02 - Second Section

However our opponents may shuffle, this is and remains the actual and chief controverted point in the present controversy, as long as our opponents do not retract. The principal means by which our opponents endeavor to support their doctrine, consists in continually quoting passages from the private writings of the fathers of our Church, published subsequent to the Formula of Concord. But whenever a controversy arises concerning the question, whether a doctrine is Lutheran, we must not ask: "What does this or that ’father’ of the Lutheran Church teach in his private writings?" for he also may have fallen into error; on the contrary, we must ask: "What does the public Confession of the Lutheran Church teach concerning the controverted point?" for in her confession our Church has recorded for all times, what she believes, teaches, and confesses, for the very reason, that no controversy may arise concerning the question, what our Lutheran Church believes, teaches, and confesses in reference to certain doctrinal points, or that such controversy may at least be adjusted without difficulty. Thus, for instance, the Formula of Concord in its second part expressly declares as its object that in setting forth its views "a public and positive testimony might be furnished, not only to those who are now living, but also to posterity, showing what the unanimous opinion and judgment of our churches were, and perpetually ought to be, concerning those controverted articles." (See Jubilee edition of the Book of Concord p. 391; New Market edition p. 596.)

If, therefore, many pious Christians suppose the doctrine concerning predestination to be too difficult for them to know and decide whose doctrine in the present controversy concerning this article is Lutheran and whose is not, such dear Christians are sadly mistaken. Nothing is easier for a pious Christian than to know and to decide this. He only must take care not to leave his Lutheran castle and not to be decoyed upon the slippery soil of human reason; he only must abide by the clear words of our Lutheran Confession. Then be will soon be able to know and to decide whose doctrine is Lutheran and whose is not.

Since, however, just the eleventh article of the Formula of Concord, which treats of predestination, is rather lengthy, we will give our pious readers a plain, trustworthy advice, which they can follow without difficulty, and by following which even a simple Christian is enabled to form a settled opinion in regard to the present controversy concerning predestination, even though a hundred ever so learned philosophers would argue with him. Our advice is this: In the first place, dear reader, bear in mind only TWO SHORT SENTENCES which the time-honored Confession of our Church premises, before entering upon the lengthy explanation of the doctrine concerning predestination, and in which it clearly and plainly states those points, to which we must cling chiefly and above all things, and from which absolutely nothing must lead us away, if in the doctrine concerning predestination we are not to fall into errors, but to abide in the straight path of the Holy Scriptures. The first of these sentences is the following:

I. "In the first place, the difference between the eternal foreknowledge of God and the eternal election of His children to verlasting salvation must be accurately observed. For praescientia vel provisio, that is, that God foresees and foreknows all things before they come to pass, which is called the foreknowledge of God, endeth to all creatures, whether they be good or wicked c. But God’s eternal election vel praedestinatio, that is, the ordaining of God unto salvation, doth not at once pertain both to the good and the ked, but only to the children of God who have been elected and rdained to eternal life, before the foundations of the world were laid; as St. Paul (Ephesians 1:5) testifies, saying: ’He hath chosen us in Christ Jesus, and predestinated us unto the adoption of children.’" (See Jubilee edition of the Book of Concord p. 478; New Market edition p. 711.) From this, my dear Lutheran Christian, whose desire it is to abide until death with our dear Lutheran Church and by her pure doctrine also in these latter perilous times, thou canst clearly see, in the first place, that the doctrine of our opponents evidently is not Lutheran, when they say, that the Formula of Concord treats of predestination in a wider sense. Our opponents indeed know very well how much depends upon this. Their entire system is based upon the assertion, that the Formula of Concord treats of predestination in a wider sense. Upon the truth or falsity of this assertion depends everything they affirm and deny in opposition to us. But their assertion is positively false. The Formula of Concord does not treat of predestination in a wider sense. On the contrary, as thou canst see from the above-cited words, the Formula of Concord in the very beginning bases its whole doctrine upon this, that predestination, unlike the foreknowledge and consequently also unlike the general decree of God concerning man’s salvation, does not at once extend to the wicked as well as to the good, and consequently does by no means refer to both, but that it refers "only to the children of God", and only to those children of God "who have been elected and ordained to eternal life, before the foundations of the world were laid", who, therefore, will surely be saved. To this, therefore, dear Lutheran Christian, thou must firmly adhere first of all, for this is the point of which also the Formula of Concord says that it must be observed "in the first place." Let nothing induce thee to leave this castle. If any one attempts to make thee believe, that the doctrine of a so-called predestination in a wider sense, which refers not only to the chosen children of God who have been ordained to eternal life, but "at once" to the good and the wicked, if any one attempts to make thee believe that this doctrine is Lutheran, do not lend thine ear to the voice of the tempter, but say: My dear Confession teaches quite another doctrine, and by that I will abide.