Walther: The Keys Belong to the Whole Church

This is a VERY fascinating section of Walther's Kirche und Amt. I'm nearly finished with the basic revision of J.T. Mueller's translation. Mueller often renders Walther's "Church" - German "Kirche" as "congregation." I've restored a much more accurate translation of technical terms throughout, including brackets containing the original German. Mueller's translation also tends to eliminate the nuances for all the terms for the office of the ministry and the church, and removes "catholic" language throughout. It's been a wonderful exercise. Walther still has much to say to us, because he allows our confessions and the great teachers of the church to speak.

Pastor H.

Smalcald Articles, Art. I., Appendix: “In addition it must be confessed that the keys do not belong merely to one person but to the whole church [ganzen Kirchen] this can be proved sufficiently by clear and convincing arguments. For just as the promise of the Gospel belongs surely and without means to the whole church [ganzen Kirchen], so also the keys belong without means (in the Latin original: principaliter et immediate, i.e., originally and immediately) to the whole church [ganzen Kirchen]. For the keys are nothing else than the ministry [Amt], by which the promise is distributed to everyone who desires it, as indeed it is obvious that the church [Kirche] has the power to ordain ministers [Kirchendiener]. When Christ said: ‘Whatever you bind,’ etc. [Matt. 18:18], He indicated at once to whom the keys were given, namely, to the church [Kirchen], by adding: ‘where two or three are gathered together in My name’ [v. 20]” (Of the Power and Primacy of the Pope, 24; German text, Triglot 510; Mueller 333; BSLK 478).

Our church confesses here that the whole church [ganze Kirche] not only [allein] as a great, populous whole, but also its smallest parts, has the keys and so also the ministry [Amt] of the Gospel, just as a whole face reflected in a mirror appears in every single part of it, though it may be smashed into a thousand pieces. Therefore, the church has the power to elect and ordain ministers [Kirchendiener]. Hence, the power of the public preaching office [Predigtamt] rests and is rooted in the church [Kirche] and is conferred [uebertragene] by the church [Kirche] according to Christ’s express direction on certain persons specifically called to the ministry of the Word [Dienst am Wort]. This power the church [Kirche] does not have mediately through the incumbents of the office entrusted with it for the benefit of the church, but the church possesses it immediately, while on the contrary the incumbents of the office [Amstraeger] have it mediately, for they received it from the church [Kirche], in which it dwells originally.