Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1954, Page 88

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‘88 Proceedings of the Forty-Third Convention,

unionistic practices . . . has brought about the present break in
relations that is now threatening the existence of the Synodical
Conference and the continuance of our affiliation with the sister
Synod.

eet me say immediately that the issue cannot be failure on the
part of the individual pastors, teachers, or congregations in the
Missouri Synod to have at all times been perfect in practice.
Similar failures can be cited for the members of the Wisconsin
Synod in a number of areas. Those are weaknesses that have to
be dealt with and corrected again and again. The issue is, as
stated by our Wisconsin brethren, “persistent adherence to union-

‘istic practices.”
What Is Religious Unionism?

The Brief Statement answers the question in this manner
(par. 28): “We repudiate unionism, that is, church fellowship with
the adherents of false doctrine, as disobedience to God’s command,
as causing divisions in the church, Rom. 16:17; 2 John 9, 10, and as
involving the constant danger of losing the Word of God entirely,
2 Tim. 2:17-21.” We note that unionism is defined as “church
fellowship with adherents of false doctrine.”

When the Brief Statement speaks of church fellowship here,
it does not refer to the “church which we confess in the Third
Article as the holy Christian church, the communion of saints.”
Nor does it refer to the “fellowship” which joins us by the inward
and invisible bond of faith to Christ as the Head of the church
and to all fellow believers in Christ as members of one body.

Let me add that this fellowship of all believers with God and
with one another as members of the family of God is real. (See
Gal. 3:26; Eph. 2:14 ff.; 1 John 1:3; also A. C. Hardt, “Fellowship
with God,” C.T.M., XV, 505; XVI, 433, 513.) It is not just a phil-
osophical idea, but an actual active fellowship of faith and love,
a real sharing of the “one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God
and Father of all” and of all the blessings Christ has merited for us.
(Eph. 4:4-6.) This church and fellowship is in no wise the work
and creation of man, but of God alone, and He sees to it that it
alone of all fellowships issues into radiant glory and happiness to
all eternity. There is no other fellowship like it among men.

However, this is not the fellowship we speak of when we speak
of church fellowship. The oneness or unity in Christ is indeed the
basis for the church fellowship we are speaking of. As members of
the body of Christ we have Christ as our Head, who directs the en-
tire body and every member of it. The directive is His Word, to
which every member of His body owes absolute and unconditional
obedience. ... This united obedience to Christ, the Head, is the unity
of the Spirit of which the Apostle speaks in Eph. 4: 4-6. This unity
of the Spirit is to become manifest in word and deed, in doctrine
and practice, so manifest according to John 17:22 that even the
world will take note of this marvelous oneness in the midst of sin
and strife in the world. ... This manifestation of the unity of the
Spirit in word and deed, in doctrine and practice, we call church
fellowship.

The unity of the Spirit Christians are “to keep in the bond of
peace.” This peace consists in perfect agreement with, and obe-
dience to, the directives which Christ, the Head, has issued and
is constantly issuing to the members of His body and His Word.