Church & Ministry - Lesson Eight

CHURCH AND MINISTRY

2003

LESSON EIGHT

I. Thesis 8 Concerning the Church

A. Although God gathers for Himself a holy church of elect also where His Word is not taught in its perfect purity and the sacraments are not administered altogether according to the institution of Jesus Christ, if only God’s Word and the sacraments are not denied entirely but both remain in their essential parts, nevertheless, every believer must, at the peril of losing his salvation, flee all false teachers, avoid all heterodox congregations or sects, and acknowledge and adhere to orthodox congregations and their orthodox pastors wherever such may be found. (Church and Ministry, page 101)

1. A. Also in heterodox and heretical churches there are children of God, and also there the true church is made manifest by the pure Word and the sacraments that still remain. (Church and Ministry, page 101)

a. Scripture Proof

1. Gal 1:2,6: Obvious from letter that term includes those that have been mislead.

2. 1Ki 19:14,15,18: Lord preserved for Himself 7000 elect among the heretics.

3. Rev 2:24: Seem to be following false teachers but inwardly cling to Christ by a living faith.

4. 2Sa 15:11: Good picture of those innocently following false teachers.

b. Confessions and Creeds

1. Preface to the Book of Concord

a. “‘…it is in no way our design and purpose to condemn those men who err from a certain simplicity of mind, but are not blasphemers against the truth of the heavenly doctrine, much less, indeed, entire churches;...rather has it been our intention and disposition in this manner openly to censure and condemn only the fanatical opinions and their obstinate and blasphemous teachers…’ [unmarked]; (Triglot, p. 19).” (quoted, Church and Ministry, page 102) (see Tappert, page 11; Kolb and Wengert, pp. 12,13)

2. Apology

a. “Here our church confesses that the heretics are not outside the church, but that they sow their pernicious seed within the church, so that therefore also in the multitude that the heretics gather around themselves, the true church is hidden.” (C.F.W. Walther in ref. to Apology, VII, VIII, par. 22; Church and Ministry, p. 104)

c. Witnesses in Private Writings

1. Luther (See Lesson Two)

a. “‘We must confess that the enthusiasts have Scripture and God’s Word in other articles, and whoever hears it of them and believes it will be saved, though they are unholy heretics and blasphemers of Christ.’ (Letter to Two Pastors Concerning Anabaptism, 1528, ST. Louis edition, 17:2212).” (quoted, Church and Ministry, p. 104)

b. “‘No Christian can or should pray for the enthusiasts nor take up their cause. They are hardened and commit mortal sin (as St. John says [1John 5:16]) I am speaking of their teachers. May our dear Lord Jesus Christ help the poor people that are under them against these murderers of souls…’ (Brief Confession of the Holy Sacrament Against the Enthusiasts,” 1544, St. Louis edition, 20:1771).” (quoted, Church and Ministry, p. 104)

2. John Gerhard (See Lesson One)

a. “‘The true Church is placed in contrast to the false, either exclusively, that is, as a nonchurch or one that subverts the essence of Baptism and the entire [Christian] religion, or privately in the sense that it is not an orthodox church. In the latter sense of the term, a church that is guilty of partial apostasy is not the true church on account of its perversion of [the Christian] religion, but it is a false, that is, a corrupt and impure church….’ (Conf. catho, fol. 728)” (quoted, Church and Ministry, pp. 105,106)

b. “‘It must be repeated here from what was said above, [namely,] that a church, as regards purity of the Word, has various grades, so that at time it is more and then again less sound and pure….’([Loci theologici], “De eccl.,” par. 128).” (quoted, Church and Ministry, p. 107)

3. Hilary

a. ca. 315-367. “Athanasius of the West.”

Born Poitiers, Fr. (Gaul)

Opposed Arianism; outstanding Latin theologian

(Lutheran Cyclopedia, pp. 381, 382)

b. “‘The ears of the people are holier than the hearts of the priests....Hence Christ’s people will not perish under the priests of Antichrist, since they believe that they [the priests] mean what they hear of them. They [the people] thus hear of them that Christ is God; so they believe that it is so as they say. They are told of the Son of God; so they believe that God, who became incarnate, is and remains true God. They hear (about Christ) that He was before time; so they believe that this ‘before time’ means ‘forever’. (Lib, adv. Auxentium 215)” (quoted, Church and Ministry, p. 113)