# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1859_S333
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Buffalonians Once More on Our Catechism. 333

in this country the congregations have not only the duty but also the freedom to call their own preachers, we held it our duty to include this important discussion of Dietrich's, from his larger catechism, in the form of question and answer maintained throughout the whole book. We therefore framed the question: "To whom, then, do the right and the power to call preachers belong?" And answered: "To the whole Church." Whoever sees in this a falsification of the old Dietrich seems, at best, to have something not quite right somewhere.

A further remarkable accusation is this: that under Dietrich's statement that the [ministerial] office belongs to the whole Church, we "smuggled in" the Bible passage 1 Cor. 3:21–23 and thereby "imputed to the old Dietrich an Anabaptist opinion"! Were this really so, then the Bible passage itself would have to be Anabaptist*), and all our best theologians would have to have been devoted to Anabaptist opinions and to have likewise smuggled the passage 1 Cor. 3:21–23 into their books, and misconstrued it, in order to confirm the same — for they all cite this passage in the very same connection. Namely, whenever they prove that the whole Church has the right and the power of calling, they give as the reason that the Church has the office, and for this they then adduce 1 Cor. 3:21–23 as proof text. When, for instance, Gerhard wishes to prove the Church's right of calling, he writes: "To it belongs the ministry; 1 Cor. 3:21: All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas."**) Likewise Calov: "It is well known that the right to call, as well as both the keys and church discipline, is entrusted to the Church, Matt. 18:18; 1 Cor. 3:21, 4:1; Rom. 3:2, 9:4; 1 Cor. 5:1ff."†) Chemnitz, further, writes: "What means, then, will God use, by which he will ordinarily call and send preachers? Not through angels will he do this, but through his Church or congregation, which is the royal priesthood, 1 Pet. 2. For to her, as his beloved bride, he has entrusted the keys, Matt. 18; word and sacrament he has entrusted to her, Rom. 3:9; and, in sum: the office together with its ministers belongs wholly to the Church, 1 Cor. 3, Eph. 4." (Dedekenn's Thesaurus Consiliorum, Vol. I, Part 2, p. 418.) Mr. Hochstetter will now say: "All these and similar testimonies count for nothing with me; on this point Gerhard, Calov, Chemnitz, and others‡) were simply Missourian, Anabaptist, hence

*) We gave the Bible passage, namely, without any explanation, and cited it only, following the example of other pure teachers, in support of the statement: the office belongs to the whole Church. See question 521.

**) "To it, then, belongs the ministry: 1 Cor. 3:21, All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas." Loci Theologici, De Ministerio Ecclesiastico, § 85.

†) "It is established that the right of calling is entrusted to the Church, just as are both the keys and ecclesiastical discipline: Matt. 18:18; 1 Cor. 3:21, 4:1; Rom. 3:2, 9:4; 1 Cor. 5:1 and following." (Systema Locorum Theologicorum, Tom. VIII, p. 334.)

‡) We have deliberately not cited Luther, since he counts for nothing with our opponents; his teaching on the Church, on the preaching office, on the spiritual priesthood, on ordination and the like counts with them as a perverse "private opinion" of Luther's.