# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 03 07_S110
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

…must first prove to us that our confession does not agree in content with Holy Scripture — or else let him leave us in peace!

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Is It Right to Desire a Bishop's Office for Oneself?
(See: Luther on Psalm 82:3. Works: Halle IV, 767 f.)

As for our having said that no one should teach in the congregation unless he is called to it by God, and that everyone should know what sort of calling this is, mark this well: it is God's calling when someone, over — indeed against — his own will, is required and summoned to the office of preaching by the authority of his superiors,*) whether spiritual or temporal. For there is no authority except from God, as St. Paul says in Romans 13:1. Therefore, whatever both magistracy and authority command, there is no doubt that God himself commands it. Hence we read in the Old Testament that no history or affair ever turned out happily where God was not first asked about it, and where an answer had not first been received, either through an angel or through a man. For how disastrously the children of Israel fought without God's command we read indeed in the fourth Book of Moses, chapter 14:44-45, and we see the same in the Maccabees. Dear friend, do not doubt it: if God wants you, he will indeed seek you out — indeed, he will send an angel down from heaven to lead you to it.

And I hold that this is the reason why nowadays neither bishops, nor priests, nor monks teach the Word of God in the church — that there is hardly one of them left who waits for God's calling; instead, they all run and rush after parishes and pulpits, after prebends and benefices, after idleness and a full belly; so that nowadays it is either desperation, or a lazy and comfortable life, that makes not only monks but also bishops and priests. You will understand this divine calling no better than by paying heed to the histories of Holy Scripture and of all the holy men in the church; for those who have taught by God's calling have always accomplished great things — as St. Augustine, Ambrose, and before them the holy Apostle St. Paul.

But so that I do not cause anyone distress, I am speaking of those who come to preach and teach the Word of God — these, I say, should give diligent heed that they are sent by God, as St. Paul says in Romans 10:15: "How shall they preach, unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim peace, who proclaim good things." Isaiah 52:7. And Malachi says, chapter 2:7: "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, that men may seek the law from his mouth, for he is a messenger of the Lord of Hosts."

*) Luther speaks here according to the ecclesiastical circumstances as they existed in Germany. Here in America the "calling authority" is the congregations themselves. — Ed.

Yet one should also not reject those who, out of godly intent, take courage in that they seek neither their own profit and enjoyment, nor their own praise, nor a good and easy life, but strive solely that they may teach and preach God's Word; although such men are a rare bird indeed. Yes, one ought to praise such men,*) as St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:1: "This is a faithful saying: if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work." But why he speaks thus, he sets forth soon afterward in verse 2 and following, saying: "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, temperate, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, not a striker, not given to dishonest gain; but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous" — and what further follows there. All this belongs to a bishop. He who desires such a thing desires a good work, for such an office requires one who can despise honor, life, and all possessions; for it is a service of the truth, which has foretold and declared, Matthew 10:22: "You shall be hated by everyone for my name's sake" — and since scarcely even those who are drawn to it by force, against their will, can bear this, it is vain to hope that it will be borne by one who seeks it of his own accord, or who is not inwardly moved by a special grace to aspire to such an office.

*) It should be well noted that Luther here comforts only those who dare to "desire" the office of preaching and to "aspire" to it, but by no means those who, like the Methodists, for example, come running of their own accord and force their way into congregations and their pastoral offices. These can by no means claim to be driven by "the Spirit, by love"; for God's Word says clearly and plainly that self-running and self-coming is the true mark of the false prophets. Compare Jeremiah 23:21: "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran." Matthew 7:15: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing." — Ed.

Why Are the Words of Institution, "This Is My Body; This Is My Blood," to Be Understood Literally?
(Continued.)

3.) A third well-founded reason for taking these words figuratively would, finally, be this: if their literal meaning contained something that conflicted with an established article of the Christian faith. For the holy Apostle Paul writes thus in Romans 12:7: "If any man has prophecy, let it be according to the proportion of faith." By this the holy Apostle clearly means to say: there exists a certain sum of articles of faith that rest on sayings of Holy Scripture so plain and clear, requiring no interpretation, that no doubt can arise as to their correctness; if anyone has prophecy — that is, if anyone has the gift of interpreting Scripture — he must therefore take good care that his interpretation is in proportion to "the faith," that is, to those irrefutable articles of the Christian faith — namely, that it does not conflict with them, but agrees with them in the most exact way.

It is therefore certain: if, by taking the sacramental words "This is my body; this is my blood" in their literal meaning, some established article of the Christian faith were overthrown, this would indeed be an irrefutable proof that the literal sense of the words could not be the correct one; for it is impossible that God should contradict himself in his Word and say both Yes and No at the same time about one and the same thing.

An example may make the principle set forth clear. That it is not God, but Satan and man's own perverted will, that is the cause of sin, is an established article of the Christian faith, resting on the plainest passages of Scripture; for thus it is said, among other places, Psalm 5:4-5: "Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness," etc.; further, James 1:13, 17: "God is not a tempter to evil — with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Now whoever interprets any passage of Scripture in such a way that God is thereby made the cause of sin,*) that man's "prophecy is not in proportion to the faith," and his interpretation of Scripture is therefore so certainly false that it requires no further examination.

*) As, for example, the Calvinists do in their doctrine of unconditional election of grace.

So is now the question: is any article of faith overthrown by the fact that one takes the words of institution literally, and therefore teaches that the body and blood of Christ are truly present in the holy Lord's Supper, and are truly given in, with, and under the bread and wine, and received with the mouth? Those who first departed from the words of Christ concerning the holy Lord's Supper did indeed wish to maintain this, when they knew no other way out; and it is still maintained today by those who, in our day, pay homage to the Reformed faith — or rather, unbelief — regarding the holy Lord's Supper. It is maintained, namely, that if one wished to take the words of institution literally, this would overthrow both the article of faith concerning Christ's true humanity and that concerning Christ's ascension.

It is said, first, that Holy Scripture teaches clearly that Christ had a true human body, as we do; but it belongs to the essence of a body that it be spatially limited, that it therefore not be present at several places at once, much less be omnipresent; hence it conflicts with that article of the Christian faith if one wishes to believe that the body and blood of Christ are truly present everywhere that the holy Lord's Supper is celebrated.

To this we must answer as follows.

Here a false application is made of that principle, that prophecy should be in proportion to faith. For it is by no means thereby meant that one may not take any clear passage of Holy Scripture in its literal sense as soon as it seems, according to the thoughts of our reason, to contradict another Bible passage, but that one passage must be brought into an agreement with another that appears correct to reason.