By Clyde T. Nehrenz - LCMS layman - April 2002
In 2001 the delegates to the 61st Regular Convention of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod reaffirmed the synod's official position on the church and the ministry. This web page has been developed for the express purpose of highlighting for the lay members of the congregations of the synod the exclusive authority that that position holds has been granted to them, their responsibility in seeing to it that the authority is administered, how the authority has been undermined, usurped and expropriated by a phalanx of disingenuous "ecclesiastics" and what needs to be done to remedy the situation.
There are many faithful pastors among us who understand fully the gravity of the situation but who, though grieved by it and mistakenly thinking they are alone, have been intimidated into silence by their peers. Our only hope is that they find and organize with men of like mind in order to lead us out of the quagmire in which the elitist "ecclesiastics" have mired us.
You will find no e-mail address here. I have no desire to engage in tiresome e-mail correspondence one-on-one with anyone on this or any other subject. If anyone is desirous of discussion let it be done meaningfully in a public forum. There are many web sites on the internet devoted to Lutheran issues. One of the best is Luther Quest. I plan on utilizing its forum in the weeks and months ahead to discuss further the issues highlighted here. Bookmark this page. Check back once a week. Tell others about it.
It has come down to this: We, our congregations, and the faithful among those upon whom we, by our elections and calls, have conferred the office of the ministry instituted by Christ when he called the apostles, which is the "highest office in the church," all are under attack. The attack is vicious, frontal, and unprecedented in the 160 year history of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It is led by rebellious seminary professors, by officials on every level of the Synodical structure, by elitists who have forged safe-havens for themselves on Synodical boards and commissions, by a various and sundry host of pulpit-deserters.They are leading our beloved Synod to ruin.
In a way it's our own fault. We have allowed matters to deteriorate far too long. It is time for action. The delegates to this past summer's Synodical convention made a good start in that direction. We must resolve to take up where they left off, forge ahead, and not relent until the destructive elements harbored among us are once and for all removed from our midst. We are under attack. We must engage. We cannot fail.
Our first challenge, in a word, is this: Rescind Resolution 6-35 adopted by the 45th regular convention of Synod held at Cleveland, Ohio in the year 1962. I'll explain.
Everyone from time to time experiences an event of one kind or another that effectively changes their life. What is true of individuals is also true of organizations. Very often an event proves to be so traumatic that the date and even the exact time of its occurrence is burned into the memory, never to be forgotten. But then there are times when things happen that, though life-changing, are little noted until later when the full impact of what took place suddenly hits home. Synod in Cleveland in 1962 is something like that.
"Committee 6-Constitutional Matters. Dr. Oliver Harms took the chair. The floor committee on Constitutional Matters presented a new resolution limiting all terms of office except those of the President and the First Vice-President...............Handbook revisions were adopted regarding the ordination and commissioning of missionaries (TB 574b,34) and the prerequisites for ordination (TB 574c,35). The convention approved the development of an indigenous church in Canada (TB 574e,36) ." (Proceedings of the Forty Fifth Convention of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.Minutes of the Convention. Session 17. Pg. 64. Emphasis added)
"Handbook revisions were adopted regarding ........the prerequisites for ordination ." That's all there was to it. That's all the words it took to record a dramatic shift of historic proportions that had just occurred in the life of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. From that moment forward right up to today every reference to Synod has had to carry with it these qualifiers: pre-1962, Old Missouri; post-1962, New Missouri. They are two distinct, mutually exclusive Missouris. We are going to look into how this is so a little later but before we do, and in order to help us come to a full understanding of the distinction, it is necessary that we consider three inseparably related matters: Resolution 6-35, the office of the keys, and congregations, pastors and divine calls.
Section 4.15 of The Handbook (Constitution and Bylaws) prior to the Cleveland convention read as follows:
"B. ORDINATIONS AND INSTALLATIONS. 4.15 Ordination of Candidates: A candidate for the ministry may be ordained only when he has received a legitimate call from and to a certain congregation and after previous examination has been found to be sound in doctrine, apt to teach, blameless in life, has made application for membership in Synod, and has submitted a request for ordination to the respective District President."
Cleveland "Resolution 6-35. Prerequisites for Ordination. Memorial 632, P. 282, Reports and Memorials":
"WHEREAS, The College of Presidents has reviewed section 4.15 of the Synodical Handbookregarding prerequisites for ordination and submitted a revised statement for acceptance by this convention; therefore be it"Resolved,That section 4.15 as it now stands be stricken and replaced by the following statement by the College of Presidents:
"4.15 Prerequisites for Ordination
"a. A candidate for the office of the pastoral ministry in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod may be ordained when the following prerequisites have been met:
"1. He shall have completed the prescribed courses of study and have received a diploma from one of the church's seminaries, or have fulfilled the requisites for a colloquy according to the Synodical Handbook, 4.55 to 4.71.
"2. He shall have received endorsement by the proper faculty or the committee on colloquies and in every respect have been declared qualified by them for the office of the ministry of Word and sacrament in the church.
"3. He shall have indicated complete dedication to the ministry and the readiness to accept a call extended to him by the Board of Assignments.
"4. He shall have received and accepted a call to a position the incumbent of which may be ordained according to the regulations of the Synod.
"5. He shall have received and accepted a call extended through the proper channels to assume full-time work in the church.
"6. He shall have made application for membership in the Synod and have submitted a request for ordination to the respective District President (or the proper official of the Board through which the call was extended).
"b. Graduates of the St.Louis and Springfield seminaries who have fulfilled the prerequisites stated in a, 1-4 and who wish to continue their professional studies shall be assigned and ordained upon their request under the following conditions:
"1. A call shall have been extended by a congregation or a proper board expressing preference for a particular candidate to be assigned to the function of pastor, or other synodically approved office.
