# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 11 24_S59
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

and as such, to the glory of God and for the benefit of our congregations, "do good," according to the ability that God grants. But with collateral and extra-ecclesiastical activity, with that newfangled system of private associations, with that idle over-busyness alongside and outside of our office, with which so many preachers, on this side and the other side of the ocean, so greatly burden themselves and in which they chiefly seek their "doing good" — with that we wish to have nothing to do.* Even granting that such activity may proceed from a genuinely Christian disposition and may serve this or that sound purpose, we are nevertheless of the opinion that the manner and mode of this activity is not a sound one; for whether it be individual preachers, or private persons, or both together, who truly out of Christian love carry on, in special societies, for instance, mission work, or care for the poor and the sick, and so forth — this way of "doing good" is not according to the pattern of Holy Scripture. For here we read, Acts 6:5, that in Jerusalem the congregation, as such, chose and appointed the almoners for the poor, just as it later (Acts 15:22–25) also took an active part in drawing up and sending the apostolic letter to reassure the Gentile Christians who had been led astray by Jewish false teachers. Likewise it was the congregations, as such, in Macedonia, Achaia, and Galatia, that sent a common contribution to the poor brethren in Judea through Paul (Romans 15:26; 1 Corinthians 16:1–3). No less did the congregations, as such, take the liveliest part in the spread of the Church among the Gentiles (Acts 14:27; 15:4). Accordingly, our endeavor, too, under the gracious assistance of God the Holy Spirit, is directed toward winning and enlivening our congregations, as such, ever more for the carrying out of all churchly purposes, both inward and outward, and for the collective works of faith and love — but not toward carrying on the works of the Church, outside the churchly congregational bond, through and in all sorts of motley, patched-together private societies. For this collateral and extra-ecclesiastical society-mindedness is a sign either that congregational life within the Church is in decay, or that, perhaps after a long period of dormancy, the reawakening Christian life has not yet found the sound churchly form.

If, further, that article thinks that we should set aside what they (the so-called General Synod) regard as "mistaken views concerning the practically wise conduct of the church (church policy)," the answer to this is that we are at all times ready to be instructed better in matters which, unlike doctrine, are not clearly and definitely prescribed in God's Word, but are left to the freedom and good judgment of the Church; only we would ask that we be convinced by cogent reasons; for by mere contrary assertions and opinions, without foundation and without a clear demonstration of our practical error, we would hardly be moved from what we have already established, for example, on the basis of Holy Scripture and the practice of the apostolic Church; and we should then, of course, simply have to put up with it if, for instance, that old and time-tested measure of churchly oversight — which for that very reason appears new to the new-measure people — should be rejected by them merely because it happens not to be fashionable and popular.

* It is, unfortunately, a fact in this country as well known as it is regrettable, that this or that Reverend, even one belonging to churchly bodies, unless he happens to be hired, contrary to all churchly and ministerial sense of honor, for a year or two by this or that congregation as its spiritual speech-maker, roams about alongside and outside his office, playing the speech-maker here today and there tomorrow — now for the temperance cause in the customary unevangelical manner, now for the total abolition of slaveholding, now for Anglo-Saxon spelling reform, now for phrenology, and so forth.

As for, finally, the conclusion of that article, it is certainly no one's regret more than our own that we cannot "from the heart (and with a good conscience) enter into brotherly fellowship, or even merely into churchly relations, with all who bear the name Lutheran here in America." For the Word of God, which alone is to determine our heart and conscience in all our practical conduct, even as a churchly body, quite decidedly forbids us to maintain churchly brotherhood, or even merely churchly relations, with those who cause division and offense contrary to the doctrine which we have learned (Romans 16:17), and who persistently resist this doctrine, whether in one point or in several. "Avoid such," it says. And to these belong not only the papists and the enthusiasts, but also the false brethren — that is, the so-called Lutheran General Synod, which only recently, in its circular letter sent to Germany, quite openly declared its defection from the pure sacramental doctrine of the Lutheran Church and placed itself on the standpoint of the so-called Evangelical or United Church, without, however, having anywhere or in any way furnished a thorough demonstration that the Lutheran Church errs in this matter.

Although it is, in charity, to be hoped that within this so-called Lutheran General Synod there are not a few who up to now have erred out of ignorance, are sincere of heart, and desire the truth — the righteous judgment concerning the churchly standpoint of this body can nevertheless be based only on what goes forth from it as public testimony; and here, indeed, even the better-disposed but uninformed make themselves partakers of others' sins if, without further ado, they agree with that shameful defection as voiced by its leading spokesmen, men of standing such as the Reverend Doctors Schmucker and Kurtz; for these can hardly be erring merely out of ignorance, and since they have set themselves up as teachers, they ought at least, instead of merely putting forward contrary assertions or objections of the Reformed opposing party already long since refuted by Luther and other Reformers, attempt an honest and thorough struggle against the Lutheran churchly doctrine of the holy Sacraments. So long, then, as the so-called Lutheran General Synod maintains its present defective position, so long can no truly Lutheran, that is, churchly-minded, synod enter into or maintain churchly fellowship with it; for were it to do so, it would sin:

1) against God's Word, which clearly commands:

a) to avoid a heretical* person, after he has been admonished once and again (Titus 3:10), and, as already mentioned above, to withdraw from those who cause division and offense contrary to the doctrine which we have learned (Romans 16:17).

b) to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3), and thus hardly to maintain brotherhood with those who contend against that faith even in a single article and stubbornly persist in their error; for a little leaven leavens the whole lump (Galatians 5:9).

2) against their own Church, which is a pillar and ground of the truth, in that it alone believes, confesses, and teaches the pure and unadulterated Word of God unto the soul's salvation, and administers and preserves the unfalsified Sacraments.

3) against their own conscience, which in all matters of the Christian doctrine of salvation ought to be held captive and bound by God's Word alone, and which may not, out of desire to please men, diminish anything of the divine truth.

4) against all orthodox, faithful brethren everywhere, who would rightly be bitterly wounded and painfully grieved if churchly fellowship were entered into and maintained with confusingly heterodox so-called Lutherans, thereby failing to avoid the appearance of evil and making oneself a partaker of others' sins.

5) against the false brethren themselves, who would, through such fellowship, be confirmed in their errors and in the godless delusion that it is a matter of indifference how one holds to certain points of the wholesome doctrine, and whether or not one believes Holy Scripture in this regard as it reads.

But where is the true, unfeigned reverence for the whole Word of God (with which the spokesmen of the so-called Lutheran General Synod are accustomed to boast, precisely where they revile the confessional writings), if one thoughtlessly supposes that this or that article of saving doctrine in Holy Scripture may be taken and understood as the words read, or else as they do not read — that is, in an improper and figurative sense? That would indeed be a strange "truth unto

* The essence of heresy consists not in the greater or lesser degree of unscriptural and false doctrine, but in the stubborn holding fast, even to but a single error, against God's clear Word. Yet correction and admonition have not been lacking toward the spokesmen of the so-called Lutheran General Synod in recent years.