# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1959_S14
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

14 DOCTRINAL ESSAY

In the hymn “Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide” we pray:

In these last days of sore distress

Grant us, dear Lord, true steadfastness

That pure we keep, till life is spent,

Thy holy Word and Sacrament. (L. H., Hymn 292)
In the powerful Reformation hymn “O Lord, Look Down from
Heaven, Behold” we pray with Luther:

Defend Thy truth, O God, and stay

This evil generation;

And from the error of its way

Keep Thine own congregation.

The wicked everywhere abound

And would Thy little flock confound;

But Thou art our Salvation. (L.H., Hymn 260)

In all these and other prayers and hymns of our Christian
heritage we confess: (1) that there is such a reality as “doctrine”;
(2) that there is “pure doctrine”; (3) that there is “false and per-
nicious doctrine,” “corrupt teaching,” and that there are “corrup-
ters of God’s Word”; (4) that there are those who have erred
because they were ensnared by “false doctrine”; (5) that because
of “false doctrine” schisms exist in the church; (6) that Satan has
a hand in “false doctrine”; (7) that we recognize only Christ as
our Master, our Teacher, in determining what is “true” and “false
doctrine”; (8) that we need to pray for the gift and preservation of
“pure doctrine.”

But all these confessions which we have enumerated are not
merely the product of pious, devout Christian hearts, but they are
also the echo and reflection of what Scripture itself as the Word
of God says regarding “doctrine,” “pure doctrine,” “false doctrine,”
“error,” “heresy,” and similar realities. It would now be in order
to investigate and tell in greater detail, therefore, precisely what
Scripture has to say about “doctrine” and related terms. This we
hope to do in the four-part essay we plan to present. But before
submitting our first essay, we wish at this point to say a few words
regarding the term “doctrine” as we find it about fifty times in the
New Testament in order to clear the path for what we shall submit
in the following essay.

The New Testament employs the term “doctrine” in forty-eight
passages as a translation of two Greek terms (didaché and
didaskalia) which are closely related etymologically and in their
meaning and usage. These terms nearly always appear in the
singular and are rendered in the KJ Version with “doctrine.” The
plural “doctrines” occurs in only two passages. Jesus charges the
scribes and Pharisees: “In vain they do worship Me, teaching for
doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9; Mark 7: 7). And
Paul writes to Timothy: “The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the