"2. The District President shall approve the call, and the candidate shall be assigned by the Board of Assignments.
"3. The District President shall approve the request for ordination and receive the candidate upon his application as a member of the Synod and the District.
"Action:This resolution was adopted." (Proceedings.Pg. 131.)
A few words about the "Memorial 6-32, P. 282, Reports and Memorials" referred to above. Here's how a convention works: Memorials, or overtures, that have been received from congregations, districts, pastoral conferences, boards, commissions and other Synodical entities are published in the Convention Workbook.Floor committees meet prior to the convention to consider the memorials and draft resolutions answering the concerns voiced in each. The resolutions are published in the first issue of Today's Business,which is distributed to all delegates, and during the course of the convention each committee by turns presents its resolutions to the delegates for deliberation and action.
Every memorial must be considered and acted upon one way or another, which in many cases means simply being referred to some Synodical entity or other for study at a later date. In most cases, and always when a controversial matter is being addressed, a number of memorials will be listed as subjects of the resolution being presented and if time is taken to look up the listed memorials and match them with the resolution the connection will be obvious.
Not so with resolution 6-35. It has been 40 years since the Cleveland convention and to my knowledge no one has ever been able to figure out the connection between Resolution 6-35 and Memorial 632.
[Memorial 632] To Clarify Paragraphs 6.65, 6.163d, and 6.163f of Synodical 'Handbook':
"Whereas , A case of eligibility for the ministry in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has recently come before the Board of Appeals of Synod involving a graduate of the St. Louis seminary and the faculty and board of control; and"Whereas, The language of the Handbook seems to indicate that such cases should be finally decided at the institution; and
"Whereas, it appears that the placement practice of other church bodies is generally in the hands of the institutional authorities; therefore be it
"Resolved,That the following clarifications be added to the respective paragraphs in the Handbook:
"1) 6.65. Add: In exceptional cases appeal may be made to the faculty senate and the Board of Control. The joint decision of these bodies shall be final.
"2) 6.163 d. Add: The decision of the respective faculty regarding qualification shall be final.
"3) 6.163 f. Add: If the respective faculty decides that the candidate can no longer be recommended for placement, he shall be so notified, the specific reasons being stated. Appeal from such a decision of the faculty may be made to the respective board of control, whose decision shall be final." (Reports and Memorials. The Forty Fifth Regular Convention of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.Pg. 282)"
Go figure!
The Cleveland convention was one of the "hot" ones. There were two huge controversies going on at the time. There was one faction attempting to have declared unconstitutional a doctrinal resolution adopted by the previous convention at San Francisco. Another faction, the St Louis seminary faculty, was attempting to block the eligibility of Herman Otten, now publisher of Christian News,for the holy ministry. It appears to me that Memorial 632 had to do with the Herman Otten affair. What reasoning the College of Presidents dreamed up to be able to use it as the basis for their section 4.15 coup (more later) is a mystery. But it figures. Conceived in deceit, its child, New Missouri, has been able to survive for 40 years only by piling deceit upon deceit upon deceit.
There is only one reason why Christians must join together to organize congregations, and that is for the express purpose of publicly administering the power of office of the keys. In other words, to publicly forgive sins. Anything else a congregation does doesn't necessarily take a congregation to do. A Christian social club or some other corporate body of Christians will do just fine.
A quick review: "What is the Office of the Keys?It is the unique church power which Christ has given to His Church on earth to forgive the sins of penitent sinners, but not to forgive the sins of the impenitent as long as they do not repent." (A Short Explanation of Dr. Martin Luther's Small Catechism with An American Translation Text.Missourian Publishing Co. Pg. 56)
The power to forgive or not to forgive sins. An absolutely awesome power. And it was given to each of us, miserable sinners all, by Jesus Himself: "'If you forgive sins, they are forgiven; if you don't forgive them, they're not forgiven'" (John 20:23). The power is to be wielded not by "weapons of the flesh" (2 Cor. 10:4), but only by the "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Eph. 6:17). The office of the keys, the power to forgive sins, is to be exercised by you and me and all Christians by means of the Word and only the Word - until the end of time.
We have the Word of forgiveness and we've been given instructions for using it. In the first place we are to proclaim it: "Go ye therefore and preach the Gospel to every creature" ( Mark 16:15); "it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth" ( Rom. 1: 16). Second, we are to baptize: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit" ( Matt. 28:19); "Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins....." ( Acts 2:38). Third, we are to administer the Lord's Supper: "'Take eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me........Drink ye all of you. This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink of it, in remembrance of me" (Small Catechism.Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Like 22:19, 20; 1 cor. 11;23-25). Fourth, we are to absolve: "Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them" (John 20:23).
Note regarding the retaining of sins: "The'keys of the kingdom of heaven'are nothing else, and can be nothing else, than the means of grace, the Gospel. Through the offer of the Gospel, and through nothing else, Christians remit sins and thus open heaven; through withholding the Gospelthey retain sins and thus lock heaven" (Christian Dogmatics.Pieper, III, p. 453. Emphasis added). Another note: Excommunication doesn't fit in at this point notwithstanding widespread belief to the contrary, even, unfortunately, among pastors.
So whenever and wherever the Gospel is proclaimed or the sacraments and absolution are administered, there the authority of office of the keys, the power to forgive sins, is being administered in accordance with the will of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Congregations, pastors, divine calls
"The local church [congregation] is a divine institution." So writes Dr. Pieper (Vol. III, p. 420). J. T. Mueller adds: "...so that believers living in one place must organize such churches where they do not exist or join them where they do exist..." (Christian Dogmatics.J. T. Mueller, p. 555).
