Journal of Lutheran Mission - September 2016

Journal of Lutheran
Mission
September 2016 | Vol. 3 | No. 2
The Journal of Lutheran Mission

Contributing Editors
David Berger, Emeritus, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis
Rev. Dr. Steve Briel, chairman, Board for National Mission, LCMS
Rev. Allan Buss, parish pastor, Belvidere, Ill.
Rev. Roberto Bustamante, faculty, Concordia Seminary, Buenos Aires
Rev. Dr. Albert B. Collver III, director, LCMS Church Relations
Rev. Thomas Dunseth, director of deaf ministry, Lutheran Friends of the Deaf, New York
Rev. Nilo Figur, area counselor for Latin America and the Caribbean, Lutheran Hour Ministries
Rev. Roosevelt Gray, director, LCMS Black Ministry
Rev. Dr. Carlos Hernandez, director, LCMS Hispanic Ministry
Rev. Dr. John Kleinig, emeritus lecturer, Australian Lutheran College
Rev. Ted Krey, regional director, Latin America and the Caribbean, LCMS
Deaconess Dr. Cynthia Lumley, principal, Westfield Theological House, Cambridge
Rev. Dr. Gottfried Martens, parish pastor, Berlin
Rev. Dr. Naomichi Masaki, faculty, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Dr. Tilahun Mendedo, president, Concordia College, Selma
Rev. Nabil Nour, fifth vice-president, LCMS
Rev. Dr. Steve Oliver, LCMS missionary, Taiwan
Rev. Dr. Michael Paul, LCMS theological educator to Asia
Rev. Roger Paavola, president, LCMS Mid-South District
Rev. Dr. Darius Petkunis, rector, Lithuanian Lutheran Seminary
Rev. Dr. Andrew Pfeiffer, faculty, Australian Lutheran College
Rev. John T. Pless, faculty, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Dr. Timothy Quill, faculty, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Dr. David Rakotonirina, bishop, Antananarivo Synod of the Malagasy Lutheran Church
Rev. Dr. Lawrence Rast, president, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Rev. Geoff Robinson, mission executive, Indiana District
Rev. Dr. Carl Rockrohr, pastor, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Rev. Robert Roethemeyer, faculty, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Dr. Brian Saunders, president, LCMS Iowa East District
Rev. Dr. Detlev Schultz, faculty, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Bernie Seter, chairman, Board for International Mission, LCMS
Rev. Kou Seying, associate dean, Urban and Cross-Cultural Ministry, Concordia Seminary, St Louis
Rev. Alexey Streltsov, rector, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Siberia
Rev. Martin Teigen, parish pastor/Hispanic ministry, North Mankato, Minn.
Rev. Dr. Wilhelm Weber, Jr., rector, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Pretoria, South Africa
Rev. John Wille, president, LCMS South Wisconsin District
Executive Editors
Rev. Dr. Albert B. Collver III, director, LCMS Church Relations
Rev. Bart Day, executive director, LCMS Office of National Mission
Rev. John Fale, executive director, LCMS Office of International Mission
From the President
Ecumenical and Mission

Opportunities and Blessings
his issue of the Journal of Lutheran Mission

(JLM) presents some of the ecumenical and
mission opportunities and blessings that are
before us. The Missouri Synod and the members of
the International Lutheran Council (ILC) increasingly
are approached by both Lutheran and non-Lutheran
churches who seek to be faithful to the Holy Scriptures
and to increase their Lutheran identity through the study
of the Book of Concord. The Synod in convention this
past July in Milwaukee recognized and affirmed this.
The Synod in convention entered fellowship with six
church bodies (Norway, Uruguay, Guatemala, Venezuela,
Kazakhstan, and Chile). The convention recognized the
ecumenical opportunities that this moment presents in
several resolutions (Res. 5-07, To Affirm and Encourage
Work of the International Lutheran Council; Res. 5-08,
To Commend and Encourage Informal Conversations
with Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and
Evangelical Lutheran Synod; and Res. 5-09, To
Commend and Encourage Interchurch Conversations
with Anglican Church in North America and North
American Lutheran Church). The Synod in convention
adopted Res. 5-18, To Commend the A Theological
Statement of Mission for the 21st Century for Synod-wide
Study and Use. The convention adopted Res. 6-04, To
Encourage and Support the Global Seminary Initiative.
All of these resolutions adopted by the convention reflect
the current ecumenical and mission opportunities that
the current age presents. On the one hand as Western
society and the world in general seek to limit and restrict
the message of the Holy Scriptures, the church at large
seeks conversation and fellowship with those groups who
remain faithful to the Holy Scriptures. This presents an
incredible opportunity.
The essays in this issue provide examples or reflect the
opportunities that influenced the Synod in convention to
adopt the above-mentioned resolutions. The first couple
of papers were presented at a meeting of the European
Lutheran Council, founded in 1986. The European
Lutheran Council (ELC) predates the founding of the
International Lutheran Council (ILC) by seven years.
The first paper shows the little-known history of how

Lutheranism struggled to become established in Belgium.
The second paper challenges the Lutheran church to consider if it is always reforming or always repenting. This
paper explores Lutheran ecclesiology. The third paper is a
response to the recent Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
paper called The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran
Communion. This is an important study to read to
become informed about the conversation in the Lutheran
ecumenical world and to understand how Lutheran
churches should relate to one another agreement in
the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. The fourth
paper is the presentation Dr. Berhanu Ofgaa, general
secretary of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane
Yesus (EECMY), gave at the LCMS 66th Convention in
Milwaukee. This paper shows how the church can boldly
confess in the face of persecution. The fifth paper, titled
Gods Word forever shall abide; A Guiding Statement on
the Character and Proper Use of the Sacred Scriptures, is
a joint statement on the Scripture from the LCMS-LCCNALC dialog group. The sixth paper is A Theological
Statement of Mission for the 21st Century, which has been
adopted by the Board for International Mission (BIM),
the Board for National Mission (BNM), and reviewed and
enhanced by the Commission on Theology and Church
Relations (CTCR). This mission statement has been commended to the Synod for study and use by the convention.
Finally, the church bodies with whom the Missouri Synod
has interchurch relations is listed.
This issue shows how the Missouri Synod has been
blessed and what tremendous opportunities exist around
the world to walk alongside churches who seek to be faithful to the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions.
Walking alongside other church bodies is not a one-way
street, but involves a partnership, a mutuality, where each
church body exchanges experiences and learns from one
another, making everyone stronger in the end. It appears
that the Lord is providing more of these opportunities for
the future. We hope that you enjoy this issue.
A final remark about the journal is in order. Since the
last issue in April 2016, it has received an award from
Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod
the Associated Church Press. This is a recognition

of how the journal has matured over the past two
years and a call for it to remain on a path of excellence. Additionally, the journal soon will be indexed
in the American Theological Library Association
(ATLA) Religion Database. This will make it easier
for scholars to find articles related to Lutheran missiology. Congratulations to the journal for achieving
these milestones!
In Christ,
President Matthew C. Harrison
President of the LCMS
Journal of Lutheran
Mission
Table of Contents
September 2016 | Vol. 3 | No. 2
LCMS, LCC and NALC Leaders RElease Joint Statement on Scripture.............................................. 2

