# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 11 24_S60
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

salvation," which, in the manner of the pagan oracles, would be ambiguous, wavering, and indefinite, and would leave the reader and hearer always in suspense as to how, even in but a single doctrine, it were to be understood?*

* To be sure, Holy Scripture here and there employs figurative and metaphorical language, as for example repeatedly in the prophecies of the prophets and in the Revelation of St. John; but never and nowhere does it do so where it establishes doctrines pertaining to salvation in Christ and to the soul's salvation, and which, for instance, our Small Lutheran Catechism, as a kind of layman's Bible, sums up; there, throughout, the words it employs are clear, plain, and readily comprehensible to old and young alike, and are never to be taken otherwise than as they read. To such words belong also the words of institution of the holy Sacraments, which, if they had been spoken figuratively, would surely somewhere have been divested of the figure and expressed in their proper sense. But since this is nowhere the case, they too, for that very reason, are to be understood properly, as they read.

Thus the outcry of the false Lutherans: "The Bible, the Bible! We confess ourselves to the Bible alone" — this trumpeting, which they raise loudest precisely where the question concerns the authority and binding validity (itself subordinate only to Holy Scripture) which the church's symbols rightly possess — what is it but either an empty noise or even a half-conscious hypocrisy?

For this much is certain: whoever thinks that Holy Scripture is not, even in a single point of saving truth, firm, clear, and definite — that here the words are not to be taken as they read, while in all other articles they are to be taken according to the plain, straightforward sense of the words — cannot have a true, unfeigned reverence for the whole of Holy Scripture as the revealed Word of God.

We therefore ask every Lutheran, still uninformed up to now but sincere and seeking the truth, who belongs to the so-called Lutheran General Synod, who still has command of the German language, and who happens to read this brief reply — we ask such a one earnestly and heartily, for Christ's sake and for the sake of his own soul, that with all diligence and with heartfelt prayer for the Spirit of truth, who guides into all truth, he turn to our churchly symbols and compare their teaching and their warning with God's Word, and then do the same with the assertions of his Synod and with the writings of the Reverend Doctors Schmucker and Kurtz, especially also with regard to the doctrine of the holy Sacraments. Thus he will surely come to perceive on which side the truth lies — truth which in itself is always but one, and never of two or several kinds; the Lord grants success to the upright — this sweet and comforting promise has its place here as well.

But to the willful and frivolous spokesmen and false teachers who, on the one hand, trifle with the truth of Holy Scripture and, as they please, declare this or that a matter of indifference, and who, on the other hand, have decisively fallen away from the pure doctrine of the Lutheran Church, persist in this apostasy, and have drawn so many thousand souls into it with them — to these corrupters and destroyers of the Church we declare, in all seriousness, that if they persist in this breach of faith against God's Word and the doctrine of the Church, and do not publicly retract their false teaching, then the very words of the Lord Christ, wherein He instituted the holy Lord's Supper, will judge them on the Last Day (John 12:48).

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(Submitted by Th. Brohm.)
The Book of Concord.

4.
The Three Chief Creeds.

We now turn to the individual parts of the Book of Concord and wish to offer, in part, some brief historical remarks on their origin and the particular circumstances under which they were composed, and in part some further explanations helpful for their understanding.

At the head of the Book of Concord stand the three chief creeds, or confession of the faith of Christ, used harmoniously in the Church. They are also called the three ecumenical creeds, on account of the general authority which they have attained, from ancient times, throughout the whole orthodox Church. These three chief creeds the Lutheran Church, too, has taken up into the circle of her confessions of faith, in order to disprove the baseless charge that she had brought forth some new faith, and rather to attest her connection with the ancient apostolic Church.

The first is the Apostles' Creed. To the question why it is called the apostolic [creed], not everyone gives the same answer. The papists give as their reason that it was composed by the twelve apostles themselves. Namely, before they went out into all the world, they are said to have drawn up this confession together, each apostle contributing one part to it. Paul is said to have begun with the words: I believe in God the Father; John is said to have added: almighty creator of heaven and earth. James is said to have followed him with the words: and in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, our Lord; Andrew: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, etc., etc. However beautiful this tradition is — so that one might almost wish it were true — this claim finds no ground either in Holy Scripture or in church history. Had the apostles actually composed this creed, then without doubt St. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, as well as later church history, would have made mention of this exceedingly important event. We Lutherans call it apostolic for the reason that it is apostolic in content — that is, drawn from the writings of the apostles and most precisely in agreement with them. By whom and when it was composed we leave an open question, since indeed nothing certain can be determined about it. This much is beyond doubt: that it reaches back to the time of the apostles, or to the times immediately following them. We further do not hold it to be inspired — that is, given by the Holy Spirit — nor do we hold it to be an oral word of God propagated alongside the written Word of God; nor do we share the mistaken view of those who regard it as a form of interpretation, or so-called rule of faith, given outside of and alongside Holy Scripture. However harmless this opinion may seem, it is nevertheless the basis on which the Roman doctrine of tradition was gradually built up. Finally, we also cannot allow the claim that the Apostles' Creed is a complete summary of all the articles of faith necessary to be known for salvation, and that acceptance of it suffices for the unity of the Church, as the Syncretists — that is, the religion-mixers of the seventeenth century — and the friends of union in our own day have maintained. For, quite apart from the fact that by no means all who confess this creed agree on its correct understanding (compare "Lutheraner," Volume 2, Nos. 23–24) — plain observation itself teaches that in Holy Scripture many further, exalted articles of faith are revealed which do not stand in the Apostles' Creed and yet, on pain of the loss of salvation, may neither be denied nor falsified. Nevertheless, we hold the Apostles' Creed, on account of its venerable age, but especially on account of its apostolic content, in high honor, and by believing acceptance of it we distinguish ourselves from all heathen, Jews, Turks, and heretics, who deny faith in the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Nicene Creed has its name and origin from the church council at Nicaea, a city in Asia Minor. It was there, in the year 325, that the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, out of praiseworthy zeal, convened a general council of the Church in order to heal the great churchly evil that had arisen through the Arian heresy. Arius, namely, a presbyter or priest at Alexandria, put forward the godless assertion — or rather revived the heresy already earlier held by the heretic Cerinthus — that Christ was not truly and essentially God as the Father is; that He was, indeed, higher than all creatures, yet was Himself likewise a creature of the Father; that there had been a time when the Father existed but the Son did not yet exist. Although admonished to desist from this godless heresy, he not only persisted in it, but spread it about most zealously, so that soon the whole of Christendom was filled with it, and great confusion arose. Since all attempts thus far at healing this had proved fruitless, Constantine the Great chose the one remaining course: to call together a general council of the Church. Thus, in the year 325, there came together in the city of Nicaea 318 bishops from all parts of the great Roman Empire, even