5. Calling (vocatio) to the public ministry.
The necessity of calling has already been addressed in the section "The Relationship of the Ministry to the Spiritual Priesthood of All Christians." Luther: "It is not befitting for one who wants to come forth from himself and appropriate to him alone that which is ours alone." Augsburg Confession, Art. 14 [Trigl. 49, XIV 🔗]: "Of Ecclesiastical Order they teach that no one should publicly teach in the Church or administer the Sacraments unless he be regularly called."1604) — The common distinction between a direct and indirect calling (vocatio immediata and mediata) is scriptural. Luther also has it in detailed justification.1605) The immediate calling was had by the prophets and apostles, including Paul.1606) Paul points out
1601) Cf. Luther's crude debate against this damage in the church (St. L. III, 1736): "Some clever ones say: But we have books, from which we can read it just as well as we heard it in the church from the priest. You read the devil on your head, who then possessed you. If our Lord had known that the Ministry was not necessary, he would have been so wise and prudent that he would not have had Moses preach to you. … He would have remained a pastor and pastoral caretaker at home.
1602) At all times the church had to complain about the indiscipline of the pastors. Hence the admonitions and warnings of Scripture in the Old and New Testaments: Ezek. 3:17 ff; 33:7 ff; Is. 56:10 ff; 2 Tim. 4:2 ff; 1 Tim. 4:13 ff; Phil. 2:21. Cf. Luther, St. L. X, 5.
1603) The most powerful things that have been written against this indolence are found in the two writings of Luther: "Sermon that one should keep the children in school" (1530; St. L. X, 417) and: "To the councillors of all cities in Germany that they should establish and keep Christian schools" (1524; St. L. X, 458 ff.).
1604) On the necessity of calling, cf. the entire section in Walther's Pastorale, pp. 23 ff.
1605) St. L. XI. 1910 ff.<w:t xml:space="preserve"> 1606) Acts 22:21.
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his direct calling very energetically in the headings of fine letters.1607) The indirect calling is given to the pastors called by the Christian congregations. It is of the greatest importance to note that the indirect calling is no less divine than the direct calling. Acts 20:28 says of the indirectly called elders or bishops of Ephesus that the Holy Spirit had appointed them to shepherd the congregation of God. This is of the greatest importance both for the public ministers of the Word and for those whom they serve with the Word.1608)
The question that has caused the most excitement and controversy in the Church and in the world is the question of who are the intermediaries through whom God sets the pastors. The Pope comes forward with the claim that he alone can make "priests" through the bishops he creates. Episcopalians want to do this through bishops to whom apostolic succession attaches. Romanizing Lutherans want to bring about right ministers through the preaching class, which reproduces itself. Also sovereigns and other lords, as such, have vindicated the right to appoint pastors to other people without their consent. On the basis of Scripture it must be said that not the Pope or bishops or pastors or individuals outside or inside a congregation have the right and power to do this, but only the people who possess all the spiritual power that exists here on earth among men, and to whom the Word and Sacrament in particular were originally commanded by Christ: these are the believers or Christians and no one else in the world. The believers have everything (1 Cor. 3:21); the unbelievers have nothing but death and eternal damnation. That Matt. 28:18-20 is not only commanded to the apostles for their person, but to the Christians word and baptism until the last day, is clear from the closing words: “And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Also in the words of command concerning the Lord's Supper, "Do these things in remembrance of me!" not only the apostles are addressed for their persons, but the Christians until the Last Day, as 1 Cor. 11:26 still expressly says: "As often as ye eat of this bread, and drink of this cup, ye shall proclaim the Lord's death until he come." This is the Scripture
1607) Gal. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:1 etc.
1608) See Walther, Pastorale, p. 29 f. for more details.
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doctrine so clearly expressed in the words of the Smalcald Articles (341, 67-69 [Trigl. 523, Power and Jurisdiction of Bishops, 67—69 🔗]): "Where the church is, there is ever the command to preach the gospel. Therefore the churches must retain the power to demand, elect and ordain ministers. And such power is a gift which is actually given to the church" (proprie, that is: only to the church and no one else) "by God and cannot be taken away from the church by any human power.".... Here belong the passages of Christ, which testify that the keys are given to the whole Church and not to some, but to persons, as the text says (Matt. 18:20): 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.'" Individuals and societies may validly call, but only when it is enjoined upon them, or at least left to tacito consensu, by those who have this power originally (principaliter et immediate). By the "whole church" of which the Smalcald Articles address is of course not to be understood the church scattered over the whole world (ecclesia universalis), but the local church (ecclesia particularis), as also immediately on the basis of Matt. 18:20 is added: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." For the church has all spiritual goods and rights, not in so far as it is large or small, but in so far as it consists of believers.1609)
Objections have been raised to the congregational election.
1. It was and is said that Acts 14:23 and Tit. 1:5 does not stand for calling or election on the part of the congregation, but on the contrary only reports what Paul and Barnabas did and Titus was supposed to do at Paul's command.
