Church & Ministry - Lesson Two

CHURCH AND MINISTRY

2003

LESSON TWO

I. Thesis II Concerning the Church

A. To the church in the proper sense of the term belongs no wicked person, no hypocrite, no unregenerate, no heretic. (Church and Ministry, page 34.)

B. Scripture Proof

1. Ro 8:9

2. 1Jn 2:19

3. Jn 15:6

C. Confessions and Creeds

1. Apology, Art. VII., VIII. (Tappert pp. 168-178; Kolb and Wengert pp. 174-183)

a. Par. 1: “The authors of the Confutation have condemned the seventh article of our Confession, in which we said that the church is the assembly of saints. And they have added a lengthy dissertation, that the wicked are not to be separated from the church….” (Kolb and Wengert, p. 174, footnotes omitted)

b. Par. 2, 3: “For this very reason we added the eighth article, so that no one might think that we separate the wicked and the hypocrites from the outward fellowship of the church or deny efficacy to the sacraments when administered by hypocrites or the wicked.” (Kolb and Wengert, p. 174)

2. Apology: “‘And since the true church in Scripture is called Christ’s body, it is impossible to speak of it in any other way than we have spoken of it. For it is certain that the hypocrites and wicked are not Christ’s body but belong to the kingdom of the devil, who holds them captive and moves them to whatever he desires’. (Art. VII, VIII [iv], Par. 6,8,17,22,29; German expanded text, Triglot, pp. 228-36)”. (Church and Ministry pp. 34, 35) (cf Tappert pp. 169-173; Kolb and Wengert, pp. 174-179)

D. Witnesses in Private Writings

1. Luther, Martin

a. November 10, 1483 February 18, 1546.

b. Born and died Eisleben, Germany (Lutheran Cyclopedia, p. 483)

c. "‘Whoever does not believe rightly nor is holy and justified, does not belong to the holy Christian church....And this is the article that was condemned by the honorable Council of Constance together with this statement and all of Holy Scripture.’ (Exposition of Psalm 118, 1530, Halle edition, 5:1792-94)” (Quoted Church and Ministry, p. 35)

d. "‘Therefore, we say that among the large numbers of Christians many have the name, appearance, and semblance of Christians, but they are not Christians’ (Exposition of John 6-8, St. Louis edition, 8:99-100)” (Quoted Church and Ministry, p. 36)

2. Calov, Abraham (a/k/a Abraham Calov(ius)

a. 1612-86.

b. Pastor Wittenberg and General Supt. of the district; head prof. And dean of faculty, Wittenberg (Lutheran Cyclopedia, p. 124)

c. "‘We do not make a twofold church: one of the saints and another that is mixed. But we say that we make this distinction only insofar as the word 'church' is taken homonymically (that is, that two altogether different things have one and the same name) now for the assembly of believers and then again for the assembly in which hypocrites are mingled with the believers’ (Systema locorum theologicorum, loc. 8, pp. 253ff)” (Quoted Church and Ministry, p 36)