# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1863_S357
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Some Remarks on a New Apology for the Reformed Church. 357

Marginal Notes: What would Mr. K. say, if he were the head of a family and had to endure his children calling him Father, or if a shoemaker in his congregation let himself be called Master — what would Mr. K. say, if we explained to him that both of these things, done by him and by one of his congregation's members, happen "unfortunately, to the point of disgust, entirely against God's Word," Matthew 23:9-10? We think Mr. K. would rebuke our lack of understanding and say: Christ has indeed forbidden that anyone be called Father or Master, but by that is not meant such a use of "Father" and "Master" as lets God remain Father, and Christ and His Word remain Master, but rather such a use as sets oneself in the place of God and of Christ and wants one's own human word regarded as God's Word. The name and the sound "Father," "Master" is not what matters, but the sense in which one bears these names; indeed, even if a preacher never let himself be called Father or Master, yet demanded obedience to his commands as though to God's commandments, Christ's word would nonetheless strike him: "Call no man your father on earth! Neither be ye called masters!" — It is exactly the same with the naming of an ecclesiastical fellowship after a human name. It is true that the Apostle Paul rebuked certain Corinthians when they called themselves after Paul, Cephas, or Apollos; but that was because these Corinthians thereby wanted to set themselves apart from the orthodox believers. It is an altogether different matter when we call ourselves Lutherans. By this we mean only to set ourselves apart from the false believers, while confessing fellowship with all who, with Luther, confess the pure Gospel. To this must be added that we did not give ourselves the name Lutheran, but originally received this name as a term of abuse from our enemies. Now that the name "Christian" has been seized from all sects without exception, the name "Catholic" from the Papists, the name "Orthodox" from the Greeks, the name "Reformed" from the Zwinglians and Calvinists, the name "Evangelical" from the Unionists, nothing else has remained for us but to let the name "Lutheran" content us; indeed, since this name can mean nothing else than a Christian who believes and confesses as Luther did, we now bear this name with joy, just as the first Christians bore the name Galilean and Nazarene — not as a disgrace, but as an honor.

Mr. K. writes further:

"Reformed we are and remain, also for the sake of the disgrace with which our church, down to the most recent times, has been heaped from the side of many a spokesman of the Lutheran church. We do not wish to repeat and enumerate these bitter reproaches here (that would give a long register!), but only to point out that our church has borne them quietly, and, instead of reviling in return, has always acknowledged that the Lutheran church agrees with ours in the essential articles of faith, in that it too strongly stresses that the sinful