# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1973_S81
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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THE CONVENTION ESSAY 81

or confession to us, while the Symbols serve as our re-
sponse or confession to God:

The Bible is the question of God to men: do you believe
My Word? The symbolical writings are the answer of
men: yes, Lord, we believe what You say! The Bible is
the chest in which all treasures of wisdom and the
knowledge of God lie hidden. The symbolical writings
are the jewel room in which the church has deposited
as in a spiritual storehouse all the treasures which in the
course of hundreds of years she has with great effort
drawn and dug out of the treasury of the Bible. The
Bible with its teachings is the handwriting of God con-
cerning our salvation, which Satan always wishes to
falsify and declare as unauthentic. The symbolical writ-
ings contain the records which have been laid down,
from which one can see how the church has believed
these teachings from time to time and has ever held fast
to them. [Walther, “Warum sollen wir .. .” Der Luthe-
raner, V (23 January 1849), 82. See also Carl S. Meyer,

“Walther’s Theology of the Word,” CTM, XLIII (April

1972), No. 4, pp. 262 ff.]

At the 25th anniversary of the Synod, Walther pro-
claimed at the jubilee service:

We have adhered, first, to the supreme principle of all

Christianity, that the canonical books of the Old and the

New Testament are from the first to the last letter in-

spired by the Holy Ghost as the Word of the great God,

the only rule and norm of faith and life, of all doctrine
and all teachings, and the supreme judge in all religious
controversy. Next, we have adhered to the second su-
preme principle of our true evangelical church, that the
doctrine of justification of the poor sinner before God by
grace alone ... is the chief fundamental article of the
whole Christian religion, with which the church stands
or falls. [C. F. W. Walther, Brosamen (St.Louis: CPH,

1875), pp. 556—557}

But in the 20th century new tensions were develop-
ing among Lutherans in America on the doctrine of
Holy Scriptures. As early as 1927, Vergilius Ferm,
a pastor of the Augustana Synod, saw the developing
conflict when he presented a paper to a conference of
that church:

Where Protestants today follow literally in the footsteps

of their theological fathers, and furthermore refuse to

entertain the results of modern Biblical scholarship —
there lies the real rift in current controversy. The two
approaches in the appreciation and interpretation of Sa-
cred Writ are so radically different, that it is no wonder
that at the present early stage of revolutionized thinking
there is quarreling in our backyards. [Vergilius Ferm,

“The Present Status of Lutheran Theology in America,”

Augustana Quarterly, VI (September 1927), 248]

Already before 1927, the churches were struggling
with the issues dealing with the authority of Scriptures
and their interpretation. Time does not allow us to
trace this development further.

Laity and Unity

The Synod did not believe that its theology was the
exclusive concern of the clergy. It has always been the
principle of the Synod that in theological discussions,
such as at conferences and colloquies with other Lu-
theran synods, laymen be represented. But this did
not come easily or automatically. The Saxon immi-
grants imported their baggage of clergy authoritarian-
ism, and restricted the laity in the church to business
matters. In their “Travel Regulations” they vested the
management of all temporal and ecclesiastical affairs
in their bishop:

The chief management of all affairs of the entire society

shall be exercised by its primate, who accordingly will

combine in his person the supreme authority in spiritual

and civil matters. [Forster, p. 572]

In his publication on “The Right and Power of a
Christian Congregation . . .” Luther enunciated the
role of the laity. He emphasized that the clergy have
the right to teach, but that the members of the congre-
gation, that is, the laity, have the duty to judge doctrine:

Bishops, pope, theologians, and anyone else have the

power to teach; but the sheep are to judge whether what

they teach is the voice of Christ or the voice of strangers.

[Luther, “The Right and Power of a Christian Congrega-

tion . . .” 1523, Holman Edition, Vol. IV (Philadelphia:
A. J. Holman Co. and The Castle Press, 1931), p. 76]

Luther makes this further interesting observation:

Indeed, there can be no false prophets among the hearers,
but among the teachers alone. All teachers should and
must, therefore, be subject with their teachings to the
judgment of the hearers. [Luther, Holmon, p. 78]

In his book Church and Ministry Walther picked up
Luther’s cue and repeatedly referred to 1 Peter 2:9 in
support of the position of the laity in the church:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated
nation, and a people claimed by God for His own, to
proclaim the triumphs of Him who has called you out
of darkness into His marvelous light. [NEB]

Walther consistently refers to the authority of the
priesthood resting in the congregation, a principle which
also launched the Missouri Synod into its congregational
polity. On the other hand, Grabau and Loehe viewed
the lay involvement of the Missouri Synod as “Ameri-
can mob rule” and a “strong inter-mixing of democratic
independent [ideas] doubtful and deplorable.” More
outspoken, Grabau termed Missouri’s polity as “anabap-
tistic democratic stupidity.”

In spite of such opposition, the Synod continued to
encourage lay participation. Laymen have taken an
active interest not only in the business affairs of the
general work of the Synod, but also in its theological
enterprise. A well known miller in Wittenberg, Mo.,
so the story goes, read the theological journal Lehre
und Wehre during slack moments at the mill. Through-
out the five or six generations in synodical history,
large numbers of lay men and women have inspired
their pastors and teachers in the work of the church.
They have been the driving force behind special proj-
ects of welfare services, education, missions, church
extension, The Lutheran Hour, the Family Worship
Hour, This Is the Life, and other widespread programs
of the Lutheran Laymen’s League and the Lutheran
Women’s Missionary League.

Occasionally the suggestion was made, particularly
during periods of controversy, that the issues were too
complex and ought not to disturb the lay men and
women. During such a controversy between the Buf-
falo and the Missouri Synods on the church and minis-
try, Pastor Heinrich von Rohr of the Buffalo Synod
suggested that the discussions between the two church
bodies be carried on in Latin so as not to confuse the
poor laymen. Of course his suggestion was not adopted.
(“Das Buffaloer Colloquium” [St. Louis: Wiebusch und
Sohn, 1866], p. 29)