LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 287

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

ER ES EL ESE ARIE EAN SEEN SLE EAE A AS HE MEPIS SI IESE EISNER Eve He

was set forth in THEOLOGY oF FELLOWSHIP, Part II, from
writings of St. Augustine, of Luther, and from the
Preface to The Book of Concord.

Titus 3:10, 11

A man that is an heretick after the first and second
admonition reject;

Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sin-
neth, being condemned of himself.

The term rendered “heretick” by the King James
Version is translated in the RSV as “a man that is
factious,” that is, a man who creates factions or divisions.

This rendering is in accord with the original mean-
ing of the term. Whether he makes factions by means
of false doctrine, as is usually the case, or whether he
divides the church by other means, does not alter the
church’s duty with respect to him. A man who seeks
to divide the church is to be admonished once or twice,
and then avoided. For it is evident that, if the church
successfully avoids a man who would divide it, he
cannot accomplish his aim.

The heretic or factious man, who will not yield to
admonition, is judged to be a self-condemned man.

On this passage Luther says:

Heretics do not merely err, but refuse to be instructed,
defend their error as being right, and fight against the
truth, which they know, and against their own con-
science. Concerning such St. Paul says (Titus 3:11, 12):
You are to avoid a heretic, when he has been admon-
ished once or twice, and you are to know that such a
man is perverted, and sins autocatacritos, that is,
intentionally, and against better knowledge, and wants
to remain in his error.1°

It should be obvious that Titus 3:10 should be ap-
plied, not to erring Christians, who can be corrected,
but to stubborn errorists who refuse to be instructed.

2 Cor. 6:14-18

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers,
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteous-
ness? and what communion hath Hght with darkness?

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what
part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

And what agreement hath the temple of God with
idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God
hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;
and I will receive you,

And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my
sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

In this passage, addressed to the Christians who
lived in the heathen environment of Corinth, where
both the Christian faith and Christian morality were
constantly in danger, Paul warns, “Be not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers.”

It is clear that the people against whom the apostle
warns are not erring Christians, but the unbelievers
by whom they were surrounded. It is not crystal clear
precisely what the apostle meant by “being unequally
yoked together.” The Greek word, “heterozygountes,”
is found only here in the New Testament, and only
once in the Greek translation of the Old Testament,
the Septuagint, where it is used to translate the word
rendered in the King James Version as “gender with

THEOLOGY OF FELLOWSHIP 287

a diverse kind” (Lev.19:19). It has often, and with
reason, been understood as forbidding Christians to
marry unbelievers.

In the Lutheran Church the passage has been re-
ferred in a wider sense to fellowship. At the time of
the Reformation Luther used it to warn against having
anything to do with the Roman Catholic mass, which
he considered idolatrous. The passage is applied a num-
ber of times against the Roman Catholic Church in the
Lutheran Confessions.}?

Our Confessions do not use the passage against the
Reformed, nor against erring Lutherans. Later the pas-
sage was used by Lutherans against Reformed teachers,
whom they considered stubborn heretics. Finally, in
the history of the Lutheran Church in this country,
some Lutherans, also in our own Synod, used the pas-
sage to forbid fellowship with other Lutherans who
were considered to be in error.

It is evident that those who use the passage in this
way have gone beyond the clear words of the text,
which forbids being “unequally yoked together with
unbelievers.”

Summary Statement

Concerning all these passages it is clear that they
were originally spoken or written for specific situations
and apply first of all to these specific situations.

It is, however, equally true that, like all Scripture
these passages too were written for our learning (Rom.
15:4), and the church must, until the end of time, study
also these passages and draw from them light and in-
struction for her life in fellowship. She will use them
properly when she is taught by them to avoid men who,
either by false teaching or separatistic, schismatic, fac-
tious activities attack the Gospel and the faith of Chris-
tians. She will be misusing these passages if she uses
them to hinder the church’s ongoing attempts to heal
the schisms in the church and to foster the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace.

B. UNIONISM AND SEPARATISM

In the discussions of the question of church fellow-
ship among Lutherans two terms are frequently used,
unionism and separatism. Neither word has been de-
fined either uniformly or in a manner acceptable to all.
This lack of clearcut definitions has been a serious
hindrance to profitable discussions and mutual under-
standing.

In the following we attempt to clarify these two
concepts in a manner that is consonant with the teach-
ings of Scripture and of the Lutheran Confessions.

1. Unionism

The terms unionism and unionist as ecclesiastical
terms came into use in connection with the efforts of
King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia to effect a union
of the Lutheran and of the Reformed churches in his
realm in 1817, the tercentenary of the Reformation. The
union was to be effected by declaring the doctrines
which divided the two confessions to be differences in
nonessentials.