Dr. Mueller goes on, ''It is indeed God's will and appointment: a) That all believers at one place should establish in their midst the public ministry and make diligent use of it by hearing and learning God's Word as it is proclaimed by the divinely called ministers (Eph. 4:3-6 Acts 2: 42-47. 14:23, 20:28, I Cor. 12:28, I pet. 5:2, 3, Titus 1:5); b) That they should together celebrate Holy Communion (I Cor. 11:26 10:17) and exercise the duties of Christian fellowship and love (I Cor, 11:33; Acts 6:1-6; Col. 3:15, 16);
c) That they should not only privately reprove an erring brother (Matt. 18: 15, 16), but also as a church, or congregation, rebuke and discipline impenitent sinners (Matt. 18:17; I Cor, 5:13).
".....From all this it follows that it is indeed God's will and ordinance that Christians should establish and maintain local churches, for without them these Christian obligations, enjoined so definitely, cannot be performed." And Dr. Pieper, after making reference to the same Scriptural evidence, writes, "therefore the formation of Christian congregations, and membership in them, is not a human, but a divine mandate" (Vol. III; p. 421).
Regarding the office of the public ministry, Luther wrote: "But because all have the privilege [to administer the office of the keys] it becomes necessary that one, or as many as the congregation pleases, be chosen and elected, who in the stead and name of all, who have the same right, administer these offices publicly, in order that no revolting disorder arise among God's people..." (Pieper, Vol. III; p. 442). And from Dr. C. F. W. Walther: "(The office of the public ministry) is not a human ordinance, but an office established by God Himself" (The Voice of Our Church Concerning the Question of the Church and the Ministry. Thesis on the Ministry.Theses II. Walther and the Church.Dau, Engelder, Dallmann).
Again we hear Dr. Mueller. We know, he writes, that "the public ministry is a divine appointment or ordinance: a) From the practice of the holy apostles (Acts 14:23), and from the command to their successors to ordain elders, or bishops (Titus 1:5), so that ministers or pastors were regularly appointed at all places where local churches had been established (Acts 20:17, 18 Titus 1:5); b) From the description of the personal qualifications of the public minister (I Pet. 5:3; I Tim. 3:2-7); c) From the distinction which Scripture makes between elders, or bishops and all believers (I Cor. 12:28, 29); d) From the honor and dignity which are ascribed to all who officially teach the Word (Heb. 13:7; I Cor. 4:1)" (Christian Dogmatics.p. 566,567).
And finally, the divine call. Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession states: "It is taught among us that nobody should publicly teach or preach or administer the sacraments in the church without a regular call."
One of the early Lutheran dogmaticians defined the ministerial call as "the appointment, made by God either alone or by the intervening aid of men, of certain and suitable persons to the ministry of the Church, with the right to teach in public, to administer the sacraments, and to exercise ecclesiastical discipline" (Hollaz, Doctr. Theol.; J. T. Mueller).
As indicated in this last, there is a distinction made between the appointment made by God "alone," and the appointment made by God through the "intervening aid of men " These appointments have been termed, respectively, the "immediate" call and the "mediate" call.
"The immediate call is that divine call which is made "'without any intervening judicial aid of other men' " (Baier. J. T. Mueller, p. 571). The twelve apostles and St. Paul were called immediately; that is, they were called directly by Christ without the intervening aid of men.
The mediate call, on the other hand, although no less an appointment made by God, is "effected 'through ordinary means' divinely appointed for this purpose." That this call is by divine appointment is established "from the following facts; a) It is referred to God as its Author (I Cor, 12:28; Eph, 4:11); b) It is based upon apostolic authority (Acts 14:23, 20:28; I Tim, 4:14; 3:1, 2. 5:21, 2 Tim, 1:6, 2:2 Col, 4:17); c) It is confirmed by God's gracious promises (I Tim. 4:16; 2 Cor, 3:6; Eph, 4:11, 12)" (J. T. Mueller).
Finally, that the divine call to the office of the ministry is alone the prerogative of a Christian congregationis witnessed to by the 17th century Lutheran dogmatician J. W. Baier, who was highly praised by Walther for his "Lutheran fidelity in doctrine." Baier wrote: "To the Church, after it has been planted,belong the right and power to appoint ministers, for she has the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16:19; 18:18), given her as a bride, by Christ, her Husband; and, therefore, as it is her prerogative to open and close the kingdom of heaven, so is it her prerogative to appoint ministers, through whom she may open and close (the same)" (Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church;H. Schmid; p. 608. Emphasis added).
It has been necessary to spend this time reviewing the subjects covered in this and the previous two sections because understanding what follows depends on our being aware of what happened at the Cleveland convention and, even more important, on our thoughts being organized regarding the doctrine of the Office of the Keys and its relationship to the local congregation, the office of the ministry and the divine call. I doubt if any review of these last could be drawn together more concisely than the one presented here, which certainly and legitimately raises the question of its adequacy - or inadequacy. But no matter, what has been presented is adequate enough to serve the purposes intended. We return to Missouri, Old and New.
At the very moment the founding congregations and pastors of the Missouri Synod were contemplating the formation of the organization, they were confronted by controversy regarding church polity. Their opponents, Pastor Grabau of the recently organized Buffalo Synod and Rev. Wm. Loehe of Germany, who was active at the time sending Lutheran missionaries to America, insisted that the efficacy of the office of the keys, that is, its power to forgive sins, depends on its being administered by authorization of an ecclesiastical hierarchy; that ordination by the hierarchy is the means by which men enter the office of the ministry of Word and Sacraments and are thereby authorized to publicly administer the means of grace and absolution; that the incumbents of the office comprise a special spiritual class of men apart from and out from under the control of laymen and their congregations; that church government controlled by laymen is to be equated with mob rule and is not permissible. Revs. Grabau and Loehe were themselves not in total agreement on all these matters but regarding the principles they were soulmates.
