# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1862_S211
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Articles of the Christian Faith. 211

Antithesis.

No faith or salvation is therefore possible where this foundation of faith
is denied, wholly or in part, whether out of ignorance or
out of malice. Cf. Isa. 9:2; Luke 2:79; Acts 17:30; Matt. 9:36;
28:13; Luke 6:39; Acts 4:12.

V.

Not all fundamental articles stand in an equally immediate connection
with the foundation, nor do they require an equally complete knowledge on the part of
man, in order for him to attain faith and salvation; for this reason they are again
divided into primary (primarii) and secondary (secundarii)
fundamental articles of the Christian faith.

Proof: In the passages 1 Cor. 3:2, and Heb. 5:12-13, and
6:1-2, a clear distinction is made between doctrines which every
person must unconditionally know in order to attain faith and salvation,
and those which belong only to a more complete
knowledge.

VI.

Primary fundamental articles are those which, at all times in
the Church, without loss of faith and salvation, may not only not be denied,
but must be known by every single person, if saving
faith is to be produced.

For in order to lay hold of and hold fast, in faith, Christ, the real foundation
of salvation, knowledge of the primary articles is
absolutely necessary, since it is not the foundation in itself but only the
foundation recognized and laid hold of that gives faith.

VII.

The primary fundamental articles can in turn be divided
into those whose content describes the inner essence of the foundation, Christ,
himself, such as, for example, the article of Christ, the God-man, or of
Christ's merit and satisfaction for sin; — and into those which
do not so much belong to the inner essence of the real foundation, Christ,
but rather form the necessary basis of the former, in that they
produce and preserve saving faith in man, such as the
articles of the Trinity of God, of the gracious will of God, according to which he
wills to save all men; of sin, by which man is defiled,
made an abomination to God, and subject to punishment; of justification, and so forth.

Just as Christ is the real foundation of salvation because he is the
meritorious cause of it, so the primary article concerning
Christ, the God-man, points precisely to him who is the meritorious cause —
that is, the ground of salvation itself. Likewise the article of Christ's
merit for sin points precisely to him who has obtained forgiveness
of sins. For in order to recognize that Christ has done enough for us