# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S518
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

“WHAT IS A DOCTRINE?” 507

church unity. Since this article is speaking of “true
spiritual unity, without which there can be no faith
in the heart nor righteousness in the heart before
God,” 33 it is not in the first instance a programmatic
statement for the establishment of denominational fel-
lowship. Nevertheless, it has important implications for
the latter. A pure understanding of the Gospel, and
therefore correct preaching of the Gospel, calls for a
correct understanding of the articles of faith treated in
the Augsburg Confession, defended in its Apology, and
explained in the remaining Lutheran Confessions, par-
ticularly the Formula of Concord. All articles of faith
are integrally related to the Gospel and articulate the
Gospel from different perspectives. Consequently the
preaching of the Gospel according to a pure under-

33 Apology, VI, 31; Tappert, p. 174.

standing of it is not possible where any article of faith
is either falsified or denied.

8. As demonstrated in the Theology of Fellowship ,3+
the establishment of pulpit and altar fellowship between
denominations depends on unity in the faith, or what
the Confessions call “mutual agreement in {the] doctrine
and all its articles.” 3* Because of the ambiguities and
various usages of the term “doctrine,” the church in
dealing with the question of fellowship would do well
to utilize the concept “article of faith.’ Used by the
church long before the Reformation, this term was hon-
ored by the Reformers, the framers of the Lutheran
Confessions, the Lutheran dogmaticians, and the fathers
of the Missouri Synod.

34 Proceedings, 1965, pp. 264—291.
35 Formula of Concord, Epitome, X, 7; Tappert, p. 493.