Walther's First Synod Address 1848: No Power But the Word

Here's a wonderful excerpt from CFW Walther's first Synod Address. The Synod was formed in 1847, and had its first regular convention in 1848. The power of the Synod, the very secret of its strength and vitality, was the conviction that only the Word of God rules in Synod life. This theme is constant in the first hundred years of the church's life. And it is particularly taken up again by President Pfotenhauer. This essay by Walther and many others (most translated for the first time) are forthcoming in a collection which is being readied for print. It's been a real journey of faith to edit and translate these essays. Do we still believe the Word has and is such power? 

Matt Harrison

...There can be no doubt, venerable brethren in office and respected delegates, that we are not renouncing any right belonging to us if we as servants of the Church and as members of an ecclesiastical synod claim no other power than the power of the Word. For in the Church where Christ alone rules, there dare and can be no other power to which all must submit. To be sure, there are matters that the Word of God does not regulate, but which must be arranged in the Church. But all such matters are not to be arranged by any power above the congregation, but the congregation, that is, pastors and hearers, arranges them, free of every compulsion, as it is necessary and appears salutary.

What, then, are men doing who claim a power in the Church beside the power of the Word? They are robbing the Church of Christ of the liberty that He has purchased with a price, with His divine blood, and are degrading this free Jerusalem, in which there are only kings, priests, and prophets, this kingdom of God, this heavenly kingdom of truth, to an organization under strict police rule in which everybody is compelled to be obedient to every human ordinance. They are seeking the royal crown of Christ, the only true King, and are making themselves kings over His kingdom; they are deposing Christ, the only true Master, from His chair and are setting themselves up as masters in His Church; they are striving to separate Christ, the only true Head, from His Church and are presumptuously trying to be heads of His spiritual body. They exalt themselves above the holy apostles and claim a power that God’s Word plainly denies them and which has been granted by God to no man, no creature, not even to an angel or archangel.

Can we, therefore, my brethren, be depressed because we in our American pastorates are endowed with no other power than the power of the Word and especially because no other power has been granted to this assembly? Most assuredly not. This very fact must arouse us to perform the duties of our office and to carry on our present labors with great joy; for in this manner, the Church also among us preserves its true character, its character of a kingdom of heaven. In this manner, Christ remains among us as what He is, the only Lord, the only Head, the only Master; and our office and labor preserves the true apostolic form. How could we lust for a power which Christ has denied us, which no apostle has claimed, and which would deprive our congregations of the character of a true church and of the true apostolic form?

Undoubtedly our congregations were free to follow this example and to invest the synod meeting in their name with a power beside the power of the Word. But it is a different question whether it would have been wise if they had done so. I say no, because under the prevailing circumstances, we can confidently hope for auspicious success of our work, or rather of God’s work, which we are promoting, if we use only the power of God. This is the second reason why we should and can carry on our work with joy, although we have no power but the power of the Word.

Translate by Paul Koehneke, CHI Quarterly 23, 1.