e objects for which Christians,
in accordance with the will of God, unite, and should unite, in visible
churches and local congregations, are mutual Christian acknowledgment
and edification, common Christian confession and labor, and especially
the establishment of the communal office of the public ministry of the
pure Gospel. This object involves, as a divine norm of Christian
organization, and fellowship, that such only be admitted as themselves
believe and confess the divine truths of the Bible, and who are not
advocates of doctrines contrary to the plain Word of God. Christian
organizations and unions must not be in violation of the Christian unity
of the Spirit. Organizations effected in harmony with the divine object
and norm of Christian fellowship are true visible churches, _i. e.,_
visible unions as God would have them. They are churches of the pure
Word and Sacrament, professing the Gospel and deviating from none of its
doctrines. Christians have no right to embrace, teach, and champion
error. They are called upon and bound to believe, teach, and confess
all, and only, Christian truths. Nor may they lawfully organize on a
doctrinally false basis. Organizations persistently deviating from the
doctrines of the Bible and establishing a doctrinally false basis, are
sects, _i. e.,_ false or impure visible Churches. Yet, though error
never saves, moreover, when consistently developed, has the tendency of
corrupting the whole lump, false Churches may be instrumental in saving
souls, inasmuch as they retain essential parts of the Gospel-truths,
and inasmuch as God's grace may neutralize the accompanying deadly
error, or stay its leavening power. Indeed, individuals, by the grace of
God, though errorists in their heads, may be truthists in their hearts;
just as one who is orthodox in his head may, by his own fault, be
heterodox in his heart. A Catholic may, by rote, call upon the saints
with his lips, and yet, by the grace of God, in his heart, put his trust
in Christ. And a Lutheran may confess Christ and the doctrine of grace
with his lips, and yet in his heart rely on his own good character.
False Churches as such, however, inasmuch as theirs is a banner of
rebellion in the kingdom of Christ, do not exist by God's approval, but
merely by His sufferance. It is their duty to reform on a basis of
doctrinal purity and absolute conformity with the Word of God.

4. The Lutheran Church the True Visible Church.--The Lutheran