# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1941_S278
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

278 Intersynodical and Doctrinal Matters

assertion of agreement with the Brief Statement did not imply
endorsement in every case of: the exegetical or other lines of
argumentation and the feeling of obligation to use the same
phraseology. Points in the Brief Statement listed as belonging to
this class were the following:

a) That Adam before the Fall was endowed with a truly
scientific knowledge of nature, Par. 6;

b) That the Word of the Gospel and the Sacraments are the
means of grace, Par, 21 (the preferred terminology being that the
Word and the Sacraments are the means of grace);

c) That the effect of the Lord’s Supper is none other than
the communication and sealing of the forgiveness of sins, Par. 21
(the contention being that benefits belonging to the realms of
sanctification should not be excluded; besides, some members of
the American Lutheran Church commission held that a possible
physical effect of the Lord’s Supper should not be denied) ;

d) That there is a “definite number” of those elected from
eternity, Par. 38; besides, the American Lutheran Church com-
missioners stated

e) That they did not believe that all the Scripture-passages
quoted in Par. 21 as condemning unionism are applicable; and

f) That with respect to prayer-fellowship they hold that it is _
wider than church-fellowship. On the points pertaining to Adam’s
“scientific”? knowledge and the inclusion of sanctification among
the benefits of the Lord’s Supper agreement was reached. On the
term “definite number of the elect” we gave this statement to the
American Lutheran Church commissioners: “We cannot under-
stand how a person who believes that each individual believer is
elected can doubt that the whole number is elected. The impli-
cation of arbitrariness which some people find in the term ‘definite
number’ we reject.” The American Lutheran Church commis-
sioners declare that our statement satisfied them. Other points
would require further discussion.

Pittsburgh Agreement .

6. In February, 1939, the news was published in the daily
press that the Fellowship Commissions of the American Lutheran
Church and the United Lutheran Church of America, after having
previously adopted a mutually satisfactory statement on the
lodge question and on unionism, had now succeeded in drafting a
declaration acceptable to both sides with respect to the one remain-
ing point in dispute, the doctrine of inspiration. The paragraphs
adopted are now known as the Pittsburgh Agreement.’ The news
disturbed us because we thought we were in full harmony with