Gods Word Forever Shall Abide: A Guiding Statement on the Character and
Proper Use of the Sacred Scriptures............................................................................................................ 3
Interchurch Relationships of the LCMS
by Albert B. Collver III and Darin Storkson .......................................................................................... 12
Reformation Then and Now: Ecclesia Semper Reformanda by Werner Kln................................ 14
The First Lutheran Congregation: 15661585 and Beyond
by Gijsbertus van Hattem................................................................................................................................ 23
Mission as Nota Eccesiae?: Testing the Scope of Augsburg Confession 7 and 8
by Klaus Detlev Schulz................................................................................................................................... 33
A Review and Comment of The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion
by Albert B. Collver III.................................................................................................................................... 46
Rejoice: The Church Is Built on the Rock
by Berhanu Ofgaa.............................................................................................................................................. 55
A Theological Statement for Mission in the 21st Century
by Matthew C. Harrison.................................................................................................................................. 62
Book Review: Afraid: Demon Possession and Spiritual Warfare in America
by Leonard Astrowski....................................................................................................................................... 74
Book Review: Build on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets: Sola Scriptura
in Context by Brian Flamme........................................................................................................................... 76
Book Review: Martin Luther: Preacher of the Cross A Study of Luthers Pastoral
Theology by Ely Prieto..................................................................................................................................... 79
Book Review: Becoming a Level Five Multiplying Church: Field Guide
by Tim Droegemueller...................................................................................................................................... 82
Book Review: Feasting in a Famine of the Word: Lutheran Preaching in the
Twenty-First Century by Joshua C. Miller................................................................................................ 87
2016 The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod.
Reproduction of a single article or column for parish
use only does not require permission of The Journal
of Lutheran Mission. Such reproductions, however,
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Published by The Lutheran Church

Missouri Synod.
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Member: Associated Church Press Evangelical Press Association (ISSN 2334-1998). Indexed in
ATLA Religion Database. A periodical of The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synods Offices of National
and International Mission.
Three church bodies discuss
LCMS, LCC and NALC

Leaders Release Joint
Statement on Scripture
s an important step forward in the ongoing

consultation between representatives of the
Lutheran ChurchCanada, The Lutheran
ChurchMissouri Synod, and the North American
Lutheran Church, the participants who represented the
three church bodies are releasing their joint statement
on Holy Scripture, Gods Word Forever Shall Abide: A
Guiding Statement on the Character and Proper Use of
the Sacred Scriptures.
Representatives of the three Lutheran church bodies
have been meeting twice a year since late 2011 with conversations focused on similarities and differences, as
well as topics of common concern. Discussion regularly
addresses the challenges to marriage, sexuality, the sanctity of all human life and the challenge to religious liberty.
From the beginning, however, the participants have
been engaging in serious, in-depth conversation about
the authority of Scripture, which is foundational to the
church bodies understandings of these other issues.
The two most recent consultations, September 910,
2015, in St. Louis, and March 1617, 2016 in Bradenton,
Fla., resulted in the drafting of the common statement,
understood as providing guidance to the participants in
ongoing, future conversations. The introduction to the
document states:
We confess that the Bible is Gods written Word as
part and parcel of our deepest confession that
Jesus Christ is the very Son of God, God incarnate, very God of very God and the Savior and
Redeemer of all humankind. We confess that the
Bible is Gods Word because its entire message is
focused on Jesus Christ and His saving work. He is
the heart and center of Scripture and the key to its
true meaning.
Holy Scripture.
Suitable Methodology of Interpretation; and Proper Use

of the Bible.
The statement is a reflection of the consensus of the
participants and not an official document or doctrinal statement approved by any one of the three church
bodies. It is intended to serve as a guideline for further
joint study by the representatives and by other groups
within the three denominations who are seeking to know
more about each other. It is also hoped that it may help
pastors and congregations seeking to know more about
the confessional Lutheran understanding of the truth
and authority of Scripture on which the LCMS, LCC and
NALC are founded.
The statement concludes:
We rejoice in our consensus in these truths. We pray
that our shared understanding will be a sure and solid
foundation for us to address future conversations
and discussions, both in matters of agreement and
areas where we do not share a common teaching or
practice.
Participants in the ongoing consultations between
leaders of the LCMS, LCC, and the North American
Lutheran Church have been the Rev. Dr. Albert Collver
III (LCMS), the Rev. Dr. Joel Lehenbauer (LCMS), the
Rev. Larry Vogel (LCMS), the Rev. John Pless (LCMS), the
Rev. (President) Robert Bugbee (LCC), the Rev. (Bishop)
John Bradosky (NALC), the Rev. Mark Chavez (NALC),
the Rev. Dr. Jim Nestingen (NALC), the Rev. Paull Spring
(NALC), and the Rev. Dr. David Wendel (NALC).
Topical sections of the statement include: How did

the Bible Get Here; What Kind of Book is the Bible;
their mutual confession regarding
This statement serves as a foundation

and guideline for deliberations on
the basis of Gods word, both in areas
Gods Word Forever Shall

Abide: A Guiding Statement
on the Character and
Proper Use of the Sacred Scriptures
where the LCMS and others seek to

express a common position and also
such topics and practices as may
divide us.
Introduction
his statement, Gods Word Forever Shall Abide

(A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, verse 4; see LBW
228, 229; LSB 657), has been previously published
elsewhere and was conceived at the September 2015
meeting of representatives of the LCMS and NALC where
we agreed to prepare a joint statement on the authority of
Holy Scripture. The LCC representative for the ongoing
discussions although unable to be present for these
discussions affirmed both the goal and this document.
The present document uses materials provided by both
groups (see bibliography for resources that informed
our discussions) and is the result of further conversation
and consideration at the March 2016 meeting of the
representatives. The statements initial purpose was to
serve as a foundation and guideline for our deliberations
on the basis of Gods word, both in areas where we seek
to express a common position and also such topics and
practices as may divide us. It is offered here as a report
from the representatives involved in these discussions.
God spoke, and it was so (Genesis 1). Together we
acknowledge that God works by His Word. The
Word of God brings creation into being in a way
beyond human knowledge a way that can only
elicit doxology, not human understanding. Then,
to a fallen world God spoke through prophets in
great compassion with human speech for human
comprehension (Gen. 15:1). And now in these last
days, with grace beyond comprehension, he has
spoken to us by his Son: the Word by whom He
upholds His universe and, yet, the Word made
flesh. The Son, who dwelt among us, reveals that
God is love as He bears sin and death in a great exchange that grants us resurrection and eternal life
(Heb. 1:23; John 1:14, 14, 18).
Gods Word is not silenced. He speaks through
human voices proclaiming His excellencies. He
bespeaks us righteous in sermon and absolution.

He declares His Word by human lips over baptismal water and eucharistic bread and cup. And He
speaks with clarity and authority in the Holy Scriptures, which we recognize and confess to be the
only guiding principle and rule for all Christian
teaching, preaching, life and practice (FC SD Binding Summary 9).1
We confess together that the Bible is the written
Word of God. We confess this even as we recognize
that it is a collection of human writings spanning a
time period of more than a thousand years in three
different human languages. We confess this even as
we recognize that the biblical texts address a variety
of particular circumstances and exhibit the influence of cultural particularities, historical experiences, individual character traits and so forth.
We confess that the Bible is Gods written Word as
part and parcel of our deepest confession that
Jesus Christ is the very Son of God, God incarnate, very God of very God and the Savior and
Redeemer of all humankind. We confess that the
Bible is Gods Word because its entire message is
focused on Jesus Christ and His saving work. He
is the heart and center of Scripture and the key to
its true meaning. We trust the Bible because it has
led us to trust in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. As
St. John reminds us: But these are written so that
you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name (John 20:31; cp. John 5:39). We rejoice in the
truth that comes in Christ alone the truth that
1
Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from the Book of Concord are

from The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church, ed. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 2000).
is given by Gods gracious act of sending His Son:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God
spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these
last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he
appointed the heir of all things, through whom also
he created the world (Heb. 1:12).
With the Church of every era, we regard these
texts as the authoritative Word of God, because the
Gospel of Christ is known through them and they
alone rightly guide the life of faith. Our Lord Jesus
Himself declares the trustworthiness of the Hebrew
Scriptures when He quotes their authority, saying
time and again, It is written (e.g., Matt. 4:4, 7, 10;
Luke 24:46). He also assures us that His apostles,
whose testimony undergirds the entire New Testament, were inspired by the Holy Spirit and that
their writings are trustworthy in every way: But
the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you all things and
bring to your remembrance all that I have said to
you (John 14:26).
Therefore, we joyfully confess that we are not
strangers to God and His truth, for in justifying us
sinners He has made us members of His household,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone
(Eph. 2:1920). The Scriptures prophetic and apostolic testimony to Gods work from creation until
Christs future return and renewal of creation is the
only trustworthy basis for knowing God rightly. Its
authority is complete. We receive it with joy and accept its truth without qualification.
Part 1: How Did the Bible Get Here?

