# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1862_S262
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

262 Theological Axioms.

administration, from the heretical communities which are within the
Church.

36. Vera ecclesia falsae opponitur vel contradictorie i. e. non-ecclesiae
seu ipsam essentiam baptismi et religionis totius evertenti; vel privative
i. e. non orthodoxae ecclesiae. Posteriori significatu ecclesia, apostasiae
partialis rea, non est vera ecclesia, propter depravationem religionis; sed
est falsa i. e. vitiata et impura ecclesia. Prioris oppositionis respectu
concedimus, talem ecclesiam esse veram. (Gerhard.)

The true Church is opposed to the false one either exclusively, that is,
as against the non-church, or against one that overthrows the very
essence of baptism and of religion as a whole; or privatively, that is, as
against the church that is not orthodox. In the latter sense, a church
guilty of a partial apostasy is not a true church, on account of the
corruption of religion; rather it is a false, that is, a corrupted and
impure, church. With respect to the former opposition, we grant that such
a church is a true one.

37. "Quo purius et sincerius in ecclesia praedicatur Dei verbum, quo
propius ad normam scripturae sacrae praedicatio ac doctrina accedit, eo
purior et sincerior erit ecclesia; quo vero longius a regula verbi recedit,
eo impurior et corruptior erit ecclesiae status. Nec tamen per quamvis
corruptelam desinit esse ecclesia, quia ostendimus, Deum etiam tunc semen
sanctum et spirituales filios sibi generare et conservare, quando publicum
visibilis ecclesiae ministerium est corruptum." (Gerh.)

The more purely and sincerely the Word of God is preached in a church,
the nearer the preaching and doctrine come to the standard of Holy
Scripture, the purer and more sincere the church will be; but the
farther it departs from the rule of the Word, the more impure and
corrupted will be the state of the church. Yet it does not, through that
corruption, cease to be a church, since we have shown that God, even
then, begets and preserves for himself a holy seed and spiritual
children, when the public ministry of the visible church is corrupted.

38. Ubicunque administratur verus et integer baptismus, ibi est
lavacrum regenerationis et renovationis, quia baptismus ab apostolo sic
definitur Tit. 3, 5; ibi etiam offertur salus baptizatis, quia Deus per
baptismum dicitur nos salvos facere 1 Pet. 3, 2. Jam vero extra
ecclesiam nulla fit regeneratio et extra ecclesiam non est salus. Ergo
ubicunque administratur baptismus, ibi est aliqua Christi ecclesia. (Gerh.)

Wherever the true and unmutilated baptism is administered, there is the
washing of regeneration and renewal, since baptism is so defined by the
apostle, Tit. 3:5; there salvation is also offered to the baptized,
because God is said to save us through baptism, 1 Pet. 3:2. But now
outside the Church no regeneration occurs, and outside the Church there
is no salvation. Therefore, wherever baptism is administered, there is
some church of Christ.