# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 11 16_S43
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

So everything here comes down to answering the question: Is the Lutheran Church really the true Church of Jesus Christ on earth? But in order to decide this, the first question now is: By what does one recognize the true Church? — If one were to recognize her by the outward splendor of her appearance, by the number of her members, by the extent of her spread, by the magnificence of her temples, by her temporal riches, by her earthly power, by her well-ordered government: then we would have to hold the Roman church — from which Luther, because he testified to the truth, was once expelled — to be Christ's true Church. But no — Christ says plainly: "The kingdom of God cometh not with outward observation; My kingdom is not of this world." By temporal advantages, then, Christ's Church, which is a kingdom of the cross, cannot be recognized. — Or does one perhaps recognize her by the appearance of great human holiness which she spreads about herself, or by the number and greatness of the good works which she displays, or by her much praying and saying "Lord, Lord" on the street corners? Then we would have to hold almost every one of the so-called Protestant sects to be Christ's true Church. Indeed, we would have to prefer the sect of the Pharisees to the Church of the Apostles, for the Pharisees fasted and prayed more than the Apostles, and had a holier appearance. But no — Christ further says plainly that He will one day disown those who say "Lord, Lord," even if they have prophesied in His name, cast out devils in His name, and done many mighty works, as ones He never knew to be His own. So neither by the splendor of godliness nor by the number and greatness of apparently good works can Christ's true Church be recognized; even the false church can bear these marks before the eyes of men.

By what the true Church is recognized, this Christ tells us plainly in our text; He says, namely, to the church at Philadelphia: "Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name." From this we see that, as far as outward appearance is concerned, Christ's Church has "a little strength" — that is, she is powerless and unimpressive before the world — but, first, she keeps Christ's Word, and second, she confesses Christ's name. These, then, are her true marks. If a church lacks these marks, if a church does not keep Christ's Word and denies His name, then she is not Christ's true Church, however gloriously she may otherwise shine outwardly, or however much all her members might be resplendent in the holiness of angels and archangels. This Christ also testifies elsewhere; He says: "If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Paul, too, gives this as the true mark of the true Church, when he writes to the Ephesians: "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit."

If we now examine our Evangelical Lutheran Church by this standard, we must say that she bears these marks as brightly and recognizably as the sun bears light. Yes, however despised our Church may now stand in the world; however much it may now seem as though every other church were the Lord's bride, and she a widow forsaken and rejected by the Lord; however much countless people may imagine that she lacks all the most important marks of the true Church — that she has these marks which Christ and Paul here name can be denied only by one who does not know her. She is truly built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, that is, upon God's Word and not upon the foundation of human doctrine; she truly lays only His righteousness as the cornerstone of salvation, and not human doing and human works; she truly abides by the word of Jesus Christ, and departs from it neither to the right nor to the left. Indeed, if one must now, looking at our Church's outward condition, cry out to her with the prophet: "Thou afflicted one, tossed with tempest, and thou disconsolate one!" — yet Christ can also say to her, as He does to the congregation at Philadelphia in our text: "Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name." Say for yourselves — why did our great champion Luther separate himself, 300 years ago, from the Roman Catholic Church? Did the reason lie in the scruples of his reason? No; it had never occurred to Luther to want to reform the Church and to rise up against Pope and Emperor and all the world; but because he neither would nor could depart from Holy Scripture, he was drawn into the great struggle. How did he speak — to name just one example — when he stood at Worms before Emperor and Empire and was to be compelled to recant? Among other things he said: "Unless I am convinced and overcome by testimonies of Holy Scripture, or by clear and evident reasons and grounds, and my conscience is thereby taken captive by the sayings I have cited and bound in God's Word, I can and will retract nothing. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen." And why, too, would Luther never enter into brotherly and ecclesiastical fellowship with Zwingli, the founder of the Reformed church? Did the reason here perhaps lie in scruples of reason? No, far from it; here too the sole reason was: he could not make into a lie, nor let himself be led away from, the word of his Savior, which was his only comfort in life and death. Over the word of the truthful and almighty Son of God — "This is My body; this is My blood" — Luther could not get. He writes, therefore: "I have indeed suffered such hard temptation over this, and have wrestled and struggled, that I would gladly have been rid of it. But I am captive, I cannot get out; the text is too powerful there, and will not let itself be argued out of my mind by mere words." In another place Luther writes: "It is with me as though every single saying makes the world too narrow for me."

You see, thus was Luther minded, and this is therefore also the mind of the Church which, after his name, is now called the Lutheran Church — not because Luther is her pope, whom she follows unconditionally, not because she believes in Luther, but because, with Luther, she believes in Christ's Word. The principle that one may not depart from the letter or from the words of Scripture — this principle the Lutheran Church was once built upon; by it she stands and falls; this principle stands at the head of her confessions; this principle is her guiding star in all her struggles; according to this principle she proceeds in all matters; this principle is, in a word, her heart and her life — so that to the question, "What is a Lutheran?" one cannot better or more briefly answer than: A Lutheran is a Christian who holds strictly to the letter of Scripture. That is the mark by which he is distinguished from all other Christians.

As undeniable, then, as it is that our Church has kept Christ's Word, just as undeniable is it also that she has not denied Christ's name. That Luther himself, first of all, faithfully confessed Christ's name — this everyone knows who has read even a few pages of his writings. The doctrine of justification through faith in Christ has doubtless been expounded by no teacher since the time of the Apostles so clearly and plainly, so comfortingly and lovingly, so powerfully and gloriously, as by Luther. He says: "In my heart there rules alone, and shall also rule, this one article, namely faith in my dear Lord Christ, which is the sole beginning, middle, and end of all my spiritual and divine thoughts, which I may ever have, day and night." And in this too our Evangelical Lutheran Church has followed Luther as her teacher. That man is justified alone through faith in Christ, without the works of the Law — this she has preached from the beginning as richly and as powerfully as none of her opponents. The kernel and star of Lutheran doctrine is: "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved," than the precious name of Jesus alone. Christ, and Christ only, is He to whom, in our Church, all sinners are pointed without detour. Not man's works, not his repentance and contrition, not his amendment and sanctification, not his suffering and satisfaction, but Christ's grace alone, Christ's merit, Christ's innocence and righteousness, Christ's active and passive obedience —