1. Lutheran confessional theology teaches that God has
given humankind a revelation of Himself in His works
of creation. The selfdisclosure of God in the realm of
nature is called general revelation. The revelation of
God in nature, which does reveal Gods wisdom and
power (Rom. 1:20), nonetheless is finally a revelation of
Gods law.
a. Ever since the entrance of sin into the world, the
whole creation groans under the bondage of corruption (Rom. 8:19ff). Our whole physical environment
witnesses to the judgment of God who visits death
on the works of His own hands because of human
rebellion against Him.
b. Since general revelation does not witness to the

grace that pardons but only to the wrath that punishes sin, the sinner responds to the revelation of
God in nature by willfully suppressing the truth
to which it witnesses (Rom. 1:18). The sinner either
denies that there is a God (Ps. 14:1; 53:1) or invents
an idol whose wrath can be appeased by human
devices (LC I 1823).
2. The revelation in which God makes Himself known as
a gracious God is called special revelation. While special revelation cannot simply be equated with the Holy
Scriptures, since God spoke to His people in many ways
before any Scriptures were written and has spoken to us
in these last times especially in His Son (Heb. 1:12), it
is nevertheless true that it is in the Scriptures that the
knowledge of these special revelations of Gods mercy
has come to us.
3. The revelation given to us in the Scriptures about all
that God has done in human history to effect our salvation comes from God. No prophetic teaching about
what God was doing through His people to keep His
promise of sending a Redeemer arose from any mere
human reflection on an interpretation of Israels history. But men spoke from God about these things as
they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:2021).
Apostolic proclamation concerning all that God did
in Christ was revealed through the Spirit and
imparted in words not taught by human wisdom but
taught by the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10, 13; Gal. 1:1112). The
apostle Paul can declare of the Scriptures that nurtured
Timothy (and us as well) that all Scripture is breathed
out by God (2 Tim. 3:16). So also, he can claim the same
Spirit as the One who inspired his own writings (Rom.
15:1819; 1 Cor. 2:13; Eph. 3:45).
4. Scriptures inspired by God were written by human
beings. God gave His Word to His Old and New
Testament people through human beings whom He
Himself chose and endowed to speak His Word to
concrete situations and circumstances in the history
of His people.
Part 2: What Kind of Book Is the Bible?

The Bible, inspired by God and written by men, is a
divinehuman book. However, this is not to say that these
are two parts that can be separated. The divine and the
human in the Bible are combined in an inseparable union
analogous to the union of the two natures in the Person

of Christ.
1. A book written by human authors
Lutherans acknowledge and teach that the Bible, even
though it is and transmits Gods very own Word, is a thoroughly human book. They do not have a docetic view of
the Bible.2
a.
One obviously human aspect of the sacred
Scriptures is that the language of the Bible is human
language, written to be read and understood by
human beings. Accordingly, the Bibles language
conforms to the usual principles of grammar and
syntax. The biblical literature contains many of the
literary forms and devices used by other literature
for the purpose of effective communication.
b. The Bible, considered as written communication, is
human also in that it has a history.
i. In a sense, the biblical literature represents a
development. The Bible did not fall fullblown
from heaven, but grew upon earth. The biblical literature came into existence over a period
of many centuries and was written by human
beings for human beings who lived in varying cultures and conditions, but the message
remains the same.
ii. Inasmuch as the Bible was written in history
by authors who were not insulated from the
culture in which they lived and wrote, and
inasmuch as its literature was not produced in
a vacuum but was originally composed for and
addressed to distinctively discreet situations
and circumstances, this literature has a historical dimension that gives it its own peculiar and
concrete particularity. In this sense, it bears the
marks of a particular time and culture.3
2. A book inspired by God
Lutherans, however, also teach that the Bible is a
divine book.
a.
While Lutherans recognize that the Bible as an
2
The docetists were a heretical group in the ancient church who denied
the true humanity of Jesus. They held that He only appeared to be
human.
3
For example, the situation in Corinth which occasioned Pauls

correspondence with that congregation had no precise parallel in any
other congregation in apostolic times. If that particular situation had
not occurred, Pauls letters to the Corinthians might not have been
written at all or, at least, they would have had a different complexion.
historical phenomenon is open to investigation by

the historian, they believe and confess that there
is a notofthisworld dimension to the sacred
Scriptures, not discernible by historical research.
Lutherans, therefore, do not surrender the Bible to
historians as though they could by their methods
give a full account of the origin and nature of the
biblical literature.
b. Lutherans will not admit that the historian has the
last word to say about the kind of a book the Bible
is. They will not permit the historian to rule that the
Bible is the product of precisely the same processes
that produce other literature.
c. Lutherans believe that in the history that occasioned
the writing of the biblical literature God was active
in a unique way, so that there is a qualitative difference between the inspired Scriptures and every
other form of human expression.
3. A
perfect unity
Since God is their primary Author, the Scriptures
differ qualitatively from other literature in that they possess such attributes as unity and complete truthfulness or
reliability.
a. Lutheran theology has always acknowledged that
there is a certain progression discernible in the
revelation that God gave of Himself and of His
saving actions in history when earlier Scriptures are
compared with later Scriptures (as when the Old
Testament is compared with the New Testament.)
b. Lutheran theology also acknowledges that there are
in the Scriptures no conflicting or contradictory
conceptions of God and His ways with humanity,
but rather a perfect theological unity, despite different emphases in different biblical books and authors.
c. For Lutheran theology, it is a selfevident truth that
Gods revelation of Himself in the sacred Scriptures
is always perfectly consistent with itself.
d.
Lutherans have given deep consideration to the
implications of our Lords two distinct natures
united in His person and the Bibles character as a
book that is both human and divine.
i. With the Church through the ages we confess
that the divine and human natures and attributes of the incarnate Son of God relate to or
communicate with one another. There is, no
doubt, a mystery at work here not unlike that of

the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the undivided
unity of the one God who made heaven and
earth, redeemed all humanity and will renew
the justified in the new creation. Nevertheless,
even as we confess these great mysteries, we
also affirm these undeniable truths. As for the
communication of attributes (communicatio idiomatum), we Lutherans have always confessed
that which the Word of God makes clear:
wherever the Word is rightly preached and

taught. This is of deep comfort, for Jesus
has promised Christians that not only His
mere divinity would be with them (which
to us poor sinners is like a consuming fire
on dry stubble). But Christ promised that
He He, the man who has spoken with
them, who has experienced all tribulations
in His received human nature, and who
can therefore have sympathy with us, as
with men and His brethren He will be
with us in our troubles also according to
the nature by which He is our brother and
we are flesh of His flesh (FC SD VIII 87).4
1. What is true of each individual nature

the human and the divine is true of the
whole Christ, for He is one divine person
(FC SD VIII 36). So it is that we confess
the incomprehensible truth that in the man
Christ Jesus, God died for us.
3. Our Gods humble work in this divine

