On the subject of
what to do if there is no faithful church where you live.
The Lutheran
believer by an inward necessity, which is also taught and
enforced by the Word of God, is led to unite with the pure
visible Church of the Augsburg Confession and perform his
duties as well as exercise his privileges and seek his
edification in the fellowship of that Church. He cannot
without danger to his spiritual life and ultimate salvation
deny any portion of his faith by joining another Church which
teaches and confesses otherwise than God’s Word teaches, and
must be ready to make sacrifices in behalf of the Church of
the Augsburg Confession with its pure Word and Sacraments. It
is surely not loyalty to that Confession which inspires the
thought that, if there be no congregation of that Confession
in the place of our residence, the best thing to be done is to
join some other Church that professes to be Christian. Such
conduct can reflect no credit upon a professed believer of the
evangelical truth for which our fathers contended in the days
of the Reformation. Indifference to the truth is thus
manifested rather than faith.
If there is no
Church of the Augsburg Confession where a Lutheran believer
lives, there ought to be; and his calling has evidently become
that of a missionary who providentially has the high duty of
confessing the truth and, if possible, of gathering other
believers around the Augsburg Confession and forming an
Evangelical Lutheran congregation.
Meantime instead
of denying his faith by holding fellowship with those who
confess a different doctrine, he will be content with his own
family worship, employing the services of the nearest pastor
for the administration of the sacraments and an occasional
sermon, until a little congregation can be collected in his
own locality.
From Loy, Matthias.
The Augsburg confession: An Introduction To Its Study And An
Exposition Of Its Contents Columbus, Ohio: Lutheran Book
Concern, 1908.
