Great Numbers Do Not Make the Church

Dr. Ron M. Garwood quoting Luther, in his essay "The Nature of the Church With Reference To Its Structure," presented to the Wyoming District Convention this year:

Great numbers do not make the church…We must look to the Word alone and judge on the basis of that. For only those who embrace the Word are the ones who will be as immovable forever as Mount Zion, even though they are few in number and very contemptible in the eyes of the world…The church is a daughter, born of the Word;… Therefore whoever loses the Word and instead eagerly looks to influential persons ceases to be the church and lapses into blindness; neither numbers nor power will do him any good. Those who keep the Word, as did Noah and his family, are the church, even though they be very few in number....