human book a book as open to ridicule
as was the Lord whose humility made Him
the suffering servant of all is nonetheless special, high, great, supernatural,
incomprehensible, indescribable. So much
so, indeed, that we gladly confess that this
book, like our Lord, is without fault, truthful in all things and given for our salvation
(see John 20:31).
2.
The one Christ, in His office, works
according to, with, and through both
natures (FC SD VIII 4647).
3. In the personal union of the human and
divine natures, the human nature of our
Lord retains all its essential characteristics and traits, but alongside of them it
has special, high, great, supernatural,
incomprehensible, indescribable heavenly
prerogatives and privileges both now
and into eternity (FC SD VIII 51). And,
with regard to this third point, we confess
that we cannot limit or define the extent
to which Christs humanity shares in His
divinity.
4. A
n inerrant book a book that is completely reliable
Another qualitative difference between the Scriptures
and other literature is that the Scriptures like the God
who gives them are reliable and completely trustworthy, or as the Christian church has often asserted, they
are inerrant.
ii. With the Church through the ages we confess: The divine and human character of the
Scriptures relate to one another in similar ways.
1. The Bible is fully human and fully divine
in its entirety. So we do read and study
it, seeking to understand it as we would
other historical documents. We also read
it expectantly, for we believe its prophetic
and apostolic character means that it is
ever profitable to us in every way.
2. God is at work in Scripture indeed, He
is present and most profoundly present
in the Person of the Son about whom all
Scripture testifies (Luke 24). God is present wholly in His humanity and divinity
a. We realize that the term inerrant (or terms like

infallible or expressions like completely reliable) is itself open to errant understandings and
definitions. Not all Christians who confess the inerrancy of the Bible view this inerrancy in the same
way or in a way that can be affirmed here. It should
not be understood as implying that the Bibles
complete reliability can be demonstrated on the
basis of human reason, historical study, scientific
evaluation and so forth, but as an article of faith
that fully coheres with Scriptures character as the
Word of God.5
The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church, ed. Theodore G. Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959).
4
5
Lutherans are not fundamentalists. We note that fundamentalism,
b. Lutherans do hold that to declare the inerrancy or

complete reliability of the Scriptures is to declare
that what the Bible teaches to be true in any area
of doctrine or life is so, but without any assumption that we can thereby resolve every difficulty of
interpretation.
c. We may not simply reduce scriptural reliability to
spiritual matters. To do so is to invite a Gnostic
sort of faith that not only questions the Bibles truthfulness in such matters as creation, but in the whole
of redemption as well, for the same Bible that tells
us God is Spirit (John 4:24) also tells us that He creates the entire material world and has become man,
embodied in flesh and blood (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14). So
also, a limitation of biblical reliability to spiritual
matters undermines biblical authority in matters of
morality and ethics. Therefore, we affirm scriptural
reliability in every matter of doctrine and life.
d.
Lutherans believe that Scriptures reliability and
trustworthiness does not suggest that it employs the
technological precision of modern scientific study
or contemporary historiographic methodologies.
Only an anachronistic interpretive method would
impose upon the Bible methodologies that have
been developed centuries after its composition or
would require the type of precision demanded by
modern positivism or scientism.6
e. The Lutheran Confessions make a sharp distinction
between the Scriptures and human literature: no
persons writing can be put on a par with it (FC
SD Summary 9), and clearly affirm that the imperfections that characterize human writings are not
found in the Scriptures (Ap XXIV 9495). Rather,
the Word of God is pure, infallible, and unchangeable (Preface to the Book of Concord [BC Preface],
16; see also paragraph 20).
historically, is a movement within Reformed theology holding to five

fundamental doctrines and asserting that the inerrancy of Scripture is
the only foundation for faith. Lutheran theology would hold that faith
results from the Word as it is heard and received sacramentally. So
faith in Christ, created by the Spirit through the Word, precedes and
is the basis for confidence in Scriptures infallibility. Therefore, while
denying that Lutherans are fundamentalists, we joyfully affirm that we
confidently hold that the Bible speaks truthfully when it teaches such
doctrines as the bodily resurrection of Christ or His virgin birth or
Gods miraculous interventions in history.
f. The Lutheran Confessions confess the truthfulness

of the Scriptures with simple and forceful words:
They will not lie to you (LC V 76; cf. also FC Ep
VIII 13) and Gods Word cannot deceive (LC IV
57). The Formula of Concord refers to Scriptures
teaching on election as a clear, certain, and unerring foundation for faith (FC SD XI 12).
g. Above all, Lutherans approach the Scriptures with
humility, confessing with Luther: The Pope, Luther,
Augustine, Paul, an angel from heaven these
should not be masters, judges, arbiters but only
witnesses, disciples and confessors of Scripture
(AE 26:58).
Part 3: Suitable Methodology of Interpretation

Lutheran theology has always recognized that because
the Bible is written in human language, certain general
principles of interpretation must be observed. Lutheran
theology also recognizes that because the Bible is Gods
Word, certain other principles are basic to a correct
understanding of its message.
A Human Book: General Principles
1. Because the Bible communicates Gods eternal truth
in literature, written by human authors employing
human terminology and idioms, and comprises literary
forms common to other human literature, it is selfevident that the best and most thorough biblical exegesis
requires the following:
a. A thorough knowledge of the languages in which
the Bible was originally written;
b. Acquaintance with and recognition of the literary
forms employed by biblical authors for effective
communication (address, oracle, prayer, creed,
hymn, proverb, parable, historical narrative, edict,
treaty, prose and poetry).
2. Because the biblical literature dates from various periods of human history and was addressed to concrete
situations characterized by the particularity peculiar
to everything that is historical, biblical interpretation
needs to take this historical dimension of the Bible
into account.
a. The biblical literature cannot be treated as though
every book and pericope was addressed to general
situations, and as though everything that is said in
Positivism and its synonym, scientism, assert that only the sciences
can establish a valid truth claim.
every pericope is applicable immediately to every

situation.7
b. The interpreter will therefore want to understand:
i. What the original situation was to which the
words were first spoken;
ii. What the words meant in that particular historical context;
iii. What their continuing meaning is for subsequent times and circumstances.
c.
Lutheran theology, therefore, gratefully uses all
the information made available by historical and
archaeological research relative to the history of
Israel and of all the other nations whose history
touches Israels. Lutheran theology gratefully uses
the gains of faithful New Testament scholarship,
which broaden and deepen our understanding of
the apostolic writings.
d. When Lutherans say that Scripture interprets itself,
this is not to be understood as though historical
research has no value for illumining the meaning of
a biblical text.
Inspired by God: Other Principles
While Lutheran students of the Bible gladly avail
themselves of any light that historical research can shed
on the Bible as a historical phenomenon, they never forget
that the Bible is at the same time Gods eternal, immutable
Word given to us by inspiration of God to make us wise
unto salvation (2 Tim. 3:15).
1. Viewing the Bible in this way leads Lutherans to emphasize the following as they interpret the Scriptures:
a. The divine and saving wisdom that the Bible imparts
can be understood and believed only as the Holy
Spirit graciously empowers us to hear what God is
speaking to us in His Word.
b. In His Word, God speaks to us His Law and Gospel,
the Word that condemns and the Word that forgives. These must be carefully distinguished lest the
Law be diluted and the Gospel perverted so that we
receive from the Scriptures neither the knowledge of
sin nor the assurance of grace. The central message
7
For example, concerning the Third Commandment, Luther said:

