# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S492
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

492 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

as a whole is permitted to develop or augment the Christian
doctrine, but are rather ordered and commanded by God to con-
tinue in the doctrine of the apostles, 2 Thess. 2,15; Acts 2, 42, open
questions must remain open questions. — Not to be included in
the number of open questions are the following: the doctrine of the
Church and the Ministry, of Sunday, of Chiliasm, and of Anti-
christ, these doctrines being clearly defined in Scripture.

Of the Symbols of the Lutheran Church.

45. We accept as our confessions all the symbols contained in
the Book of Concord of the year 1580. — The symbols of the
Lutheran Church are not a rule of faith beyond, and supplementary
to, Scripture, but a confession of the doctrines of Scripture over
against those who deny these doctrines.

46. Since the Christian Church cannot make doctrines, but
can and should simply profess the doctrine revealed in Holy Scrip-
ture, the doctrinal decisions of the symbols are binding upon the
conscience not because our Church has made them nor because
they are the outcome of doctrinal controversies, but only because
they are the doctrinal decisions of Holy Scripture itself.

47. Those desiring to be admitted into the public ministry
of the Lutheran Church pledge themselves to teach according to
the symbols not “in so far as,” but “because,” the symbols agree
with Scripture. He who is unable to accept as Scriptural the doc-
trine set forth in the Lutheran symbols and their rejection of
the corresponding errors must not be admitted into the ministry
of the Lutheran Church.

48. The confessional obligation covers all doctrines, not only
those that are treated ex professo, but also those that are merely
introduced in support of other doctrines.

The obligation does not extend to historical statements,
“purely exegetical questions,” and other matters not belonging
to the doctrinal content of the symbols. All doctrines of the
Symbols are based on clear statements of Scripture.

Report of the Committee on Doctrinal Unity
in the Lutheran Church of America
(Memorial 601)

In 1938, when the Committee on Lutheran Union, as it was then
called, made its first report, Synod, assembled at St. Louis, declared
by resolution “the Brief Statement of the Missouri Synod together
with the Declaration of the representatives of the American Lu-
theran Church and the provisions of this entire report of Com-
mittee 16 now being read and with Synod’s action thereupon, be

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