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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 114

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

114 CHURCH RELATIONS

Lutherans may one day be able to form an orthodox

Lutheran conference. TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH

New Haven, Mo.

Larry SCHEER, Secretary

CaRL OBERDIECK, President

HERMAN OTTEN, Pastor
(Documentation for this resolution is available from
Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Mo.)

(3-53)

was a Moabitess cannot have fellowship with us, for
the simple reason that such a person denies what is
plainly stated as a fact in the Bible. (The Lutheran
Witness, official organ of The Lutheran Church — Mis-
souri Synod, May 28, 1940)

We believe, teach, and confess that no church should
condemn another because it has fewer or more external
ceremonies not commended by God, as long as there is
mutual agreement in doctrine and in all its articles as
well as in the right use of the holy sacraments, (Formula
of Concord, Epitome, Art. X, Par. 5);

and

Wuereas, Christians cannot enter into altar and pul-

To Conduct Referendum
on Fellowship Question

pit fellowship with a church body that claims to be
orthodox simply because the correct Scriptural doc-
trine is stated in its official confessions:

WHEREAS, The July 1969 convention of The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod is being asked to declare

altar and pulpit fellowship with the American Lutheran
Church; and

Whereas, Altar and pulpit fellowship means that

1) congregations of the synods may hold joint wor-
ship services;

2) pastors of one synod may preach from the pulpits
of congregations in the other synod;

3) members in good standing in one synod may
commune as guests at the altar of congregations
in the other synod;

4) members may transfer their membership from
congregations of one synod to congregations of
the other synod;

5) congregations of one synod may call as their
pastors those who are on the clergy roster of the
other synod;

6) students may prepare for the holy ministry in
the seminaries of either synod;

7) professors on the clergy roster of one synod could
be called to teach in the seminaries and colleges
of the other synod; and

Wuereas, Christians should not practice altar and
pulpit fellowship with those who teach contrary to Holy
Scripture:

I urge you, fellow Christians, to watch those who cause
disagreements and make people fall by going against the
teaching you learned. (Rom. 16:17)

Since God ordained that His Word only, without the
admixture of human doctrine, be taught and believed in
the Christian Church, 1 Peter 4:11; John 8:31, 32; 1 Tim.
6:3, 4, all Christians are required by God to discriminate
between orthodox and heterodox church-bodies, Matt.
7:15, to have church-fellowship only with orthodox
church-bodies, and, in case they have strayed into hetero-
dox church-bodies, to leave them, Rom.16:17. We re-
pudiate unionism, that is, church-fellowship with the
adherents of false doctrine, as disobedience to God’s
command, as causing divisions in the Church, Rom.
16:17; 2 John 9-10, and as involving the constant danger
of losing the Word of God entirely, 2 Tim. 2:17-21. (Brief
Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod,
‘ar. 28)

We do not, like the Fundamentalists, make the dis-
tinction that for such fellowship (as just described) we
consider it sufficient if congregations or larger bodies
agree with us in the great fundamental doctrines. We
have always said and say today that anyone who denies
even a fact so remote from the doctrine of salvation as,
let us say, the fact that David slew Goliath or that Ruth

The orthodox character of a church is established not
by its mere name nor by its outward acceptance of, and
subscription to, an orthodox creed, but by the doctrine
which is actually taught in its pulpits, in its theological
seminaries, and in its publications. On the other hand, a
church does not forfeit its orthodox character through the
casual intrusion of errors, provided these are combated
and eventually removed by means of doctrinal discipline,
Acts 20:30; 1 Tim.1:3. (Brief Statement, Par. 29)

A true visible church in the real strict sense of the term,
in opposition to heterodox churches or sects, is only that
in which God’s Word is proclaimed in its purity and the
sacraments are administered according to the Gospel.
(C. F. W. Walther, The True Visible Church p.35. St.
Louis: Concordia, 1961. Dr. Walther was the first Presi-
dent of the Missouri Synod.)

With regard to the orthodox character of a church body
note well: (1) A church body is orthodox only if the true
doctrine. as we have it in the Augsburg Confession and
the other Lutheran Symbols, is actually taught in its
pulpits and its publications and not merely “officially”
professed as its faith. Not the “official” doctrine, but
the actual teaching determines the character of a church
body, because Christ enjoins that all things whatsoever
He has commanded His disciples should actually be
taught and not merely acknowledged in an “official docu-
ment” as the correct doctrine. (Francis Pieper, Christian
Dogmatics p. 423. St.Louis: Concordia, 1953. Dr. Pieper,
a former president of the Missouri Synod, is generally
recognized as one of the Synod’s chief theologians.)

We Missourians consider a church body, as a body,
orthodox only when the pure doctrine is proclaimed from
all its pulpits and professors’ chairs and in all writings
that become public within the communion, and when, on
the other hand, every erroneous teaching is stopped in
the manner prescribed by God as it makes its appear-
ance. According to this standard we judge others, and
according to this standard we want to be judged. We
Missourians must and will be satisfied to be judged by
that doctrine that is held by our individual pastors,
whether it be in San Francisco or New York, St. Paul
or New Orleans, or in our periodicals, whether they be
published officially or unofficially. If it were shown us
that but one pastor were preaching false doctrine, or that
even one periodical were in the service of false doctrine,
and we should not put a stop to this false doctrine, we
would thereby have then ceased to be an orthodox synod,
and would have become a unionistic fellowship. In short,
it is the earmark of an orthodox fellowship that through-
out it only the pure doctrine is not only officially recog-
nized but actually prevails. (Francis Pieper, Lehre und
Wehre, Aug. 1890, p. 262. Lehre und Wehre was the offi-
cial theological journal of the Missouri Synod.)

It is not sufficient that the Gospel is currently stated in
the church’s official confession. It must actually be pro-
claimed in the pulpits and taught in the church (“The
Doctrine of the Church in the Lutheran Confessions,” an
essay adopted by the commissioners of The ALC and
LCMS, 1966. Available from Concordia Publishing House,
St. Louis, Mo.);

Wuereas, The Bible, the Lutheran Confessions, and