LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 133

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RESOLUTIONS 133

asked to bring its recommendations to the 1975 synod-
ical convention.

Action: None. Referred under omnibus Res. 4-47 to
the Board of Directors.

To Declare Faculty Majority Position
in Violation of Article II of the Constitution

RESOLUTION 3-09

Overtures 3-11A—C, 3-12, 3-13, 3-14A, 3-14B, 3-14C,
3-15A, 3-15B, 3-16, 3-17, 3-18A, 3-18B, 3-19, 3-68, 3-69,
3-70A, B, 3-71, 3-159, 3-171—3-176C, 3-191, 3-192, 3-193A
to 3-195B (CW, pp. 117—120, 136—138, 156, 163—164)

Introduction

Unity in the church is every Christian’s earnest de-
sire. Moreover, it is the express will of God to His peo-
ple on earth that they “endeavor to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). Divisions
are sinful and ungodly, particularly when they result
from a refusal to bow before God’s clear Word. The
apostle Paul rightly urges “by the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that
there be no divisions among you; but that ye be per-
fectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment” (1 Cor.1:10). At the same time God does
not countenance a unionistic spirit which tolerates false
doctrine in any way or sanctions diversity of teaching,
for God’s truth can in no way be compromised with
error. (Rom.16:17; 1 Tim. 6:3-5; Matt. 7:15; Matt. 12:
30)

With the Reformation came the clear avowal in a
sorely torn Christian world that “the Word of God shall
establish articles of faith and no one else” (SA, H, II,
15). Even with the clear-cut affirmation, however, men
continued to subject the Scriptures to their own ideas,
and the Lutheran church itself was terribly torn by di-
visions resulting from doctrinal controversies. Even the
Augsburg Confession (and the rest of the Confessions
that arose during the lifetime of Luther) could be, and
were, subverted. The deep-felt rifts and divisions were
not healed until 1577, when concerned Lutherans sub-
scribed the Formula of Concord. It was viewed not as a
new confession but exposition and defense of the Lu-
theran Symbols. Unequivocally and without compro-
mise it asserted against the erroneous opinions the true,
pure stance of Scripture’s teaching in accord with the
Confessions previously subscribed. “Being instructed
from the Prophetic and Apostolic Scriptures, we are
sure concerning our doctrine and confession,” the Con-
fessors stated in the Preface to the Book of Concord
(Trig., 21). Against “troublesome and contentious men”
they issued the Book of Concord that “the pure doc-
trine might be discriminated and separated from the
false” (Ibid.). For concord and unity in the church they
resolved that “we will also take pains, if either con-
troversies already composed should be renewed, or new
controversies concerning religion should arise, to re-
move and settle them betimes, for the purpose of avoid-

ing offense, without long and dangerous digressions.”
(Trig., 25)

Our forefathers in this land were convinced of the
Scriptural and Confessional rightness of the Confessors
of 1580; also that the articles of faith as they had de-
fended them against various foes were “the ecumenical
truths of Christendom” and “nothing but consistent
Christianity” (Bente, F., Trig., Intr., 256). Unity was
God’s gift to His church, even as purity of teaching it-
self; for unity and purity both were linked to the Pro-
phetic and Apostolic Scriptures.

It was this spirit and stance for which our forefathers
opted in the early days of our Synod’s history. They
struggled with the doctrine of the church, in view of the
fact that they were such a little band, fleeing from a
sterile, rationalistic theology in Europe. Bowing neither
to separatism nor to unionistic spirit, they affirmed:
“The Ev. Lutheran Church is that body of Christians
which unreservedly receives the doctrine that was again
brought to light through Luther’s Reformation, sum-
marized and publicly confessed at Augsburg in 1530 and
reaffirmed and unfolded in the other Lutheran Symbols,
as the pure doctrine of the Word of God” (Walther and
the Church, 121). “Not our size but rather our unity
in doctrine, is ‘our treasure,’” wrote Walther in 1866 to
Friedrich Brunn, who was leading a similar struggle for
Scriptural truth at Steeden, Germany, where the Lu-
theran Free Church had its birthplace, a century ago.
(Walther Speaks to the Church, Selected Letters, Carl S.
Meyer, ed., Concordia, St. Louis, 1973, 23)

Quite rightly, at the 49th convention of our Synod,
Milwaukee, 1971, Dr. J. A. O. Preus, asked in his
presidential report:

Does an evangelical and confessional church body such

as ours have the right and duty to adopt doctrinal state-

ments which are in complete conformity with Scripture
and the Lutheran Confessions—and then expect her
pastors, teachers, and professors, out of faithfulness to

Scripture and the Confessions, to believe, teach, and con-

fess according to such statement[s]?

“In the past,” stated Dr. Preus, “the answer has been
a resounding yes” (Proceedings, 1971, 54). In the
Predestinarian Controversy, e.g., Walther authored a
series of articles in the Lutheraner, 1880. At the con-
vention in 1881 these theses were adopted. “Whoever
opposes the doctrine which we teach according to Scrip-
tures and the Confessions and declares such a doctrine
heretical,” stated the Synod, “must be taken into church
discipline.” Expulsion from the Synod was to follow, if
the error was persisted in. (Proceedings, 1881, 42—43)

Loyalty to Holy Scripture and the Confessions sets
before us “a very great theological reason for insisting
on sound doctrine,” according to Dr. Preus, and our
people have a right to “expect their pastors, teachers,
and professors to teach in harmony with them” (Pro-
ceedings, 1971, 54). In line with our forefathers within
the Lutheran Church, all the way back to the Reforma-
tion, at no time was there room within the church for
the opinion that matters clearly taught in Scripture
could be relegated to the position of open questions.

Dr. Preus laid before the Milwaukee convention the