Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Sheet 565
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Sheet 565

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

534 THEOLOGY OF FELLOWSHIP

ception. Instead of stressing membership in a visible
organization under the rule of the Roman Catholic
hierarchy, the Lutheran Confession says:

The church is the assembly of saints in which the
Gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are ad-
ministered rightly.32

Properly speaking, the church is the assembly of
saints and true believers.33

We do not concede to the papists that they are the
church, for they are not. Nor shall we pay any attention
to what they command or forbid in the name of the
church, for, thank God, a seven-year-old child knows
what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep
who hear the voice of their Shepherd.34

1. The Marks of the Church (Notae Ecclesiae)

Of the greatest importance for the understanding of
the historical Lutheran position on pulpit and altar fel-
lowship is what the Lutheran Confessions say concern-
ing the marks by which this church, which consists of
“saints,” “true believers,” ‘‘the holy believers and sheep
who hear the voice of their Shepherd” may be recog-
nized. These marks, or notae ecclesiae, are “the pure
teaching of the Gospel and the administration of the
sacraments in harmony with the Gospel of Christ.”

The church is not merely an association of outward ties
and rites like other civic governments, however, but it
is mainly an association of faith and of the Holy Spirit
in men’s hearts. To make it recognizable, this associa-
tion has outward marks, the pure teaching of the Gospel
and the administration of the sacraments in harmony
with the Gospel of Christ.#5

These marks of the church, though without this
specific designation, are already referred to in Augus-
tana, Art. VII.

It is taught also among us that one holy Christian church
will be and remain forever. This is the assembly of all
believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its
purity and the holy sacraments are administered accord-
ing to the Gospel. For it is sufficient for the true unity
of the Christian church that the Gospel be preached in
conformity with a pure understanding of it and that the
sacraments be administered in accordance with the divine
Word.36

These notae, or marks of the church, to be sure, de-
scribe the church of the pure Word, and the unadulter-
ated sacraments. They are not, however, meant to deny
that the church can exist also where the Gospel is partly
obscured by error. Nevertheless they have throughout
the history of orthodox Lutheranism served to establish
the limits of pulpit and altar fellowship, and to dis-
tinguish the Lutheran Church from other churches.

Simultaneously with the Lutheran Church and its
confessions the Reformed Church, an outgrowth of
Zwingli’s reformatory efforts, came into being with con-
fessions of its own. All efforts to unite the Lutherans
and the Reformed in doctrine failed.

A little later the Roman Catholic Church acquired
a Roman Catholic confession in the Canons and Decrees
of the Council of Trent.

The so-called left wing of the Reformation produced
a number of sects which did not identify themselves
with either of the three chief divisions in western
Christendom.

In the Preface to the Book of Concord the Lutheran

confessors first of all affirm their continued adherence
to the Augsburg Confession, which according to their
conviction presents nothing but the pure teaching of the
orthodox Christian church and of the ancient ecumen-
ical creeds:

They (the Lutherans) have held fast and loyally to the
doctrine that is contained in it (the Augsburg Confes-
sion), that is based solidly on the divine Scriptures, and
that is also briefly summarized in the approved ancient
symbols, recognizing the doctrine as the ancient con-
sensus which the universal and orthodox church of
Christ has believed, fought for against many heresies and
errors, and repeatedly affirmed.37

In the Preface to the Book of Concord the Lutheran
confessors also define their attitude toward other
churches, particularly the Reformed, and toward heresy
and heretics. It is evident from the following quotation
that they did not hereticize whole churches in which
error was taught, but only “false and seductive doctrines
and their stiff-necked proponents and blasphemers.”

With reference to the condemnations, censures, and re-
jections of false and adulterated doctrine, especially in the
article of the Lord’s Supper, these have to be set forth
expressly and distinctly in this explanation and thorough
settlement of the controverted articles in order that
everybody may know that he must guard himself against
them. There are also many other reasons why condem-
nations cannot by any means be avoided. However, it
is not our purpose and intention to mean thereby those
persons who err ingenuously and who do not blaspheme
the truth of the divine Word, and far less do we mean
entire churches inside or outside the Holy Empire of
the German Nation. On the contrary, we mean spe-
cifically to condemn only false and seductive doctrines
and their stiff-necked proponents and blasphemers .. .
inasmuch as such teachings are contrary to the expressed
Word of God and cannot coexist with it.... But we have
no doubt at all that one can find many pious, innocent
people even in those churches which have up to now
admittedly not come to agreement with us. These people
go their way in the simplicity of their hearts, do not
understand the issues, and take no pleasure in blas-
phemies against the Holy Supper as it is celebrated in
our churches. . . . Consequently the responsibility de-
volves upon the theologians and ministers duly to remind
even those who err ingenuously and ignorantly of the
danger to their souls and to warn them against it, lest
one blind person let himself be misled by another.°8

The Lutheran confessors in the same preface to the
Book of Concord express their warm love and concern
for the Reformed Christians, who were at that time un-
dergoing persecution in some places, in the words:

For just as Christian charity causes us to have special
sympathy with them, so we entertain a corresponding
loathing for and a cordial disapproval of the raging of
their persecutors.%9

In all these expressions in the Preface to the Book
of Concord the Lutheran confessors are reaffirming the
necessary distinction between heretics, who are outside
the body of Christ, and erring Christians, who are and
by God’s grace remain children of God, even though
troubled by error. They are also reaffirming their un-
derstanding of the church; “Properly speaking, the
church is the assembly of saints and true believers.” *°

2. Pulpit and Altar Fellowship in the Lutheran Church

The subject of pulpit and altar fellowship is not dis-
cussed expressis verbis in the Lutheran Confessions.
However, the basis for pulpit and altar fellowship, as it