The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1879, Page 22

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“the truth as taught in the Bible, and had long
‘ago ceased to be the Church of Christ. The

92 The Lutheran Pioneer.
WS Eee ee

ventions of men, was satanie. And from this|out. And there is no better way to assert and
Church Luther was expelled. Fortunate for maintain the difference of our Church from
him and for us, indeed! As that Church has| other denominations. We are Latheran. We
evidently ceased to be the Church of Christ, re-} hold the same views concerning certain doc-
taining the Christian name only as a sheeps-|trines that Luther did, by which we differ and
clothing, to cover up its iniquity and shame and |are obliged to separate from other churches.
to deceive its ignorant adherents, Luther was|No name, no expression, therefore, tells people
not expelled from the Church of Christ and of|so clearly and unmistakably, that and why we
the apostles. By the grace of God it was|differ and separate from other denominations,
mainly through Luther's efforts, that he and | than the word ‘Lutheran’. It has become the
our Lutheran Church were brought back to the | accepted term to denote certain doctrines which
one old, true Church of Christ, built on the |only our Church holds and teaches. It is used
foundation of the apostles, and prophets and | to designate the special views of our church on
whereof Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. By|certain doctrines wherein all churches only in
his study and searching of the Scriptures and |-part agree. Having become such an accepted
by his fearless preaching and writing of Bible-| term and obtained that use, we can ill afford
truth he did not, it is true, establish a new|to drop it. Through force of circumstances
church, but brought to light and revived again | also we are by necessity compelled to retain the
the original Christian Church, which had been |name ‘Lutheran’, although at first it was
covered by Romish filth, rubbish, and rust for | forced upon our Church by our enemies against
centuries, and nearly forgotten. our will. But of this we shall speak at length
8. From the foregoing it is plain, that we do in our next.
not intend to say by calling ourselves Lutherans, ete
that Luther and the theologians and Christians | Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference
within our Church have been the only possess- :
ors of the full truth since the time of Christ.} The Synodical Conference is the largest Lu-
We know that before the origin of papacy |theran church-body in America. It comprises
there were many teachers and professors of the } six Lutheran synods with 1151 pastors, 1878
pure, unadulterated truth. We know that|congregations, 883 parochial schools, and
even during the reign of papacy before Luther's | 511,754 souls. It has five Theological Semi-
Reformation, there were many who consented | naries, four Colleges, a Teachers’ Seminary,
not to the errors and evils of the Roman Catho-} several Academies, High Schools, Orphans’
lic Church. Their protests were loud, but were} Homes, a Hospital, and a Deaf and Dumb
quickly silenced by their spiritual tyrants. | Asylum. There are 17 church papers published
And even now there may be many non-Lu- by the different synods.—This Conference held
therans, who do not assent to the myriads of | its sessions this year at Columbus, Ohio, from
errors and falsehoods, taught and believed as| July 16th to July 22d. The synods were all
divine truth by thousands. All of these we | represented by delegates, and many other mem-
do not disown; we claim them as our own, | bers of the synods attended the meetings. It
though they bear not our name. They are | being the aim of the Conference to preserve the
Lutherans in fact, one with us in faith. unity in doctrine and in faith, the morning
What then do we claim by the name ‘‘Lu-| sessions were principally devoted to the dis-
theran”? Simply this, that Luther’s doctrine | cussion of doctrinal points. From a series of
isour own. We have adopted it as the doctrine | theses on Church Fellowship by the Rev. Dr.
of our Church and as our own individual belief. | Sihler of Fort Wayne three were discussed and
We teach and believe as Luther did, that is|adopted. Dr. Sihler being prevented from be-
why we are ‘‘Jatherans”. Furthermore, we|ing present, the Rey. Dr. C. F. W. Walther
claim by our Lutheran name and thereby de-| from the Lutheran University at St. Louis led .
clare it as our own conviction, that Luther’s|in the discussions. The Conference agreed with
doctrine is the truth, or else we should not suf-| the points laid down in the theses, that every
fer his name to be on the title-page of our|church-body that wants to be Lutheran indeed
Church. We Lutherans are Christians, whojand not only in name, must see to it that its
believe that doctrine to be true which was re-| ministers adhere to no false doctrine but only
vealed to us again through Luther, after the | to the pure doctrine of God’s Word as it is laid
darkest age of papacy, as the pure doctrine | down in the Confessions of the Lutheran church.
of the Bible and as the faith of the earliest | It must also see to it that discipline in doctrine
Christian Church. Weare not ashamed to con-| and life is applied in the congregations as pre-
fess it. The name of our Church is the manly | sented by Christ Matthew 18, 15—18., so that
declaration of our conviction. Yea, if we will | no member of a congregation should be allowed
tell people of our doctrines and belief we can|to go on in confessing false doctrine and in
do it in no better way, than by the word ‘‘Lu-| leading ao godless, sinful life. A true Lutheran
theran’. Luther’s doctrines are known; his}church-body must also see to it that institutions
writings are open to all. The Confessions of|of learning are established and supported for
Faith of our Church may be studied by every-| the education of faithful and able ministers and
body. They contain nothing but ‘“‘God’s Word | teachers, in order that the church may prosper
and Luther’s doctrine pure’. What our ‘‘Lu-|and he preserved.
theran’’ faith is, therefore, you can easily find} The afternoon sessions were devoted to business

