LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Sheet 569

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538 THEOLOGY OF FELLOWSHIP

but the Confession must regulate the whole activity of
a church body, its churchly actions must be in harmony
with the Confession and permeated by the Confession.61
It must be said that while the fathers emphasize time
and time again that what they said about churchly prac-
tice as a criterion for church fellowship concerning only
practice demanded by the Word of God and the Lu-
theran Confession, it appears that at times they de-
manded for church fellowship more with respect to
churchly practice than is warranted by the Scripture or
the Lutheran Confessions. The following theses from
the 18 theses on church fellowship, which were dis-
cussed and accepted during the early years of the Syn-
odical Conference may serve as examples:
Thesis eleven: It is a contradiction of the Confession,
when a church body is content that her pastors do not
have a proper but only a temporary call from their con-
gregations, or if the church body itself encourages this

disorder through the custom of licensing.
Thesis twelve: It is a crying contradiction of the Con-

fession when a church body which calls itself Lutheran

and desires to be Lutheran does not show earnest zeal,

so far as it is able. to start orthodox parochial schools

where these are not in existence.®2

Furthermore, such demands in matters of practice
coupled with charges of laxity in discipline were a major
factor in disturbing the relations of the synods in the

Synodical Conference particularly in the decades pre-

ceding the year 1960, leading finally to the withdrawal,

first of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and then of the

Wisconsin Synod from the Synodical Conference. What

appeared to some not only allowable but perhaps even

necessary in the light of Scripture and the Lutheran

Confessions was pronounced sinful unionism by others.

While at the organization of the Evangelical Lutheran

Synodical Conference of North America in 1872 the

founding fathers appear to have been able to agree on

the “Theses on Church Fellowship,” as time went on it
became increasingly impossible for all at all times to
agree on “the deductions which properly follow from
the words of this confession” or on the precise churchly
practice which would in a given situation conform to
the confession.

ABBREVIATIONS

BC The Book of Concord, trans. Theodore G. Tappert
et al. Philadelphia, 1959.

NPF A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,
eds. Ph. Schaff and H. Wace. Buffalo and New York,
1886—1900; reprint, Grand Rapids, 1952 ff.

PG Patrologiae cursus completus, series Graeca, ed. J, P.
Migne. Paris, 1857—66.

PL Patrologiae cursus completus, series Latina, ed. J. P,
Migne. Paris, 1844—55.

WA_ D2. Martin Luthers Werke, Weimar, 1883 ff. Tischreden
(WA TR).

FOOTNOTES

1 Cf. Canons VI, XXXII, XXXIII of the Synod of Lao-
dicea, and Canon VI of the Council of Constantinople (NPF,
Second Series, XIV, 127. 149. 183). See also Wemer Elert,
Abendmahl und Kirchengemeinschaft in der alten Kirche
hauptsaechlich des Ostens (Berlin, 1954), pp. 93—96, and
Tom Hardt, “Keine Kirchengemeinschaft mit Haeretikern!”
Lutherische Blaetter, XII, 65 (July, 1960), pp. 62 ff.

* Epist. 222, 2 (PL 33, 999): trans. in Roy J. Deferrari,
ed., Fathers of the Church (New York, 1956), XIII, 114 f.

3 Cf. Heinz Brunotte and Otto Weber, eds. Evange-
lisches Handlexikon (Goettingen, 1956), I, 950: “Neben der

Bildung des Kanons der Hl. Schrift entstanden schon sehr
frueh in den Gemeinden Glaubensbekenntnisse zum litur-
gischen und _ katechetischen Gebrauch, die allmaehlig im
Apostolikum ihre eigentliche Gestalt fanden und in dieser
Form zur Glaubensregel (regula fidei) wurden.”

+ Quaestionum Septemdecim in Matthaeum Liber Unus,
xi, 1 (PL 35, 1367). The English translation is by Fred
Kramer, as also in subsequent quotations unless otherwise
noted.

* De Utilitate Credendi, 1 (PL 42, 65); trans. in J. H. S.
Burleigh, ed., Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia,
1953), VI, 291.

