4. The necessity of the public ministry of preaching.
Although the public Ministry of preaching, which is transferred indirectly, by calling on the part of the congregation, is to be held as a divine order, yet an absolute necessity is not to be ascribed to it. Even through the preaching of the Gospel on the part of all Christians, which takes place both with inner necessity and according to divine order, the Holy Spirit is active for the bringing forth and preservation of faith in human hearts. It must be constantly emphasized that the proclamation of the Word by all Christians in the home, in their intercourse with the brethren, and in their intercourse with the world does not stand at the discretion or at the arbitrariness of the Christians, but is of divine order. In so far as Christians do not keep to this order, they fall out of their Christian profession and do untold harm to the Christian Church. Times have come, and they may come again, when unbelief and false doctrine are so rampant that orthodox Christians are dependent on the preaching of the Word in the home. Luther's words belong here:1597) "It may happen that the world will become so Epicurean that in all the world there will be no public preaching chair, and it will be vain epicurean abominations, and the gospel will be received in the homes alone through the house fathers." That the word only read is also the means of grace was explained in detail — also against modern Lutherans — in the doctrine of the means of grace.1598) Walther points to the words of the Formula of Concord: Ministerium ecclesiasticum, hoc est, Verbum Dei praedicatum et auditum, and: Verbum illud, quo vocamur, ministerium Spiritus est,1599) and continues:1600) "It is important to understand this for the sake of those who make the ministry of the parish a means of grace, and coordinate it with the word and sacraments, asserting that the same is absolutely necessary to every man for salvation, so that without the ministry of an ordained minister a man can neither come to faith, nor obtain absolution of his sins, while our Church teaches this only of the oral or outward word, as opposed to a supposed inward word, and to every kind of enthusiasm."
But the truth that the public Ministry is not absolutely
1597) St. L. VI, 938 [§14; not in AE]<w:t>1598) p. 125 ff.
1599) 729:30 [Trigl. 1101, Sol. Decl., XII, 30 🔗]; 710, 29 [Trigl. 1073, Sol. Decl., XI, 29 🔗]
1600) K. u. A., p. 195. [Church and Ministry p 179; Church & Office, p. 170]
514 > The Public Ministry. [English ed. ~ 450-451]
necessary, is not to be abused for the contempt of it. This abuse occurs: 1. when Christians are indolent in hearing the public sermon, with the excuse that they could read the same word "at home";1601) 2. when those in public office are indolent in the direction of their ministry, with the excuse that the flock commanded to their care can and should provide for themselves by virtue of the spiritual priesthood;1602) 3. when Christians are indolent in the establishment and maintenance of schools in which ministers are educated for public service in the church.1603)