# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S123
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

CHURCH RELATIONS 123

(3-81)

To Decline or Else Submit
for Referendum

Wuereas, The July 1969 convention of The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod is being asked to declare altar
and pulpit fellowship with The American Lutheran
Church; and

WuerEAS, The unity of which Christ spoke in John 17
was not a physical unity of churches but a unity in
the Holy Spirit and in the one holy Christian church,
as a witness to the world: and

Whereas, Christians should not practice altar and
pulpit fellowship with those who teach contrary to Holy
Scripture; and

Whereas, The Bible, the Lutheran Confessions, and
all orthodox Christians teach that the Bible is the ver-
bally inspired, inerrant Word of God; and

Wuereas, A good number of the professors and
clergy within The ALC have demonstrated the fact that
they do not hold to the Scriptural doctrine of the
inerrancy of the Bible (Preus, “Doctrinal Corcerns”;
J. K. Hadden, Trans-Action, July August 1967); and

Wuereas, The President of The ALC, as a represen-
tative of his church, has explained the doctrine of Scrip-
ture as, “The inerrancy referred to here does not apply
to the text but to the truths revealed for our faith, doc-
trine, and life,” an explanation that is inconsistent with
the Bible and the historic position of the Lutheran
Church (Schiotz, “The Church’s Stand Relative to
the Scriptures”); and

Wuereas, The ALC is a member of the theologically
unsound World Council of Churches: and

Wuereas, The ALC is a member of the liberal Lu-
theran World Federation; and

Wuereas, The 1968 general convention of The ALC
“Resolved, that the American Lutheran Church declare
altar and pulpit fellowship with the Lutheran Church
in America”; and

Wuereas, The Lutheran Church in America is very
liberal in its teaching and belief (Mayer, The Religious
Bodies of America); and

Whereas, The ALC has not condemned the anti-
Scriptural notion that man can cooperate to some extent
in his own conversion (Preus, “Doctrinal Concerns”);
and

WHEREAS, There is evidence to indicate that “process
theology” is gaining acceptance within The ALC (Preus,
“Doctrinal Concerns”): and

Wuereas, “Process theology” is an attempt “to fuse
modern evolutionary theory with arbitrarily selected
elements of the scriptural heritage’ (Dr. Henry, “The
Reality and Identity of God,” Christianity Tcday, March
14, 1969); and

Wuereas, Christians should not declare altar and
pulpit fellowship with those whose practices violate

correct use of the doctrine of the Holy Gospel and the
correct administration of the sacraments; and

Whereas, The ALC permits those within her fellow-
ship to remain members of Christ-denying organiza-
tions that teach that Jesus Christ is not God and that
man must work his own way to heaven (Preus, “Doc-
trinal Concerns’); and

Wuereas, Membership in such anti-Christian orga-
nizations has been correctly condemned by our synodi-
cal Constitution (Handbook, Bylaws 14.07); and

WuerEas, It is self-evident that written official doc-
uments are inadequate for the establishment of altar
and pulpit fellowship: and

WHEREAS, The practice and public doctrine of The
ALC has been shown to have within it a marked diver-
gence from Biblical truth (Preus, “Doctrinal Con-
cerns”); and

Wuereas, A number of our professors and leaders
have expressed serious concerns over the proposed
establishment of altar and pulpit fellowship (ten pro-
fessors from the Springfield seminary; Dr. J. A. O.
Preus, president of Concordia Seminary, Springfield;
Dr. Robert Preus, St. Louis seminary); and

Wuereas, Each congregation within The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod should have the democratic
privilege of voting on whether or not The LCMS should
declare fellowship with The ALC; and

Wuereas, It would not be fair nor would it be Chris-
tian to ignore the consciences and sincere feeling of
many Missouri Synod Christians, both clergy and lay-
men, by allowing only a convention resolution to ap-
prove such a great and sweeping change in the position
of our church body; therefore be it

Resolved, That we petition The Lutheran Church —
Missouri Synod to decline establishing altar and pulpit
fellowship with The American Lutheran Church; and
be it further

Resolved, That if The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod in convention in July 19€9 votes to establish altar
and pulpit fellowship with The American Lutheran
Church, the Synod submit the matter of altar and pulpit
fellowship with The American Lutheran Church to
a congregational referendum.
St. JoHN’s LUTHERAN CHURCH
Brunswick, Mo.
RicHarp LEIMKUEHLER, President
L. J. ScHWIEBERT, Pastor

(3-82)

To Decline or Else to Require
2 3 Referendum Majority

Wuereas, God’s Word states: “Now I beseech you,
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divi-
sions among you; but that you be perfectly joined
together in the same mind and in the same judgment”
(1 Cor. 1:10): and