# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S830
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 247

trict (Synodalbericht 1867, p. 16) said, “Der Unterschied zwischen
Rotte und Spaltung wurde an dem Beispiele der Chiliasten nach-
gewiesen. ‘ Wenn naemlich ein Haufen Leute den groben Chilias-
mus annimmt, welcher offenbar klare Grundlehren des Heils um-
stoesst, so bilden diese Leute eine Rotte. Wenn aber eine Anzahl
Leute sich von der Kirche absondern, indem sie den subtilen Chi-
liasmus, also zwar einen Irrthum, aber nicht einen grundstuerzen-
den, festhalten, so richten sie eine Spaltung auf” (“The difference
between a sect and a schismatic communion was demonstrated by
‘the example of the chiliasts. If, namely, a group of people accept
gross chiliasm, which evidently subverts clear fundamental truths
of salvation, then these people constitute a sect. But if a number
of people separate themselves from the Church by subtle chiliasm,
in other words, if they cling to an error indeed, but one which is
not subversive of the foundation of faith, then they establish’ a
schismatic communion”) ; and

Wuereas, In the publication Toward Lutheran Union (1943),
p.54, Thesis VI has been translated, “Communions destroying the
unity of the Church on account of non-fundamental errors or per-
sonalities or ceremonies or wicked life according to God’s Word
are schismatic or separatistic communions,” which according to the
context leaves the impression that those separating from errorists
° -who teach falsely in non-fundamental doctrines are schismatics and
"separatists; and
_ ‘Wueneas, It has been stated in the American Lutheran, 1942,
p. 167, “When the Lutheran Church, which adheres to the sola
Scriptura principle, uses the word doctrine with reference to its
own teachings, it can mean only a restatement of what is clearly
‘(or expressly) taught in the Scriptures, a teaching for whose every
part there is a plain ‘Thus saith the Lord’” and which has been
repeated by the author of that article on January 7, 1944, in the
words, “granting doctrinal status only to restatements of what. is
expressly taught in the Bible”; and

Wuergas, According to a private opinion by Dr. P. E. Kretz-
mann; “If the corpus doctrinae of the Lutheran Church should con-
tain only those teachings which we find in those exact words in
: statements of Scripture, it would constitute a very small com-
‘+ pendium indeed”; and

Wuerras, The question of what constitutes doctrine involves
the very foundation of our. Christian faith, as the Western District
_(Synodalbericht, 1868 p.29) declared: “Der Grundsatz der ev.-
luth. Kirche, dass auch die Lehren biblische seien, welche sich nur
als Schlussfolgerungen aus Bibelworten ergeben” ist “so wichtig,
dass fast Niemand den seligmachenden Glauben haben und be-