# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S325
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

434 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

In June, 1948, a subcommittee of the two larger corimi
met to draw up recommendations for future negotiations.

At its Fremont Convention in 1948: the American Lutheran
Church continued its Committee on Intersynodical Fellowship,
However, “in the interest of prompter and more effective wor,»
the Committee was divided into three subcommittees, one of which
was charged to “work on a single statement of the faith of the
church” with the Missouri Synod Committee. This subcommittee
of the A.L.C. consists of Dr. Edward C. Fendt and Dr, Bernard
J. Holm. On January 6 and 7, 1949, our Committee on Doctrina]
Unity met in Chicago to study developments up to that time, On
the 7th a meeting was held with Drs. Fendt and Holm, in which it
was resolved to authorize two men of our Committee to work with
these representatives of the American Lutheran Church in the
drafting of a “single statement of the faith.” Dr. Fritz and Pastor
Jurgens were elected to represent our Synod in this subcommittee
work. On February 12, in St. Louis, the topics and general prin-
ciples. of the single statement were agreed upon, as well as the
mode of procedure, namely, that each man write a set of theses
and bring them to the next meeting. This plan was followed.

On August 29 and 30, 1949, the twelve articles were drawn up,

and a copy of the draft was sent to each member of the large
committees for study and criticism. Each larger committee met to
study the first draft, the American Lutheran Church committee
in Chicago, September 15, our Committee on Doctrinal Unity in
St. Louis, September 16. The criticisms were referred to the sub-
committee which met on October 21, and a copy of the revised
draft was again sent to each member of the larger committees.
‘On December 5 and 6 a plenary session of the committees was
held in which the document was. once more thoroughly and con-
scientiously discussed as to its Scriptural accuracy, its historical
implications, and its contemporary adequacy. At the conclusion
of the second day’s work it was unanimously approved by the two
official committees as their report to their respective church bodies.
It'is herewith respectfully submitted to Synod for adoption.

Common Confession
In order to give expression to our cominon#Christian faith, we
hereby: declare the following to be our -mutual conviction and
testimony?’ -
We believe and teach: I ,
The one and only. God is the God Who has revealed Himself to
us as the Creator of the world and its Preserver, to Whom the entire

creation and all creatures are subject, Who is Lord and Ruler over
all things. Through the Holy Scriptures He has revealed Himself

INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 435

Righteous and Holy One, and also as the God of our
tous as tem Sin and death. He has designated and manifested
salva 1f as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the work of creation,
Hine’ tion, and sanctification. We therefore confess our faith in
rede ne ‘God, three distinct Persons in the one Godhead.
this All men can know of the existence and activity of God, deriving

ch knowledge from_the creation of the world, their own con-
# ence and history. But who God is, how He is minded toward
so ‘and what He has done for man’s salvation from sin, can be
known only from God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ
through the Holy Scriptures. In Jesus Christ, God became in-
carnate. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth,” John 1:14,
Cf. Acts 14:15-17; 17: 24-31; Romans 1:19-20; 2: 14-15; I Cor, 2: 10-14;
Eph. 2; Col. 1; HI Tim, 3:14-17; Heb. 1-2.
‘
?

II. Man

We believe and teach:

God in the beginning created man in His own image to live
according to His law which God had written into man’s heart; but
man disobeyed God and thereby became a sinner, alienating himself
from God, and bringing sin and death upon himself and all his
posterity. “As by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,”
Rom. 5:12. Therefore all men are born into this world with original
sin; and being unable to observe God’s divine commands, they
willfully continue to transgress God’s holy law in thoughts, words,
and deeds. Man as sinner has delivered himself into the bondage
of sin and of the devil, from which man cannot free himself by his
own powers. From this desperate condition and tyranny only God
can set man free.

Cf. Genesis 1-3; Psalm 51 & 130; Romans 1-7; Eph. 4:24; Heb. 2:14-18.

III. Redemption
We believe and teach:

God from eternity decreed to send, and in the fullness of time
did send, His Son to fallen man as Savior, to fulfill the law in the
sinner’s stead and to suffer the sinner’s punishment in his stead.
Christ “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our
justification,” Rom. 4:25. God “laid on Him the iniquity of us all,”
Is. 53:6. Christ entered into death in order to bring man, held in the
grip of death, unto life with: Himself. In. His victory over death He
brings to man a life of freedom from death. God by raising Christ
from the dead proclaimed to the world that He has accepted: the
atonement for man’s ‘sin. as completed, and that Christ, the. risen
and exalted God-Man, shall reign as Lord forever. ; ‘

Cf. Isaiah 53; Matt. 20:28; Luke 24; John 11 & 14; Acts 2:22-36;
TCor.15; If Cor.5:14-21; I Tim. 2: 4-6; I Peter 1: 18-25.

IV. Election °
We believe and teach:
God from eternity, solely because of. His grace in Christ and

without. any cause whatever in man, elected as His own all those
whom He makes and keeps members of His kingdom and heirs of