# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S550 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) THEOLOGY OF FELLOWSHIP 530 depart from the truth, but also subvert the faith of others, 2 Tim. 3:13; that they bring in damnable sects, 2 Peter 2:1; that they are deceivers, going out into the world and bringing in strange doctrines, 2 John 7,10. Finally, unless there is added to error, which attacks the foundation, stubbornness it cannot yet be judged to be and to be called heresy in the proper sense. For this evil is to be sought neither wholly in the intellect, nor only in the will. For even as the true and saving faith embraces at the same time knowl- edge in the mind, and assent and trust in the will, so heresy embraces at the same time error in the intellect, and, in the will, stubbornness. . - Augustine says, 1.18, De Civitate Dei, c. 51: “Those in the Church of Christ who savor anything mor- bid and depraved, and, on being corrected that they may savor what is wholesome and right, contumaciously resist, and will not mend their pestiferous and deadly dogmas, but persist in defending them, are heretics.” On the other hand, as the same man writes (Epist. 162): “Those who maintain their own opinion, however false and perverted, without obstinate ill will, especially those who have not originated their own error by bold presumption, but received it from parents who had been led astray and had lapsed, those who seek truth with careful in- dustry, ready to be corrected when they have found it, are by no means to be rated among heretics... .” Finally Gerhard gives his own view concerning what is be considered heresy, and who is to be called a heretic: From all this it is possible to establish the fact that the following factors must be present if a person is properly to be called a heretic: 1. He must be a member of the visible church, received through the sacrament of baptism; 2. He must err in the faith, either that he introduces a new error, or that he embraces an error which he has accepted from another (although the former seems to fit the heresiarch, the latter the heretic) ... 3. That the error impinge directly on the very founda- tion of the faith; 4, That to the error is joined malice and stubbornness, through which he. although admonished repeatedly, nevertheless defends his error obstinately; 5. That he stirs up dissensions and offenses in the church, and splits its unity. It is to heretics thus defined that Gerhard then applies the Scripture passages which have traditionally been quoted in the Synodical Conference against every form of unionism. It appears that Dr. C. F. W. Walther, the diligent and astute student of Gerhard’s Loci, had such a concept of heretic in mind when in 1852 he formulated the second thesis of his book, Die Stimme unserer Kirche in der Frage von Kirche und Amt (Erlangen, 1875): “Zu der Kirche im eigentlichen Sinne des Wortes gehoert kein Gottloser, kein Heuchler, kein Unwiedergeborener, kein Ketzer.” °5 In theological parlance a dogma is a teaching estab- lished by divine revelation and formally defined by the church through a council or a pope. Cf, Marvin Halverson and Arthur A. Cohen, eds.. A Handbook of Christian The- ology (New York, 1958), pp. 80 f. “6 Werner Elert, Abendmahl und Kirchengemeinschaft in der alten Kirche hauptsaechlich des Ostens (Berlin, 1954), pp. 5—22. 27 Apology, VI—VIII, 23. 23 Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, De ecclesia militante, 2, quoted in Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (St. Louis, 1954), p. 269. 29 Elert, Abendmahl und Kirchengemeinschaft, pp. 132 f. 30 Unleayened bread was the bread eaten at the Jewish Passover celebration. 31 NPF, Second Series, XIV, 123—160. 32 Augsburg Confession, VII. This and all following cita- tions of the Confessions are according to the translation in BC. 33 [bid., VIII. 34 Smalcald Articles, XII. 35 Apology, VII—VIII, 5. 36 Augsburg Confession, VIL. 37 BC, Preface, p. 3. 38 Tbid., p. 11f. 39 [bid., p. 12. The Latin reads: “Quemadmodum enim christiana caritate moti in societatem doloris cum eius dudum venimus... .” 