# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1864_S322
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

322 The Doctrine of the Lutheran Church Concerning Sunday.

of the age of the Reformation concerning the distinction between Law and
Gospel, as well as of the Old and New Testaments and of Christian liberty,
it was entirely impossible that these same men could have taught otherwise
about the New Testament Sunday than they in fact taught.
It will therefore above all be necessary here that we call to mind the
original doctrine of our church in the age of the Reformation, that is, the
only truly Lutheran doctrine of Sunday, and indeed according to its very
wording, and then also hear some of those theologians to whom we owe,
in the time that followed, the succession of doctrine on this point as well.
First of all, we let the relevant passages of our public confessional
writings follow here.
Thus it is stated in Article 28 of the Augsburg Confession:
"Furthermore it is disputed whether bishops also have the power to
establish ceremonies in the church, likewise ordinances concerning food,
holy days, and the various orders of church servants. Those who grant
this power to the bishops appeal to this saying of Christ, John 16:12: I
have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now; but
when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. They also
adduce for this the example of Acts 15:20, 29, where they forbade blood
and things strangled. So too it is cited that the Sabbath was changed into
Sunday contrary to the Ten Commandments, or so they reckon it, and no
example is pressed and invoked so strongly as the changing of the
Sabbath, and they wish thereby to maintain that the power of the church
is great, since it has dispensed with the Ten Commandments and altered
something in them. What then should one hold concerning Sunday and
similar other church ordinances and ceremonies? To this our people give
this answer, that the bishops or pastors may make ordinances so that
things proceed in an orderly manner in the church — not in order to
obtain God's grace thereby, nor to make satisfaction for sin, nor to bind
consciences by holding such things to be a necessary service of God, and
to reckon it a sin if they are broken without offense. Thus St. Paul
ordained to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11:5–6) that the women should cover
their heads in the assembly.
Likewise, that the preachers in the assembly should not all speak at
once, but in order, one after another. Such order is fitting for the Christian
assembly to observe for the sake of love and peace, and to be obedient to
the bishops and pastors in these matters, and to keep them so far as this,
that one does not give offense to another, so that there may be no disorder
or unruly conduct in the church. Yet in such a way that consciences are
not burdened, so that one should hold such things to be necessary to
salvation, and reckon it a sin if they are broken without giving offense to
others — for indeed no one