Synod was organized in 1847 at the height of this controversy and three years later Dr. C. F. W. Walther, first president of the Synod, was asked by the Synodical convention meeting that year to prepare theses on the doctrine of the church and the ministry. He obliged, and presented his theses at the 1851 convention where they were thoroughly discussed by the delegates. The following year they were published in a book under the title The Voice of Our Church on the Question of Church and Ministry,which soon came to be known popularly as simply Church and Ministry. Two years later the theses were adopted as Synod's official position. There are nine theses on the church and ten on the ministry, each supported by copious evidence from Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions, and the writings of various 16th and 17th century Lutheran church fathers.
Concerning the Church, Dr. Walther showed that Scripture incorporates the term in only three senses. It is used in reference to: 1 - all those who "truly believe in Christ," the so-called "invisible church," the "holy Christian Church, the communion of saints" of the Apostles Creed. 2 - the universal church, "all those who profess allegiance to the Word that is preached and make use of the holy sacraments," which necessarily includes both "good and evil persons." 3 - local congregations in which the Word of God is preached and the holy sacraments are administered.
It is the "true church of believers and saints [invisible church - the communion of saints] to which Christ gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And it is therefore the proper and only possessor and bearer of the spiritual, divine, and heavenly goods rights, powers, offices, etc. which Christ has procured and which are found in His church."
Because the "true invisible church of true believers (can) be found within local congregations, so also they possess the authority that Christ has given to His whole church," the communion of saints, namely, the authority to forgive and to withhold the forgiveness of sins, the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Concerning the holy ministry or pastoral office Dr. Walther showed that according to God's Word it "is an office distinct from the priestly office" that all Christians have, is "an office which God Himself established [when He called the apostles]," one "whose establishment has been commanded to the church and to which the church is ordinarily bound till the end of time." It "has the power to preach the Gospel and administer the sacraments and the authority of a spiritual court," but that does not mean that it is some kind of "special and holier estate apart from that of the ordinary Christian."
The office "is conferred by God through the congregation as possessor of all ecclesiastical power, or the power of the keys, by means of its call, which God Himself has prescribed " and by which the office is given the authority "to exercise the rights of the spiritual priests in public office on behalf of the congregation." Ordination, unlike the congregation's election and call, "is not of divine institution but is an apostolic ecclesiastic arrangement and only a solemn public confirmation of the call."
Since the "keys embrace the whole power of the church...and the incumbents of the public ministry of the Word...administer them publicly...on behalf of the congregation therefore the ministry of the word is the highest office in the church, and from it all other offices flow."(Emphasis added)
And one final note: Although the duty to judge doctrine belongs "by divine right to the ministry of the Word, also laymen possess the right to do so. Therefore in the ecclesiastical courts and councils they have both seat and vote"(Emphasis added). (This is the point at which excommunication comes into play.)
Synod adopted Dr. Walther's theses as its official position because the principles codified there rest firmly on the solid foundation of God's Word. The principles are not arbitrary or capricious, subject to the whims of men. One cannot pick and choose, add, subtract, twist or turn them to suit ones fancy. No matter what style of government men choose when organizing a local congregation, no matter how varied and creative their approach to polity may be, the principles contained in Dr. Walther's theses must be incorporated into the plan if the congregation is serious about its commitment to Scripture as "the only judge, rule, and norm according to which as the only touchstone all doctrines should and must be understood and judged as good or evil, right or wrong" (Formula of Concord, Ep, Rule and Norm, 7). In Old Missouri that was a given.
I have chosen as especially germane to our subject just three of the important Scriptural principles that served as a basis for Old Missouri's adoption of practices that remained central to its polity for more than 100 years.
1. Scriptural principle -Only a local congregation that has organized for the express purpose of publicly administering the Office of the Keys has the authority from God to confer the office of the ministry of Word and sacraments instituted by Christ when He called the apostles on men of its choosing by means of its divinely appointed election and call. Old Missouri Practice -No Synodical official, whether elected or appointed, including professors at our seminaries and colleges, was considered an incumbent of the pastoral office, or office of the ministry, by virtue of his Synodical position. If a man resigned his pastoral office, for whatever reason, he became once again an ordinary layman.
Synod is a church in no sense of the word as used in Scriptures. Unlike the establishment of a local congregation, which is by divine mandate, Synod is nothing more than a human arrangement. It is not an assembly of believers organized for the express purpose of administering the power of the office of the keys to forgive sins or withhold the forgiveness of sins and therefore has no authority to administer the Word and the sacraments in anyone's name, no authority to absolve, no authority to act as a spiritual court, no authority to excommunicate. It has, in short, no authority, indeed no reason, to confer on anyone the office of the ministry instituted by Christ when He called the apostles.
2. Scriptural principle -The office of the Word (pastoral office) is the only office that God Himself established. All other offices in the church are auxiliary to it. Old Missouri Practice -Walther: "When the Lord instituted the apostolate He instituted in the church only one office, which embraces all others and by which the church of God should be provided for in every respect. The highest office is the ministry of the Word, with which also all other offices are conferred at the same time. Every other public office in the church is part of the same, an auxiliary office which supports the ministry, whether it be that of the elders... or that of the rulers.... or that of the deacons, or whatever other offices the church may entrust to particular persons for special administration" (Drickamer. Walther On The Church;p. 103).
