LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 285

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THEOLOGY OF FELLOWSHIP O95

against false teachers, and that laymen are capable of
judging doctrine. Beyond this he draws no deductions
from these passages.

According to the evidence from the history of the
Lutheran Church these passages appear to have come
into prominence, and to have been used much as they
have been used in the history of The Lutheran Church
— Missouri Synod, about the time of the Colloquy of
Thorn in Poland in 1645, when unsuccessful doctrinal
discussions were conducted among Roman Catholics,
Lutherans, and Reformed»

It is therefore necessary that we examine, even if
briefly, the chief of the passages which have since the
time of the Colloquy of Thorn been quoted by some
against all joint prayer with Christians of other con-
fessions, no matter what the occasion. In the following
we offer a brief examination of a number of these
passages in context.

Matt. 7:15, 16

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in
sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

In this passage Jesus warns His followers to beware
of false prophets. For a correct understanding of this
passage it is necessary to know what a false prophet is.
This in turn calls for a Biblical understanding of what
a prophet is. According to Scripture not every teacher
of religion, also not every faithful teacher of the Chris-
tian doctrine, is a prophet. A prophet is “one who
speaks for God or a deity: a divinely inspired revealer,
interpreter, or spokesman.” 6

This definition, taken from a modern dictionary,
harmonizes closely with definitions of prophet and
prophecy in standard lexica of the New Testament.’

As the term prophet in Scripture seems not to be
used of teachers in general, but of divinely com-
missioned teachers into whose mouth God has put His
Word and commanded them to proclaim it, so also
the false prophet is not every teacher who either from
ignorance or from malice proclaims error. Rather the
false prophet (Greek: pseudoprophétés) is a pseudo,
a fake, who claims to be a divinely commissioned
spokesman for God when in fact God has not sent him.

That the false prophets against whom our Lord
warns in Matt.7:15 ff. are thought of, not merely as
purveyors of lies, but as men who falsely claim to be
prophets of God, is indicated also by verses 22, 23,
which are part of the warning against false prophets.
Here these people are quoted as saying, “Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name
have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many
wonderful works?”

As genuine prophecy both in the Old and in the
New Testament was often accompanied by genuine mir-
acles, so false prophets have again and again tried to
bolster their claim to be prophets by purported miracles
(Deut. 13:1, 2; Rev. 16:13, 14).

According to the strict Biblical usage of the term,

therefore, not every erring teacher should at once be
called a false prophet, much less erring Christians or
whole churches.

This is in no wise to say that there are not real false
prophets in the world today. There have been such at
all times. There are such today, both pretending to be
inspired spokesmen for God, and claiming to perform
miracles.

Nor is this to say that the church dare ever relax
her vigilance against every error in doctrine (1 Tim. 1:
3,4; Acts 20:28-30). But the church ought not to use
this passage loosely, as though all erring Christians and
perhaps whole erring churches were to be treated as
false prophets, who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. This
would be a serious error against the doctrine of the
church, because also erring Christians are Christians,
and members of the body of Christ.

Gal. 1:6-9

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that
called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel;

Which is not another; but there be some that trouble
you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed.

As we said before, so say I now again, if any man
preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have
received, let him be accursed.

Gal. 1:6-9 was written against well-known heretical
teachers of apostolic times, the so-called Judaizers, who
taught that Christians had to be circumcised and to
keep the ceremonial law of Moses, or they could not
be saved. (Cf. Acts15:1.) St.Paul very properly rec-
ognized this as destroying the Gospel itself, and told
those who accepted this teaching, “Christ is become of
no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by
the Law; ye are fallen from grace.” (Cf. Gal. 5:4.)

This passage must be applied against all teachers
who, after the manner of the Judaizers, teach Christians
to build their hope of salvation on the works of the Law.
It is a constant warning to teachers and hearers alike
against moralism, synergism, and the confusion of Law
and Gospel.

However, Gal. 1:6-9 must not be applied indiscrim-
inately to every erring Christian or teacher, much less
to whole churches in which the Gospel is preached, even
though this preaching may be accompanied by doctrinal
errors. It deals with teachers who overthrew the Gos-
pel, the very foundation of the church’s faith. Therefore
St. Paul pronounces a curse upon them, a thing which
would be unthinkable, if he were dealing with erring
Christians.

Acts 19:8-10

And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly
for the space of three months, disputing and persuading
the things concerning the kingdom of God.

But when divers were hardened, and believed not,
but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he
departed from them, and separated the disciples, dis-
puting daily in the school of one Tyrannus.

And this continued by the space of two years; so that
all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the
Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.