® De Civitate Dei, xviii, 51 (PL 41, 613); translated in
NPF, First Series, II, 392.

7 De Utilitate Credendi, 1. See footnote 5.

8 De Baptismo Contra Donatistas, iv, 16 (PL 43, 169);
translated in NPF, First Series, IV, 457.

9 Epist. 43 (PL 33, 160); trans. in Roy J. Deferrari, ed.,
Fathers of the Church (New York, 1951), XII, 182.

1" Quaestionum Septemdecim, etc. See footnote 4.
11 Contra Cresconium Donatistam (PL 43, 469 ff.).

12 Eine Freiheit des Sermons papstlichen Ablass und
Gnade belangend (WA 1, 391).

13 Evangelium von den zehn Aussdtzigen, 1521. (WA
8, 389).

M4 Operationes in Psalmos (WA 5, 352).

1 Enarratio Psalmi II, 1532 [1546] (WA 40, IJ, 252).

10 Propositiones ... adversus totam synagogam Sathanae
et universas portas inferorum (WA 30, Il, 422).

1" Operationes in Psalmos (WA 5, 327).

1S Vorlesungen iiber 1. Mose von 1535—45 (WA 43, 213).

19 Von den Conciliis und Kirchen (WA 50, 545).

“" Vier tristliche Psalmen an die Konigin zu Ungarn
(WA 19, 610).

“1 Propositiones, etc. See footnote 16.

22 WA TR 4, No. 4637,

“8 Von den Conciliis, ete. (WA 50, 544 f.).

*4 John Gerhard discusses the question of heresy and
heretics at the end of the section on “The Eccclesiastical Min-
istry” (Loci Theologici, ed. E. Preuss [Berlin, 1867] VI,
261—264). He begins with a discussion of the terms for
heresy and heretic in Greek, Hebrew, and German, and
shows what the concept of heresy and heretic was, first in
the church fathers, then under Roman Catholicism. His
discussion indicates that the definition was never fixed, and
that many foolish views were expressed on the subject, par-
ticularly under the papacy. He quotes with approval state-
ments on the subject by Augustine, and then states his own
view. From his treatment of the subject, which covers six
closely printed columns, we quote what amounts to his

conclusion:

Not all who err with respect to the faith or the interpreta-
tion of Scripture are immediately heretics, For all heretics err
with respect to the faith, but not all who err are immediately
heretics, which Augustine, in the preface of the book Concern-
ing Heresies to Quodvultdeus expresses thus: Not every error is
a heresy, although no heresy, which has its foundation in cor-
ruption, could be a heresy without some error, And elsewhere
he writes: Err I may, a heretic I wiil not be.

So certain teachers of the church, in explaining certain say-
ings of the Scripture, erred from the proper and genuine sense,
whom nevertheless we cannot at once place in the list of
heretics, since in this life we “know in part and prophesy in
part,”” 1 Cor. 13:9.

Consider Augustine ... where he shows that it is one thing
to miss the genuine sense of some Passage, and another thing
to depart from the rule of faith. Moreover some, with their
error, do not impinge directly on the foundation of the faith
itself, but, holding fast to the foundation of the church, which
is Christ in His person and office, build on this foundation hay
and stubble, 1 Cor. 3:11 ff., of which kind was the error of
Cyprian concerning rebaptizing those who had been baptized by
heretics, and the error of Augustine that infants should be given
the eucharist, etc. To consider such at once heretics is by no
means proper, since heretics seek a different foundation outside
of Christ, while these build on the foundation the stubble of
erroneous opinions,

Some also number among the heretics those who in their
faith cherish private errors, although they do not disseminate
them, nor labor to draw others to their side. But although such
err with great danger to their souls, nevertheless, speaking ac-
curately and properly, they are not heretics, for these are de-
scribed thus in Holy Scripture, that they come to seduce others,
Matt. 7:15; that they come to the Lord’s sheepfold in order to
steal, to hurt, and to destroy, John 10:10: that they stir up di-
visions and offenses, Rom. 16:17: that not only they themselves