# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S485
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

. INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 485

. Church. Just as wheat is to be found only where it has been
;own,.so the Church can be found only where the Word of God
Hin use.

-:26. We teach that this Church, which is the invisible com-
-munion of all believers, is to be found not only in those external
-- church communions which teach the Word of God purely in
every part, but also where, along with error, so much of the
Word of God still remains that men may be brought to the
knowledge of their sins and to faith in the forgiveness of sins,
which Christ has gained for all men, Mark 16, 16; Samaritans:
Luke 17, 16; John 4, 25.

27. Local Churches or Local Congregations. — Holy Scripture,
however, does not speak merely of the one Church, which em-
braces the believers of all places, as in Matt. 16, 18; John 10, 16,
but also of churches in the plural, that is of local churches, as in
1 Cor. 16, 19; 1, 2; Acts 8, 1: the churches of Asia, the church
of God in Corinth, the church in Jerusalem. But this does not
‘ ‘mean that there are two kinds of churches, for the local churches
also, in as far as they are churches, consist solely of believers,
as we see clearly from the addresses of the epistles to local
‘churches; for example, “Unto the church which is at Corinth,
to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,”
1 Cor. 1, 2; Rom. 1, 7, ete. The visible society, containing hypo-
crites as well as believers, is called a church only in an improper
sense, Matt. 18, 47—50. 24—30. 38—43.

28. On Church-Fellowship. — Since God ordained that His
Word only, without the admixture of human doctrine, be taught
and believed in the Christian Church, 1 Pet. 4, 11; John 8, 31. 32;
1 Tim. 6, 3. 4, all Christians are required by God to discriminate
between orthodox and heterodox church-bodies, Matt. 7, 15, to
have church-fellowship only with orthodox church-bodies, and,
in case they have strayed into heterodox church-bodies, to leave
them, Rom. 16,17. We repudiate unionism, that is, church~-fellow-
ship with the adherents of false doctrine, as disobedience to
God’s command, as causing divisions in the Church, Rom. 16, 17;
2 John 9, 10, and as involving the constant danger of losing the
Word of God entirely, 2 Tim. 2, 17—21.

29. The orthodox character of a church is established not by
its mere name nor by its outward acceptance of, and subscription
to, an orthodox creed, but by the doctrine which is actually taught
in its pulpits, in its theological seminaries, and in its publications.
On the other hand, a church does not forfeit its orthodox character
through the casual intrusion of errors, provided these are com-
bated and eventually removed by means of doctrinal discipline,
Acts 20, 30; 1 Tim. 1, 3.