# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1864_S105
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Foundational Theses on the Question of Church Order and Church Governance. 105

of Christ in the world, as we pray: I believe one holy Christian church. The
reason is this: for wherever there is a church in the world, it has no other
gospel or holy Scripture, no other baptism and sacrament, no other faith
and spirit, no other Christ and God, no other Lord's Prayer and prayer, no
other hope and eternal life, than we have in our church at Wittenberg, and
its bishops are equal to our bishops or pastors and preachers, neither one
the lord nor the servant of the other; they have one mind and heart, and
everything that belongs to the church is entirely the same." Against the
Papacy at Rome, Founded by the Devil. Walch XVII, 1398. Further,
Hülsemann: "Dependence on the jurisdiction of another (church) and the
obligation to preserve unity in faith and doctrine with all other particular
churches of Christ are different things. The latter (obligation) is of divine
right, 1 Cor. 12:24ff.; the former (dependence) is of human right, in the
relation of one congregation to another."*)

VIII.

The divine command, "Let all things be done decently
and in order," enjoins order upon all Christians, but
gives no majority, nor any members, nor officeholders in
a local congregation, or in a body of churches, or in the
church in general, the power to impose their ordinances
and the like upon other members of the church as a law
which the latter would have to keep out of a duty of
obedience or for conscience's sake.

On this Johann Gerhard writes: "The true church does not command that
things indifferent be done or omitted for the sake of its own command, but
only for the sake of preserving order and propriety, so that order be kept
and offense avoided; so long, therefore, as this is not violated, it leaves
consciences free and imposes on them neither a scruple nor a necessity."**)
Further, Luther: "Such a pastor or bishop has no power at all to establish
anything, for he is not the Christian church. Such a pastor or bishop may

*) Differunt dependentia a jurisdictione alterius et obligatio ad servandam
unitatem fidei et doctrinae cum omnibus aliis particularibus ecclesiis Christi.
Haec est juris divini 1 Cor. 12, 24 sqq., illa est juris humani in ratione unius cœtus
ad alium. Praelectt. ad Breviar. C. 17. § 2. p. 1217.

**) Vera ecclesia res adiaphoras non jubet facere vel omittere propter suum
mandatum, sed tantum propter τάξιν καὶ εὐσχημοσύνην conservandam, ut ordo
observetur et scandalum vitetur, quae quamdiu non violantur, conscientias liberas
relinquit, nec iis vel scrupulum injicit, vel necessitatem imponit.. (Conf. Cath.
fol. 627. b.)