Therefore, according to its literal outward sense, this commandment
does not concern us Christians (LC I 82 [Tappert]). For a discussion
of the specific application of specific texts to specific situations, see the
Apologys treatment of Matt. 19:21 in Ap XXVII 4550.
of the Bible is the Gospel of Gods free grace toward

sinners in Christ Jesus the Good News that
through the cross of Christ, the condemning record
of our sin has been erased.
c. Gods Word is, therefore, always to be read and
interpreted in light of the Gospel its central message of Christ and His justifying work. Just as surely,
only in the Bibles revelation of the Triune God and
the Person and work of Christ can we know the
Gospel authentically and truthfully.
The Bible must be understood in this way, or it will not
be understood at all.
2. With these indispensable emphases in mind, Lutherans
employ principles for interpreting the Bible that flow
from the fact that it is a divine book whose primary
Author is the Holy Spirit.
a. Since it is the Holy Spirit who bears witness in all
the Holy Scriptures to Gods actions in human history for the salvation of the world, this witness is
consistent with itself and true to the facts. Therefore,
a basic principle for interpreting the Holy Spirits
writings is that they are characterized both by unity
and truthfulness.
b.
Because there is perfect unity in the scriptural
witness to God and His mighty deeds for our
redemption, Lutherans operate confidently with the
principle that Scripture interprets Scripture.
i. It is the Spirits authorship of the Scriptures that
makes a meaningful application of this principle possible. If the Bible were merely a human
book written from a variety of human perspectives and reflecting only human attempts to talk
about God and history, then the unity necessary
in order to use one part of Scripture to interpret
another would be totally missing.
ii.
Since the Spirit of truth is the Author of
Scripture, the witness of Scripture to the history in which God acted savingly is true.
This is not to say that the Scriptures are mere
chronicles, or that they were written in the first
instance to be a history of Israel and a biography of Jesus. The Bible reports history to show
what God was doing through Israel and Jesus
to accomplish His saving purposes. The history
reported in the Bible is selective. In the Bible,
God has given us a theology of history.
iii. While the history the Bible reports is selective, it is also wholly reliable. If the history is
negated, then what God was doing in the history is negated too, and the Bible is turned into
a book of mythology humanly devised legends with no basis in fact about the doings
of the deity that have nothing to do with
human affairs.
iv. It is a principle for Lutheran biblical interpretation that the Bible is not mythology, but a
revelation from God Himself about what He
actually did in the arena of human history
in order to carry out His eternal counsels of
salvation.
c. Lutherans hold that the Scriptures are clear in their
saving truths (the perspicuity of Scripture). We
must, with Luther, distinguish the inner clarity of
faith and the external clarity of Scripture. No one
believer or unbeliever can misunderstand the
clear assertion that God created heaven and earth,
for example. However, only faith believes this clear
assertion. The Bibles essential message is unambiguous, but only faith appropriates its truth (Deut.
30:1114; Rom. 10:513). This does not deny that there
are passages we cannot understand either in part or
fully. For this reason, we read what is unclear to us
in light of the overwhelming clarity of the biblical
message, confident that God has made clear everything we need for life and salvation in Christ Jesus.
d. In interpreting the Bible, Lutherans remember that
the Spirit has spoken through human beings whose
words must be understood in the light of their historical context. They remember, too, that the Spirit
has spoken through human beings. This fact means
that historical, human words are at the same time
divine, eternal words that speak the truth about
Gods saving will and actions.
Part 4: Proper Use of the Bible

1. Because Lutherans believe, teach and confess that the
words of the Holy Scriptures are from the Holy Spirit
(Ap IV 107108; AC XXVIII 49), they therefore hold
that the Bible is qualitatively different from all other
human literature (FC SD Summary 9; Ap XXIV 9495).
They do not hesitate to call the Bible the pure, unadulterated Word of God and infallible divine truth (BC
Preface 5, 20).
2.
Confessional Lutheran theology, accordingly,
declares that we base our teaching on Gods Word
as the eternal truth (FC SD Summary, 13); Gods
Word alone ought to be and remain the only guiding
principle and rule of all teaching (FC SD Summary
9); Holy Scripture alone remains the only judge,
rule, and guiding principle, according to which, as
the only touchstone, all teachings should and must
be recognized and judged as good or evil, correct or
incorrect (FC Ep Summary, 7); the only rule and
guiding principle according to which all teachings
and teachers are to be evaluated and judged are the
prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and
New Testaments alone (FC Ep Summary, 1; cp. FC
SD Summary, 3).
a. These quotations from the Confessions leave little
doubt about how they use the Bible, namely, as
the ultimate and absolute authority for all that the
church teaches in Gods name.
b. That is why the Symbols repeat over and over again
such formulas as Scripture teaches (AC XXIV 28;
Ap XXIII 11; FC SD I 46; FC SD III 30) and it is
written (AC XXIV 26; XXVIII 51; Ap IV 263; SA
III vii 12; III xiii 3; FC SD III 20, 57; VI 12; VIII 6;
X 8 11; XI 7).
c. That is why the Confessions, without concern that
some might accuse them of making a legislative
use of Scripture, firmly insist that where we have
the clear, certain testimonies in the Scripture ... we
should [sollen wir] simply believe and should not
raise any objections (FC SD VIII 53).
3. The sacred Scriptures are to the Lutheran confessors
the source of doctrine.
a. In contrast to the authority of the church fathers,
the Smalcald Articles (II ii 15) set up the invariable
rule: This means that the Word of God and no
one else, not even an angel should establish articles of faith. The Augsburg Confession (Preface 8;
Epilog to XXI 2; XXI 4, German) and the Apology
(I 2; II 3243; IV 5, 166; XII 16; et passim) appeal to
the sacred Scriptures as a whole as well as to individual passages as final authority.
b. The summary and generally accepted concept and
form that the Formula (SD Summary 1) regards as
essential for basic and firm agreement in the Church
is to be drawn from the Word of God. The prophetic
and apostolic Scriptures of both testaments are the

pure, clear fountain of Israel (FC SD Summary 3).
4. Lutherans think it is rash to teach something that passages of Scripture do not teach (Ap XII 138), and that it
is extreme impudence to teach anything that is contrary to testimonies of Scripture (Ap XXIII 63).
a. Lutherans, therefore, hold that it is only from the
Word of God that judgments on articles of faith are
to be pronounced (FC SD II 8). We accept without
reservation that the only norm for the churchs faith
and practice must be the Scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments, that is, the written Word of God.
b. Lutherans appeal to and use the sacred Scriptures as
a whole, as well as individual passages of Scripture,
as the sole and final authority in the Church.
i.
This means that biblical teaching about the
foundational doctrines of Christianity such as
the Trinity, the two natures of Christ and the
justification of the ungodly by grace through
faith in Christ Jesus these great truths is
sure and certain.
ii. Just as certain is the biblical teaching on Gods
ordering of human life within His creation
according to the commandments.
We rejoice in our consensus in these truths. We pray
that our shared understanding will be a sure and solid
foundation for us to address future conversations and discussions, both in matters of agreement and areas where
we do not share a common teaching or practice.
Resources for Further

Study
A Comparative Study of Varying Contemporary

Approaches to Biblical Interpretation. St. Louis: LCMS
Commission on Theology and Church Relations, 1973.
Bayer, Oswald. Luther as an Interpreter of Holy
Scripture. In The Cambridge Companion to Martin
Luther, edited by Donald McKim, 7385. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Bayer, Oswald. Theology the Lutheran Way. Translated
by Jeffrey G. Silcock and Mark C. Mattes. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2007.
Braaten, Carl, and Robert Jenson (eds). Reclaiming the
10
Bible for the Church. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

Franzmann, Martin. Seven Theses on Reformation
Hermeneutics. Concordia Theological Monthly 40:4
(1969): 235246.
Gospel and Scripture. St. Louis: LCMS Commission on
Theology and Church Relations, 1972.
Hultgren, Stephen J. Canon, creeds, and confessions: an
exercise in Lutheran hermeneutics. Lutheran Theological
Journal 46:1 (May 2012): 2650.
In Christ All Things Hold Together: Intersection of Science
and Christian Theology. St. Louis: LCMS Commission on
Theology and Church Relations, 2015.
Kolb, Robert. The Bible in Reformation and Protestant
Orthodoxy. In The Enduring Authority of the Christian
Scriptures, edited by D.A. Carson, 89114. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2016.
Kolb, Robert. Nowhere More Present and Active Than
in the Holy Letters: Luthers Understanding of Gods
Presence in Scripture. Lutheran Theological Journal 49:1
(May 2015): 417.
Paulson, Steven D. From Scripture to Dogmatics.
Lutheran Quarterly 7:2 (Summer 1993): 159169.
Paulson, Steven D. Lutheran Assertions Regarding
Scripture. Lutheran Quarterly 17:4 (Winter 2003):
373385.
Pless, John T. Word: God Speaks to Us. St. Louis:
Concordia, 2006.
Preus, Jacob A.O. It is Written. St. Louis: Concordia,
1971.
Preus, Robert. Doctrine is Life: Essays on Scripture. Edited
by Klemet Preus. St. Louis: Concordia, 2006.
Preus, Robert. The Inspiration of Scripture: A Study of
the Theology of the 17th Century Lutheran Dogmaticians.
Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1957.
Reu, J. Michael. Luther and the Scriptures. Chicago:
Wartburg Publishing House, 1944.
Reu, J. Michael. What is Scripture and How Can We
Become Certain of Its Divine Origin? In Two Treatises
on the Means of Grace, 138. Minneapolis: Augsburg
Publishing House, 1952.
Sasse, Hermann. Suggestions for Theses on Holy
Scripture. In Letters to Lutheran Pastors Volume III:

