LutheranTheology.com

Part 7

Orthodox and Heterodox Churches

The one holy Christian Church, consisting only of true believers, is and remains invisible according to its essence. But although one cannot see the Church itself, one can nevertheless indicate the place where the Church is to be found. The Church is everywhere where the seed of the Church is — the Word of God and the Sacraments. Although the means of grace are not an essential component of the Church, they are the marks of the Church, and marks indeed because they are the means through which alone the Church is established and preserved, as well as the treasure entrusted to it (the Church), which it alone administers, guards, and delivers to others.1 “Just as that star showed the wise men from the East the house in which the Christ child lay, so the heavenly light of the Word of God shows the house in which Christ dwells, namely the Church.”2

Walther expresses this in “Church and Ministry,” Thesis V, p. 52, thus: “Although the true Church in the proper sense of the word is invisible according to its essence, yet its presence is (definitely) recognizable, and indeed its marks are the pure preaching of the Word of God and the administration of the holy Sacraments according to Christ’s institution.” From the passages Mark 4:26–27, 14 and Isaiah 55:10–11, Walther gathers:

The Word of God is not only the seed from which alone the members of the Church are born, but from which also, wherever this heavenly seed is sown, some “children of the kingdom” certainly and always grow up, “without anyone knowing it,” according to the divine, certain, and infallible promise. Therefore, where this seed is sown, there one does not see the Church, but has an infallible mark that the Church, a little house of true believers and saints in Christ Jesus, a little congregation of the children of God, is there. … According to Holy Scripture, however, alongside the Word of God, the holy Sacraments are also the means by which the Church, the holy congregation of God, is to be established, gathered, preserved, and to extend itself, Matt. 28:18–20; Mark 16:16. Therefore, everywhere holy Baptism is administered alongside the preaching of the Word, there the gates of the Church open invisibly, there are people who believe and are saved, there the Lord is graciously present, there we have an infallible mark that the Church is here, there we must say with Jacob: “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:16–17). Scripture tells us the same thing concerning the Holy Supper, 1 Cor. 10:17 and 1 Cor. 12:13. Thus, where God’s Word is preached, holy Baptism and the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ are administered, there are members of the body of Jesus Christ, there we must believe: Here is a holy Christian Church.3

Therefore, Holy Scripture speaks not only of the Church in general (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 1:22–23; 5:27), but also of churches in specific places, e.g., 1 Cor. 16:19, of the churches of Asia; 2 Cor. 8:1, the churches of Macedonia; 1 Cor. 1:2, the church of God in Corinth; Acts 8:1, the church in Jerusalem. Furthermore, when Christ commands that one should feed the lambs, John 21:16–17, and Paul, that one should govern the Church, Acts 20:28, and Peter, that one should shepherd the flock of Christ, 1 Pet. 5:2, it is likewise presupposed that the believers can be found in certain places.4 These are local churches or particular churches.

Now then, in what relationship do the local churches stand to the una sancta? The sum of the local churches (naturally including the individual believing souls who are cut off from all church fellowship) makes up the one Church scattered over the whole earth. To Baier’s words: “The universal Church relates to the individual congregations of believers as a homogeneous whole, which has the same character and the same essence as its parts,”5 Walther adds: “as the drops in a pond are of the same character as the whole pond.” For just as the godless and the hypocrites do not belong to the una sancta, so also they form no part of a particular church, if one holds fast to the proper meaning of the word “Church.” Walther does not want6 to have “overlooked” “what J. B. Carpzov observes: ‘A group that consists of hypocrites and truly and sincerely believing ones is one thing; a group into which hypocrites are mixed is another. The Church properly so called is not a group that consists of hypocrites and unholy people, but is a group into which hypocrites and unholy ones are mixed, as the Augsburg Confession explains at the beginning of the 8th Article (in the Latin text).’ Furthermore, what the older Dannhauer states: ‘Those (the hypocrites) are not indeed members of the invisible Church, nor of the true visible one, but yet still of the visible one insofar as it, with others as its members, constitutes a whole.’ Finally Calov writes: ‘Although the hypocrites are in that group in which the Church is, yet they are not properly in the group that is the Church.’”

