Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Sheet 571
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Sheet 571

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

540 THEOLOGY OF FELLOWSHIP

Thesis 11

Es widerspricht ferner dem Bekenntnis, wenn die kirch-
liche Koerperschaft es sich gefallen laesst, dass ihre
Pastoren keinen ordentlichen, sondern nur einen zeit-
weiligen Beruf von ihren Gemeinden haben, oder sie
gar selber diese Unordnung durch das Licenzwesen
staerkt.

Thesis 12

Es ist ein schreiender Widerspruch wider das Bekennt-
nis, Wenn eine lutherisch sich nennende und lutherisch
sein wollende kirchliche Koerperschaft keinen Ernst und
Eifer beweist. rechtglaeubige Gemeindeschulen, was an
ihr liegt. in Gang zu bringen, wo sie nicht vorhanden sind,

PART THREE

Specific Questions Regarding the Practice
of Fellowship

As stated in the Preamble, the document, THEOLOGY
OF FELLOWSHIP, grew out of studies initiated by a reso-
lution of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod at
the St. Paul convention in 1956 requesting a restudy of
the question of “fellowship, prayer fellowship, and
unionism.” }

The committee appointed to make _ this study
searched the Scripture. particularly the New Testa-
ment, with great care to glean all Passages which have
a bearing on fellowship. Its findings are embodied in
the THEoLocy or FELLowsuIp, Part I. The committee
found that "Fellowship, both between the believer and
his God, and between the believer and his fellow be-
liever. looms large in the Holy Scripture in both
Testaments.” =

The findings in Part I may be summed up briefly
as follows: God created man for fellowship both with
Himself and with his fellowmen. Man destroyed this
fellowship by the fall into sin. by which he became
an enemy of God and brought strife and enmity into
the human family. However, God in His great mercy
in Christ redeemed man from sin in order that He
might restore him to fellowship with Himself and with
his fellowmen in the Christian church.

The Scripture, particularly the New Testament,
abounds in passages which extol this fellowship.3
Therefore Christians should consider fellowship, also
church fellowship, the normal thing in their relations
with one another. They should desire such fellowship,
and should constantly be concerned to extend the
blessings of this fellowship to others.

However, the New Testament also contains a num-
ber of passages which warn against persons, teachings,
and actions which are injurious to Christian fellowship,
and commands Christians to avoid such persons, teach-
ings. and actions.

The committee appointed to restudy the question of
“fellowship, prayer fellowship and unionism” saw as
one of its tasks to study with great care the passages
which command separation from or avoidance of certain
persons in the interest of fellowship.

Part III of THEoLocy or FELLowsH addresses itself
to a study of the Scripture Passages which command
separation and seeks to give answers to questions con-
cerning “fellowship, prayer fellowship, and unionism.”

A. AN EXAMINATION OF THE PASSAGES
WHICH COMMAND SEPARATION

The passages of Scripture which command Chris-
tians to separate themselves from certain persons,
teachings, and practices are in particular the following:
Matt. 7:15, 16: Gal. 1:6-9: Acts 19:8-10; 2 John 9-11;
Rom. 16:17, 18: Titus 3:10; 2 Cor. 6: 14-18.

These passages do not appear to have been used by
Luther and his co-workers in the manner in which they
have often been used in our time: to forbid all work
and worship with men with whom they are not wholly
in accord doctrinally; nor are they so used in the
Lutheran Confessions.

‘ohn Gerhard, the great orthodox Lutheran dogma-
tician, whose celebrated Loci Theologici was first issued
in 1620, makes no such use of these passages. We find
him quoting Matt. 7:15; Rom. 16:17; Gal. 1:9; 1 John 4:1;
and 2 John 10 to show that the church must guard
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.” &

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