LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 73

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REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT
It is our conviction that the Lutheran Confessions purely
present this truth in a manner to which all Christians can
and should gladly say, “Yes, this is what we too believe,
teach, and confess.” Let me share with you words from our
Lutheran Confessions that are filled with God-given confidence. They are inspiring words, words that we must—that
we absolutely must— retain always among us. I quote from
the Solid Declaration:
“We have no intention of giving up anything of the eternal, unchangeable truth of God . . . for the sake of temporal
peace, tranquillity, and outward unity. Such peace and
unity, which is intended to contradict the truth and suppress it, would not last. It makes even less sense to whitewash and cover up falsifications of pure teaching and publicly condemned errors. Rather, we have a deep yearning
and desire for true unity and on our part have set our
hearts and desires on promoting this kind of unity to our
utmost ability. This unity keeps God’s honor intact, does
not abandon the divine truth of the holy gospel, and concedes nothing to the slightest error” (FC SD XI.94-96).
Let there be no mistake about it. Our Synod, at this convention, stands at a crossroad as we move into the new millennium. Zeal for the truth of the Gospel and for God’s Holy
Word is the essence of true love of God and of our fellow
human beings. May God ever preserve The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod in zealous commitment to His
Word. Therefore, delegates, I urge you, I encourage you, I
challenge you, and I beseech you by the mercies of God, to
move together into the new millennium with confidence—
great confidence— because of your commitment to Jesus
Christ, because of His Word and because of your magnificent heritage!
II. Moving together
into the new millennium with courage
As we move forward into the new millennium with great
confidence, we also do that with great courage. And make
no mistake, it takes courage to remain faithful to the Word
of God and to the Lutheran Confessions. Courage is what is
required, and courage is what God’s Holy Spirit continues
to pour into your life and mine through His Word and His
Sacraments.
We live at a time when truth is seen as merely a matter
of taste or opinion or consensus or personal preference. As
we move together into the new millennium, we courageously retain and proclaim the entire truth of God’s Word,
in every point. Not just some of it, but all of it; not just a
general sense of truth—but the specific truths of any and
every passage of God’s Word, the Holy Scriptures. If we really want to have something to say to a culture and a world
in such desperate need of truth, then all the more we must
cling to the sacred Scriptures and the faithful exposition of
that Word found in our Lutheran Confessions.
Our Synod has faced significant challenges in years past
over the question of the truth of God’s Word and what it
means to be truly Lutheran. We went through the Seminex
crisis nearly thirty years ago in which a number of pastors
and professors wanted to lead our Synod away from a
strong trust in the absolute truthfulness and reliability of
Holy Scripture. Sadly, some of them continue to disturb our
Synod, working for a compromising approach to doctrine

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and practice. They do so very carefully, often with pious
sounding phrases and words, but their threat to the Synod
is a very real and present danger. With love for our brothers and sisters who would have us move away from the
truth of the Word, we must say, “No.” It is the most loving
thing that we can do for them. We must keep our eyes fixed
and set firmly on Christ and on His Word. We must not
permit ourselves to slide down that path that leads us into
error and compromise and confusion. We must always say,
“No” to error and “Yes” to truth.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, it truly hurts me that in
our Synod, in the past several years, there have arisen
groups that claim to be putting Jesus first, or that they are
trying to shine like stars, when it is obvious they are attempting to advance an old liberal theology and practice,
an agenda that has haunted this church body since the
days of Seminex and even before. Delegates, my fraternal
and heartfelt encouragement to you as President of our
Synod is to beware of this agenda and how they are suggesting to carry it out. It would be detrimental to head in
this direction. This is not the path we should follow. There
is a much better way.
When we are on a journey together, it is imperative that
we follow a clear roadmap. If we decide to strike out on our
own, trying to blaze new trails or to find shortcuts, we only
get lost. Some may tell you that this is truly an exciting
way to travel! But there truly is theological danger there.
There is really nothing worse than getting lost.
When I was in Den Hag, Holland, a number of years
ago, I got lost three times in the same neighborhood on the
same morning. I was getting lost because I was not able to
figure out how to negotiate all the one-way streets that existed on each side of every canal. In moving around and
around I could not find my way. Finally, I stopped to ask
for directions. You know how hard that is for a man! When
I finally accepted a clear roadmap, I found myself on my
way, the right way, where I wanted to go.
Our path is one marked out by God’s Word and made
clear by the Confessions. It is a well-worn path. It is the
path that our mothers and fathers and our grandmothers
and grandfathers have followed. It is, by God’s blessing, the
path that our children and grandchildren will follow. It is
the path so beautifully marked out for us most recently by
Dr. Barry, whose love for the truth of God’s Word was so
great. He earnestly desired that this Synod, which he loved
so much, would keep the message straight and get the message out just as we heard from Pastor Grey this morning.
Faithfulness to God’s Holy Word and to our Lutheran Confessions and a zeal for telling the Good News of Jesus was
what Dr. Barry was all about. He was merely following the
old, well-worn path walked by so many other of our synodical presidents and pastors as well as by the Synod’s faithful pastors, teachers, and faithful laymen and laywomen.
This is the path I please we too must continue to follow.
Some churches that claim the name Lutheran left the
well-worn path. Is this really the path our Synod wants to
take? I don’t think so. There are many who have left the
well-worn path and have become entangled in trails choked
with the overgrowth of error, strangling deception, and ending in the treacherous cliffs of false teaching and ultimate
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