# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 04 19_S65
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall pass away neither now nor ever more."

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 1.

St. Louis, Mo., April 19, 1845.

No. 177.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar and twenty-five cents for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay half of this in advance and bear the postage themselves. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 6¼ cents.

(Submitted by Pastor Th. Brohm.)

On the Orderly Call to the Preaching Office.
(Conclusion.)

The circumstances here make it necessary to say something about the so-called temporary call. It is, in this country, so far as we know, with rare exception, the custom among Lutherans to call the preacher for only a certain number of years and, after this time has elapsed, either to elect him anew or to put another in his place, regardless of whether there is just complaint against him or not. The first traces of such a temporary call in the Lutheran Church are found, to our knowledge, first during the so-called Interim of 1547–52, when several South German imperial cities, on account of the precarious position into which Emperor Charles V had placed them, called their preachers for only a certain number of years; and although this state of emergency ended with the Peace of Passau in 1552, they nevertheless retained this practice, doubtless for no other reason than to keep the preaching office ever in humiliating dependence on the secular authority. Later this temporary call disappeared from the Lutheran Church in Germany, and we meet with it again only here in America. We can in no way approve of such a temporary call; we consider it, rather, wholly reprehensible and unworthy of a Lutheran congregation, and that for the following reasons: 1. It conflicts flatly with the doctrine of the divine character of his orderly call. Above we have shown how the Christian congregation is not the mistress but only the servant and the instrument through which God calls. Now if a call is lawful and thus divine, it lies in the power of no man, nor of any congregation, to determine in advance how long the call shall remain valid; rather, a congregation is obligated to let the preacher whom God has given it, and who administers his office faithfully, stand for as long as God Himself lets him stand — that is, until God sends him, through another divine call, to another congregation, or until He removes him, through a blessed death, from the church militant into the church triumphant. Just as little as the preacher may, without grievous violation of pastoral fidelity, out of mere willfulness, love of change, comfort, greed, ambition, or other carnal considerations, abandon his congregation, over which the Holy Spirit has set him as bishop (Acts 20:28); just as little may the congregation arbitrarily dismiss its lawfully called preacher — otherwise it degrades the orderly call into a worldly hiring transaction. Martin Chemnitz already complains of this abuse: "Even in our church," he says, "many do not rightly understand this matter; for just as one who hires a servant has the power to send him away when he wishes, so some suppose that they have the power to send preachers away as well, even though they have no just cause." 2. The temporary call conflicts with the love that a congregation owes its preacher. The apostle says, Galatians 6:6: "Let him that is taught in the word share all good things with him that teaches him. Be not deceived, God is not mocked." But where is this love, so earnestly enjoined, toward a faithful pastor — we are, of course, not speaking here on behalf of hirelings and belly-servers — when a man who from his youth has prepared himself for the preaching office at great cost and effort, and who in his office has generally been unable to lay up any treasure, is dismissed again after two, five, or more years and sent with wife and child into misery? If the world does this, one is not surprised — it has learned nothing else from its father, the devil; but when a congregation that calls itself Lutheran does it, one does not know whether to be angry at the willfulness or to pity the blindness. 3. The temporary call conflicts with the obedience the hearers owe their teacher and pastor. Hebrews 13:17 says, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves," and Luke 10:16, "He that heareth you heareth me." If, then, an upright servant of Christ proclaims the Word of God in purity and power, and, without respect of persons, administers the office of comfort and rebuke according to the rule of Holy Scripture, the congregation owes him obedience on pain of the displeasure of the divine Majesty. But this the great crowd generally will not endure — the preacher is supposed to preach nicely and gently, and to slip pillows under the arms of the ungodly. Now if the preacher, who fears God's judgment more than he covets the favor of men, has offended, by his severity, especially the influential and respected members, let him simply prepare himself to fail at the next election; but he must not say, "You who are uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; you reject God's Word in sending me away" — they will merely wipe their mouths and say, "Do we not have the right to do so? Did you not agree with us to serve for such and such a time? We are free men; we will not let our freedom be taken from us." Truly, a fine freedom, one invented by the devil! Thus the temporary call must serve as a shameful cloak for the malice of the secret enemies of the truth! If the preacher is a heretic and false teacher, or leads an openly scandalous life, the congregation should not tolerate him, and, after a just and impartial investigation, should remove him from his office; but if he is innocent and faithful in his office, the congregation owes him all honor, love, and obedience, and should regard him not as a hired servant of men but as Christ's minister, and receive him as an angel of God — indeed, as Christ Jesus Himself (Galatians 4:14). In our judgment, then, no orthodox congregation may or should, without grievous sin, offer such a temporary hireling's call, and no preacher should allow such a thing to be imposed on him, lest he make himself a partaker of others' sins. — It remains to speak of ordination.

Ordination, when we speak of it properly and distinguish it from vocation or calling, is the public and solemn confirmation of the call; through it the preaching office is conferred upon a qualified person who has been called to it by the church; for this office he is consecrated by prayer and the laying on of hands, made certain of his lawful call, and solemnly and earnestly reminded, publicly before the whole church, of the duties of his office. These are the words of the acknowledged orthodox Johann Gerhard, in his Loci theologici, De ministerio ecclesiastico, Section XII, §139 et seqq. He goes on to demonstrate that ordination, to be sure, was not expressly commanded and instituted by Christ — no trace of it is to be found in Holy Scripture — and further, that it is no sacrament in the proper sense.

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