Walther therefore defines a local Lutheran congregation thus: An evangelical-Lutheran local congregation is an assembly of believing Christians in a specific place, among whom God’s Word is purely preached according to the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Holy Sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution in accordance with the Gospel.”7 False Christians and hypocrites are only “mixed into” even the local congregation. Walther repeatedly reminds us that one must not assume a “double Church,” namely a Church that consists of pure believers, and another that is composed of believers and unbelievers, but — as he continues to explain — the word “Church” is used in two ways, first in the proper sense for the invisible fellowship of believers, then in an improper sense for the visible fellowships of those assembled around God’s Word, in which the believers are found. Such visible church fellowships are called “churches” only because of the believers contained in them —synecdochically —, not insofar as they consist of believers and hypocrites.8 “The whole bears the glorious name for the sake of a part to which this name properly belongs.”9

The visible fellowships or particular churches are called churches synecdochically, but not wrongly. For Scripture, although it clearly teaches that only the truly believing are actual members of the Church, nevertheless applies the name Church to the visible mixed assembly, as is particularly evident from the fact that Paul calls those assembled around the Word in Galatia and Corinth “congregations” or churches, although he testifies of the Galatians that most of them had abandoned Christ, and of the Corinthian congregation, that it had many members deeply fallen and defiled in doctrine and life.10 And just as these visible fellowships rightly bear the name Church for the sake of the believers found in them, they likewise have all the power that Christ has given to His Church, but only because of the believers found in them, even if there be only two. Everything that those do in the Church (whether it be preaching, administering the Sacraments, choosing and ordaining ministers, etc.) who are not believing and thus do not belong to the Church and in themselves have no right to the power of the keys, they do only as instruments, as delegates, etc., of the Church, that is, of the true believers.11

That Christ has given all spiritual power specifically to the local congregation, and indeed for the sake of the believers contained in it, Walther proves from Matt. 18:17–20. He explains:

Thus says the Lord: “Tell it to the congregation [Gemeine]. If he does not hear the congregation, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector.” That the Lord here speaks of a visible particular church needs no proof. But when the Lord continues, immediately after those words: “Truly, I say to you: Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (v. 18), He thereby openly grants the keys of the kingdom of heaven or the power of the Church, which he had given in Matt. 16:19 to his entire holy Church in Peter, also to every visible particular church. But lest one should think that this great power is given only to large, populous congregations, He adds in vv. 19–20, “Again I say to you: If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." Therefore, if in a particular congregation there be only two or three true believers, true children of God, true members of the spiritual body of Christ, then for their sake the congregation would be a congregation of God and a rightful possessor of all the rights and powers that Christ has acquired and given to His Church.12

Now, the particular churches are of two kinds: orthodox or heterodox. That church is orthodox in which the Gospel is purely preached and the Holy Sacraments are administered according to the Gospel. No more and no less belongs to the character of an orthodox congregation. Nothing more, e.g., not a specific constitution or specific ceremonies instituted by men. But also nothing less. For the fact that the pure Word of God or the church’s Confessions merely exist in a church or congregation does not yet make them orthodox, but for this it is necessary that the pure Word be actively and publicly preached.13 The fellowships that have made themselves guilty of a partial apostasy from the pure doctrine of the Word of God are rightly called heterodox churches. The heterodox fellowships are at the same time called churches and factions or sects, but in different respects. They are called churches insofar as they do not entirely deny God’s Word and Sacraments, but both are still essentially there, and therefore in these fellowships true children of God are still found. But insofar as these fellowships stubbornly err in fundamental doctrines of the Word of God and have caused divisions in Christendom, they are called factions or sects, i.e., heretical fellowships.14 Walther’s statement that heterodox fellowships are to be called churches, insofar as they still essentially have God’s Word and children of God are found among them, was used to accuse him of having a unionistic spirit (from Grabau’s side).15

Concerning the judgment of the heterodox churches and one’s position toward them, a twofold point must be maintained. First, there are children of God even in heterodox, heretical congregations. The una sancta extends beyond the boundaries of the visible orthodox churches. Walther remarks: “The Lutheran Church is accused of wanting to be the only saving Church. True Lutherans believe and teach the opposite.” “When the holy Apostle refers to the called Galatians as ‘congregations’ or churches, e.g., Gal. 1:2: ‘to the congregations in Galatia,’ it follows indisputably from this that even in these fellowships, although they were led astray by false teachers into error and for the most part to apostasy from Christ, a hidden seed of a church of true believers nevertheless remained.” From 1 Kings 19:14 and 18 we see that even where the priests of Baal ruled, God had preserved for himself a holy Church of 7000 elect, who were unknown even to the prophet Elijah. These are those who inwardly cling to Christ through a living faith and yet outwardly follow deceivers, because they “have not known the depths of Satan” (Rev. 2:24). They are like those 200 men who joined the rebel Absalom and his rebellious band, but “went in their simplicity and knew nothing of the matter” (2 Sam. 15:11).16 The Lutheran Church confesses this truth in the Preface to the Book of Concord.17 Walther repeatedly testified: “As long as I did not know this, I did not want to be a Lutheran.” Indeed, it is possible and has at times actually happened that there has been no orthodox visible Church, while according to the divine promise it is impossible that the One Holy Christian Church should ever perish.18

