3. Orthodox and heterodox churches.
We must divide the actually existing local congregations and larger church fellowships into two classes according to the position they occupy in relation to Christian doctrine. It is God's will and command that in His church also His Word of God be preached and believed purely, that is, without admixture of man's doctrines. Whoever addresses God's church should not speak his own word, but God's Word. Straw and wheat do not rhyme together. "Teaching otherwise," έτεροδιδασκαλέϊν, is strictly forbidden.1544) It must always be remembered that not a single passage is found in all of Scripture that permitted a teacher to depart from God's doctrine, or allowed a child of God to make fellowship with a teacher who departed from God's Word. God is against the prophets who preach their own word,1545) and all Christians without exception are commanded to depart from them.1546) The distinction between orthodox and heterodox churches is based on this divine order. A church which keeps to the divine order, in which, therefore, the Word of God is taught purely and the sacraments are administered according to the divine institution, is rightly called an orthodox church (ecclesia orthodoxa, pura.). On the other hand, a church that allows false doctrines
1543) Pastorale, p. 393 f. Cf. also the longer proof that this is Lutheran doctrine.
1544) 1 Tim. 1:3: "I exhorted you to remain at Ephesus while I was going into Macedonia, that you might command some not to teach otherwise", ΐvα παραγγείλης τισι μη ετεροδιδασκαλεΐν
1545) Jer. 23:31.<w:t>1546) Rom. 16:17; 1 Tim. 6:3 ff.
487 > The Christian Church. [English ed. ~ 422-423]
in its midst in contradiction with the divine order is rightly called a heterodox church (ecclesia heterodoxa, impura).1547) That this difference between the church communities be recognized and maintained should be of the utmost concern to all children of God, since especially in our time indifference to Christian doctrine has swept over external Christianity like a flood, and the abrogation of creeds and the substitution of a so-called "practical Christianity" (applied Christianity) is presented as a goal to be striven for.1548) A twofold remark is still in place when it comes to determining the orthodox character of a church fellowship: 1. A church fellowship is orthodox only by the fact that the orthodox doctrine is actually taught in it from all pulpits and in all its writings, not already by the fact that it only "officially" professes the orthodox doctrine, as it exists, for example, in the Augsburg Confession and in the other confessions of the Lutheran Church. It is not the "official" doctrine that should be taught, but the doctrine that is actually in force that determines the character of a church fellowship, because Christ's order is that everything that he has commanded his disciples should actually be taught, not merely recognized as right doctrine by an "official document. It is also obvious that only through the pure gospel actually taught is faith in Christ worked and preserved. 2 A church fellowship does not lose its orthodox character by false doctrines occasionally appearing in it. What the apostle Paul announces to the elders of Ephesus: "Even of yourselves shall men stand forth speaking perverse doctrines to draw disciples unto themselves",1549) not only became true in the apostolic Church, but also became true in the Church of the Reformation and will
1547) Orthodox churches in our time are the Lutheran congregations and church fellowships that actually teach and confess the doctrines set forth in the confessional writings of this church, because the doctrines set forth, as an examination reveals, find the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. Impure or heterodox churches are the Roman Church, the Reformed Church with its many subdivisions, also the fellowships calling themselves Lutheran, which do not actually teach and confess the doctrines of the Church of the Reformation.
1548) The Expansion of Religion. By E. Winchester Donald, Rector of Trinity Church in the City of Boston, 1896, p. 125.
1549) Acts 20:30
488 > The Christian Church. [English ed. ~ 423-424]
remain true in the church until the Last Day. A church loses the predicate "orthodox" only when it no longer acts according to Rom. 16:17, i.e. does not punish and finally eliminate the emerging error, but lets it go unchallenged and thus actually grants it equal rights with the truth. As for the expression "church" and "sect," note that we call the heterodox fellowships both "churches" and "sects," according as we look to the good or to the evil in them. We call them churches insofar as, in addition to their erroneous doctrines, so much of the gospel of Christ is still spoken in them that faith in Christ can thereby arise, and thus true children of God are still found in their midst. We call them sects insofar as they deviate from the Christian doctrine, have constituted themselves on the basis of these deviations and have thus caused division in the church, and also form a standing danger to the faith of the children of God through their false doctrines and their special existence.