Walther on why we are called "Lutherans" and not just "Christians - Part 2

The following article comes from the very first edition of "Der Lutheraner" the predecessor magazine to the Lutheran Witness.  When our church body began, people in the United States were critical of us calling ourselves Lutheran.  This article seeks to defend our use of that name.  

In it the first synodical president, C.F.W. Walther, explains why we are called Lutherans, not just Christians.  This translation was first presented in the Husker Lutheran of University Lutheran Chapel, Lincoln, NE in 1989 and has now been entirely reviewed and revised, and is in the public domain thanks to Bob Smith at the Concordia Theological Seminary Library.  We will release a part every other day for the next few days.  

Today's section deals with "In what sense are we Lutheran?"  What do we mean when we use the word, "Lutheran?"  We mean that we believe the scriptures, like Luther did, and that they are the rule above all rules in our faith (Fancy way of saying everything we believe is based on the scripture.)  

Great quotes, "Luther himself will not be Lutheran if he does not purely teach the holy Scripture."  "(The Church) is recognized by the pure preaching of God's word and by the right use of the holy sacraments."  "With the name "Lutheran" we confess that we belong to the true catholic (universal) church, whose doctrine Luther preached."  "For with the church it is a matter of doctrine and not the name."

Key points are highlighted with Red Font.

Concerning the Name "Lutheran"
C.F.W. Walther
Translated by Mark Nispel
From: Der Lutheraner v. 1, pp. 2-4, 5-7, 9-12. June, 1994

PART II - September 23, 1844

B. What does it mean to be a Lutheran?

In the last section we showed that we have not given ourselves the name "Lutherans' and that we also do not use the name in such a way that it is sinful. We showed that we allow ourselves to be called Lutherans not because we want this name to separate us from other orthodox believers like the Corinthians did and further not because our faith is based upon Luther and finally not because we want to show that we confess a new doctrine and new church, a sect.

This begs the question then: In what sense do we truly call ourselves Lutheran? In brief we answer: Using this name indicates nothing else than that we are Christians who believe that the doctrine which was again brought to light in these last times from God's word through Luther, is the true doctrine. Whomever confesses this doctrine with his mouth we call a Lutheran. But we believe a true Lutheran is only he who believes this doctrine with his heart through the working of the Holy Spirit and who has the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. A true Lutheran and a true Christian, the Lutheran church and the Christian church, God's word and Luther's doctrine - these are all one and the same to us. Therefore with joy and confidence we make that well known verse our proclamation: "God's Word and Luther's Doctrine, now and forevermore." We don't mean by this that Luther spoke and wrote as an apostle from immediate enlightening of the Holy Spirit. But we do want to give witness that Luther's doctrine as we have perceived it is drawn from God's Word and that also through him the reformation of the church, which everyone knows was necessary, was accomplished. As Luther himself once advised the Lutheran who in 1528 were required by Duke George to give answer for their faith: "They want to remain with the holy gospel - Luther himself will not be Lutheran if he does not purely teach the holy Scripture." (Werke, Halle, XXI, 234).

We know well what we should expect in these days when explaining that with the strongest conviction of the heart we believe that the Lutheran church is the true church of Jesus Christ on earth. The most gentle of our opponents will say: "Indeed, we believe the Lutheran church is a church but not the church of Christ." But the belief that there are more true churches we leave to those who can never be sure of their doctrine whenever in their consciences they feel guilty of false doctrine. These people quietly comfort themselves with that sweet dream of many true churches and thereby strive to appease their shrieking consciences. Yes, we leave it to them to publicly confess that they see themselves not as the church of Christ but only as a sect. We ourselves, however, give thanks to God that he as brought us to fellowship in his true church and made us certain and joyful to confess before all the world that we belong to her and not to a sect.

But perhaps now many will say: "We hear that! We've hear that language before! Those who belong to the sects speak just like that. In fact that is the most certain sign of a sect that they are so isolated that they make themselves into the only church that can save and damn everyone who has a different faith. So we can see that you Lutherans are true brazen papists. Isn't the belief in a particular church as the only-saving church a fundamental doctrine of the papists? See, you give yourself away!" We ask everyone who would make this objection not to be hasty in their judgment and first let us explain. Wait until we explain our true meaning and you have given it careful consideration.

We are in no way so fanatical and so narrow in recognizing the hidden kingdom of Christ that we would think that it consists only of those who call themselves Lutheran. Never! We know that this church is not contained within the boudoirs of a human name, a country, or a time. Instead it encompasses the entire inheritance of Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that our church is so great and glorious to us; for this reason we want to do or small part and give public witness, pray, fight and remain with her until our last breath despite all insult that is laid upon her.

In the first place, the Lutheran church is not restricted to those who from youth have held this name or even to those who took it up later in life. We extend our hand to everyone who submits himself to the written word of God without guile and who carries the true faith in our dear Lord Jesus Christ in his heart and confesses it before the world. We consider such a one as our partner in faith (Glaubensgenossen), as our brother in Christ, as a member of our church, as a Lutheran, no matter in what sect he lies hidden and entangled. We well know that God can keep for himself thousands of his children even where everything appears to be devoured by Baal worship. (1 Ki 19:9-18). We know that God is so powerful that God's children are also born where this word is only preached very sparsely and mixed with many doctrines of man, indeed, that Christ rules in the midst of his enemies (Ps. 110:2). We therefore condemn no man no matter what he calls himself but instead merely proclaim that divine judgment: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe, he will be damned." It is one thing if it is asked: "How is the church recognized and where is she seen?" It is another to ask: "Where is the church?" We answer the first question: "She is recognized by the pure preaching of God's word and by the right use of the holy sacraments." The second we answer: 'The Church is the congregation of all believers. (See the Augsburg Confession VII and VIII). Therefore in the forward to the symbolical books of the evangelical Lutheran Church our forefathers say among other things:

"With reference to the condemnations, censures, and rejections of false and adulterated doctrine, especially in the article concerning the Lord's Supper, ... it is not our purpose and intention to mean thereby those persons who err from a certain simplicity and who do not blaspheme the truth of the divine Word, and far less do we mean entire churches ... On the contrary, we mean specifically to condemn only false and seductive doctrines and their stiff-necked teachers and blasphemers. ... We have no doubt at all that one can find many pious, innocent people even in those churches which have up to now admittedly not come to agreement with us in all things. These people follow their own simplicity and do not understand the issues but in no way approve the blasphemies which are cast against the Holy Supper. ... We also have great hope that , if they would be taught correctly concerning all these things, the Spirit of the Lord aiding them, they would agree with us and with our churches and schools to the infallible truth of God's word."

In this sense, therefore, it says in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession in the 27th Article "Concerning Monastic Vows" : "We do not say this in reference to all. There may be some in the monasteries who know the holy gospel of Christ and do not set any holiness upon their traditions." 

Luther agrees with this in his private writings. He shows not only that God kept for himself a holy seed of his children in the darkest times of the rule of the pope but also that even now after the progress of the evangelical light through the Reformation there are righteous souls held in papal chains who are members of the true church. To bring forth just one example, he says in his explanation of Genesis 28:17: "The pope and his crowd are not the church. When it is objected: Do they not still have baptism and the Lord's Supper? etc. I answer: "Those who have the pure word and baptism belong to us and the true church. Those however who keep the religious pomp of human statures are not the church. Although they have the text of the gospel, they have it in vain." Luther makes the same judgment concerning sincere people who according to external fellowship belong to other sects. He writes in his letter "Concerning Rebaptism" (Werke, Halle, XVII., 2675): "We must confess that the enthusiasts have the Scripture and God's Word in other articles. Whoever hears and believes it form them will be saved eve though they are unholy heretics and blasphemers of Christ."

Likewise the old Lutheran theologians never denied this basic tenet that not only those are to be considered Lutherans who call themselves by that name. They always taught that there were innumerable people who carry the name in pretense who through their fleshly ways show that they are not members of the true church, not members of the spiritual body of Jesus Christ, not true Christians. Further they always taught that there are innumerable others who have never called themselves Lutheran and who still are true Christians and therefore Lutherans in fact and in truth. Of all the many witnesses which could be brought forth here one will suffice. In 1573 the Reformed in Frankreich (generally called the Huguenots) suffered the most dreadful persecutions from the papists and during the infamous bloodbath of Paris in the span of two months 70,000 of them were murdered with unheard-of satanic cruelty. N. Seneccer, a Lutheran theologian (known for his glorious Hymn: All Glory be to God on High), who was one of the authors of the Formula do Concord and who was dispelled from Leipzig through the machinations of the Reformed wrote the following judgment:

"Indeed in the persecutions, which occurred in Frankreich, the Netherlands and other places, many innocent people were miserably slaughtered on account of religion and many even out of the masses who are Sacramentarians were found to be martyrs with whom even a heart of stone must rightly have compassion. but, dear God!, they all died as Lutherans, not on account of their doctrine of the Holy Supper, but because they would not worship the horror of the pope. Therefore in their need God stood by them and recalled them to himself with joy and comfort. He covered up their weakness and delusion in regard to the holy Supper wherein they had been placed and mislead. He showed them patience. Our holy God always turns the fault and need of his believers, which is not defended deliberately out of stubbornness, into that which is best." (Se: Brev. resp. ad crimen Danaei)."