40 Augsburg Confession, VU. 41 Herbert J. A. Bouman, “The Doctrine of Justification in the Lutheran Confessions,” Concordia Theological Monthly, XXVI, 11 (Nov., 1955), 804. 42 Formula of Concord, Epitome, X, 7. 43 Apology, VII—VII, 8. 44 Augsburg Confession, VI. 43 BC, Preface, p. 12. 46 Cf, Jac. Heinbronner, Acta Colloquti Ratisbonensis (Regensburg, 1602), pp. 25, 27, 71, 102, 131, 170, 224, 350f. A similar occasion was the common worship at the opening of the synod of Sandomierz in 1570, in which representatives of Polish Calvinism, Polish Lutheranism, and the Unity of Bohemian Brethren participated. Cf. Jaroslav Pelikan, Obe- dient Rebels (New York, 1964), p. 147. 47 Cf, Albert Hauck, ed., Herzogs Realenzyklopaedie fuer protestantische Theologie und Kirche (Leipzig, 1907), XIX, s. v., “Thorn, Religionsgespraech”: “Wieder eine andere Differenz betraf die Gebete am Anfange der Sitzungen, die Katholiken beanspruchten die Abhaltung der gemein- samen Eroeffnungsgebete fuer sich, waehrend die Lutheraner {Huelsemann and Abraham Calov were among them] ver- langten, dass die Parteien darin abwechseln sollten; die Reformierten gaben den... Katholiken nach, die Lutheraner aber beteten vor jeder Sitzung in ihrer Stube besonders; doch muss bemerkt werden, dass die Gebetsforme! der Katholiken sich in allgemein-christlichen Ausdruecken hielt und z. B. die Anrufung Marias und der Heiligen vermied.” 48 Cf, Robert H. Fischer, “The Confessionalism of Amer- ican Lutheran Church Bodies of German Background,” in Vilmos Vajta and Hans Weissgerber, The Church and the Confessions (Philadelphia, 1963), pp. 73—83. 49 For statements of Walther in Der Lutheraner that bear this out, see the article by Erwin Lueker, “Walther and the Free Lutheran Conferences,” Concordia Theological Monthly, XV, 8 (Aug. 1944), 537 f. oo Cf, J. P. Beyer, Stenographisch Aufgezeichnetes Col- loquium der Vertreter der Synode, etc. (Chicago, 1868), p. 1: “Begonnen wurde mit einem liturgischen Gottesdienste. den Pastor F. Lochner als Pastor loci leitete, auf welche Weise auch alle folgenden Sitzungen eroefinet wurden.” 31 Cf, Erwin Lueker. ed. Lutheran Cyclopedia (Saint Louis, 1954). s. v., “Free Conferences,” p. 390. 32 Cf, Lueker, “Walther and the Free Lutheran Con- ferences,” op. cit., Pp. 543—559. a3 C. F. W. Walther, “Warum sind die symbolischen Buecher unserer Kirche von denen, welche Diener der- selben werden wollen, nicht bedingt, sondern unbedingt zu unterschreiben?” Der Lutheraner, XIV (1858), pp. 201 ff. 24+ Augsburg Confession, VII, 2f. => The importance of churchly practice (kirchliche Praxis) also for church fellowship was discussed on the basis of Eighteen Theses on Church Fellowship drawn up by Wilhelm Sihler at meetings of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference in the years 1873—77 and 1879. Six- teen of the 18 theses were discussed at length and approved almost unanimously. See Verhandlungen der Ev.-luth. Synodal-Conferenz (St. Louis, 1874 ff.) for the years indi- cated except 1873, for which see Verhandlungen der zweiten Versammlung der Ev.-luth. Synodal-Conferenz von Nord- amerika (Columbus, 1873), pp. 5 ff. Subsequently there was an essay by A. L. Graebner, “Die kirchliche Praxis.” Verhandlungen der sechzehnten Versammlung, etc. (St. Louis. 1896): an article. “Lutherische Praxis.” in Der Lutheraner, XLVI (1891), pp. 91f., signed “G.” [Martin Guenther?]; and an essay delivered by George Stoeckhardt before the Central District, “Unsere Missouri- synode ist eine wahrhaft evangelisch-lutherische Gemein- schaft. denn sie schoepft alle ihre Lehren aus dem klaren Schriftwort.” Verhandlungen der dreiunddreissigsten Jah- resversammlung des Mittleren Distriktes (St. Louis, 1895), pp. 9—96. a6 C£. Verhandlungen, 1873, pp. 7 ff.; and see below, foot- note 62. 57 Graebner, “Die kirchliche Praxis,” p. 5. 33 G., “Lutherische Praxis,” pp. 91f. 59 Stoeckhardt, “Unsere Missourisynode, etc.,” p. 45. “” Graebner (note 55), p. 7. 61 , p. 91. 2 Cf. Verhandlungen [Synod. Conf.] 1873, pp. 5—8: