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| This is a perfect example of Luther paraphrasing the Apostle Paul and a thorough rebuke of the Lutheran sects of today - ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS, ELDONA, CLC (sic). Lord Jim Heiser finally got the mini-papacy he longed for, ever since the brain-washing of Concordia Ft. Wayne, and its twisted sister seminary, Concordia St. Louis. |
From The Columbus Theological Magazine, Vol. 6. 1886. “Lutheran Union. Third Part.”
“It is difficult to believe that any who have devoutly studied the Scriptures and have taken these as their guide can seriously entertain the opinion, that the different denominations of Christians are all equally authorized parts of the Church, all of which taken together form the whole. Whether this be meant geographically or specifically, it is unscriptural and absurd.
The facts are such that one must be blind to believe that, e.g., the Romish Church is really the Church of Italy, the Lutheran of Germany, the Protestant-Episcopal of England. What is the Church then of these United States? All can see that no one of the denominations has a separate existence merely in view of territorial limits. The Church of Rome is no more confined to Italy than is the Lutheran Church to Germany; and the Lutheran Church no more recognizes the divine right of Romanism in Italy than it does in Germany. It is a sect that has no divine warrant for its existence anywhere. People are only deceiving themselves when they try to believe that the whole unhappy business of church divisions can be justified by such a dream of separation on merely geographical grounds.
But just as little is the theory tenable that the various denominations are merely species, all of which together form the general Christian or Christian Church. That would imply that Christ organized different churches, each differing from the other and all possibly occupying the same territory. The opinion is too wild to merit serious refutation. It is the sect spirit driven to desperation for some show of plausibility. We read nothing in Scripture of the organization of such various churches specifically different but generally one.
But we do read warnings against all divisions, and admonition to preserve the unity of the children of God. “There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Eph. 4:4.5. The one body of believers in Christ becomes manifest in its confession of Him and the truth by which He is revealed to man.
In their knowledge and consequently in their confession, they may vary without necessarily ceasing to be Christians. But those who continue in the Lord’s word shall know the truth, and their confession must be a preservative against the power and prevalence of error. Those who have that truth must insist on it. The glory of the Lord and the salvation of souls, which are constantly endangered by error, demands this. And they who have this truth, and are organized on the basis of its acceptance by all, constitute the true visible Church of Christ, with which all should unite.
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| Does anyone wonder why the Lutheran sects are united among themselves in braying their Objective Justification nonsense? All them have raced to Fuller Seminary and Trinity Divinity School to inhale the corruption of those Magna Stinkpottae. To excuse themselves, they claim the innocence of Safe Sects while denying they went there. |
