# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S347 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) de and also publish such proceedings. {NTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 479 . pre q qe Raise the president of Valparaiso University and several fie Schools “ Issues d by “A Statement” two editors of the Lutheran Witness, and one or more Pe geRnEAS, The resolution to adopt the five doctrinal statements of synodical Districts. It can be seen that men in these eeate . W es 401 and 402 of the 1947 Reports and Memorials was wield a potentially very great influence not only upon the i ff oo vt order by the chairman, because he held that such of their congregations within our fellowship, but also tpon ea 4 rule ion conflicted with a previous resolution of the Chicago vention to study the questions at issue (cf. Proceedings, 1947, con’ abroad. The continued toleration and/or appointment “of and 4 523); and | men to such positions of influence is another indication that ni 5 Pp. WHEREAS, This ruling of the chairman, sustained by the con- yention, can only mean that until a study of these matters has been ‘completed, Synod does not know what God actually teaches o these five points; and Wuereas, Such action is a suspension of the Scriptural position : ; nsistently held by Synod and a deplorable failure to confess the as a persistently unionistic church body and withdraw from in ‘ rath of God; and cae ‘Qu 186 Dy: Brief Statement, par. 28 and 29; Synodical Waereas, Synod, being a confessional fellowship, at all times of Sena , Qu ; therefore we, the undersigned members owes to its member congregations and its individual members a , clear and unmistakable definition of its doctrinal position and con- Respectfully request and urgently require the honorable Ly. fession; and theran Church — Missouri Synod, at its convention assembled in Waeneas, The Preface of the Book of Concord specifically warns Milwaukee, 1950: that “The result of these things, at length, is that the pure doc- 1. Not merely to Te-state its true Scriptural Position in a pos; trine is obscured and lost, and nothing is transmitted to posterity tive manner, as it did in 1947 by its reaffirmation of the Bay except academical opinions and suspensions of judgment” (Tri- Statement, but also by resolution specifically to reject and disavow glotta, p. 23); now therefore be it the afore-mentioned doctrinal errors: Resolved, That we petition our sister congregations in conven- 2. That Synod, through its President, in accordance with tion assembled at Milwaukee to adopt the five doctrinal statements Synod’s Constitution, Article XI, b. 2, continue to admonish the found on pages 401 and 402 of the 1947 Reports and Memorials, District Presidents, all officers of Synod, and all such as are to wit: a Pale “ved py Synod, who, as shown in this memorial, have departed “1. In conformity with its position on church fellowship ex- Articles XI and Lu. Position required in Synod’s Constitution, pressed in A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Evan- ~~ gelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, para- graphs 28 and 29, Synod rejects as antiscriptural any assertion that XII, 8, require its District Presidents, after due admonition, to sus- there are details of doctrine which are not divisive of church fel- lowship though they conflict with or add to the teachings of Scripture and are persistently advocated. “2. In conformity with its position on unionism, which is de- fined in Paragraph 28 of the Brief Statement as ‘church fellowship with the adherents of false doctrine,’ Synod rejects as untenable any opinion that unionism does not take place unless those who participate in joint religious work or worship with persistent error- ists explicitly deny the truth or approve of error by positive word or action, because such an opinion disregards the Scriptural truth basic to this teaching that every act of church fellowship with the pastors, Professors, and teachers in their respective Districts who persistently adhere to the afore-mentioned doctrinal errors, (Signed) (Rev.) A. T. KRETZMANN, Crete, Ill. (Rev.) Wattace H. McLaveuun, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Rev.) H. D. MEnsINe, Tinley Park, Ill. Signatures attested by (Rev.) H. D. MENsINc Tinley Park, IIL, April 5, 1950