But on the other hand, it must be maintained: One must not allow the distinction between the true visible or orthodox church and the heterodox church, or what is the same, between church and sect, to be abolished by the fact that there are children of God also in the heterodox fellowships. The external form of the Church willed by God is its orthodoxy. God wills only one Church, which in all points abides in Christ’s Word, which in regard to revealed doctrine speaks with one voice and indeed with one mind and one judgment. God has therefore not permitted any Christian to belong to a fellowship in which false doctrine is taught, but rather has commanded every Christian to flee all false prophets, to avoid fellowship with heterodox congregations or sects, and to hold only to the orthodox Church. Everyone is bound to do this upon his salvation. These are the truths, almost universally lost in the Church of our time, which Walther repeatedly expounded and defended against all objections. Concerning God’s will for only one orthodox Church, he writes:

Christ says: “If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth” etc., John 8:31–32. “The sheep hear his (the shepherd’s) voice…, follow him…, but a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him” John 10:3–5. Since the Church is the totality of Christ’s disciples and the flock of His sheep, then only that is the one true visible church in an unrestricted sense, or as it ought to be, which in everything abides in Christ’s word, listens to His voice, follows Him in everything, and flees from the strangers who bring another doctrine. St. Paul exhorts: “Be diligent to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all,” Eph. 4:3–6. A true Church, as it out to be, is therefore only that in which not different faith, false and true, but unity in the Spirit prevails in faith and life, in Word and Sacrament. Finally the same Apostle writes: “I appeal to you, dear brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be firmly united in the same mind and the same judgment,” 1 Cor. 1:10. A Church, as it ought to be, is therefore also only that which, concerning the revealed doctrine, not only speaks the same thing, but does so in the same mind and the same judgment.

If one objects to this that such a church, orthodox in all points, cannot exist at all, and that the fellowship which claims to be such a church speaks in prideful self-exaltation, Walther answers: “God be praised, there is such a church, and that is the Evangelical Lutheran Church. This we joyfully confess and hold in firm confidence of faith: that our dear Church is the Church planted by the Lord Christ and his Apostles 1800 years ago; and for this reason: because our faith, doctrine, and confession agree in all things most exactly with the Scriptures, the words of Christ and the Apostles. The Lutheran Church is therefore not only an actual,19 but the true visible Church of God on earth, insofar as “true” means nothing other than: as it should be according to God’s Word.”20 Walther provide the proof that the Lutheran Church teaches in accordance with the Word of God in all doctrines in the book: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church, the True Visible Church of God on Earth.” The reason why it is declared to be arrogant, unbearable presumption when we claim that the Lutheran Church is in possession of the full truth, Walther finds in the prevailing spirit of unionism, in the theology of doubt, which denies the clarity and majesty of Holy Scripture. He writes on p. 24 f. of the aforementioned work:

These theologians of doubt want to be always seeking the truth, but never to have found it, and thus they place themselves on the side of those heathen philosophers who always sought the truth but never found it. But since Christ and His Gospel have appeared on earth, the eternal, full, saving truth is also on earth and indeed for everyone. Would our opponents also dare to accuse those apostolic congregations of arrogant self-exaltation if they had refused the hand of brotherhood and sacramental fellowship to infiltrating false spirits, against whose soul-poison the holy Apostles warned them orally or in writing, and had declared to them: We have the truth and you do not, but have a doctrine of devils? They would not. But precisely what they must grant to those congregations, they will not concede to us. Why not? Because, as they say, we do not have the Apostles, but only Luther as teacher. But oh, what a foolish objection, which reveals to us their unbelief in the Word of God! For do not we Lutherans still have today this holy Word of God “pure, plain, and right, written by His servants in Holy Scripture”? Does not St. Paul still speak to us in the Bible, and indeed the very same thing that he then preached and wrote to his congregations? Do we therefore not also have today the eternal, full, infallible truth? And would it not be a entirely false feeling of shame to consider it arrogant and self-exalting to say: I have the truth, for I stand on the rock of the Word of God, and I reject the opposing doctrine as a lie of Satan?