1609) Luther on Matt. 18:19-20 (St. L. XVII, 1074): "Here we hear that even two or three, gathered in Christ's name, have all the power that St. Peter and all the apostles have. For the Lord Himself is here, as He also says, John 14:23: 'He that loveth Me shall keep My word, and My Father shall love him; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.' … We have here the Lord himself over all angels and creatures; who says they shall all have equal power, key and office, even two simple Christians alone, gathered in his name. Let not this Lord make us fools, liars, nor drunkards of the Pope and all devils, but let us trample the Pope under foot, and say that he is a desperate liar, blasphemer, and idolatrous devil, who has snatched the keys to himself alone under St. Peter's name, when Christ has given the same to all alike in common."
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There is nothing to be read of any activity or even co-activity of the congregations. Luther rightly reminds:1610) "Although Paul commands Titus to ordain priests, it does not follow from this that Titus did it by his own power alone, but that he appointed them according to the example of the apostles by the vote of the people; otherwise the words of Paul would argue with the example of the apostles. Moreover, by the word χειροτονήσαντες used in Acts 14:23, it is clearly expressed that in the appointment of the elders there was a casting of votes on the part of the congregation. Meyer translates χειροτονεϊν as "to vote." He notes, e.g., "Paul and Barnabas voted them presbyters, that is, they conducted their voting among the congregations." In support of this translation, Meyer adds, "The analogy of Acts 6:2-6 demands this observance of the elected word, which, deriving from the old method of election by raising hands, occurs in the New Testament only here and 2 Cor. 8:19, and forbids the general version constituebant (Vulgate, Hammond, Kuinöl, &c.), or eligebant [chose for them](de Wette), so that the appointment would have been merely by apostolic authority (Loehe). Correct is Erasmus: suffragiis delectos. … Quite arbitrarily wrong are Catholics: it referred to the χειροϑεσία [laying on of hands] at ordination of presbyters." Also, the appointment of public ministers by congregational election continued for a long time in the church of the first centuries. The remark in the Smalcald Articles (342, 70 [Trigl. 525, ibid., 70 🔗]): "In former times the people elected parish rulers and bishops" is provable as historically correct.1611)
2. The objection that Matt. 16:18-19 was not originally given to the believers, but to Peter as a privileged person, has already been refuted in detail under the section "The majesty and glory of the Christian church". It was shown that just in this passage, too, the address was only of Peter insofar as he believes, not insofar as he is an apostle or a privileged person.1612) It should be
1610) St. L. XIX, 347.
1611) Cf. the historical proof in Walther, K. u. A., p. 281 ff. [Church and Ministry, p. 243] p. 248 ff. Walther also proves as doctrine of all Lutheran theologians that no one can become pastor of a con+gregation without the election, respectively consent of the congregation.
1612) Note 1513.
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pointed out here that "the keys of the kingdom of heaven are and can be nothing other than the means of grace, the gospel. By the presentation of the gospel, and by nothing else, sins are forgiven, and so heaven is shut out; by the withholding of the gospel from the apparently impenitent, sins are retained, and so heaven is shut in. Since believers are the persons to whom Christ has entrusted the means of grace, the keys of the kingdom of heaven are eo ipso delivered to them.1613)
3. The statement of the Lutheran Confessions that the ministry comes from the general calling of the apostles has also been objected to for the election of the congregation.1614) This statement, however, does not conflict with the other statement of the confession, that the ministry comes through the calling of the congregation.1615) The office of the apostles and the office of the later ministers of the church are the same in content and power. Just as the apostles were commanded not to preach their own word, but God's Word, so also the public ministers called by the congregation are commanded not to preach their own word, but only God's Word. There is indeed this great difference between the apostles and their "disciples" — as Luther calls all pastors after the time of the apostles — that the former spoke and wrote God's Word infallibly, but the latter must take the word they preach from the apostles and are bound to the word of the apostles, so strictly that Christians are commanded to depart from teachers who deviate from the apostles' word.1616) But in both cases it is the same office, inasmuch as it has to do merely with the public preaching of the Word of God and gives the same spiritual goods. Hence the series of passages of Scripture in which the apostles place themselves in one class with the elders and bishops, as Peter 1 Pet. 5:1ff.: "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder" (σννπρεσβντερος), and Paul in 1 Cor. 4:1 ff.: “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” 1617)
1613) Chemnitz, Examen, 1667, p. 223: Lutherus ex Verbo Dei docuit, Christ claves, hoc est, ministerium Verbi et sacramentorum, tradidisse et commendasse toti ecclesiae. [Google] Cf. Walther v. Kraußold, L. u. W. 1870, p. 179, note.
1614) Smalc. Art. p. 320 [Trigl. 525, ibid., 70 🔗 “that the office of the ministry proceeds from the general call of the apostles”]
1615) p. 341, 67.<w:t>1616) Rom. 16:17.
1617) Cf. 2 John 1; 3 John 1; 1 Cor. 3:5 ff. etc.
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