Confessional Lutheran Fellowship Update
Update:
One brave commenter wrote: .
“Be nice to me; I am trying to understand why the confessional churches in the LCMS still think that those who have left the confessional fold will ever return.”
As a confessional Lutheran in the LCMS camp, I must say I enjoy reading your blog from time to time. Let me simply point out, in view of your above statement, there is a certain ironic ring to it. Not to unsettle your conviction as a member of the WELS but Article V of the Augsburg confession and, most especially, Article XIII of Apology provide another perspective on who has left whose “confessional fold.”
Not that I am endorsing in any way the LCMS’s current shenanigans or the ELCA’s state of institutional apostasy.
Just trying to point out that things aren’t nearly so ‘cut and dry’ as synodical informational web sites try to make them. I honestly doubt whether a purely faithful expression of The Book of Concord truly exists in institutional form.
Keep up the good work on your excellent blog.
– A LCMS-er
My response:
Actually, I am not a member of the WELS. In fact, I often find their viewpoints more harsh than the ELS, which is the synod that found me, although technically we are in church fellowship. I am new and am still learning. I will research those articles to understand what they say and why you think they apply to my question.
Here is Article V of the Augsburg Confession. Hopefully someone can explain why anonymous mentions this article in relation to my question.
Article V: Of the Ministry.
That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ’s sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake.
They condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Ghost comes to men without the external Word, through their own preparations and works.
As far as Article XIII, I did locate it on the internet and it is a long and wordy document. Gee, I think I will have to defer to more knowledgeable people until I can study it in more depth.
Based on anonymous’ comments and my reading of the two articles, I’m getting the impression that there is animosity on the part of the LCMS toward the WELS (and the ELS?). Is this correct? As a new ELS member and a new “member” of this informal circle of confessional lutheran blogs, I am trying to learn more about this. It has been my experience that these issues aren’t discussed in my church, but some older members make reference to them in casual conversations. So you are the ones with the opportunity to enlighten me on the conservative LCMS point of view. What do you want me to know?
Second question: In regards to the dissolution of the synodical conference in 1967, does the past matter anymore? Do new confessional lutherans have to “understand” why confessional lutherans of the past disagreed, even if the existing ones now agree?
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