1. Christianity the Only Real and True Religion.--Religion is man's
filial relation to, and union with, God. Natural religion is the
concreated relation of Adam and Eve in their state of innocence toward
their Creator. Fallen man, though he still lives, and moves, and has his
being in God, is, in consequence of his sinful nature, _atheos,_ without
God, and hence without true and real religion. His attitude toward God
is not that of a child to his father. Heathen religions are products of
the futile efforts of men at reconciling God and restoring union with
Him by their own penances and works. They are religions invented and
made by men. As such they are counterfeit religions, because they
persuade men to trust either in fictitious merits of their own or in
God's alleged indifference toward sin. Christianity is the divine
restoration of religion, _i. e.,_ of the true spiritual and filial
relation of fallen man toward God. Essentially, Christianity is the
divine trust and assurance that God, according to His own merciful
promise in the Gospel, is, for the sake of Christ and His merits, my
pardoning and loving Father. It is the religion of justification,
restoration, and salvation, not by human efforts and works, but by
divine grace only. Paganism believes in man and his capacity for
self-redemption; Christianity believes in the God-man and in salvation
by His name and none other. From Mohammedanism, Buddhism, and all other
religions of the world Christianity differs essentially, just as Jehovah
differs from idols, as divine grace differs from human works.
Christianity is not one of many species of generic religion, but the
only true and real religion. Nor is Christianity related to other
religions as the highest stage of an evolutionary process is to its
antecedent lower stages. Christianity is divine revelation from above,
not human evolution from below. Based, as it is, on special divine
interposition, revelation, and operation, Christianity is the
supernatural religion. And for fallen man it is the only availing and
saving religion, because it alone imparts real pardon, and engenders
real and divine assurance of such pardon; because it alone really
pacifies the conscience and fully satisfies the heart; and because it
alone bestows new spiritual powers of sanctification. Christianity is
absolute and final, it is the _non plus ultra,_ the Alpha and Omega, of
religion, because its God is the only true God, its Mediator is the
only-begotten Son of God, its ransom is the blood of God, and its gift
is perfect union with God. Compare John 8, 24; Acts 4, 12; John 14, 6;
3, 36; Gal. 1, 8. 9. Romanism, Rationalism, Arminianism, Synergism,
etc., are heathen remnants within, and corruptions of, Christianity,
elements absolutely foreign to, and _per se_ subversive of, the religion
of divine grace and revelation.
2. The Church and Its Manifestations.--The Christian Church is the sum
total of all Christians, all true believers in the Gospel of salvation
by Christ and His merits alone. Faith always, and it alone, makes one a
Christian, a member of the Church. Essentially, then, the Church, is
invisible, because faith is a divine gift within the heart of man, hence
beyond human observation. _Dr. Walther:_ "The Church is invisible because
we cannot see faith, the work of the Holy Spirit, which the members of
this Church have in their hearts; for we can never with certainty
distinguish the true Christians, who, properly, alone constitute the
Church, from the hypocrites." (_Lutheraner,_ 1, 21.) _Luther:_ "This
part, 'I believe a holy Christian Church,' is an article of faith just
as well as the others. Hence Reason, even when putting on ever so many
spectacles, cannot know her. She wants to be known not by seeing, but by
believing; faith, however, deals with things which are not seen. Heb.
