# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S849
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

264 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

[619]
A Serious Complaint and an Urgent Petition

1. Complaint. —-If the committee members appointed to con-
sider and answer the overtures of the undersigned concerning the
use of one or many cups in Holy Communion and also concerning
the misuse or the proper use of God’s name in China Mission ever ©
have met to take up these matters for definitive or final action, he
has, to date, never seen or heard a single word about it. Much less
have they discussed with him these topics to his satisfaction on the”
basis of, and in the light of, Scripture. Its inactivity naturally has:
not awakened any confidence toward this committee in him, and
neither should the venerable Synod accept any report and judg-
ment coming from them to the Saginaw convention.

2. Petition. — Since Synod may be asked to render a theological’
opinion (Handbook, p.52, E.1), and since all matters of doctrine
and conscience must be decided by Synod only by God’s Word
(Constitution, VIII, C), the undersigned herewith wishes to make °
use of this prerogative and petitions Synod to render at this con-
vention a definite and final opinion in writing on these overtures.
which the undersigned has submitted in the past and which to date
have not been officially answered on the basis of God’s Word. —
I hold that ;

a) According to Matt. 26:26-28, Mark 14: 22-24, Luke 22:19, 20
(cp. 22:17, 18 of the Passover), 1 Cor. 10:16, 17, 21, and 1 Cor. 11:'
23-26 in the Lord’s Supper a common single cup is required, and
therefore a number of individual cups is not permitted; ;

b) According to Ex. 23:13 and also Josh. 23:7, Is. 42:8 what
Hos. 2:16, 17 has been said for the Messianic time ‘about Baal as
a Jewish idol applies likewise to any heathen idol in any Christian’
mission field and therefore also to the heathen idol Shangdi on our
China mission field.

The undersigned makes this petition, not merely in order that
he and others who agree with him may have a good conscience and,
if necessary, correct the same, but that he may also, if he so deems
it necessary, call upon other members of the Synodical Conference ~
for help to clear up this matter, so that God’s honor may be upheld’:
and the divine truth be preserved in the Missouri Synod.

THEO. Hanssen, P. em.