# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 06 18_S83
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

house and a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:5. Therefore we confess that the Church is "one holy" Church, and "the communion of saints."

This one true Church is bound to no nation, limited by no place and no time; she exists under every clime, has existed and will exist at all times, and is united through one truth and one faith which she confesses, through one Spirit who dwells in her, through one head and one Lord who rules her, through one hope to which she is called. For thus speaks St. Paul: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Greeks (Gentiles), bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." 1 Corinthians 12:13. John testifies the same when he says: "Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." John 11:51–52. Therefore we confess a "catholic," that is, universal, Christian Church, and a "communion (of all) saints."

This Church is now not a visible institution, like a state, but an invisible kingdom, a spiritual edifice erected by God's Spirit in the hearts of men. For thus speaks Christ of his Church: "My kingdom is not of this world." John 18:36. "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:20–21. From this it is beyond contradiction that the true Church of Christ, properly speaking, is never visible. Nor can it be otherwise, for since only truly believing, regenerate Christians are members of the Church, no one can say: these or those people are the Church; for each one indeed can and should become certain, as far as he himself is concerned, that he is in Christ and Christ in him; but no one can be infallibly certain concerning any other person whether that person is a child of God, and thus a living stone of the spiritual house of God, that is, of the Church. As Solomon says: "God alone knoweth the hearts of the children of men," 2 Chronicles 6:30; and St. Paul: "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his." Therefore we confess: "I believe his Church"; but faith is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1. — In agreement with this, the blessed Luther says: "Therefore we rightly confess in faith when we say: we believe a holy Christian Church; for she is invisible, lives in the spirit, in a place to which no one can come." (L. W. VIII, 2745.) Following Luther, J. Gerhard likewise writes in his Loci Theologici: "We say that the true, holy, and catholic (universal) Church is always invisible, even at

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this time when the rekindled light of the Gospel shines most brightly in many kingdoms and provinces." Art. XXIII, § 69.

Now that we have set before our eyes these four chief points in the doctrine of the Church, we must further note, in order rightly to understand Holy Scripture where it speaks of the Church, that besides this, Scripture also designates, in an improper sense, by the word "church," both the visible totality of all who are externally called, and also individual visible communities (particular churches), in which the Gospel together with the holy Sacraments is administered; and this because within the crowd of the called, the Church, or the believers and elect, is contained, and indeed is to be sought only there. But within these visible communities there are many who do not belong to the Church, for the Lord says: "Many are called, but few are chosen." Within the church of the called there are hypocrites, unbelievers, unholy persons, heretics, and sects. Thus, for example, St. Paul addresses the Corinthian community with the words: "Unto the church of God which is at Corinth"; and yet in the whole letter to them he rebukes them for the fact that among them are found not only divisions (separatists), but also a person guilty of incest (1 Corinthians 5:1 ff.), factions or sects (11:19), indeed unbelievers (15:1–2), and some who had no knowledge of God (15:34)! From this we see that when the whole baptized Christendom is called the Christian Church, or when an assembly of people in a province, or in a city, or in a house is called a church, this happens according to the figure of speech called synecdoche, that is, one attributes to the whole what can be said only of a part of it, and what is also meant to apply only to that part. This manner of speaking occurs very frequently in Scripture. It therefore remains firmly true, despite this manner of speech in the Bible, that the true Church of Christ is properly an invisible, spiritual, heavenly kingdom on earth, that it consists solely of true Christians and is formed by them alone. Therefore the Augsburg Confession rightly says in the eighth article: "The Christian Church is properly nothing else than the assembly of all believers and saints"; and the Apology in the seventh article: "When one wishes to speak properly of what the Church is, one must speak of that Church which is called the body of Christ, and which has fellowship not only in outward signs, but has the treasures in the heart, the Holy Spirit and faith. For one must indeed know precisely by what we become members of Christ, and what makes us living members of the Church. For if we were to say that the Church is only an outward polity, like other governments, in which there are both evil and good, then no one would learn from this, nor understand, that Christ's kingdom is spiritual, as indeed it is, in which Christ inwardly rules the hearts, strengthens, comforts, and distributes the Holy Spirit and various spiritual gifts." Luther speaks of this still more clearly in his Large Catechism, in the explanation of the words "the communion of saints": "This is simply the meaning and sum of this addition: I believe that there is upon earth a holy little flock and congregation of pure saints, under one head, Christ, called together by the Holy Spirit, in one faith, mind, and understanding, with manifold gifts, yet agreeing in love, without sects or divisions." — If one says: But does not Christ clearly say that the kingdom of heaven is like unto a field in which tares and wheat grow? We answer, with our Apology, that the Lord clearly says: "The field is the world," not the Church! Matthew 13:38.

In view of such a representation of the Church, the papists indeed say that we Lutherans make of it a Platonic republic, that is, a beautiful, holy, and pure church which exists nowhere but in our thoughts; but only spiritual folly can speak so. For there exists in truth not only a holy congregation of believers, scattered throughout the whole world but inwardly united through one faith and one Spirit, but there also exist clear marks by which she is recognizable, or, as one otherwise says, made visible; just as the soul, although it can never be seen, nevertheless clearly makes known its presence. These marks are the Word of God and the holy Sacraments, for Word and Sacraments are not only the means by which alone the Church is founded and preserved, but also the treasure entrusted to her, which she alone administers, preserves, and hands down to others; therefore she is also called a pillar and ground of the truth. 1 Timothy 3:15. As that star showed the wise men from the East the house in which the Christ-child lay, so the heavenly light of the Word of God shows the house in which Christ dwells, namely, the Church. As Christ once could not be recognized by any outward splendor of his appearance, but only from the prophecies in the writings of the prophets, so also even now the Church, which is his spiritual body, is recognized only from the Word. We consider it unnecessary to elaborate further on this here, since we have already treated this particular point in detail in No. 6 of our paper.

The purity of the Word, as regards its preaching within the Church, has indeed had, at different times, its different degrees, wherefore the Church is also compared in Scripture to the changing moon (Song of Solomon 6:9); even the members of the true Church, that is, Christians, therefore often build, upon the right foundation — that is, upon Christ and the faith on which they are built — not only "gold, silver, and precious stones" of well-tested doctrines, but also "wood, hay, and stub-