# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S539
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 539

Future Statements of Doctrine
Committee 3 took recognition of paragraphs 12 and 15 in
Memorial 610, the paragraph concerning the Common Confession
in Memorials 614 and 616, while considering Unprinted Memorial 13
of the Northern Pastoral Conference of the Iowa District East and
No. 22 of Pastor A. H. Gebhardt.

ACTION

Wuereas, Several memorials submitted to this Convention
express the opinion that the authors of the Common Confession
should have made fuller use of antithetic statements; and

Wuereas, In the future statements of doctrine may conceivably
be prepared; therefore be it

Resolved, That we recommend to the committees preparing
doctrinal statements to take note of these observations.

Misinterpretation of Doctrinal Documents
Committee 3 considered the following section of Memorial 614,
pages 385—388:

Synod to Exercise Doctrinal Discipline
(Memorial 614)

In its constitution The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
defines the first object for which Synod was organized and on
account of which it exists in the following words: “1. The con-
servation and promotion of the unity of the true faith (Eph. 4:3, 4;
1 Cor. 1:10) and a united defense against schism and sectarianism
(Rom. 16:17).”

We understand the words “conservation and promotion of
the unity of the true faith” to mean that as its very first object
Synod promises to serve as an agency for its member congrega-
tions in endeavoring “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace,” so that within Synod we have only “one faith,” or
doctrine, and that we “all speak the same thing, and that there
be no divisions among” us, “but that” we “be perfectly joined
together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

It is our understanding, furthermore, that Synod has prom-
ised its member congregations to promote and maintain this
unity of the true doctrine by taking whatever evangelical but
firm steps are necessary so that, as our Lutheran Confessions
say, “all unlawful, doubtful, suspicious, and condemned doctrines,
wherever and in whatever books they may be found, and whoever