LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 177

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THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 177

dom of heaven, Matt. 16:13-19; 18:17—20; John 20:22-23, and
commissions all believers to preach the Gospel and to adminis-
ter the Sacraments, Matt. 28:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-25. Accord-
ingly, we reject all doctrines by which this spiritual power or
any part thereof is adjudged as originally vested tn certain indi-
viduals or bodies, such as the Pope, or the bishops, or the order
of the ministry, or the secular lords, or councils, or Synods, etc.
The officers of the Church publicly administer their offices only
by virtue of delegated powers, conferred on them by the original
possessors of such powers, and such administration remains
under the supervision of the latter, Col. 4:17. Naturally all Chris-
tians have also the nght and the duty to judge and decide matters
of doctrine, not according to their own notions, of course, but
according to the Word of God, | John. 4:1; | Peter 4:11.

7. “A Brief Statement” stated in paragraphs 31-32, Of the Public
Ministry:

31. By the public ministry we mean the office by which the
Word of God is preached and the Sacraments are administered
by order and in the name of a Christian congregation. Concern-
ing this office we teach that it is a divine ordinance; that is, the
Christians of a certain locality must apply the means of grace
not only privately and within the circle of their families nor
merely in their common intercourse with fellow Chnstians, John
5:39; Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:16, but they are also required, by the di-
vine order, to make provision that the Word of God be publicly
preached in their midst, and the Sacraments administered ac-
cording to the institution of Christ, by persons qualified for such
work, whose qualifications and official functions are exactly de-
fined in Scripture, Titus 1:5; Acts 14:23; 20:28; 2 Tim. 2:2.

32. Although the office of the ministry is a divine ordinance,
it possesses no other power than the power of the Word of God,
I Pet. 4:11; that is to say, it is the duty of Christians to yield un-
conditional obedience to the office of the ministry whenever,
and as long as, the minister proclaims to them the Word of God,
Heb. 13:17; Luke 10:16. If, however, the minister, in his teach-
ings and injunctions, were to go beyond the Word of God, it
would be the duty of Christians not to obey, but to disobey him,
so as to remain faithful to Christ, Matt. 23:8. Accordingly, we
reject the false doctrine ascribing to the office of the ministry
the right to demand obedience and submission in matters which
Christ has not commanded;

and be it further

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod tn its
2001 convention declare 2002 as a year of review and reinforce-
ment of this understanding, and to that end, that the Synod direct
the Council of Presidents and the two seminaries to review and re-
inforce the biblical understanding of the Office of the Public Min-
istry and the Priesthood of All Believers, correcting any abuses,
using brotherly admonition based on Matthew 18, and that all Dis-
tricts devote a portion of one District pastoral conference to the
same kind of review and reaffirmation.

lowa District West

3-61

To Act on Concerns re ELCA

WHEREAS, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America prac-
tices “Eucharistic sharing” with the Episcopal Church; and

WHEREAS, When two or more churches enter into altar and pul-
pit fellowship, they thus become one communion, one church; and

WHEREAS, An Invitation to Action: The Lutheran-Reformed Di-
alogue, Series IIT, 1981-1983 (Fortress Press, 1984) is predicated
on the claim that “the Reformed Confessions have always taught
and still teach the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist” and that
the difference is simply about the “mode” of this presence and
should not divide the churches; and

WHEREAS, Such claims directly contradict the Formula of Con-
cord (see especially SD VII, 1-8); and

WHEREAS, By its nonprotesting membership in the Lutheran
World Federation the ELCA ts, according to the LWFS 1984 con-
stitution, in full pulpit and altar fellowship with all other members
of that federation; and

Wuereas, Many member churches of the Lutheran World Fed-
eration are in pulpit and altar fellowship with Reformed churches
on the basis of the Leuenberg Concord, thus denying the sacra-
mental teaching of Holy Scripture as faithfully confessed in the
Book of Concord; and

WHEREAS, The ELCA has officially endorsed a position of full
communion between it and three other Reformed church bodies in
America (Aug 18, 1997, church-wide gathering), thus denying the
sacramental teaching of Holy Scripture as taithfully confessed in
the Book of Concord; and

WHEREAS, Such actions directly contradict the Formula of Con-
cord (see especially SD VII, 108); and

WHEREAS, The ELCA, in opposition to the apostolic-prophetic
Scriptures of God, ordains women into the sacred ministry of Word
and Sacraments; and

WuEeREAS, The ELCA, in opposition to clear statements from
God’s Word, ordains homosexuals and lesbians into the sacred
ministry of Word and Sacraments (“Vocations of Gay and Lesbian
Lutherans,” Ann Arbor, MI, 36-97); and

WHEREAS, The ELCA’s leading dogmatic textbook used in the
education of its clergy (Christian Dogmatics, Braaten/Jenson)
mocks the Trinity and our Lord’s eternally preexistent divine na-
ture; and

Wuere_as, The ELCA has entered in 1999 into a “Joint Decla-
ration of the Doctrine of Justification” with the Roman Catholic
Church; and

Wuereas, Dr. A. L. Barry has stated that this is an out-and-out
concession by the ELCA; and

WHEREAS, Our Lutheran Confessions state that the church
stands or falls on this chief article of faith; and

WHEREAS, The ELCA has now publicly and officially re-
nounced the doctrine of justification by faith alone as it is under-
stood by the Lutheran Confessions; therefore be it

Resolved, That the 2001 synodical convention of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod publicly state through its official period-
icals and its official discussion with the representatives of the
ELCA that the LCMS cannot regard or treat the pulpits and the al-
tars of the ELCA as confessionally Lutheran in the sense of the
Book of Concord, but must recognize them as heterodox, union
pulpits and altars; and be it further

Resolved, That the Colloquy Board, together with the Council
of Presidents and the seminaries, in the case of experienced ELCA
pastors seeking entry into the LCMS on conscientious grounds and
whose orthodoxy and general suitability are fully established, at
their discretion adjust the colloquy requirements to ease entry of
such men into the ministerium of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod.

Salem
Taylorsville. NC

3-62

To No Longer Engage in Joint Ministry with ELCA

WHEREAS, At every LCMS convention in recent memory many
resolutions were submitted that reflect changes in the fields of
higher education, communications, and mission services, such as

(a) Outreach to international college students
(b) Immigration of large numbers of Muslims
(c) Changes taking place in rural or urban ministry; and

WHEREAS, There remain many areas where significant changes
have occurred in the doctrine and practice of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of America where our Synod in all its entities has
yet to respond, and where decades-old agreements with the
ELCA’s predecessor bodies remain in effect as if these changes
never took place, such as in areas regarding women’s ordination,
higher criticism, justification, abortion on demand, so-called apos-
tolic succession, and ecumenical covenants with Rome and the Re-
formed; and

2001 Convention Workbook