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer’’.)
Why do we call ourselves Lutherans ?

I.

Waar pors our LursERAN CHURCH CLADI BY
ITS NAME ‘“‘LUTHERAN’’?

Ignorance and malicious hatred of our church
has manufactured many falsehoods in regard to
this point also. If but half of the slanderous
charges were true, we could do nothing better,
than to drop our name and blush in shame.
However we shall see.

1. We Lutherans never mean to say by our

name, that we believe in Lnther. Our church
loves this illustrious servant of God and
honors him even as to place his name on its title.
Still we do not adopt a single word of his teach-
ings and writings as the doctrine of our church,
because Lather so said and wrote, but because
his doctrine is also the clear, unmistakable
doctrine of the Bible, of the word of God.
We do not follow Luther blindly, without
knowing what we do. We know and are con-
vinced that Luther’s doctrine is the truth in
perfect accord with the Bible, therefore Luther's
doctrine is the doctrine of our church. Far
from imagining him to have been an apostle or
prophet, whose writings and teachings were in-
spired by God and consequently infallible, we
willingly concede that he was liable to err, and
fallible. But we ask, wherein did he err?
In what instances has he failed to speak the
truth? Show us, wherein Luther’s doctrine
does not agree with the words of the Bible.
Thus far we have detected no difference. If
there be any we are anxious to find it out.
And we say, that whosoever believes and accepts
a doctrine, because Luther taught it, must lay
no claim to the name ‘‘Lutheran”’. -It is against
the declared will of our Church, which accepts
the Word of God alone as the source and rule
for the doctrines of the Lutheran Church.

2. By calling ourselves ‘‘Lutherans’’ we never
intend to say that Luther was the founder of
our church, that our Church is a new one, being
only some 350 years old, beginning in Luther’s
time and being founded by him. Neither Lu-
ther nor our Church has ever separated from
the original Church of Christ and the apostles;
he only seceded or rather was expelled from the
Roman Catholic Church, which had fallen from

Bible was taken from the common people.
They were kept in ignorance of divine truth
by their cunning priests, who well knew, that
their occupation and influence over the people
would be gone, should they learn the truth.
Whatever particle of the Word of God was
preached, was adulterated with falsehood. Soul-
destroying error of all kinds was furnished to
the people, instead of the bread of life. The
tyranny of. the priests was intolerable. Their
iron rule, by which they compelled their flocks
to observe their rules and regulations, as if
they were God’s own commands and not the in-