# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1959_S23
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

DOCTRINAL ESSAY 23

apostolic period. We give thanks to God for the Augsburg Con-
fession and its Apology, for Luther’s Catechisms, and the other
writings which we call our Lutheran Symbols. We note, whenever
we read them, the deep concern of these confessors that the Word
of God be proclaimed and taught in its purity and the sacraments
administered according to Christ’s institution. We note in these
symbols the condemnations of grievous errors and heresies which
disturbed the church since the early centuries. And as we reflect
a bit on the great orthodox teachers of the late sixteenth and the
early seventeenth century, we again thank God for having given
the church these teachers, whose genuine concern was to help pre-
serve the truth recovered in the Reformation and to guard it
against the incursions of false Roman and Reformed teachings.

We think of the great Christian leaders whom God gave to
our own church, men who left Europe for conscience’ sake and
came to our country in the hope that here they could worship
God according to convictions founded on the pure Word of God as
summarized in our Lutheran Symbols. And we think, with deep
gratitude, also of the great leaders of our church in the generations
following Walther, Wyneken, Sihler, and others; for these, too, pas-
tors, missionaries, and teachers were equally devoted to the con-
cern of preserving pure doctrine and defending it against all errors.
Our own generation needs to ask itself whether it is as truly con-
cerned about God’s doctrine and truth as were the fathers and
forefathers, or whether it is, because of many temptations within
and without the church, yielding to an indifferent attitude toward
doctrinal values. When a church increases statistically, it is in
great temptation to become more concerned about organization
and administration matters, about rapid expansion methods, about
uniformity in worship, about public relations, than about its doc-
trinal basis and heritage. All these phases of church activity have
their place; but they must always occupy a place subordinate to
the doctrine of the church. For the church must first of all give
evidence to its members and to the world that it stands wholly
committed to “all that Christ commanded His disciples”; it must
constantly be on the alert in all its projects and activities that
“sound,” “pure” doctrine be proclaimed and taught and that the
life of the church reflect God’s love in Christ through the church’s
love of the brethren and through its endeavor to evangelize all
nations.

We are living in a day of almost incredible scientific research.
We are also living in a day of almost incredible Scriptural research
carried on philologically, archaeologically, philosophically, and
psychologically. No one will question that such research has re-
sulted in values. But we dare never become blind to the dangers