# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1959_S15
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

DOCTRINAL ESSAY 15

latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seduc-
ing spirits and doctrines of devils.” (1 Tim. 4:1)

Furthermore, it is significant that in the original text of the
New Testatment the term “doctrine” is in nearly every instance
preceded by the definite article “the.” Thus Paul tells Timothy,
“Take heed unto the doctrine’ (KJ). This means that the speaker
or writer, such as Jesus, Paul, or John, has something quite def-
inite and well known in mind. Jesus had made known His doctrine
through His preaching and teaching (John 7:16; 18:19) in the
synagogs, in the temple in Jerusalem, along the shores of the
Galilean Sea, and in the desert places to which He withdrew with
His disciples. Also Paul’s and John’s doctrine had, as a result of
their preaching, become well known. It never took long for people
to find just what it was that Paul and John or, for that matter, any
of the other apostles or their assistants, or evangelists or prophets,
were preaching and teaching. And so we conclude that when either
one of the two Greek terms, both translated “doctrine” in the KJ
Version, appear in the NT, these terms refer in the overwhelming
majority of instances to a specific, well-known “doctrine,” and that,
since both terms appear in the singular in the sense of the doctrine
of God communicated by Christ and His apostles, that divine doc-
trine is “one.” Just as there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one
Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all (Eph. 4:4, 5),
so there is but one doctrine. That one doctrine embraces God’s
entire revelation to man and is centered in Jesus Christ and His
salvation. Luther is therefore right when he says in his lectures on
Galatians (1531): “Doctrine must be a round and golden ring
without a break.” And Luther adds the illustration: “If I deny
God in one article, I do so in all” (WA II, 47, 3. 48, 6). Again, Lu-
ther uses the illustration of a bell whose sound is impaired if it has
only a very minor crack (WA 54, 159, 1: “Kurzes Bekenntnis vom
heiligen Sakrament,” 1544). Luther concludes: “Rund und rein
gantz und alles gegleubt oder nichts gegleubt, Der heilige Geist
lest sich nicht trennen noch teilen, das er ein stiick solt warhafitig
und das ander falsch leren oder gleuben lassen.” (WA 54, 158, 28)

Though there is only one doctrine, we do, of course, speak of
“doctrines” of Scripture. The Augsburg Confession, to which we
as Lutherans subscribe, presents twenty-one articles which it terms
“articles of faith and doctrine.” Luther’s Small Catechism, which
the Formula of Concord calls the “Bible of the Laity,” is composed
of a number of chief parts of Christian doctrine. In teaching “doc-
trine” to our students and pupils, we naturally categorize aspects
of God’s “doctrine” for the purpose of accenting and exhaustively
dealing with every facet of the “doctrine.” And yet the “doctrine”
is one, It is God’s one revelation to man of Himself and of His