# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1938_S228
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

228 Intersynodical and Doctrinal Matters

We might add that the President of our Synod, Dr. J. W. Behn-
ken, attended the third meeting we held with representatives of the
American Lutheran Church and the second with the representatives
of the United Lutheran Church.

W. ARNDT C. F. BROMMER F. H. Brunn
| Tu, ENGELDER Kart KretZMANN

Report of Committee 16 on Overture 513, on the unprinted
overture of the Dubuque-Waterloo Circuit of the Iowa District
East, and on all other written and oral opinions submitted to it
in this connection:

At the last synodical convention in Cleveland (1935) the ap-
pointment of a Committee on Lutheran Union was authorized.
This committee, appointed by the President of Synod, has held six
meetings with the representatives of the Hon. American Lutheran
Church.

As a result of these meetings the representatives of the Amer-
ican Lutheran Church accepted the doctrinal contents of the Brief
Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod, but
in order to supplement and emphasize their position, the repre-
sentatives of the American Lutheran Church made an official state-
ment called The Declaration of the Representatives of the American
Lutheran Church. The Brief Statement of the Missouri Synod,
together with the Declaration of the Representatives of the
American Lutheran Church show the doctrinal position which the
American Lutheran Church representatives accepted.

Your Committee finds in the position of the representatives
of the American Lutheran Church: -

(a) First of all an agreement in the doctrinal statements con-
cerning teachings disputed in the past or still in debate in some
sections of the Lutheran Church of America, notably in the doc-
trines of inspiration, predestination, and conversion, Sunday, and
the office of the public administration of the means of grace. It is
with great joy that we note that in the chief difficulty which sepa-
rated our Synod from the constituent bodies of the American
Lutheran Church, the doctrine of predestination, unanimity has
been reached and that false teachings held by some Lutheran
teachers have been repudiated. Concerning agreement in this
doctrine the sainted Dr.F.Pieper declared thirty-five years ago
in his Die Grunddifferenz in der Lehre von der Bekehrung und
Gnadenwahl, p.28: “If unanimity in this point can be attained,
that is, if from the heart we refrain from seeking a rational answer
to the question ‘Cur alii prae aliis?’ ‘Why some rather than others’
(are elected), this is a sign that we are truly of one spirit... .
A Lutheran Church in America thus united would have to become