11, 1. A Christian may even be hidden from himself, so that he does not
see his own holiness and virtue, but observes in himself only fault and
unholiness." (Luther's Works. St. Louis, XIV, 139.) In order to belong
to the Church, it is essential to believe; but it is essential neither
to faith nor to the Church consciously to know yourself that you
believe. Nor would it render the Church essentially visible, if, by
special revelation or otherwise, we infallibly knew of a man that he is
a believer indeed. Even the Word and the Sacraments are infallible marks
of the Church only because, according to God's promise, the preaching of
the Gospel shall not return without fruit. Wherever and only where the
Gospel is preached are we justified in assuming the existence of
Christians. Yet the Church remains essentially invisible, because
neither the external act of preaching nor the external act of hearing,
but inward, invisible believing alone makes one a Christian, a member
of the Church. Inasmuch, however, as faith _manifests_ itself in the
confession of the Christian truths and in outward works of love, the
Church, in a way, becomes visible and subject to human observation. Yet
we dare not infer that the Church is essentially visible because its
effects are visible. The human soul, though its effects may be seen,
remains essentially invisible. God is invisible, though the
manifestations of His invisible power and wisdom can be observed in the
world. Thus also faith and the Church remain essentially invisible, even
where they manifest their reality in visible effects and works. Apart
from the confession and proclamation of the Gospel and a corresponding
Christian conversation, the _chief visible effects_ and works of the
Church are the foundation of local congregations, the calling of
ministers, the organization of representative bodies, etc. And when
these manifestations and visible works of the Church are also called
churches, the effects receive the name of the cause, or the whole, the
mixed body, is given the name which properly belongs to a part, the true
believers, only. Visible congregations are called churches as quartz is
called gold, and a field is called wheat.
3. Visible Churches, True and False.--The objects for which Christians,
in accordance with the will of God, unite, and should unite, in visible
churches and local congregations, are mutual Christian acknowledgment
and edification, common Christian confession and labor, and especially
the establishment of the communal office of the public ministry of the
pure Gospel. This object involves, as a divine norm of Christian
organization, and fellowship, that such only be admitted as themselves
believe and confess the divine truths of the Bible, and who are not
advocates of doctrines contrary to the plain Word of God. Christian
organizations and unions must not be in violation of the Christian unity
of the Spirit. Organizations effected in harmony with the divine object
and norm of Christian fellowship are true visible churches, _i. e.,_
visible unions as God would have them. They are churches of the pure
Word and Sacrament, professing the Gospel and deviating from none of its
doctrines. Christians have no right to embrace, teach, and champion
error. They are called upon and bound to believe, teach, and confess
all, and only, Christian truths. Nor may they lawfully organize on a
doctrinally false basis. Organizations persistently deviating from the
doctrines of the Bible and establishing a doctrinally false basis, are
sects, _i. e.,_ false or impure visible Churches. Yet, though error
never saves, moreover, when consistently developed, has the tendency of
corrupting the whole lump, false Churches may be instrumental in saving
souls, inasmuch as they retain essential parts of the Gospel-truths,
and inasmuch as God's grace may neutralize the accompanying deadly
error, or stay its leavening power. Indeed, individuals, by the grace of
God, though errorists in their heads, may be truthists in their hearts;
just as one who is orthodox in his head may, by his own fault, be
heterodox in his heart. A Catholic may, by rote, call upon the saints
with his lips, and yet, by the grace of God, in his heart, put his trust
in Christ. And a Lutheran may confess Christ and the doctrine of grace
with his lips, and yet in his heart rely on his own good character.
False Churches as such, however, inasmuch as theirs is a banner of
rebellion in the kingdom of Christ, do not exist by God's approval, but
merely by His sufferance. It is their duty to reform on a basis of
doctrinal purity and absolute conformity with the Word of God.
4. The Lutheran Church the True Visible Church.--The Lutheran Church
is the only known religious body which, in the Book of Concord of 1580,
confesses the truths of the Gospel without admixture of any doctrines
contrary to the Bible. Hence its organization is in perfect harmony
with the divine object and norm of Christian union and fellowship. Its
basis of union is the pure Word and Sacrament. Indeed, the Lutheran
Church is not the universal or only Christian Church, for there are
many believers belonging to other Christian bodies. Nor is it the only
saving Church, because there are other Churches preaching Christian
truths, which, by the grace of God, prove sufficient and powerful to
save men. The Lutheran Church is the Church of the _pure_ Word and the
_unadulterated_ Sacraments. It is the only Church proclaiming the
alone-saving truth of the Gospel _in its purity_. It is the Church with
a doctrinal basis which has the unqualified approval of the Scriptures,
a basis which, materially, all Churches must accept if they would
follow the lead of the Bible. And being doctrinally the pure Church, the
Lutheran Church is the true visible Church of God on earth. While all
sectarian churches corrupt God's Word and the Sacraments, it is the
peculiar glory of the Lutheran Church that it proclaims the Gospel in
its purity, and administers the Sacraments without adulteration. This
holds good with regard to all Lutheran organizations that are Lutheran
in truth and reality. True and faithful Lutherans, however, are such
only as, being convinced by actual comparison that the Concordia of 1580
is in perfect agreement with the Holy Bible, subscribe to these symbols
_ex animo_ and without mental reservation or doctrinal limitation, and
earnestly strive to conform to them in practise as well as in theory.
