# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1864_S51
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church Service and Military Service. 51

...lost it through a small and poorly-equipped force. It is settled: Christ wills that they understand my article to teach that Christians” (as Christians) “are not to make war, and the condemned article must thus avenge itself, for it is spoken of Christians and will not be condemned, but wants to be right and true. Although they do not heed it, nor believe it, until, hardened and impenitent, they run on more and more and go to ruin — to that I say Amen: Amen! It is true that, because they hold worldly dominion and goods, they should render and give of it to emperor, kings, or princes what is due to be rendered and given from other worldly goods; indeed, such goods of the Church (as they call them) should serve and help, above all other goods, especially for the protection of the needy and the welfare of the common estates, for that is what they were given for, and not so that a bishop might forget his office and thereby make war or fight.” (Writing on the War against the Turk. Halle edition, Tom. XX, 2641–44.) *)

However decisively the orthodox teachers of our Church, following Luther's lead, have condemned it when servants of the Church, uncompelled, uncalled, of their own free will, abandon their churchly office and themselves wage war or at least perform military service on their own account, they have nevertheless never taught that a preacher, when his worldly authority calls upon him as a citizen or subject for military service, may or should resist it; indeed, they themselves declare, on the contrary, that there are cases of necessity in which the authority may, with right, call even the servants of the Church, with the bodily sword, to the defense of the fatherland. How could it be otherwise? The holy Apostle Paul teaches us that everyone (πᾶσα ψυχὴ = every soul) should be subject to the authority that has power over him. Romans 13:1. Since, then (provided the war is not a notoriously unjust one), it is in itself no sin to perform military service, the rule here is not: “One must obey God rather than men,” but rather: “Let everyone be subject,” etc. And should a preacher, when called upon, suppose that that case of necessity has not yet arisen, he must consider that it is not his own affair, but that of the authority, to determine this. In any case, however, that case of necessity really does arise for the preacher in which, for conscience's sake, he must leave his congregation so as not to resist the authority that stands in God's place.

To document that this is indeed the teaching of our orthodox teachers, let us finally append here a few extracts from their writings.

*) When King Richard of England took prisoner and imprisoned, in battle, the Bishop of Beauvais, Philip, who had led an army into the field against him, and the Pope commanded that the bishop be released “as his son,” the king sent the weapons which the bishop had worn in the battle to Rome and had the Pope told: “Most Holy Father, see whether this is your son's coat” (Gen. 37:32). The Pope blushed, and dared not press further for the release of the war-loving bishop.