LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 254

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254 “MIMEOGRAPHED” REPORTS AND OVERTURES

1. Believers ought to be “ready always to give an
answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the
hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15), which forbids all
unwillingness to say how you stand regarding a reli-
gious teaching.

2. Believers ought to be ready to give an answer
“with meekness and fear, having a good conscience”
(1 Peter 3:15,16), which forbids all degrees of dis-
honesty in your answer to the one asking you about
a spiritual matter, all misrepresentation, all camouflag-
ing, all confusing of the issue, all double talk, all com-
posing of evasive .statements, all drafting of compro-
mising doctrinal statements, all deception in spoken
or written words about a religious matter, any and
all evasiveness, any and all equivocation, any and all
duplicity.

3. Believers ought never, under any circumstances
whatsoever, to be afraid or ashamed to stand up for
a fellow believer who got into trouble by faithfully
confessing the Christian faith, as we see from the words
of Paul the prisoner to Timothy: “Be not thou there-
fore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me,
His prisoner; but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the Gospel” (2 Tim. 1:8), which passage shows that
God is displeased with any and every aspersion cast
upon anybody for having openly taken a stand against
unscriptural doctrine and unscriptural practice within
the Synod, or against some person or persons within
Synod guilty of unscriptural doctrine or practice.

4. The believer is to be perfectly straightforward
whenever he is in a position where he is under obliga-
tion to confess Christ; for Jesus says: “Whosoever
therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I con-
fess also before My Father which is in heaven.” (Matt.
10:32)

5. The believer is not permitted to be less than
straightforward when he is in a position where he is
under obligation to confess Christ; for Jesus says: “But
whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also
deny before My Father which is in heaven.” (Matt.
10:33)

A. The planning of this program shall be the respon-
sibility of the emergency council proposed in this peti-
tion under Section V.

B. In close consultation with the emergency council
proposed under Section V of this petition the President
of the Synod shall assign the various parts of this
program for execution.

III. The Synod, in convention assembled in Detroit,
June 16—26, 1965, shall authorize a 3- or 4-day emer-
gency convocation of congregation representatives to
focus the attention of the Synod’s membership on
this program of emergency action and to further the
cause of this program of emergency action by means of
addresses, essays, discussions, and reports.

A. Purpose

1. To alert all congregations of the Synod to the
grave danger of losing the Word of God through
attacks within our own midst against the Scriptures.

2. To emphasize this program of emergency action.

3. To help to give the members of the Synod a deep
and lasting awareness of the shocking deterioration of
doctrine and practice within the Synod and of the
need for urgent and effective emergency measures to
correct this condition.

B. Nature of the Emergency Convocation

1. In accordance with 2 Tim. 3:16,17, and Rom. 15:4,
this emergency convocation shall be a meeting in which
the order of business is:

Scriptural indoctrination

Scriptural reproof

Scriptural correction

Scriptural instruction in righteousness

Scriptural comfort

all, however, as they apply to Scriptural illumination
of conditions within the Synod concerning the Scrip-
tural doctrine about Scripture; from failure to uphold
this Scripture doctrine with proper firmness down to
open and covert attacks upon this doctrine of Scripture.

2. This emergency convocation is not “a legal con-
vention” of the Synod in the sense of Article VIII of
the Synod’s Constitution. Likewise, the Bylaws of the
Constitution, as they pertain to synodical conventions,
do not apply to this emergency convocation.

C. Representation

Every member congregation of the Synod shall
be entitled to be represented at this emergency con-
vocation by its pastor and by a male lay delegate.

D. Presiding Officer
The President of the Synod shall preside at the
meetings of the emergency convocation.

E. Arrangements

All arrangements for the emergency convocation
shall be made by the President of the Synod, through
synodical channels, in close consultation with the
emergency council proposed in Section V of this peti-
tion. The Synod shall, however, instruct the President
of the Synod:

1. If a meeting hall and hotel accommodations are
available within the continental United States, to con-
vene the emergency convocation as one large assembly;
otherwise to convene it on a regional basis, the regional
assemblies, however, not to be more than eight in
number.

2. To set a date as soon as practicable after Sep-
tember 15, 1965, but not later than early summer of
1966.

3. To schedule as speakers and essayists for the
emergency convocation only such men as will be rec-
ommended for this purpose by the emergency council
proposed in this petition (see Section V), namely, men
who are well known for their faithfulness to Scripture
in opposition to all attempts of man to discard the
teaching that the written words of Scripture are the
very words of God Himself.

Co peshuiahaiaaenianl

TERME Cee

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