Synod, too, was organized for the express purpose of assisting member congregations in carrying out those auxiliary functions which are supportive of the pastoral office established by a congregation but which can better be performed in concert with other congregations. Training church workers, including pastors, establishing mission stations, publishing educational material, etc., are all incumbent on a congregation in the performance of its duty to administer the office of the keys. Member congregations authorized Synod to perform these duties for them. Never, however, did the congregations of Old Missouri empower Synod to publicly administer the office of the keys or authorize it to establish the office of the ministry instituted by Christ when He called the apostles. An organization of human origin can neither claim for itself nor can anyone give it divine power.
3.Scriptural principle -"The ordination of those called, with the laying on of hands, is not by divine institution but is an apostolic church ordinance and merely a public, solemn confirmation of the call." Old Missouri Practice -Congregations ordain. Synod, therefore, was no more than the agent the congregations appointed, by mutual consent, to perform the ritual for them. For this reason it was insisted that ordination take place in the presence of the calling congregation. It was emphasized at all times that Synod has no authority to establish the office of the ministry and that pastors were pastors by virtue of the election and call of their congregations and not by virtue of their ordinations. They took pains, in other words, by word and deed, to emphasize that ordination does not make a man a minister of the Word, nor is any power or authority conferred by it.
Old Missouri nailed all of this down and tied it all together in one short paragraph in its bylaws, "B. ORDINATIONS AND INSTALLATIONS. 4.15 Ordination of Candidates",as quoted above. Any drift away from this stance on ordination, they knew from sad experience, would, in the end, undermine the whole body of Scriptural church and ministry principles.
Old Missouri's adherence to the Scriptural doctrine of the church and the ministry set it apart from all other Lutheran synods. It was, in fact, what made Missouri Missouri. And its constitutional provision regarding ordination was key to its remaining steadfast in adhering to the rules and guides of Scripture concerning the preeminence of local congregations. It was this provision that produced the mindset that was so vital to the unprecedented success it achieved protecting the members of its congregations for more than 100 hundred years from the frequent and viscous attacks on the doctrines of Scripture that continually threatened their spiritual well-being.
For many years prior to 1962 Old Missouri was under pressure to revamp its position on the doctrine of the church and the ministry and scrap the Scriptural principles embodied in it. That's why already in the 1930s practices of long duration were being criticized, attacked and, here and there, ignored. Theological rebellions always begin and are led by disgruntled seminary professors and ecclesiastical bureaucrats. Missouri was no exception. And it never fails that when the rebellion revolves around issues of church and ministry it is always ordination that takes center stage. Again, Missouri was no exception.
The situation that had for many years, and more than any other, gnawed away at the psyche of rebellious seminary professors and their sympathizers out in the field and in the Synodical bureaucracy was the impossible situation (in their minds) of their holding these "prestigious" positions and yet not having the authority to publicly preach, baptize or administer communion.
The professors grumbled and groused that, thanks to Walther's Church and Ministry,they supposedly no longer had such authority because each had resigned the office of the ministry conferred on him by his former congregation. They were now nothing more than theologically-trained laymen teaching at a seminary. Having to rely on some group of no-nothing laymen out in the boonies to grant them authority to do anything, anything at all, was, as far as they were concerned, a huge insult. By the 1950s it had all become unbearable.
Things reached the breaking point when it came time to begin thinking about making the job of district president full time. As long as it was a part-time job handle by pastors of congregations there was no problem. But what was going to happen when a pastor was elected district president and had to resign the office of the ministry his congregation had conferred on him by its election and call? That was going to be a problem. In any case, it was the College of Presidents that finally acted, coming up with the solution at Cleveland, Resolution 6-35.
So what changed as a result of the 1962 convention's striking wording from the bylaw that had guided Synod for more than 120 years and replacing it with a new statement dreamed up by the College (later, Council) of Presidents? E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.
First off, and immediately as the votes were counted and the results made known, Old Missouri's official position on the church and the ministry adopted in 1854 was set aside, put on the shelf to gather dust. Synod had taken on itself the role of a church and assumed - usurped - an authority that only God can give and no humanly devised organization can claim having, namely, the power to forgive sins. Ordination, formerly almost an afterthought ("merely a public, solemn confirmation of the call") now became central to everything. The call of a congregation, formerly of divine origin, was relegated to nothing more than a help wanted ad posted to an ecclesiastical Manpower Inc. in hopes of hiring one of the ordained ministers registered with it.
The new resolution 4.15 effectively redefined both "office of the ministry" and "ordination." The meaning of the first was expanded to apply to positions other than pastor of a local congregation. The second, now officially declared an exclusive prerogative of Synod, replaced the election and call of a congregation as the office's empowering authority. The office would no longer be defined narrowly as the authority to publicly administer the power of the office of the keys;that is, the power to forgive sins. From now on it would be defined loosely as a position one enters to perform churchly functionsand those holding the position would be considered members of a class of spiritually elite Christians set apart from and above that of ordinary Christian.
These are merely the highlights of the revolutionary polity shift successfully engineered by the plotters of the Cleveland Coup. The most notable thing about it all, though, is this: the new office of the ministry instituted by the convention, and still operative today in New Missouri, has not one shred of divinity about it; it is wholly human, a creation of men in open rebellion against God. Predictively, the result forty years later is ruin brought on the once most glorious of all Lutheran synods, and theological and spiritual debauchery inflicted on the members of its congregations.
