President Schroeder completed his conference essay this morning, Walking together with Jesus, Church Fellowship and its Implications for Confessional Lutherans. Much of the 57 page essay, or sermon as he referred to it, covered the history of the Synodical Conference and the issues leading to it's breakup.
There were many fine and strongly Scriptural and Confessional statements made by President Schroeder. For instance he quoted Walther approvingly, "We will have nothing to do with them [leaders of heterodox churches], and because of what they are, we must withdraw from many a dear person of whom we are convinced that he has the true faith. Because they are connected with false teachers, one can have no brotherly fellowship with them, but only bemoan to God the fact that there also a dear brother is captive." [page 27]
Later regarding a loose requirement for communion on page 36 which read, "trust in the Lord's Words, repent of all sin, and forgive and love as he (h)as loved us" which was footnoted by his statement, "160 - A worship bulletin notice such as this is not an example of loving pastoral "discretion." It's an example of pastoral irresponsibility." I fully agree with his statement and another footnote he placed with approval quoting John Brug which stated, "The principles that govern our practice of fellowship with individuals are no different from the principles that govern our public relationships with groups of Christians…If they cling to that doctrine in spite of our admonition, we must not practice fellowship with them. It makes no difference if they are family or friends. We cannot place family ties ahead of our loyalty to God and his truth." [page 45]
Yet he goes on to relate a situation where a young WELS pastor was faced with a decision to allow a congregation member's tearful sister to commune with her even though the visiting sister was a member of the Lutheran Church of Canada. Pastor Schroeder states, "He knew that to say "no" would be devastating to the faith of these two believers. He also knew that there was little, if any, possibility of any public offense." The WELS pastor allowed the sister to commune with the congregation and her sister. Pastor Schroeder finished this example by stating, "But it was an exception that a loving application of fellowship principles allowed - even demanded - him to make." [page 46]
There are multiple problems with this.
This same approach was used by DP Buchholz to defend the reading of the liturgy by women in the church. Love and loving have become the ingredient that "demands" Christ's Word be set aside. That holding to Christ's Word is the thing that can damage someone's faith. This is a grave error that reverberates through the Synods problems dealing with the growing New Age Emergent doctrines and practices in it's churches and activities.
Interestingly, President Schroeder supplies the corrections to these statements elsewhere in the essay for instance, page 33, "But when the sole standard of absolute truth is abandoned (even partially), doctrine will inevitably be shaped only by good intentions, responses to changing social norms, or the dictates of human wisdom." Page 27
[Jay Webber gave his approval for this quote in the Brief Statement], "The orthodox character of a church is established not by its mere name nor by its outward acceptance of, and subscription to, an orthodox creed, but by the doctrine which is actually taught in it's pulpits, in it's theological seminaries, and in its publications." I would add to this that the public practices of it's churches and institutions also establishes it's true character.
If the current state of doctrine and practice in the (W)ELS reflects it's actual confession and character then Jeske's New Age Church and Change hydra and the Change or Die conference, Time of Grace unionistic non-Lutheran aberration, New Age Taize and Contemplative Prayer practices, support of abortion funding Thrivent, MLC homosexual approving video promotion, promotion and continued confession of the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification and ongoing support for United Nations and population control efforts through Lutheran World Relief are substantial, ongoing and growing examples.
There are many fine points made in this essay, unfortunately those same Scriptural and Confessional benchmarks for orthodoxy are muted or non existent in the most outspoken and active areas of (W)ELS ministry.
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The reactors to Pres. Schroeder's conference essay were ELS President Moldstad and LCMS President Harrison.
President Moldstad's statements can be found here http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TVBO8CGX.
His statement on page 6 was quite revealing, "Free Conferences in particular, are a start toward any concerted effort that might result in seeing the fertile soil of the old conference blossom once again." It was quickly followed by this retelling of a letter he sent to former President Kieschnick in 2003, "In our estimation, the doctrinal differences that originally separated our two synods still remain…If it were the case that recent decisions and actions in the LCMS would appear, from our perspective, to indicate a sincere attempt to return to the scriptural position on the doctrine of church fellowship, we would be interested in holding intersynodical discussions. However, this is not the case." To further establish his agenda he follows these statements on page 7, "Sincerely demonstrated efforts to adhere to clear teachings of Scripture are necessary for church bodies currently not in fellowship with each other to begin holding official doctrinal discussions with a view toward unity."
President Harrison's reaction was not printed so I'm unable to provide direct quotes. There were a few statements that were significant though. He did comment that of all the groups which the LCMS explores fellowship and unity with the ELS and WELS should certainly be among them. Pres. Harrison stated that he didn't know if these conferences would ever lead to unity between the three synods but that the new edition of Walther's Church and Ministry that he was editing could be "a common book for all three synods to understand The Ministry anew." (http://wittenbergtrail.org/profiles/blogs/defamation-of-jt-mueller-in).
Oh, and ask someone what question was asked by a (W)ELS pastor that caused the WELS synod president to do a four-finger face palm.
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Another statement made by ELS President John Moldstad was significant. There was a question regarding women being able to vote in the congregations. Pres. Moldstad stated that although women are currently not allowed to vote in the congregations there may be ways to formulate the governance of churches that would then allow them to actively participate in the decisions. Although I threw up a little bit in my mouth, no one else seemed phased by his recommendation. Instead of working to further the understanding of Christ's doctrine and help people cherish God's will on this issue, he is working to find a way around God's command so that people are not offended. Shameful.
I shared Luther's compilation of statements with a woman at the conference who was struggling with this doctrine which Christ clearly states in 1 Timothy 2:12, But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Luther's statements that can be found here http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/LutherGenderMinistry.pdf