Subscription only to the Augustana or to Luther's Small Catechism is a
sufficient test of Lutheranism, provided that the limitation does not
imply, and is not interpreted as, a rejection of the other Lutheran
symbols or any of its doctrines. Lutheran churches or synods, however,
deviating from, or doctrinally limiting their subscription to, this
basis of 1580, or merely _pro forma,_ professing, but not seriously and
really living its principles and doctrines, are not truly Lutheran in
the adequate sense of the term, though not by any means un-Lutheran in
every sense of that term.
5. Bible and Book of Concord on Christian Union and Fellowship.--
Nothing is more frequently taught and stressed by the Bible than the
truth that church-fellowship presupposes, and must be preceded by, unity
in the spirit, in doctrine. Amos 3, 3: "How can two walk together except
they be agreed?" According to the Bible the Word of God alone is to be
taught, heard, and confessed in the Christian Church. Only true teachers
are to preach, in the Church: Deut. 13, 6 ff.; Jer. 23, 28. 31. 32;
Matt. 5, 19; 28, 20; 2 Cor. 2, 17; Gal. 1, 8; 1 Tim. 4, 16; 1 Pet. 4, 11.
Christians are to listen to true teachers only: Matt. 7, 15; John 8, 31;
10, 27. 5; Acts 2, 42; Rom. 16, 17; 2 John 10; 1 Tim. 6, 3-5; Eph. 4, 14;
Titus 3, 10; 2 Cor. 6, 14-18. In the Church the true doctrine, and only
the true doctrine, is to be confessed, and that unanimously by all of
its members: 1 Cor. 1, 10; Eph. 4, 3-6. 13; 1 Tim. 5, 22; Matt. 10,
32. 33. Christian union and fellowship without the "same mind," the
"same judgment," and the "same speech" with respect to the Christian
truths is in direct conflict with the clear Scriptures. The unity of the
Spirit demanded Eph. 4, 3 requires that Christians be one in doctrine,
one, not 50 or 75, but 100 per cent. With this attitude of the Bible
toward Christian union and fellowship the Lutheran symbols agree. The
Eleventh [tr. note: sic!] Article of the Augsburg Confession declares:
"For this is sufficient to true unity of the Christian Church that the
Gospel be preached unanimously according to the pure understanding, and
that the Sacraments be administered in agreement with the divine Word.
And it is not necessary to true unity of the Christian Church that
uniform ceremonies, instituted by men, be observed everywhere, as St.
