# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S124
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

124 CHURCH RELATIONS

Wuereas, The essays adopted by the commissioners
of The American Lutheran Church and The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod are a beautiful exposition of
the Lutheran Confessions, as far as they go, still they
do not deal specifically and adequately with the par-
ticular issues that we face in our day and time: “verbal
inspiration” and its corollary, “the inerrancy of Scrip-
ture” in all its parts, also in those which deal with the
natural sciences, history, geography, numbers, etc.; and

Wuereas, A matter so important as church fellowship
should not be determined by officials and conventions,
and imposed on the local congregation without their
having a voice; and

Wuereas, The ALC has voted to have fellowship with
the most liberal of all Lutheran bodies, the Lutheran
Church in America, and this in effect would weaken
our position on the Scriptures if we establish fellowship
with The ALC; and

Wuereas, The President of The ALC (as well as the
President of the Lutheran Church in America) is on
the operating board of the World Council of Churches,
which disregards the doctrine of the separation of
church and state, and has communistic overtones; and

Whereas, It is evident that Freemasonry and similar
organizations are a definite challenge to Christianity and
to the doctrine of Grace Alone, and would in effect
be a denial of the heart of the Gospel, and should there-
fore be actively opposed by all members of our church;
and

Wuereas, Religious unionism, sharing of altars and
pulpits by those who are not agreed, is running rampant
in The ALC and also in particular in the Austin area
of the same; be it therefore

Resolved, That St. Paul, Austin, Tex., request Synod
not to enter into fellowship with The American Lu-
theran Church at this time: and be it further

Resolved, That if the Synod does vote to enter into
fellowship with The ALC at this time, the issue then be
referred to a synodical congregation-by-congregation
referendum requiring a 24 favorable vote for final rati-
fication and implementation.
St. Pau LUTHERAN CONGREGATION
Austin, Tex.
WituiaM L. RieEGErR, President
Martin R. THANZ, Secretary
ALBERT F. JESSE, Pastor

(3-83)

To Wait with Declaring Fellowship
and Then to Require a Referendum

Wuereas, The Denver convention of The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod is to deal with the matter
of altar and pulpit fellowship with The American Lu-
theran Church; and

Wuereas, God-pleasing and Scriptural fellowship
requires unity of doctrine and practice (“Can two walk
together except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3; “I beseech

you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and
offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned;
and avoid them” Rom. 16:17; “Now I beseech you,
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divi-
sions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined to-
gether in the same mind and in the same judgment”
(1 Cor. 1:10); and

Whereas, On the basis of three circulated essays, it
is assumed that a basis for altar and pulpit fellowship
with The ALC exists; and

Wuereas, In fact, officials of The ALC and teachers
in their colleges and seminaries, in published books and
publications, show a different position on revelation,
inspiration, and inerrancy of Scripture from that which
our Synod has always held. For example, while the
Constitution of The ALC states: “The American Lu-
theran Church accepts all the canonical books of the
Old and New Testament as a whole and in all their
parts as the divinely inspired, revealed, and inerrant
Word of God, and submits to this as the only infallible
authority in all matters of life,’ Dr. Fredrick A, Schiotz,
President of The ALC, in the publication “The Church's
Confessional Stand Relative to the Scriptures,’ says
of this paragraph in the Constitution: “The American
Lutheran Church holds that the inerrancy referred to
here does not apply to the text but to the truths revealed
for our faith, doctrine, and life.” At Luther College,
one of the oldest and most venerable schools of The
ALC, the entire religion department appears to be
committed to a denial of the verbal inspiration and
truthfulness of Scripture. Prof. Harris Kaasa in Theo-
logical Perspectives: A Discussion of Contemporary
Issues in Lutheran Theology, pp. 17—18, states: “A sec-
ond fateful point in the theology of Orthodoxy was its
formulation of the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scrip-
ture.... But in asserting inerrancy — and by inerrancy
is meant the inerrancy in all respects (religious, geo-
graphical, historical, scientific) — they claimed some-
thing which the Bible does not claim for itself.” Dr.
Paul Jersild, Assistant Professor of Religion at Luther
College, writes in the college bulletin, Luther, IV, 2
(Spring 1967): “We who teach at Luther College can-
not subscribe to Scriptural inerrancy because our
knowledge of Scriptures prevents us from making such
a claim.” Prof. Charles S. Anderson, Luther Theological
Seminary, one of The ALC commissioners responsible
for the essay, “The Lutheran Confessions and ‘Sola
Scriptura," wrote in a book, The Reformation, Then
and Now, p.104: “This is not the first century, nor is
it the sixteenth. We add to the offense of the Gospel
when we insist on presenting it in ancient dress. For
example, the biblical writers, inspired by God to pre-
sent His Word, His answer, wrote against the back-
ground of their view of the world. Their ideas of sci-
ence, i.e. geography, are not essential to the Christian
answer, they are not relevant, in some instances they
are not even correct.’ Others could be quoted, such
as teachings set forth by Dr. Robert Jensen, Dr. Wilfred