American Lutheranism | Page 4

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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