Lastly, Luther’s teaching regarding the Church affords a wealth of comfort and sound direction in view of the divided condition of the visible Church.  Through the ignorance and malice of men and through the wily activity of Satan, who creates divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine of Christ, and is busy sowing tares among the wheat, there have arisen many church organizations, known by party names, differing from one another in their creedal statements, and warring upon each other.  This is a sad spectacle to contemplate, and grieves Christian hearts sorely.  But these divisions in the external and visible organizations do not touch the body of Christ, the communion of saints, the one holy Christian Church.  In all ages and places the true believers in Christ are a unit.  Among those who by faith have “put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him, there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free; but Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3, 10. 11).  This is the true Catholic, that is, universal, Church.  The visible society which has usurped this name never was, nor is to-day, the universal Church.  Before Protestantism arose, there was the Eastern Church, which has maintained a separate organization.  This holy Christian Church is indestructible, because the Word of Christ, which is its bond, shall never pass away, and Christ rules even in the midst of His enemies.  Visible church organizations are valuable only in as far as they shelter, and are nurseries of, the invisible Church.  Luther never conceived the idea of founding a visible organization more powerful than the Catholic; he did not mean to pit one ecclesiastical body of men against another.  His single aim was to restore the purity of teaching and the right administration of the Sacraments in accordance with the Scriptures.  That his followers were named after him, we have shown not to be Luther’s fault:  Luther did not form a Church, but reformed the Church; he did not establish a new creed, but reestablished the old.  The visible society of Lutherans to-day does not regard itself as the alone-saving Church, or as immune from error, or as infallible, but it does claim to be the Church of the pure Word and Sacraments.  It knows that it is one in faith with all the children of God throughout the world and in all ages.

20.  Luther on the God-Given Supremacy of the Pope.

In the opinion of Catholics Luther’s greatest offense is what he has done to their Pope.  This is Luther’s unpardonable sin.  Luther has done two things to the Pope:  he has denied that the Pope exists by divine right, and he has in the most scurrilous manner spoken and written about the Pope and made his vaunted dignity the butt of universal ridicule.  The indictment is true, but when the facts are stated, it will be seen to recoil on the heads of those who have drawn it.