LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 167

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 167

3-41

To Prohibit All Forms of Joint Worship
and Work with ELCA
WHEREAS, Art. VI of the Constitution establishes conditions of
membership in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS),
mandating among other things “renunciation of unionism and syn-
cretism of every description”: and

Wuereas, Reports continue to trouble the Synod that members -

of Synod are violating this condition of membership by holding
Joint worship and work with clergy and/or church bodies not in fel-
lowship with the LCMS, particularly the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA); and

WHEREAS, Our Commission on Constitutional Matters (CCM)
has declared that joint services with church bodies not in fellow-
ship with the LCMS, including the ELCA, are, in fact, a violation
of the synodical Constitution; therefore be it

Resolved, That the 1998 synodical convention declare that it is a
clear violation of Art. VI of the synodical Constitution to engage in
any activity that can be construed as a joint expression of Christian
worship with the ELCA and/or its clergy; and be it further

Resolved, That instruction in the Christian faith (including
chapel services) and theological governance of the LCMS schools
(including principals, pastors, and voting board members) must be
in the hands of LCMS churches, pastors, teachers or laymen; and
be it further

Resolved, That all District Presidents be directed to enforce the
synodical Constitution and Bylaws with respect to unionism. They
are to direct offending members of synod not to engage in any joint
expression of Christian worship or work with the ELCA whenever
a complaint is brought to their attention. That effort failing, the Dis-
trict President is to follow the synodical Constitution and Bylaws in
terminating synodical membership for the offending member; and
be it finally

Resolved, That if the District President refuses to abide by the
above that the synodical President with the concurrence of a ma-
jority of the Praesidium shall have the authority and obligation to
suspend and/or terminate said District President and terminate his
synodical membership.

Our Redeemer
Forsyth, IL

3-42

To Recognize That ELCA Is No Longer
a Lutheran Church

Wuereas, Lutherans know that justification by grace through
faith in Jesus Christ is the “Article {of faith] upon which the Church
stands or falls’; and

Whereas, As our Lutheran Confessions teach: ‘Nothing in this
article can be given up or compromised, even in heaven and earth
and things temporal should be destroyed” (SA ITI 5) thus showing
that the doctrine regarding justification is the very heart of the
Christian faith: to teach that man or his works play any role in our
salvation is to deny the Gospel itself; and

WHEREAS, Because of the crucial nature of this teaching—for it
is impossible to be saved unless one has true faith in Jesus Christ—
the ELCA’s declaration of reconciliation with Roman Catholicism
concerning the doctrine of justification is an offense to all true
Lutherans; and

WHEREAS, The ELCA’s efforts to “paper over” the profound
doctrinal differences between Lutheran doctrine and Reformed
doctrine have long been a source of great concern because faithful
Lutherans understand that differences between the churches on the
Lord’s Supper reflect different understandings of who Christ Jesus
is—the Reformed view, which denies that Christ is bodily present
in His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, is an insult to Christ’s
divine nature, inferring that He is not all-powerful. Jesus is God,
and “with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37); and

WHEREAS, The Reformed view also denigrates Holy Scripture
since by denying a clear biblical teaching it gives the impression
that the Scriptures contain falsehoods. To insult Christ and His
Holy Scripture is an action which must be divisive, therefore Mar-
tin Luther is faithfully quoted in our Lutheran Confessions:

“I reckon them all as belonging together (Sacramentarians and
Enthusiasts), for that is what they are who will not believe that the
Lord’s bread in the Supper is His true, natural body, which the god-
less or Judas receive orally as well as St. Peter and all the saints.
Whoever, I say, will not believe this, will please let me alone and
expect no fellowship from me. This is final” (FC SD VII 33); and

WHEREAS, It is our earnest wish that more Christians would
come to a biblical understanding of the Lord’s Supper, for the
knowledge that Christ feeds us and strengthens our faith with His
own body and blood is a great source of encouragement and hope
and therefore it is shameful for the ELCA to treat this profound
truth of the Lord’s Supper as a trifle which can simply be discarded
for the sake of a worldly fellowship; and

WHEREAS, By ignoring the profound differences which exist be-
tween Lutheran and Reformed teaching and by going into full
church fellowship with the Presbyterians, Reformed, and United
Church of Christ, and thus allowing false teachers to preach in
Lutheran pulpits and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper at Lutheran al-
tars, the ELCA has declared it teaches the “gospel” of Pontius Pi-
late, who could look into the face of Christ and ask, “What is
truth?” (John 18:38): and

WHEREAS, In recent years, the ELCA has demonstrated a lack of
Christian, biblical understanding regarding one of the greatest
moral crises of our day—the slaughter of millions of children
through abortion. Indeed, the lack of moral direction was already
observable in the 1991 Statement on Abortion. In recent years,
however, scandal has arisen because the health care plan for pastors
of the ELCA pays for abortions for its pastors. The ELCA 1997
convention “overwhelmingly rebuffed [by a margin of 809 to 121]
efforts to prevent its medical benefits plan for paying for induced
abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, severe fetal abnormali-
ties or a threat to the life or health of the mother” (ELCA News
Service). By rejecting a move that would have limited abortions to
only cases of rape and incest and to protect the life of the mother,
the ELCA has declared it is for abortion on demand. It has, in
essence, given sanction to pastors to murder their own children and
the ELCA will pay for such murders with funds which parishioners
thought would contribute to the health of the clergy who serve
Christ’s church; and

WHEREAS, In the Old Testament, when some people sought
blessings by sacrificing a child to Molech, an Ammonite god, God
declared: “Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the
strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed [chil-
dren] unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of
the land shall stone him with stones” (Lev. 20:2). The murder of
infants is never pleasing in God’s sight; instead, those who com-
mit such murders draw the wrath of God down upon themselves:
therefore be it

Resolved, That the LCMS formally declare in convention and
in its publications that it no longer recognizes the ELCA as a
Lutheran church body; and be it further

Resolved, That all pastors and congregations of the LCMS en-
courage any Lutherans who remain within congregations of the
ELCA to separate themselves from their false teachers (Rom.
16:17); and be it finally

Resolved, That no Recognized Service Organization, board, or
commission affiliated with the LCMS acknowledge the ELCA as a
Lutheran body.

Our Redeemer, Forsyth, IL; Bethany, Fort Wayne, IN;
Grace. Paris, TX