The Bible is the Word of God, therefore inerrant. Principles of Christian doctrine must rest firmly upon, conform to and pass muster before that Word. Church polity and practice must in turn be guided by those principles and not violate the standards embodied in them. Polities and practices that do so are "not to be tolerated in the church of God." New Missouri's position on church and ministry fails on all counts. Whether it will continue to be tolerated is up to the lay members and faithfulpastors of Synod.
First off, the principles that guide its polity and church and ministry practices are not founded on the authority of God's Word. That authority does not allow that an organization like a synod be considered a church - in any sense of the term as used in Scripture. Scripture knows no such form. Scripture does not allow that a synod has authority to administer the power of the office of the keys, that is, authority to forgive sins. Scripture knows no such authority. Scripture does not allow that the rite of ordination be the means of empowering a man to publicly administer the Word, the sacraments, or absolution. Scripture knows no such empowerment.
Scripture will not allow that a local congregation of believers be relieved of its exclusive God-given authority and mandate to publicly administer the office of the keys. It will not allow for the establishment of the office of the ministry of Word and sacrament in any way other than by means of the election and call of a local congregation. It will not allow the concept of an office of the ministry that is seen as a preexisting position waiting to be filled. It knows only of an office in the sense of that word defined as an authority conferred. It knows no caste system separating groups of believers. Scripture disallows all these things. New Missouri embraces them all - and makes them the rule and norm of its polity and church and ministry practices.
Norms, principles, practices. Get off to a bad start with norms and principles and practices can do nothing but follow along to produce chaos. So it is in New Missouri. Take ordination. There were three positions extant at last count: 1 - it's a divine ordinance. 2 - the call of a congregation is not consummated until ordination. 3 - the office of the ministry is divine but ordination and the election and call of a congregation are not. What happens with this last (and no, I'm not joking) is that at the very moment of the laying on of hands the divinity of the office flows back over the ordination, call and election making them divine, too. There is a fourth position out there, of course, the Scriptural position held over from Old Missouri, but it finds no place in official New Missouri.
Then there's the office of the ministry. All Christians are ministers. Jesus made us ministers when He told us to go into all the world and make disciples. But there are certain kinds of ministries that are of a public nature and demand special qualifications to perform. Fortunately, there are some men among us who have these qualifications. They are gifts to us from God and, through the good offices of the Synodical hierarchy (episcopacy) and by means of its ordination, they are inducted into the office of the ministry, special spiritual gifts are bestowed on them, and they are authorized and empowered to fulfill the many churchly functions the various types of churches are called on to perform, including the function of publicly administering the office of he keys.
Once ordained, always ordained, no matter if one ever serves in a local congregation or not. Ordination empowers a man to publicly preach, baptize, serve communion and absolve anywhereor anytimean occasion presents itself. And this is for life. Secular vocations notwithstanding, a person who has been ordained will always be entitled to proclaim, "I AM AN ORDAINED LUTHERAN MINISTER with authority to perform publicly various churchly functions including administering the office of the keys."
And finally there's the local congregation. There is no divine mandate demanding the gathering together of believers into this or any other type of organization. But it is only natural that Christians will organize in order to more effectively carry out the divine mandate to go into the whole world, make disciples, and teach them to observe everything Jesus has commanded them to do. Local congregations, synods, mission societies, missionary leagues, high schools, fraternal associations, these are examples of Christians joining together to fulfill the mission of spreading the Gospel. In this regard they are all church and on the same plane. Some, however, are more directly associated with this Gospel mission than others and thus serve a primary role. Since most will agree that a local congregation is the primary grouping it must be considered first among the throng.
A local congregation exists essentially to provide opportunity for participating in or being exposed to a variety of spiritually uplifting activities. Numbered among them are the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments. In order to properly perform these last named public functions a congregation must prayerfully select one of Synod's pastors-by-ordination. These men are God's gifts to the church(es), are in the office of the public ministry, have been empowered by their Synodical ordinations to forgive sins, and are certified by Synod to enter local congregations to work on the members with the Word and the sacraments.
Every churchly function that a congregation performs can be managed by anyone the congregation chooses. Anything, however, to do with spiritual matters or the administration of the office of the keys is outside its purview. This is a divine prerogative of the pastor alone granted to him by Synod through its ordination. The congregation's only connection here is seeing to it that the pastor is provided with helpers who will be ready to provide him assistance in carrying out the responsibilities associated with these particular churchly functions anytime he chooses to avail himself of it.
The argument is made that New Missouri's office of the ministry is the office instituted by Christ when He called the apostles. This is fog pure and simple. The office of the ministry instituted by Christ is the authority to publicly forgive sins by means of the Word and the sacraments. This authority (office) can be conferred only by the election and call of a divinely mandated local congregation of believers gathered together for the express purpose of administering that authority. The office of the ministry instituted arbitrarily by Cleveland Resolution 6-35 and entered into through the instrumentality of Synod's ordination has no authority to forgive sins, no authority to preach, no authority to commune, no authority to baptize, no authority to absolve, no authority to excommunicate. Put bluntly, it's a counterfeit office of the ministry.
This is further demonstrated by the special spiritual persona and divine authority supposedlyinfused by ordination and passed from generation to generation through the ranks of the clergy class or episcopacy. This is,in truth,an impossibility. Divine spirituality and divine authority can be neither conveyed, transmitted, transferred or whatever by humanly-devised orders. Those in today's Missouri Synod who have resigned the office of the ministry once conferred on them by the election and call of a local congregation - Synodical officials of every description, seminary professors, the hundreds of pulpit-deserters roaming about in and out of Synod who affect all the "ordained minister" trappings when it is to their advantage to do so, shedding them when it's not - all of them must trace their ordination-empowered offices not to Christ or the apostles but, rather, along a line stretching back first to Walther and his contemporaries, then to 19th century Germany, then to Luther and his contemporaries, and, finally, to the early 16th century popes. The office of the ministry of Cleveland Resolution 6-35 is an office whose origin, authenticity and authority emanate from Rome. It's a counterfeit.