In this we do not attributes to ourselves any personal infallibility, as some have maliciously remarked:

We Lutherans hold fast to this, that there is indeed an infallible truth, but only in the Word of God, and that we certainly possess it, as long as we stand on the Word. For as surely as the Bible is God’s Word and inspired by the Holy Spirit, as surely as Christ is the Son of God and the mouth of eternal truth, so surely it is also true that, when we hold to the letter of Holy Scripture, we cannot err. We do not also say that a Lutheran Christian cannot err in anything contained in Holy Scripture, but only assert that in all articles of faith, articles which are all clearly and plainly revealed for everyone in Scripture, he has the full truth, so that he can joyfully live and die upon it. It is a grave deception of the false spirits when they claim that only this or that doctrine of faith, such as that of the deity of Christ, is clearly and plainly revealed in Holy Scripture; but others, such as certain distinctive doctrines, are not, and that therefore one cannot attain the infallible truth in these latter. To this we say: No. All doctrines of faith are revealed quite clearly and unambiguously in Holy Scripture, and whenever our Church confesses this doctrine, it is the infallible mouth of God.

To the objection that one may and should remain in heterodox fellowships or at least maintain church fellowship with them, since there are still Christians in them, Walther answers: The Christians who hold to heterodox fellowships do so out of weakness in knowledge. But those who become convinced of the partial apostasy of the church fellowship to which they belong and yet remain in it, do not belong to the weak, but are either lukewarm, whom the Lord will spew out of his mouth, or Epicurean scoffers of religion, who say in their heart with Pilate: What is truth?21 Walther explains this further in “Church and Ministry,” p. 113:

Not a few, when they hear that the Church is everywhere where Word and Sacrament are still essentially present, draw from this the conclusion: therefore it is a matter of indifference whether one belongs to an orthodox or to a heterodox fellowship; one is still in the Church and can still be saved. But they are mistaken. … Indeed many are saved who, for lack of knowledge, outwardly belongs to sects and yet stand in true faith. … But he who has recognized the false doctrine of the sects and their teachers and yet adheres to them …, does not belong to the divine seed lying hidden among the sects; his maintaining fellowship with the sect is not a sin of weakness which can coexist with the state of grace; such a person acts willfully against God’s command, for God commands us in his holy Word to flee and avoid false teachers and their falsified worship. Just as little as the doctrine that pardoned Christians still have sins of weakness justifies those who conclude that they can knowingly and willfully persist in sin; just as surely, rather, such who sin on the basis of grace are children of damnation: so little does the doctrine that there are also children of God among the sects justify those who, against God’s command, willfully and knowingly persist in them. Rather, just as surely are such willful participants in the falsification of the Word of truth likewise children of damnation.

When one tries to excuse church fellowship with the heterodox by saying that he does not want to cause even greater division by leaving them, this is founded on a false concept of separation and unity within the Church. According to Rom. 16:17, the false teachers are those who cause divisions and offenses in the Church. Therefore, whoever maintains fellowship with the false teachers promotes division; whoever withdraws from them promotes the unity of the Church.

In short, church fellowship is never under any circumstance to be practiced with heterodox churches and teachers. “With the heterodox,” says Walther, “one can indeed hold colloquies and disputations, but not synodize.” “Hatred of false doctrine and therefore of ecclesiastical union where there is disunity in doctrine belongs to a true Lutheran, but of course it must be a hatred born of the fear of God.”

Footnotes

  1. Der Lutheraner v.1, p. 83.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Kirche und Amt, p. 53–54.
  4. Ibid., p. 55. Der Lutheraner, v. 1, p. 83.
  5. Locus de ecclesia, s. XIX, n. d.
  6. Die rechte Gestalt, p. 4.
  7. Ibid., p. 1.
  8. Kirche und Amt, Thesis VI, p. 63 f.
  9. Ibid., p. 64.
  10. Ibid.
  11. Kirche und Amt, Thesis VII, p. 77 f.
  12. Ibid., p. 78.
  13. Die rechte Gestalt, pp. 2, 5.
  14. Ibid., p. 18, 24.
  15. Der Lutheraner v.13, p. 195.
  16. Kirche und Amt, pp. 95, 96.
  17. Ibid., p. 96.
  18. Die ev.-luth. Kirche, p. 47 f.
  19. Our old theologians also refer to heterodox churches as actual churches, in contrast to non-churches, such as Unitarian fellowships. F. P.
  20. Synodical Essay from the Western District 1870. Synodalbericht, p. 23.
  21. Ibid., Theses 5 and 6.