LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 263

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THEOLOGY OF FELLOWSHIP

Preamble

The document Theology of Fellowship grew out of
studies initiated by a resolution of The Lutheran Church
— Missouri Synod at the St.Paul convention in 1956.
The resolution requested a restudy of the question of
“fellowship, prayer fellowship, and unionism.” (See
Proceedings of the Forty-Third Regular Convention,
St. Paul, 1956, p. 550.) The presidents of the two semi-
naries appointed a committee of two members from each
theological faculty to make the study. This committee
searched the Scripture, particularly the New Testament,
with great care to glean from it all passages which have
a bearing on fellowship. The findings of this committee
are embodied in Theology of Fellowship, Part I.

Another committee then prepared a Part II, which
was to speak to the practical problems in the area of
fellowship, and to study in particular the passages which
have been traditionally quoted in our circles against
unionism and against prayer fellowship with men who
are considered to be in error in matters of doctrine.

The work of this committee was revised and adopted
at a meeting of the joint faculties in October 1960 and
then disseminated to the church.

Suggestions and criticisms from the field, also from
sister synods overseas, suggested that the doctrine of
the church and its marks (Apology VII) had not been
sufficiently taken into consideration in the above-men-
tioned Part II.

The Forty-Fifth Convention of The Lutheran Church
— Missouri Synod, assembled at Cleveland in 1962, as-
signed the Theology of Fellowship to the newly created
Commission on Theology and Church Relations for re-
vision or replacement by a new document (see Proceed-
ings, pp. 110f.).

The commission instructed certain of its members,
aided by theologians outside the commission, to prepare
a historical study, which was to show how the concept
of church fellowship developed in church history and
what the Lutheran Confessions have to say on the ques-
tion. The results of this study are embodied in the pres-
ent Part II of Theology of Fellowship. The original Part
II should therefore not be used as having any standing
in The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.

The exegetical and practical questions originally
treated in the now superseded Part II were restudied,
and the results are embodied in Theology of Fellowship,
Part III.

The whole document is herewith submitted to the
Synod by the Commission on Theology and Church
Relations for reference and for guidance.

PART ONE
I. God Created the Fellowship
A. GOD CREATED MAN FOR FELLOWSHIP

1. With God

God created man for fellowship with Himself (Gen.
1:26 a).1 He made man in His own image (Gen. 1:27),?

and Himself breathed the breath of life into his nostrils
(Gen. 2:7).3 He blessed man with the power of procre-
ation (Gen.1:28a) +4 and entrusted to him a share in
the government of the creature world (Gen. 1:28b)5
Thus He made man, as it were, a partaker both in crea-
tion and government, yet under God and responsible
to Him (Gen. 2:16-17).6 This was a personal fellowship
and involved communication with the Creator (Gen.
1:29, 31) 7

1 Gen. 1:26 a. “And God said, Let Us make man in
Our image, after Our likeness.”

2 Gen. 1:27. “So God created man in His own image,
in the image of God created He him; male and female
created He them.”

3 Gen. 2:7. “And the Lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

4 Gen. 1:28 a. “And God blessed them, and God said
unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the
earth.”

5 Gen. 1:28b. “Replenish the earth, and subdue it,
and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth.”

6 Gen. 2:16-17. “And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat. But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.”

7 Gen. 1:29. “And God said, Behold, I have given
you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face
of all the earth. ... 31. And God saw everything that
He had made, and, behold, it was very good.”

2. With Man

God, who created man for fellowship with Himself,
also created man for fellowship with his fellowman
(Gen. 2:18, 20b).1 When God created Eve, Adam at
once recognized her as a creature designed for fellow-
ship with himself (Gen. 2:23).2 By this creative act God
not only ordained the fellowship of husband and wife
(Gen. 2:24) ® but also laid the basis for the larger fel~
lowship of the whole human family (Mal. 2:10 a; Acts
17: 26 a) .4

1 Gen. 2:18,20b. “And the Lord God said, It is not
good that the man should be alone; I will make him an
help meet for him. 20b. But for Adam there was not
found an help meet for him.”

2 Gen. 2:23. “And Adam said, This is now bone of
my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called
woman because she was taken out of man.”

3 Gen. 2:24. “Therefore shall a man leave his father
and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they
shall be one flesh.”

4 Mal.2:10a. “Have we not all one Father? Hath
not one God created us?” Acts 17:26a. “And hath made
of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the
face of the earth.”

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