"Prologue Concerning Reason, Purpose, and Contents of This Publication."
                         by C. F. W. Walther, 1811-1887
                      Translated by Erika Bullmann Flores
                 From: _Der Lutheraner_, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-

It seems that the German population in the Western part of the United States is
increasing daily, and with them the number of those who confess the faith which
Luther once preached to the Germans.  However, no other religious community is
as forsaken as the members of the evangelical-Lutheran community.  Numerous as
they may be--those who still call themselves Lutherans--they live so scattered
from each other; they are stripped and bare of all means, and in many places
are unable to organize a congregation and call a minister to serve them. Thus
the German Lutherans are sorely tempted to abandon their father's faith, and
either totally disregard church, worship service and such, or seek fulfilment
of their spiritual needs in other, already existing congregations.  Therefore,
in these parts of their new fatherland, our precious brothers-in-the-faith  are
in need of encouragement to remain true to their faith; they need to be warned
of the dangers of apostasy which is threatening here; they need the tools
necessary to defend themselves against those who deny that what they have
learned in their youth from the Catechism is the true faith; they need the
assurance that the church to which they profess to belong has not disappeared;
and that therefore they do not have cause to seek refuge at other
congregations.

 This need, felt by many, and the certainty that it is our duty to give an
 account to our fellow citizens what our church believes and teaches and what
 the bases for our actions are, all this has moved the undersigned, together
 with several colleagues and brothers-in-faith in Missouri and Illinois, to
 produce a publication with the above title.  It is to serve the following
 purpose:  

 	1. To make known the teachings, the treasure and the history 
	of the Lutheran Church.

 	2. To prove that this church is not one of the Christian sects 
	and is not a new church, but the old, true church of Jesus 
	Christ on earth, and that she is not dead, yea - she cannot die 
	according to Christ's promise: "And lo, I am with you every day, 
	until the end of the world."

 	3. Our publication shall be useful in showing how the true 
	Lutheran has the true faith, lives a Christian life, suffers 
	patiently, and dies blessedly, and

 	4. Uncover false, misleading teachings and prove them wrong, 
	advising caution, and especially unmask those who falsely call 
	themselves Lutherans and under this name spread false teachings, 
	unbelief and reverie, and in this manner evoke the worst kinds
 	of prejudices against our church. There might be many, who are 
	doubtful of our ability to fulfill this chosen purpose; or they 
	may fear that this publication was conceived in the spirit of 
	intolerance and thus invoke and feed into the hate of those who 
	believe differently. 

 	In answer to the former: We ourselves realize better than anyone 
	else how lacking we are in editorial skills of a Christian 
	publication, however, we know that in matters pertaining to God the 
	ability to be useful to our brothers does not depend on great 
	wisdom and eloquence, but rather on a truly living comprehension
 	of the saving truth and a simple witness thereof.  By the
 	way, we intend to let the most ingenious teachers of our church 
	speak to you, especially Luther. We are of the opinion that this 
	fact alone will make our publication's contents valuable enough to 
	enable the reader to tolerate our own supplemental contributions.

 	As to the latter, the readers' perception and opinion will soon 
	improve, once they have read several issues carefully and without 
	prejudice.  We ourselves were captive of various errors for quite 
	some time, and God was patient with us and finally showed us the 
	way of the truth; in view of this we too will be patient with our 
	erring neighbors and through God's mercy refrain from all
 	judgment. We will not censure the erring person, but rather his 
	error. 
 
 Neither will we present ourselves as if we  were the only true-Lutherans who
 are in possession of the truth, but rather we will give witness that God has
 done great things for us and brought us to the living knowledge of the saving
 truth.  

				St. Louis, Mo., August 1844
 				C.F. W. Walther
				Pastor of the local EV.- Luth. Congregation
 				Of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession
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       This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by
       Erika Bullmann Flores and is in the public domain.  You may freely
       distribute, copy or print this text.  Please direct any comments
       or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at
       Concordia Theological Seminary.
       
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