Thus speaks a man who rejected the false doctrine of the Reformed to the utmost. However here he shows that he was motivated not by a desire to condemn and by a sectarian spirit but rather from a love of truth. Although Lutherans are usually accused of intolerance, narrowness, and love of condemning people on account of their rejection of all false doctrine, no one deserves this accusation less. For if they have the name rightly they never restrict the true church to those who use this name.

Even less do we believe that the church to which we belong is confined to some particular land or some particular time. With the name "Lutheran" we confess that we belong to the true catholic (universal) church, whose doctrine Luther preached. In our public confessional writings it is clearly said concerning this:

"In the creed it is a comforting article where it says: 'I believe in a catholic universal Christian church.’ This shows that no one should think that the church is like other external political bodies bound to this or that land, realm, or class of people as the people of Rome likes to say. Instead it is certain truth that that group and those people who are spread out there and there in the world from the east to the west, who truly believe in Christ, who then have one gospel, one faith, one baptism and sacrament, who are ruled by one Holy Spirit are the true church. This even though they may have different ceremonies (See the Apology Art. 7)."

Luther witnesses to the same thing with these words:

The church is not only under the Roman church or the pope but instead in the whole world just as the prophets have proclaimed that the gospel of Christ would come into all the world (Psalm 2:19). The church bodily is spread out under the pope, the Turk, the Persians, the tartars and everywhere else. But spiritually Christendom is gathered in one gospel and faith, under one head which is Jesus Christ." (See the appendix to the large Confession of 1528).

We can not go on without bringing forth one more quotation of Luther in order to give verification that a sectarian view of the church was entirely foreign to him. Concerning Galatians 1:2 he says:

"Therefore the church is holy even where the fanatics are dominant, so long as they do not deny the Word and the Sacraments; If they deny these, they are no longer the church. Wherever the substance of the Word and the sacraments abides, therefore there the holy church is present, even though Antichrist may reign there, for he takes his seat not in a stable of fiends or in a pigpen or in a congregation of unbelievers but in the highest and holiest place possible, namely, in the temple of God (2 Thess. 2:4). From this it is certain and obvious that God's temple must be and remain even under spiritual tyrants who rule and storm. For above all, even under the tyrants, the right faith etc. is found. Therefore a short and easy answer can be given to the question: the church is everywhere in the entire world if only the gospel and the sacraments are there. But the Jews, Turks, enthusiasts and mob spirits or heretics are not the church. For these deny and destroy such things."

What has been said concerning the church being restricted to some particular place can also be said concerning being restricted to some particular time. As long as there has been an orthodox church on earth there has also been a Lutheran church. She is (as strange as it may seem) as old as the world for she has no other doctrine than the patriarchs, the prophets, and apostles received from God and preached. It is true the name "Lutheran" was first used some 300 years ago but not the thing itself which is indicated by the name. When we are asked so often: 'Where was the Lutheran church before Luther?', it is very easy to answer: 'Everywhere there were still Christians who believed with their hearts in Jesus Christ and in his word who would not allow themselves to be diverted by any human regulations from the one faith that alone saves. Or at least in the end at the time of death they took refuge in this faith. The Roman Catholics admit against their will that our doctrine is not new but instead was confessed before Luther in all places. Incessantly they have accused us by saying the Lutheran doctrine is only the rewarmed heresy of the Waldenites, the Albigenites and the Hussites. Reinerius writes concerning how old and how widespread the doctrine of these groups was and of what their supposed heresy truly consisted. He first pretended to be a Waldenite and entered the ranks of their preachers and then finally became the general inquisitor against the heretics. he reports:

Among all the sects there are now or ever have been there is none more pernicious to the church (of the pope) than that of the Poor from Lion (This is what Waldenites were called), and for two reasons. First, because no heresy is older than this one. For some say that they have existed since Sylvester's time and others say since the time of the apostles. Second, because none is more universally distributed as this one for there is almost no land in which this sect has not established itself undetected. Third, while all other sects arouse an abhorrence against God with their open wickedness the Waldenites and Lugdunites alone on the other hand have a great appearance of holiness because they live right before men and believe rightly concerning god and accept all the articles which are contained in the Creed. They hate and mock the Roman church alone and say that it is a church of the godless and the prostitute who in Revelation sits on the beast. They say that she fell in the time of Sylvester when the poison of temporal worldly things entered into the church. They also say that the pope is the head of all error and is full of the desire for glory and money.

With this the Roman Catholics themselves admit that such witnesses for the apostolic faith and against the unapostolic papacy have always existed and the confess that Luther merely once again brought forth the doctrines of these witnesses of the truth. And so they confess openly that the Lutheran church had her members even before Luther even in the midst of the papacy. For with the church it is a matter of doctrine and not the name.