# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S495
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 495

which our Synod is accused of what is termed the “old Missouri
ieresy” in the doctrine of election and of errors in justification, in
conversion, and in other doctrines.
~~ ‘The explanation given by the Fellowship Committee for the
opposition to the Doctrinal Affirmation prevailing in the American
Lutheran Church was published in the Lutheran Witness of 1946,
_ page 378, and in the Lutheraner of 1946, page 376. In the opinion
‘of the American Lutheran Church, as stated by the Fellowship
Committee, the Doctrinal Affirmation is a unification rather than
“a combination of the Brief Statement and the Declaration, because
- it gives preference everywhere to the Brief Statement. The Doc-
trinal Affirmation was unacceptable to the American Lutheran
Church, because it canceled the position for which the American
- Lutheran Church stood in the Declaration; the Declaration stood
for a certain attitude given freedom under God and His Word,
as explained by the Fellowship Committee. Complaint was made
that important statements of the Declaration were omitted in
. framing the Affirmation which were regarded as safeguards, and
so the Doctrinal Affirmation, it was contended, failed to make for
better understanding but rather invited new controversies.
The “Clarifications” were said to be even less acceptable,
because they nullified what little had been brought into the Doc-
trinal Affirmation from the Declaration and because they con-
tained statements that could not be approved.
In the meeting of your Committee with the Fellowship Com-
mittee it was stated by the representatives of the American Lu-
theran Church that the Brief Statement and the Declaration pre-
sented two trends of thoughts, that they expressed differences in
doctrine which do exist, but which in the opinion of the Fellowship
Committee do not preclude fellowship. Such differences were said
to exist in the doctrines of election, of conversion, of the Church,
and regarding the “Last Things.” The Fellowship Committee held
that in respect to our two bodies the phrase “doctrinal agreement”
should not be used, because doctrinal agreement does not exist.
The statements in this paragraph were the basis of the report
published by your Committee in the Lutheraner of March 4, 1947,
page 67. (For a modification of these statements see remarks made
later in this report.)
Assembled at Appleton, in October of 1946, the American Lu-
theran Church adopted the following resolution on fellowship:
“WuerEas, The attempt to formulate a unified doctrinal state-
ment, such as the Doctrinal Affirmation, has not produced a
‘Jocument generally acceptable; and
“Wuereas, After years of effort in this direction, we despair

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