19571969, edited by Matthew C. Harrison, 537543. St.
Louis: Concordia, 2015.
Silcock, Jeffrey. Luther on the Holy Spirit and His Use of
Gods Word. In The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luthers
Theology, edited by Robert Kolb et al, 294309. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2014.
Stephenson, John. Inerrancy Logia 2:4 (October 1993):
48.
Yeago, David. Authority in the Church, two unpublished papers presented at the NALC Pastors Conference
in Orlando, Fla., on February 10, 2015.
11
When it comes to confessional,
Interchurch Relationships
of the LCMS
creedal churches, the LCMS is in

good company.
by Albert B. Collver III and Darin Storkson
nterchurch relationships of the LCMS have

been growing by leaps and bounds in the last
triennium. In addition to our growing family of
official Partner Church bodies with whom the LCMS
is in altar and pulpit fellowship, the LCMS also has a
growing number of Allied Church bodies with whom we
collaborate in various ways but with which we do not yet
have altar and pulpit fellowship. We presently have thirtysix official partnerships that have already been recognized
by the LCMS in convention as well as good relationships
with an additional twenty-three Allied Church bodies,
many of whom are in various stages of fellowship talks
with the LCMS.
In addition, the LCMS also has six Emerging
Relationships with Lutheran church bodies that we are
getting to know but with whom we do not yet have a
formal relationship. Most of these have approached the
LCMS out of a desire to share our solid, biblical theology.
These various relationships make for a total of seventy-five Lutheran church relationships in a total of fifty-six
countries! This represents more than twenty-one million
people.
Lastly, the LCMS also has a growing number of
Ecumenical Relationships with non-Lutheran church
bodies for the sake of dialogue and cooperatio in externis.
*Indicates a member of the International Lutheran
Council (ILC).
Partner Churches (already recognized by the

LCMS in convention)
1. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina*
2. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil*
3. Lutheran ChurchCanada*
4. Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Denmark*
5. Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSynod of France*
6. Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (Germany)*
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana*
12
8. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti *

9. Lutheran Church Hong Kong Synod*
10. India Evangelical Lutheran Church*
11. Japan Lutheran Church*
12. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya*
13. Lutheran Church in Korea*
14. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia
15. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia
16. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania
17. Lutheran Synod of Mexico*
18. Lutheran Church of Nigeria*
19. Lutheran Church in Norway
20. Gutnius Lutheran Church (Papua New Guinea)*
21. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Paraguay*
22. Lutheran Church in the Philippines*
23. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (Russia)*
24. Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church (Russia)*
25. Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (South Africa)*
26. Free Evangelical Lutheran Synod in South Africa*
27. Lanka Lutheran Church (Sri Lanka)*
28. China Evangelical Lutheran Church (Taiwan)*
29. Lutheran Church of Togo
30. Lutheran Church of Uruguay
31. Lutheran Church of Venezuela*
32. Evangelical Lutheran Church of England *
33.The American Association of Lutheran Churches
(USA)*
Allied Churches
1. Lutheran Church of Australia*
2. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Belgium*
3. Evangelical Christian Lutheran Church of Bolivia*
4. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cambodia
5.Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession

in the Czech Republic
3. Anglican Church in North America (ACNA)
6.Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg

Confession (Czech Republic)
5. Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS)
7. Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus

8. Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland
9. Indonesian Lutheran Christian Church
10.Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of
Kazakhstan
11. Malagasy Lutheran Church (Madagascar)
4. Anglican Church of South Sudan

6. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS)
The Rev. Dr. Albert B. Collver III is LCMS director of
Church Relations and assistant to LCMS President
Matthew C. Harrison. Darin Storkson is assistant director
of Church Relations.
12. Lutheran Church Synod of Nicaragua*

13. Evangelical Lutheran Diocese in Norway
14. Evangelical Lutheran Church Peru*
15. Portugese Evangelical Lutheran Church*
16.Lutheran Mission in Africa Synod of Thousand
Hills (Rwanda)
17. Confessional Lutheran Church of South Africa
18. Mission Province in Sweden
19. Lutheran Church of East Africa (Tanzania)
20. Istanbul Lutheran Church (Turkey)
21.German Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Ukraine
(DELKU)
22. The Lutheran Ministerium and Synod USA*
23.The Evangelical Lutheran Church of South
Sudan/Sudan
Emerging Relationships
1. Myanmar Lutheran Church (Burma)
2. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia
3. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Norway (DELK)
4. Norwegian Lutheran Mission
5. Lutheran Church in Singapore
6.Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania Southeast
Lake Victoria Diocese
7. South Sudan Evangelical Lutheran Church
8. Ethiopian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELC)
9. Lutheran Church of Colombia
10.Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches of Ukraine
(SELCU)
Ecumenical Relationships
1. Roman Catholic Church (The Vatican)
2. North American Lutheran Church (NALC)
13
Is the church always repenting or

always reforming? The Rev. Dr.
Reformation Then and Now:

Ecclesia Semper Reformanda
Werner Klns keynote address

to the 24th European Lutheran
Conference, Antwerp, Belgium,
outlines the answer.
by Werner Kln
Preliminary Note
efore we turn to understand what it might

mean that the church is always to be reformed,
we must note that this phrase was first used by the
Reformed theologian Karl Barth in 1947. It can be shown
that an early example is Jodocus van Lodenstein,1 who
claims the truth ... that also in the Church there is always
much to reform. Another version of the term Ecclesia
reformata semper reformanda (the reformed church [is]
always to be reformed) is widely but informally used
in Reformed and Presbyterian churches today as their
motto. Interestingly, the first term was used by Hans
Kng and others in the Roman Catholic Church already
prior to the Second Vatican Council. There the formula,
in a slightly different verbalisation, found its way into the
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium,
8): The Church at once holy and always in need of
purification, follows constantly the path of penance and
renewal.2 The expression, thus, has become the demand
for an ongoing reformation claimed by many a Christian
and kind of common knowledge of not only
Protestant mainstream self-conception in our age.
Although the formula in its wording is of recent origin
only, the issue that it points to can be traced back to the
seventeenth century as Theodor Mahlmann has proven
in his contribution to the festschrift for Bengt Hgglund
in 2010.3 Johannes Hoornbeek, professor of theology at
the University of Leiden (16171666), coined the phrase

that every Reformed Christian is one to reform; and
Hoornbeek strives for a reform pertaining to all levels
of the church, including even its doctrine.4 Much more
intriguing, however, is the fact that the first evidence of
the proposition that in the church, reformation is always
required is found in the writings of a Concord-Lutheran
theologian, Friedrich Balduin (15751628), professor
primarius at the University of Wittenberg.5 This thesis,
however, is directed against the intrusion of false doctrine, a reversal of the gospel, a lapse of faith, and at the
same time, positioned to retain the apostolic doctrine that
cannot be eliminated.6
If the observation is correct, that the phrase ecclesia
semper reformanda encompasses some ambiguities, to
say the least, how then do we as confessional Lutheran
churches in the twenty-first century position ourselves
over against such a claim? I should like to discuss this
question in five sections of my presentation:
1. Sixteenth Century Reformation and Nineteenth
Century Confessional Lutheranism as Modern
Approaches to the Formation of the Church
2. Principles of Confessional Lutheran Identity
3. The Challenge and the Mission of the Church
4. Repentance as the Core Attitude of the Christian
Church: Ecclesia Semper Paenitens
Jodocus van Lodenstein, Beschouwinge van Zion (Contemplation

of Zion) (Amsterdam, 16741678): (Sekerlijk de Gereformeerde
Waarheyd ... leert dat in de Kerke ook altijd veel te herstellen is.)
Ecclesia sancta simul et semper purificanda, poenitentiam et

renovationem continuo prosequitur.
Theodor Mahlmann, Ecclesia semper reformanda. Eine historische

