LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 377

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 377

and sound biblical. Tragically, in deceiving others false teachers
deceive themselves (2 Tim. 3:13). In spite of their sincerity, their
doctrines do not come from the Spirit of truth (John 15:26) but op-
pose the one faith (Eph. 4:5).74 Even in those who err the Holy
Spirit can work faith, yet never through or because of their errors
but in spite of them. Our task is not to untangle the heart’s mixed
motives or to pass judgment on the presence and quality of the faith
of others, but to apply the apostolic standard to their doctrines and
practices.”

f. Some false teachers face eternal separation from Christ (Matt.
7:21-23), but others are saved by clinging to the Gospel by faith. In
building the church, they put the straw of their false teachings on
top of the solid foundation of the Gospel truth (1 Cor. 3:11-15).7¢
Nevertheless, their false teachings exclude them from the fellow-
ship with the apostolic churches.

2. Fellowship in the Lutheran Confessions

Luther did not intend to break with the Roman Catholic Church.
As long as he lived, his conscience was troubled that he had split
the church. And after his death, his successors earnestly desired
unity—but not by sacrificing doctrine.*’ However, long before the
Reformation the church had experienced divisions. Bishops and
church councils routinely contradicted one another. In 1054 A.D.
the pope excommunicated the patriarch of Constantinople, divid-
ing Christendom into the East and West. In the century before the
Reformation, Rome’s three rival popes excommunicated one an-
other and a fourth replaced them. In addition, sects resembling our
denominations arose. Though the principle of agreement in doc-
trine for church fellowship was operative wherever the church had
condemned false doctrines (for example at Nicea in 325), the
Lutherans were the first to define the church.” “The church is the
assembly of saints in which the Gospel is taught purely and the
sacraments are administered rightly” (AC VII, 1; Latin translation).
Luther put it in another way: “[a}] seven-year-old child knows what
the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice
of their Shepherd” (SA III, xii, 2). Decisive in both definitions is
that the one church is not an organization but believers whose fel-
lowship is in the Gospel and the sacraments.

The Apology of the Augsburg Confession provided this inter-
pretation of Article VII of the Augsburg Confession:

The church is not merely an association of outward things and rites, like

other governments, but it is mainly an association of faith and of the

Holy Spirit in the hearts, which however has outward marks, so that it

can be recognized, namely, the pure teaching of the Gospel and the ad-

ministration of the sacraments in accord with the Gospel of Christ (Ap

VII/VIU, 5; our translation).”°

People pretending to be Christians can belong to the church’s
external fellowship but not to the una sancta. The church “prop-
erly speaking” is “mainly an association of faith and of the Holy
Spirit in men’s hearts (Ap VII/VIII, 5). Wherever the Gospel is
preached and the sacraments are administered, the Spirit gathers
believers into Christ’s one church.*°

The church appears to be in constant peril. Even those entrusted
with her care at times oppress her. The devil is in her midst and the
world fights her (Ap VII/VIII, 9).*' However, under her tribulations
the true church (the una sancta) is present, though hidden (Ap
VII/VIH, 9, 10, 18, 19). But she is in no sense an abstract idea like
Plato’s non-existent republic or Thomas More’s Utopia, or Shangri
La. She “actually exists, made up of true believers and righteous
men scattered throughout the world. And we add its marks, the
pure teaching of the Gospel and the sacraments” (Ap VII/VIH,
20).*? Augsburg Confession VII provides this definition of church
unity:

For the true unity of the church it is enough to agree concerning the

teaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments. Nor is
it necessary that human traditions or rites and ceremonies instituted by

men be everywhere alike, as Paul says: one faith, one Baptism, one God

and Father of all, etc. (VII, 2-3; our translation of Latin).**

Unlike Roman Catholics and the Reformed, for church fellow-
ship the Lutherans required agreement in the Gospel and sacra-
ments without ceremonial and organizational] uniformity. The For-
mula of Concord states: ‘‘[CJhurches will not condemn each other
because of a difference in ceremonies, when in Christian liberty
one uses fewer or more of them, as long as they are otherwise
agreed in doctrine and in all its articles and are also agreed con-
cerning the right use of the holy sacraments....” (FC SD X, 31).
The Gospel comprised the entire Christian faith and not a simple
affirmation that Jesus is Lord.

Popes and bishops often allowed doctrinal differences and only
required that people and priests submit to their authority.» Luther-
ans, however, insisted on doctrinal agreement. Matters of church
organization were ultimately inconsequential and not a deterrent to
church fellowship, but doctrine was another matter. Since what is
confessed either offers or hinders the Gospel, false teachings had to
be condemned. In his explanation of the First Petition of the Lord’s
Prayer, Luther states that false teachers profane God’s name (SC
II], 5).*° God answers prayers for pure teaching because “[the]
Word of God is the true holy thing above all holy things....the trea-
sure that sanctifies all things” (LC, I, 91). Therefore “the chief wor-
ship of God is the preaching of the Gospel” and not following
human observances (Ap XV, 42). The Smalcald Articles confess
that “the Word of God shall establish articles of faith and no one
else. not even an angel” (SA II, ii, 15)."*° A confession of the truth
includes rejecting the contrary errors. The Formula of Concord
notes that like the Nicene Creed, the Augsburg Confession has con-
demnations: it “distinguishes our reformed [Lutheran} churches
from the papacy and from other condemned sects and heresies” (FC
SD, Rule and Norm, 5).*’ The Augsburg Confession and the Apol-
ogy confronted Roman Catholic error on the one side and Re-
formed and Anabaptist error on the other.** The Treatise on the
Power and Primacy of the Pope [1537] also renounces error.”

The Formula of Concord, the last of the Lutheran Confessions
(1577), contains condemnations in all its articles and calls atten-
tion to the Smalcald Articles and the Treatise, where “the grounds
and reasons are set forth at necessary length for renouncing the pa-
pistic errors and idolatries, for having no communion with the pa-
pists, and for neither expecting nor planning to come to an under-
standing with the pope about these matters” (FC SD, Rule and
Norm, 7).

In condemning the Anabaptist-Reformed denial of the sacra-
mental presence of Christ in the Supper, the Formula took over
Luther’s confession which he wrote anticipating his death:

I reckon them all as belonging together (that is, as 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 godless

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 fel-

lowship from me. This is final (FC SD VII, 33).

Luther’s words may sound harsh, but they express the seriousness
with which the Lutheran Confessions reject false doctrine.

The Formula also rejects sects that took advantage of “the poor.
simple people” who “unfortunately accepted in their innocence
what called itself evangelical and was not papistic’” (FC SD XII,
8). However, the Formula was primarily directed against Luther-
ans who gave Roman and Reformed twists to the Augsburg Con-
fession.

The Preface to the Book of Concord specifies who is included in
its condemnations:

...1t is not our purpose and intention to mean thereby those persons who

err ingenuously and who do not blaspheme the truth of the divine Word.

and far less do we mean entire churches inside or outside the Holy Em-

pire of the German Nation. On the contrary, we mean specifically to
“condemn only false and seductive doctrines and their stiff-necked pro-

2001 Convention Workbook