LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1962, Page 17

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DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS 17

A church committed to the Gospel is bound, third,
to be a strong missionary church. The Gospel is en-
trusted to the church not only as a precious possession
but as the dynamic resource and motivation for bearing
to all nations and kindreds and tribes under heaven the
message concerning the God who was in Christ, recon-
ciling the world unto Himself, and who has committed
to the church both Word and ministry of reconciliation
and compels the men of Christ to cry into the cultured
and uncultured wastelands of paganism, humanism, and
all non-Christian and anti-Christian philosophies: “Be
ye reconciled to God.”

The Lutheran Symbols certainly have this concern.
They want to proclaim “the pure, unalloyed, and un-
adulterated light of [God’s] holy Gospel and of the
Word that alone brings salvation” (Preface, Book of
Concord). The Confessors are conscious of their obliga-
tion to “do everything that is useful and profitable to
the increase and expansion of God’s praise and glory”
and “to the propagation of that Word of His that alone
brings salvation” (ibid.). Convinced as they were of
the exclusive character of the Christian Gospel of justi-
fication by grace for Christ’s sake through faith alone,
those Lutherans could be no other than mission-minded.
And neither can we if we would be faithful Lutherans.

Fourth, the Lutheran Symbols give evidence
throughout of the strong and definite doctrinal con-
victions of the people who gave and still give expression
to their faith through them. Theirs was no “perhaps”
or “probably” or “maybe” theology. For their religious
convictions they were prepared to suffer the loss of all
things and to bear the reproach of the rest of Christen-
dom for their firmness. So they say:

“From our exposition friends and foes may clearly
understand that we have no intention (since we have
no authority to do so) to yield anything of the eternal
and unchangeable truth of God for the sake of temporal
peace, tranquility, and outward harmony. . . . Still
less by far are we minded to whitewash or cover up
any falsification of true doctrine or any publicly con-
demned errors. We have a sincere delight in and deep
love for true harmony and are cordially inclined and
determined on our part to do everything in our power
to further the same. We desire such harmony as will
not violate God’s honor, that will not detract anything
from the divine truth of the holy Gospel, that will not
give place to the smallest error but will lead the poor
sinner to true and sincere repentance, raise him up
through faith, strengthen him in his new obedience, and
thus justify and save him forever through the sole merit
of Christ....” (F.C., S.D. XI, Concl.)

Can we as a church of the Lutheran Confessions do
less? We need not remain chained to the formulations
of the past, but we must remain grounded in the eternal
truth and continue to have firm convictions. Nothing
is more unfruitful, exasperating, and destructive than
the muddy double-talk of the player of theological
games whom the Confessions characterize as “restless,
contentious individuals, who do not want to be bound
to any-certain formula of pure doctrine,” who are ready

“to start scandalous controversies at will and to intro-
duce and defend monstrous errors, the only possible
consequence of which is that finally correct doctrine
will be entirely obscured and lost and nothing beyond
uncertain opinions and dubious, disputable imaginations
and views will be transmitted to subsequent genera-
tions.” (Preface, B. of C.)

Fifth, a strong sense of history and of the unbroken
continuity of the one church pervades the Symbols.
Here were unabashed traditionalists, conservative in the
best sense. Standing in line with the church of the
apostles and the ancient councils and fathers of the
church, steeped in the heritage of Christian customs
and liturgies and hymnody, they were concerned about
conserving all that was good and meaningful and help-
ful for the promotion of the holy Gospel. Indignantly
they turned back upon their accusers every charge of
theological innovation.

At the same time they did not hesitate to break with
tradition when the purity of the Gospel was at stake.
With all their reverence for the church’s past, our Ref-
ormation fathers desired to be a progressive and con-
temporary church, speaking intelligibly to their genera-
tion. No “new” theology, yet undeniably they said many
things in a way that had never before in the church’s
history been said thus.

If time permitted, much could be said about several
other important accents in the Symbols that show what
kind of church we ought to be, notably their strong
emphasis on continued solid theological education, of
which they say, “We desire particularly that the young
men who are being trained for service in the church
and for the holy ministry be faithfully and diligently
instructed therein, so that the pure teaching and confes-
sion of the faith may be preserved and perpetuated
among our posterity through the help and assistance of
the Holy Spirit until the glorious advent of our only
Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Preface, B. of C.)

We could also speak of the high sense of believing,
teaching, and confessing in the presence of the return-
ing Christ and the final judgment, as well as the great
feeling of pastoral concern and responsibility for the
conscience of the individual. But surely enough has
been said to indicate the basis on which a church
pledged to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions
should take stock of itself.

It is my sober judgment that if our church had
been more fully imbued with the theology and the
spirit of the Symbols, there would not now be the wide-
spread bitterness and intolerance toward fellow mem-
bers on both sides of the arguments. It is very good
for the church to have angry young men—or angry
old men, for that matter. This helps keep us all from
becoming complacent. But let us be angry about the
right things and not pour our scorn and contempt on
our struggling brethren and fellow pilgrims or even on
the unpretentious Gospel, which has ever been the glory
and power of the church.

Do we have the humility and the honesty to examine
ourselves? to discover and uncover the causes of our