produced which corresponds to the true state of affairs. All Protestants who follow the divine Word more than their own reason***) are agreed concerning the great struggles which, before the Reformation, were fought over the article of the most holy Trinity, over the relation of the three Persons to one another, and over the two natures of Christ and their relation to each other†). They also all stand against Pelagius, and recognize the ground of our redemption and eternal salvation in the crucified Son of God and Son of Man. What can be brought against this assertion rests more on inferences and consequences of doctrine than on distinguish—

*) It has, unfortunately, not pleased Löhe to specify more closely either those who are supposed to do this, or those who first harbored the old hatred. One must fear that he means, not the old and new enemies and opponents, but rather the defenders of the truth.
L. u. W.
**) If Löhe means this seriously, he must not be surprised if these principles are applied to himself. L. u. W.
***) The latter is a screaming untruth. Compare only the eighth article of the Formula of Concord. L. u. W.
†) That is precisely what only the Lutherans do! L. u. W.