Aufklrung. Neue Bearbeitung, in Hermeneutica Sacra: Studien zur
Auslegung der Heiligen Schrift im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert / Studies
of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture in the Sixteenth and Seventeeth
Centuries: Historia Hermeneutica, eds. Torbjrn Jhansson, Robert Kolb,
and Johann Anselm Steiger, Series Studia 9 (Berlin / New York: de
Gruyter, 2010), 381442.
14
Mahlmann, Ecclesia semper reformanda, 426432, here 431: Omnis

reformatus est & reformans.
Mahlmann, Ecclesia semper reformanda, 438442, here 438:
Semper in ecclesia opus est reformation.
Mahlmann, Ecclesia semper reformanda,440, but even confessional
Lutheran theologians of the nineteenth century, like Wilhelm Loehe,
spoke about an elaboration that was needed in the church, as its
reformation was incomplete in the consequences of its doctrine.
Friedrich Schleiermacher, on the other hand, noted that progress in the
church meant restoration, or restitution, but not melioration.
5. Towards the Celebration of the 500th Anniversary of

the Reformation
and linear deduction. On the contrary, the Lutheran

distinction of the two realms exonerates the church by
The answer I am trying to suggest may be conducted by restricting its tasks to the proclamation of law and gospel
two of the 95 Theses published by Martin Luther in 1517: apart from ruling and regulating the affairs of state and
1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, Repent society. This fundamental distinction does not at all inti[Mt 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of mate that the law of God would not apply to mundane
repentance, and 62. The true treasure of the church is the matters, and thus the application of Gods universal will
would have no place in the proclamation of the church;
most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.7
quite the opposite. The political use of the law has to be
1. Sixteenth Century Reformation and Nineteenth
an integral part of the churchs message.9
Century Confessional Lutheranism as Modern
But the church, being according to its Magna Charta
Approaches to the Formation of the Church
in Article VII of the Augsburg Confession the assembly
A historical truth is apparent and seems to me irre- of saints commissioned to purely preach and teach the
futable: the Lutheran Reformation was in its time in Gospel and to rightly administer the sacraments (AC
academic theology, politically, and in many social areas, VII,1 [Kolb-Wengert, 43]), does not strive for totalitara forward-looking, if not to say proian domination of the world: For
gressive, movement. Realizing that
the Gospel teaches an internal, eterLutheran identity is
the reform of the church, as effected
nal reality and righteousness of the
by the Reformation, was concerned
not first and foremost a
heart, not an external, temporal one,
with the rediscovery of the gospel
special identity; it rather and does not overthrow secular
and the necessity of preserving the
lays claim to catholicity. government, public order, and marone church does not alter this assessriage (AC XVI, 4f [Kolb-Wengert,
As in the Reformation,
ment. In my opinion it is undeniable
48f]). Right from the outset, the
to renew the church
that the confessional age, which proLutherans claimed that they did
duced such important basic works
means to remain
not understand the church to be
as the Augsburg Confession and the
faithful to the one, holy, an external government of certain
Book of Concord, both now an intenations; rather, the true Christians
catholic church.
gral part next to the Bible as the main
were regarded as people scattered
sources of confessional Lutheran
throughout the entire world who
identity, made a considerable, if not essential, contri- agree on the gospel and have the same Christ, the same
bution towards modernizing early modern society and Holy Spirit, and the same sacraments (Ap VII/VIII, 10
forming states in Europe.8
[Kolb-Wengert, 175]).
At the root of these modern developments lies
Therefore, the (New or Old) Lutheran fathers and
Luthers distinction of the two kingdoms, or two realms, mothers in the nineteenth century, filled with the spirit of
which provides a way for distinguishing between penul- the revival, discovered the confessional inheritance of the
timate realities, values, and goals on the one hand, and Lutheran reformation as the fulfilment of their longing
the ultimate destiny of human existence on the other. for the gospel of sin and grace, for the saviour of sinners,
One might tend to blame Luther and the Lutheran con- and desired to preserve in an undiminished form for
fessions for having initiated, instigated, and theologically themselves and their posterity the heritage of Concordlegitimized the decline of what used to be Christian Lutheranism from the sixteenth century. Hand in hand
Europe into secularization. This process, however, was with this confessional assurance, they discovered the
far more complex and cannot be reduced to a monocausal church as an organic, institutional, and communicative
strength, in the framework of which their commitment to
Martin Luther, Luthers Works, vol. 31: The Career of the Reformer (St.
Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1957), 25, 31.
7
8
This insight was basically triggered by the results of the 1988

symposium of the Verein fr Reformationsgeschichte: cf. Die lutherische
Konfessionalisierung in Deutschland (Schriften des Vereins fr
Reformationsgeschichte 197, Gtersloher Verlagshaus, Gtersloh), ed.
Hans-Christoph Rublack, 1992.
This was a prevalent idea in the theology of August Christian Vilmar, a