Formerly, nothing was allowed to take precedent over the spiritual well-being of the members of the congregations. Everything was ordered with that in mind. It was unwavering commitment to that goal, mandated by the principles embodied in Church and Ministry,that enabled Old Missouri time and time again to experience the blessing of victory when forced to take to the field to defend the truth and purity of God's inerrant Word. (The 1970s Battle for the Bible was won during the immediate post-1962 transition period when the new order was being organized. It would be impossible to gain such a victory today.)
But that's ancient history. Today in New Missouri it is the professional and social welfare of the members of the clergy caste that primarily concerns the hierarchists.This flip-flop is a direct result of the authority of the keys, the authority to forgive sins, being separated from the congregations and turned over to a usurping, papal-oriented, ordination-empowered episcopacy. It is the separation of this authority from the congregations that has served to create the attitude of cynical contempt toward them so evident today within a large segment of the clergy caste.
The contempt serves as a unifying agent. It's the Pilate/Herod thing. Out of our Ft. Wayne seminary come aspiring little popes; out of our St. Louis seminary come crowd-pleasing vaudevillians. Form over function; function over form. A world apart? Not at all. Different players, same team. Add to their number district and national Synodical officials and a whole host of ubiquitous seldom-see-the-inside-of-a-pulpit wannabe-but-don't-wannabes.
(It's enlightening to watch the outcropping - or perhaps I should say outdropping -of this contempt as it exposes itself, most noticeably at our seminaries, and especially our Ft. Wayne seminary where scorn of late seems to have taken a pathological turn. It is here, or so it was reported recently, that the claim was made by an everyone's-favorite-fun-guy professor, speaking before a large gathering, that Old Missouri's congregationalism treats pastors as hired hands while New Missouri's episcopalianism treats them as honored men chosen of God - exactly opposite the reality.
How is it that something a ten year old could be made to understand inside of fifteen minutes cannot be fathomed by men who have more than seven years of higher education? How is it that Old Missouri's divinely-instituted, congregationally-conferred, "highest office (authority) in the church" can be characterized by an eminent, intelligent seminary professor as a hired-hand position and New Missouri's humanly-devised, pastor-by-ordination office be characterized as divine and hundreds of students, former students, Synodical officials and pulpit-deserting hangers-on, sharing the professor's scorn, heartily cheer him, so it was reported, for saying it? One is hard pressed to find words to describe such a reaction, but contempt wallowing in deep abiding ignorance would certainly seem apt.)
Pitted against this unholy alliance are the faithful pastors who in spite of the scorn heaped upon them by their peers remain firmly committed to the Scriptural principles elucidated in Church and Ministry.Standing by are the members of the congregations who, bereft of any knowledge regarding their corporate, God-ordained purpose, authority, and responsibility, have been rendered virtual non-entities, powerless to halt the march down the road to ruin. The result is spiritual disaster. I will site a few examples. Add your own.
Reformed theology and practices spread unimpeded like wildfire through our congregations in every part of the land. Law is turned into gospel, Gospel into Law, directing eyes away from Christ on to self, the satanic nature of it all disguised by huge numbers of followers, resplendent buildings, frenetic activity. Enthusiastically supported by one faction of the "team," the eternal welfare of tens of thousands of our trusting brothers and sisters are placed in jeopardy with no one to turn to for rescue. Even so much as a suggestion of opposition and the episcopal wagons circle in defense of the brotherhood
Tens of thousands of our wives, daughters and sisters have been led like lambs to the slaughter by episcopal-minded judas-goats. Based on the New Missouri anti-Scriptural position that a congregation has no part in the administration of the authority of the keys to forgive sins, that this is the exclusive prerogative of pastors granted to them by Synod through its ordination, they have led these good people to rebel against their God, His order of creation and His restrictions on their activities within a congregation. The rebellion has become universal, all opposition to it is summarily and unceremoniously dismissed, and the most enthusiastic supporters of it are the very ones who in another era were looked to for defense against such rebellion, namely, Synodical officials perched on every level of what has become, in New Missouri, an episcopal ladder.
A natural extension of New Missouri's everyone-a-minister theology, our Mission Board's misguided everyone-a-missionary theology has led to a disastrous confusion of Law and Gospel. Thousands in our congregations are led by the Mission Board to believe that the projects they support are ministries of the Gospel when in fact they are nothing more than make-yourself-feel-good, wholly Law-oriented Peace Corp-style projects. Even more egregious is the way in which those involved in the projects are affected. They are being led away from Christ to self by the very efforts the Mission Board encourages them to believe is the spreading of the Gospel . Besides everything else, the whole sorry mess is a stinging slap across the face of our true missionaries and their wives and children who willingly risk everything to bring the Good News of forgiveness to poor souls who are without hope in this world.
A more recent example of how far we have fallen and how safe it has become under the protection of the episcopacy to openly foster errant theology is the January 2002 issue of the Lutheran Witness,at one time a publication dedicated to theological enlightenment now become one that appears dedicated to dumbing down its readers. The author of its question and answer column tells his questioner that "whether something is Law or Gospel can depend, in a sense, on the one who hears or reads it," and that "the Sermon on the Mount contains both Law and Gospel statements....... consider the Beatitudes." Anyone who finds Gospel in the Beatitudes or any place else in Matthew 5 - 7 is either a Trinity Broadcasting groupie or on his way to Rome. Here we have as an official spokesman for the Missouri Synod a situation ethicist who, going unchallenged, promotes a bankrupt anti-Christian phlisophical tool as a principle of Bible interpretation - and is provided a cover of anonymity to hide behind while doing so. Circle the wagons.
