# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1954_S104
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

104 Proceedings of the Forty-Third Convention,

Melanchthon’s unionistic activity. In fact, it is part of the history
of the church that attempts at union end in bitterness and greater
division when the union is not one of real agreement.

The attempts to bring about a union in spite of disagreement

larism, indifference to purity of teaching, and the substitution of
social welfare for the ministry of reconciliation. The speeches that
were delivered at Evanston this summer in the interest of Prot-
estant union all professed a pious zeal for united action under
Christ’s banner against the forces of evil. Everything was spoken
in the name of Christ and out of professed zeal for His church,
but all that does not make the ecumenical movement a blessed
one. It is just another example of the characteristic Piety and
seeming reasonableness of most union movements,

ican Lutheran Church seemed to promise an end at last of the old,
old controversy over election, conversion, and open questions.
It seemed to promise an end to rivalry in mission fields, to promise

man who “receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” And
faithfulness to every word of God is a thing of the Spirit and
may well appear to be mere folly to the man of reason.

€ arguments in favor of uniting groups that have many
things in common although they disagree in so-called minor points

We are agreed that the position against unionism as expressed,
for example, in the Concordia Cyclopedia is firmly based on Scrip-
ture. There may be some disagreement among us as to the appli-
cability of certain passages to current cases. It may be argued