Paul says, Eph. 4, 4. 5: 'One body, one Spirit, even as ye are called in
one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one Baptism.'" "Pure
understanding of the Gospel" is here contrasted with "ceremonies
instituted by men." Accordingly, with respect to everything that God
plainly teaches in the Bible unity is required, while liberty prevails
only in such things as are instituted by men. In this sense the Lutheran
Church understands the _"Satis est"_ of the Augustana, as appears from
the Tenth Article of the Formula of Concord: "We believe, teach, and
confess also that no church should condemn another because one has less
or more external ceremonies not commanded by God than the other, if
otherwise there is agreement among them in doctrine and all its
articles, as also in the right use of the Sacraments, according to the
well-known saying: 'Disagreement in fasting does not destroy agreement
in faith.'" (Mueller 553, 7.) It cannot, then, be maintained
successfully that, according to the Lutheran symbols, some doctrines,
though clearly taught in the Bible, are irrelevant and not necessary to
church-fellowship. The Lutheran Confessions neither extend the
requirements for Christian union to human teachings and institutions,
nor do they limit them to merely a part of the divine doctrines of the
Bible. They err neither _in excessu_ nor _in defectu_. Accordingly,
Lutherans, though not unmindful of the admonition to bear patiently
with the weak, the weak also in doctrine and knowledge, dare not
countenance any denial on principle of any of the Christian doctrines,
nor sanction the unionistic attitude, which maintains that denial of
minor Christian truths does not and must not, in any way, affect
Christian union and fellowship. In the "Treatise on the Power of the
Pope" the Book of Concord says: "It is a hard thing to want to separate
from so many countries and people and maintain a separate doctrine. But
here stands God's command that every one shall be separate from, and not
be agreed with, those who teach falsely," etc. (§42.)
6. Misguided Efforts at Christian Union.--Perhaps never before has
Christendom been divided in as many sects as at present.
Denominationalism, as advocated by Philip Schaff and many Unionists,
defends this condition. It views the various sects as lawful specific
developments of generic Christianity, or as different varieties of the
same spiritual life of the Church, as regiments of the same army,
marching separately, but attacking the same common foe. Judged in the
light of the Bible, however, the numerous sects, organized on various
aberrations from the plain Word of God, are, as such, not normal
developments, but corruptions, abnormal formations, and diseased
conditions of the Christian Church. Others, realizing the senseless
waste of moneys and men, and feeling the shame of the scandalous
controversies, the bitter conflicts, and the dishonorable competition of
the disrupted Christian sects, develop a feverish activity in
engineering and promoting external ecclesiastical unions, regardless of
internal doctrinal dissensions. For centuries the Pope has been
stretching out his arms to the Greek and Protestant Churches, even
making concessions to the Ruthenians and other Uniates as to the
language of the liturgy, the marriage of priests, the cup to be given to
the laity, etc. In order to present a united political front to the Pope
and the Emperor, Zwingli, in 1529, offered Luther the hand of fellowship
in spite of doctrinal differences. In political interests, Frederick
William III of Prussia, in 1817, forced a union without unity on the
Lutherans and Reformed of his kingdom. In America this Prussian Union
was advocated by the German Evangelical Synod of North America. The
Church of England, in 1862, 1874, and 1914, endeavored to establish a
union with the Old Catholics and the Russian Church even at the
sacrifice of the _Filioque_. (The Lutherans, when, in 1559 and again in
1673 to 1681, negotiations were opened to bring about an understanding
with the Greek Church, insisted on unity in the doctrines of
Justification and of Free Will, to which Jeremiah II took exception.)
Pierpont Morgan, a number of years ago, appropriated a quarter million
dollars in order to bring the Churches of America under the leadership
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which demands as the only condition
of union the recognition of their "historical episcopate," a fiction,
historical as well as doctrinal. In 1919 three Protestant Episcopal
bishops crossed the seas seeking a conference with the Pope and the
representatives of the Greek Orthodox churches in the interest of a
League of Churches. The Evangelical Alliance, organized 1846 at London,
aimed to unite all Protestants against Rome on a basis of nine general
statements, from which the distinctive doctrines were eliminated. The
Federal Council, embracing 30 Protestant denominations, was organized
with the definite understanding that no Church, by joining, need
sacrifice any of its peculiar doctrines. The unions effected between the
Congregationalists and Methodists in Canada, and between the Calvinistic
Northern Presbyterians and the Arminian Cumberland Presbyterians in our
own country, were also unionistic. Since the beginning of the last
century the Campbellites and kindred sects were zealous in uniting the
Churches by urging them to drop their distinctive names and confessions,
call themselves "Christians" or "Disciples," and accept as their
confession the Bible only. Indeed, the number of physicians seeking to
heal the schisms of Christendom is legion. But their cure is worse than
the disease. Unionistic henotics cannot but fail utterly, because their
object is not unity in the Spirit of truth, but union in the spirit of
diversity and error.
7. Lutherans Qualified to Head True Union Movement.--Most of the
union-efforts are failures _ab initio_. They seek outward union without
inward unity. They proceed on a false diagnosis of the case. They
observe the symptoms, and outlook or intentionally ignore the hidden
cause, the deviations from the Word of God, which disturb the unity of
the Spirit. And doctrinal discussions, which alone can bring about a
real cure, are intentionally omitted and expressly declared taboo, as,
_e. g._, by the Federal Council. The Church, suffering from
blood-poisoning, is pronounced cured when the sores have been covered.
They put a plaster over the gap in Zion's wall, which may hide, but does
not heal, the breach. Universally, sectarian henotics have proved to be
spiritual quacks with false aims, false methods, and false diagnosis.
Nowhere among the sects a single serious effort to cure the malady from
within and to restore to the Church of Christ real unity, unity in the
true doctrine! Indeed, how could a genuine unity-union movement
originate with the sects? Can the blind lead the blind? Can the beggar
enrich the poor? Can the sects give to Christendom what they themselves
are in need of? The Lutheran Church is the only denomination qualified
to head a true unity-union movement, because she alone is in full
possession of those unadulterated truths without which there can be
neither true Christian unity nor God-pleasing Christian union.
Accordingly, the Lutheran Church has the mission to lead the way in the
efforts at healing the ruptures of Christendom. But in order to do so,
the Lutheran Church must be loyal to herself, loyal to her principles,
and true to her truths. The mere Lutheran name is unavailing. The
American Lutheran synods, in order successfully to steer a unity-union
movement, must purge themselves thoroughly from the leaven of error, of
indifferentism and unionism. A complete and universal return to the
Lutheran symbols is the urgent need of the hour. Only when united in
undivided loyalty to the divine truths of God's Word, will the American
Lutheran Church be able to measure up to its peculiar calling of
restoring to Christendom the truths of the Gospel in their pristine
purity, and in and with these truths the true unity of the Spirit and a
fellowship and union, both beneficial to man and well-pleasing to God.
8. Lutheran Statistics.--God has blessed the Lutheran Church in
America abundantly, more than in any other country of the world. From a
few scattered groups she has grown into a great people. In 1740 there
were in America about 50 Lutheran congregations. In 1820 the Lutheran
Church numbered 6 synods, with almost 900 congregations, 40,000
communicants, and 175 pastors. In 1867 about 1,750 pastors, 3,100
congregations, and 332,000 communicants. Twenty-five years later, 60
synods, with about 5,000 pastors, 8,390 congregations, and 1,187,000
communicants. In the jubilee year, 1917, the Lutheran Church in America
embraced (besides about 200 independent congregations) 65 synods, 24 of
which belonged to the General Synod (350,000 communicants), 13 to the
General Council (500,000 communicants), 8 to the United Synod South
(53,000 communicants), and 6 to the Synodical Conference (800,000
communicants). The entire Lutheran Church in America reported in 1917
about 9,700 pastors; 15,200 congregations; 2,450,000 communicants; 28
theological seminaries, with 112 professors and 1,170 students; 41
colleges, with 640 professors and 950 students; 59 academies, with 404
teachers and 6,700 pupils; 8 ladies' seminaries, with 72 instructors and
340 pupils; 64 orphanages, with 4,200 inmates; 12 home-finding and
children's friend societies; 45 homes for the aged, with 1,650 inmates;
7 homes for defectives, with 430 inmates; 9 deaconess homes, with 370
sisters; 50 hospitals; 19 hospices; 17 immigrant homes and seamen's
missions; and 10 miscellaneous institutions; a large number of
periodicals of many kinds, printed in numerous Lutheran publishing
houses, in English, German, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, Icelandic,
Finnish, Slavonian, Lettish, Esthonian, Polish, Portuguese, Lithuanian,
etc., etc.
Early History of American Lutheranism.