These are merely a few examples that illustrate the ruinous state of affairs in New Missouri today. But they don't tell the worst of it. The following does:
A Ft. Wayne seminary professor wrote this to his students on Reformation Day, 1980: "On March 29, 1971...... I began (a) class period with this remark: 'Genesis 12:3 is the first clear statement in the Old Testament of what we call "objective Justification."' The twenty-three students who were taking this elective course objected almost unanimously. I thought they were kidding. But they told me that there is no such thing as objective justification. I told them that...subjective justification is destroyed if there is no objective justification...I was staggered when they informed me (who) they had learned this from... The next morning I spoke to (the professor)....He told me that our fathers have taught wrongly and that the situation must be corrected."
The wagons circled. His colleagues came out in force to defend him. A group of idolizing laymen joined the fray by publishing the paper he had written on Justification. In it he claimed adherence to the doctrine but denied that Romans 4:24, 25; 5:18,19 and 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21, the chief passages upon which the doctrine is based, teach the doctrine, replacing them with passages that teach subjectivejustification. When the sophistry is peeled away, what is revealed here is a Gospel with it's heart - our Father's forgiveness of all mankind for the sake ofthe perfect life and death of His dear Son, Jesus Christ - ripped out. Christ is gone; only self is left. Justification produces sanctification, sanctification produces good works. If you want to be assured of your salvation, look to your works. Test them to see if they are of a quality one would expect from someone who has the faith necessary for salvation. Assure yourself of salvation, brother! Improve your life! The professor remains on the faculty to this day.
Thirty years later his poison flows everywhere. In a widely reported case a year or so ago, a laymen brought charges of false doctrine against his pastor for denying the objectivity of justification. District officials were called in and after examining the pastor and acknowledging that the charges were justified, declared there was nothing they could do about it since the teaching had now spread widely throughout Synod. We are now at the point where members of the brotherhood are being excused/defended to the bitter end, even at the cost of jeopardizing the eternal welfare of tens of thousands of trusting souls. A congregation can be assailed by no greater catastrophe than that of being saddled with one of these charlatans.
Here's Walther regarding the battle over the doctrine of the church and the ministry: "We are not fighting for a particular constituted division which calls itself Lutheran. The object of our struggle is nothing else than the true faith, the pure truth, the unfalsified Gospel,the pure foundation of the apostles and prophets." (Concordia Theological Monthly;Oct., 1961, pp. 601, 605. Emphasis added.)
When the doctrine of the church and the ministry fails to be preserved from all error, the administration of the Word and the sacraments will ultimately be affected. If the administration is affected so must the power being administered. The power being administered is the forgiveness of sins, the "ministration of righteousness", justification. Once the authority to publicly administer the power of the office of the keys to forgive sins is removed from those to whom God gave it, namely, local congregations of believers, and put into the hands of an exclusive, humanly-devised order of ecclesiastics chaos must always follow with justification the ultimate victim. History is witness to the inevitability of this outcome.
My friends, the source of the chaos that besets New Missouri today may be tucked away in the past, but it is no mystery.
Cleveland Resolution 6-35 and the 1854 convention's resolution adopting Church and Ministryas Synod's official position, along with this past summer's Resolution 7-17A reaffirming it, cannot remain standing together. Resolution 6-35 must fall on two counts: 1- It is in opposition to Scriptures and the Confessions. 2 - It is diametrically opposed to Synod's official position. It mustbe either rescinded or declared unconstitutional, one or the other. If it is allowed to stand, then rap it up boys.
I made reference above to the controversy that was raging at the time of the 1962 Cleveland convention. Here's more on that story. Learn from it.
The Synodical convention of 1929 directed that a committee be appointed to examine in the light of Scripture and the Confessions certain doctrines that were in controversy at the time and to formulate theses reflecting its findings. A committee was appointed by the president and in 1931 issued its conclusions in the Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod. In 1932 Synod adopted the statement as its official position, reaffirming this stance in 1947.
By the late 1950s questions were being raised about the "binding force of the Brief Statement." The 1959 San Francisco convention took up the question and adopted a resolution "reaffirming that every doctrinal statement of a confessional nature adopted by Synod as a true exposition of the Holy Scriptures is to be regarded as public doctrine in Synod; and that Synod's pastors, teachers, and professors are held to teach and act in harmony with such statements"Resolution 9, Committee 3. 1962 Reference Material(yellow pages); p. 21).
Controversy followed with the English District finally petitioning Synod's Committee on Constitutional Matters (CCM) to rule on the constitutionality of Resolution 9. It then joined with the Atlantic District in asking the Cleveland convention to declare the resolution unconstitutional (Reports and Memorials.Pgs. 227, 272-273).
The CCM issued a ruling stating that certain wording of Resolution 9 had "the effect of amending Article II of the constitution " and should therefore have been "submitted as an amendment to the constitution in accordance with the provisions of Article XIV." On the basis of that finding the CCM declared San Franciso Resolution 9 to be in its opinion unconstitutional. The convention then had little choice but to do what it did, adopt a resolution declaring agreement with the CCM, which ended the matter. (Proceedings.Resolution 6-01; p.122).
Look for the episcopal hierarchists at our seminaries, districts and Synodical headquarters to use the same tactic in 2004 against Resolution 7-17A as the English and Atlantic Districts used in 1962 at Cleveland against San Francisco Resolution 9.
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