LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 49

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DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS 49

The Nicene Creed

Again, mark well that the creed known as the Nicene
Creed, found on page 22 of your hymnals, is not at all
the creed that was accepted in Nicaea in the year 325.
In the course of time there were changes and additions
brought about by the continuing battle between truth
and error. Changes were made in the year 381 at the
Council in Constantinople. And then it was left for the
Council of Toledo in Spain in the sixth century (589)
to give it the form which it has in our day.

Now, beloved, what am I trying to point out? I am
trying to point out that the church in every age in a
hundred different ways has attempted to gain the vic-
tory over falsehood. Every change in the creeds and
every additional creed says, “We cling to the truth!”
Tertullian points out that the basis for all the varying
statements of the church in its creeds are the words
of our Lord: “Go ye therefore and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 28:19). As
long as the meaning, the original meaning and impli-
cation of those words, remains unchanged, untainted,
and unstained, we still have, in Tertullian’s words, “the
rule of faith.”

The Importance of Words

Therefore I say to you, delegates of this convention,
as we seek to gain the victory in our battle with false-
hood, we ought to be exceedingly careful in the use of
words. Words are important because words are still,
as I said in a previous discourse, the bridges of thought.
All we ask of our scholars in our battle with error is
this: Please don’t take a word, empty it of its meaning,
then fill it with a new content and hand it back to us
as though it still meant the same thing. It is wholly
possible that people receive entirely new concepts and
ideas which are not according to the analogy of faith
if words are emptied and then refilled with new mean-
ings. Even now, some words in our English language
do not have the same meaning in all parts of the world.
Let me illustrate this.

Everyone of us, through the United States govern-
ment, has been made very conscious of the word “bil-
lion.” We all know what billions are today. What does
the word mean? To us it means, “one thousand million.”
But I take a jet and fly to London, and I can’t use the
word in that sense anymore. Why not? Because in
England the word means “a million million.” In Amer-
ica a billion is a one with nine zeros, in England it is
a one with twelve zeros. Don’t you see how one word
can change in meaning in the same language from one
area of the world to another? Don’t tell me that the
study of words is not important!

This has to be remembered by the church. All of
us want to say, “We cling to the word of truth which is
unchanging.” Right! But let’s first make sure we
know what each word means, or we’re in trouble.

The Twelfth Century
Let me pursue this subject of the battle between
truth and error along another line. For just a fleeting

moment in history the victory over falsehood was gained
in the 12th century, when there were great changes
made in the church. There lived in the year 1118 a pope
by the name of Paschal IJ. He changed things. How?
By a simple, forthright statement which he uttered for
the good of the church. In many respects he was a
good pope. He said, and I quote, “In receiving the
Lord’s body and blood, let the Lord’s tradition be ob-
served; nor let any departure be made from what
Christ, the Master, ordained and did. For we know
that the bread was given separately and the wine
given separately by the Lord Himself.” Then he added,
“Which custom we therefore teach and command to be
always observed in Holy Church.” That meant, “I de-
cree that this shall be done in perpetuity.” What did
Paschal say? Why, the identical thing that Martin
Luther said four centuries later, “Give the people Com-
munion in both kinds.” What happened to this decree?
The successors of Paschal said that he was wrong, and
therefore they removed the cup from the laity. Here
we have the church in its battle for truth going down
in defeat. Yes, often the church is defeated in its bat-
tle for victorious living, in the battle between truth
and error.

The Augsburg Confession

In these days we are observing the 435th anniversary
of the Augsburg Confession, and we are thinking seri-
ously about the relevancy of this document for our day.
What has been said so ably by another I should like
to repeat. “The confessional writings of our church
have often been used as walls of separation.” That is
well put. We add: The confessional writings of our
church are to us the evidence of victorious living. Look
at the Augustana. It has 28 articles. Only the last seven
deal with the abuses of the church. The first 21 articles
testify to the nature of our faith. They answer the
question, What do we Lutherans actually believe? Look
at these articles. Here is what we believe about Jesus
Christ. Here is what we believe about God. Here is
what we believe about the holy sacraments. Here is
what we believe about original sin. Here is what we
believe about Baptism. Every article demonstrates that
we are God’s children, that we follow Him, that we are
living in the afterglow of Easter, and that with the truth
which we confess we want to bless the whole world.
Our fathers at Augsburg wanted to prove that they
did not start something new, that they were not an
abortive group. Their desire was to show all men that
they wanted to be what God wanted them to be. “Let
the church be the church,” said the Augsburg Con-
fession; “let it retain the truth, let it live the truth.
Let the church continue in its victorious living. Let
it ever gain the victory over falsehood.” That is why
the Augsburg Confession is still relevant today.

The Augsburg Confession is the Magna Carta of our
church. I am fully aware that you historians in my

-audience will think this a very weak comparison. In

this month of June the 750th anniversary of the Magna
Carta is being celebrated. On the fields of Runnymede