staunch opponent to the state-church-system in the state of Hesse in the
nineteenth century. Cf. Werner Kln, Das Augsburgische Bekenntnis
als Grundlage einer neuen Konfessionalisierung in Hessen, Lutherische
Theologie und Kirche 26 (2002): 114134.
15
Gods holy word and the Lutheran confession could take of Europe except for France, which since the French
shape. They recognized that church services, confession, Revolution preferred to define the republican constiand church constitution are integrally correlated. That is tution as laical the state-church system inherited
why they were prepared to make great sacrifices to main- from the Constantinian era prevailed, these confessional
tain their belief, their confession, and their church.
movements and churches were, at least for some time,
It was no accident that the crystallization point of the persecuted, driven underground, and in the end, if
confessional awakening, which led in the end to the emer- acknowledged by the state, marginalized.
gence of independent evangelical Lutheran churches,
So, one could summarize that the transformation
was the sacrament of the altar. The concern that forced of the Lutheran heritage in the confessional Lutheran
confessional Lutherans onto solitary paths was that of churches in the nineteenth century formed, in a manner
preserving their biblical Lutheran understanding in an of speaking, an avant-garde stance. They posed questions
ecclesiastically binding form, of defending it in its exclu- and found answers that, in their fundamental and permasivity against every kind of false
nent reference to Scripture, were
compromise. It was these churches
also contemporary and approChristians and the
that created a new awareness
priate. In this way they found the
of the Concord-Lutheran prinattention of their contemporarchurch, claimed by their
ciples of the sixteenth century
ies; thus, a group of Bible-based,
Lord, have nothing to
and gave them renewed ecclesichurch-committed
Christians
sugarcoat, nothing to
ological reality. They wanted to
came together and became effecgloss over, and nothing to
manifest Lutheran identity in the
tive in society, even if only to a
conceal concerning the
ecclesiastical dimension by estabcertain degree. They formed indelishing that, as the expression of
predicament of men and our pendent Lutheran church bodies
full church fellowship, fellowship
in various German states, but also
contemporary society.
in public worship, particularly at
in America, Australia, and souththe communion table, has as its
ern Africa. These churches, or
unconditional prerequisite a consensus in faith, doctrine, their successors, are for the most part member churches
and confession.
of the International Lutheran Council (ILC) and as such,
They were at the same time protagonists of a new they are committed to determining their decisions solely
freedom of the church from state control and political on the basis of the word of God, and not on social, culsubordination in character with the gospel. In addition, tural, or practical considerations.
they were, at least in religious matters, pioneers fighting
2. Principles of Confessional Lutheran Identity
for social values of the modern era such as freedom of
assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of conscience.
I believe that there is on earth a holy little flock and
The founders of the Lutheran confessional churches in
community of pure saints under one head, Christ.
Europe, and those among them to emigrate to Australia,
It is called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith,
America, or southern Africa, proved to be equal contemmind, and understanding. It possesses a variety
poraries of the movement for bourgeois emancipation.
of gifts, and yet is united in love, without sect and
This remains true even if we recognize that the theologschism. Of this community I also am a part and a
ical content for which they were prepared to bring great
member.
sacrifice was principally conservative, and that the same
In this manner Luther elucidates the phrase the
held true for their political convictions. The claim for
religious and ecclesiastical and theological independence congregation of saints in the Large Catechism in his
in terms of confessional church bodies is nevertheless an explanation to the third article of the Apostles Creed
(Kolb-Wengert, 437f).
integral part of their common heritage.
For Luther, it is of central importance to take seriously
It has to be recognized, on the other hand, that these
Lutheran movements never succeeded in regaining major the existence of the church, or of Christendom, as he
influence in the intellectual, spiritual, and religious devel- prefers to say (cf. Luthers deliberations on the translation
opments in their respective lands. Whereas in most parts of communio sanctorum in LC III, 4750 [Kolb-Wengert,
16
436f]), and the priority of the community of the faithful of his own efforts.10 The actual meaning and significance
over ones own belief. This commitment to the church of the gospel, which shines through in the emphasis on
precludes identifying oneself as an atomized individ- its effectualness in actu, is in conformity with both the
ual with private beliefs and piety, and includes seeing Scriptures and the confession of faith of the Lutheran
oneself within a community of faith which is always Reformation. Hence the confession focuses on the centre
prior to oneself and which God the Holy Spirit makes of the Scripture, namely the gospel, of which Jesus Christ
use of for the accomplishment of his work (LC III, 52f is the quintessence and the living reality.
[Kolb-Wengert, 438f]).
It is nevertheless true that the confession of faith, and
This approach includes an ecumenical dimension as no less the (Lutheran) doctrinal confession, is an introwell. Lutherans understand themselves as being simulta- duction to the Scriptures and at the same time centres the
neously evangelical, catholic, orthodox, and ecumenical Scripture from within the Scripture. The confession of
in the best sense of the word, and professing a church faith arises from the word of God in Holy Scripture and
that shall last forever. It is also
leads back into it. However, it is
taught that at all times there
necessary to ensure that the word
must be and remain one holy,
of Scripture is and remains prior
Confessional Lutheran
Christian church (AC VII, 1
to the word of the confession.
churches will have to
[Kolb-Wengert, 42]). Lutheran
All in all, the confession focuses
call
people
back
into
the
identity is not first and foremost
on the Scriptures and within the
fellowship that God grants
a special identity; it rather lays
Scriptures on the focal point of
claim to catholicity. As in the
the gospel.
with himself and, in doing
Reformation, to renew the church
It is therefore both meaningful
so, into the freedom that
means to remain faithful to the
and helpful, not least in the sense
God bestows on those who
one, holy, catholic church. For
of making certain of ones own
believe.
this reason, the renewal of the
identity, to also revert to texts
church in the Reformation and
that are several hundred years
after has repeatedly been accomold. A truly confessional stance,
panied by the recourse to the Scriptures, the origin and however, is not simply a retreat to distant historical docfounding document of faith and the church, both of them uments; it takes place as recourse to the Scripture and is
being creaturae verbi creatures of the word.
thus a guideline for the profession of faith. The confesThe existence and the unity of the church depend sional documents of the sixteenth century can be, and are
upon one and the same thing: the gospel in the form of intended to be, a guideline for the understanding of what
the proclamation of the word in accordance with the Christian faith is, what Christian life is. In other words,
Scripture, and upon the sacraments in the form of admin- how we can exist and lead our lives in the sight of God.
istration in conformity with their institution. Herein Since the answers that can be found in the condensed
consists the identity of the Lutheran church and, as a conform of the confessional documents of the sixteenth
sequence, the standard for the practice and manifestation century (can) have a high degree of plausibility even for
of church fellowship.
todays contemporaries, they offer at the very least guidThe Lutheran confessions as included in the Book of ance for communicating faith today as well Christian
Concord of 1580 are not intended to be anything other faith in its significance for our contemporaries.
than a rendering of the scriptural truth, concentrated
The transfer into our times, which is the duty of the
on the gospel. Therefore, the gospel and the doctrine of church through proclaiming law and gospel to this time
the gospel are not understood as a collocation of cor- and world, has already been accomplished and set down
rect propositions, but rather the gospel is understood as then and there in an exemplary manner. But precisely
an event in which God imparts himself, in which God in this manner, confessional statements or documents
communicates himself to man and indeed salvifically to constitute a guideline for actual confessing, statements
man who has broken off the communication with God
and, for the reason that he has broken it off, is not in a 10
Oswald Bayer, Martin Luthers Theology: A Contemporary
position to reestablish communication on the strength Interpretation (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), 2943.
17
that articulate and make possible an understanding of

Christian existence and church life that is at the same
time scriptural and contemporary purely and simply
by proclaiming the will of God and by communicating
the gospel.
around the church but also creep into it. Yet the church
demonstrates that it is contemporary when it resists current developments of which it cannot approve.
Christians and the church, claimed by their Lord, have
nothing to sugarcoat, nothing to gloss over, and nothing
to conceal concerning the predicament of men and our
3. The Challenge and the Mission of the Church
contemporary society. They will boldly carry out their
At present, it does not seem likely that a major awakening task, irrespective of power, richness, or influence of men.
will stir up European Christians, churches, or societ- They will not cower before the powerful, and not buckle
ies in the near future. All church bodies in Europe face before those in charge of the state, society, or economy. I
the challenge of re-Christianizing areas that have been say this because the history of the church is also a history
de-Christianized (Rosin 2007), utilizing for this pur- of failure in light of this responsibility. The history of allipose also models of cooperation underneath the levels of ances between throne and altar, Christianity and power,
church fellowship and full communion. Especially with church and dictator, demonstrates these failures all too
regard to ethical challenges, Christians and Christian clearly. If the church desires to do justice to its mission, it
churches ought to strive to respond to those in one voice, will not give in to majority trends and mainstream public
as, for example, the Charta Oecumenica (2001) suggests.11 and popular opinion.
It is far more likely that, at
But before it speaks to the sitleast in Europe, Christianity, or
uation
of its time and world and
The call to return to God,
rather the church, will take a
the predicament of fallen humanthe call to responsibility
shape similar to the one it had
ity in its defective and ruined
before God, is indeed
throughout the first three centurelationship towards God, the
ries being a minority, despised,
nothing but the call to
church must first speak to itself,
mocked, marginalized, suspected,
turn to itself, and permit itself to
freedom, the freedom of the
neglected, displaced, persecuted,
see that its message concerning
children of God.
and even killed. It has always been
the situation of mankind and the
seductive to Christians, and to
world is also its own diagnosis. It
church leaders in particular, to see the church as a cultur- is not that the church asserts itself wherever God allegedly
ally, politically, morally influential, and even predominant authorizes it to; rather, it simply proclaims what the point
factor or institution in this world. That tempting dream, is to the world to which it is directed. Mankind stands
in some realms of Christianity still lingering on, belongs before God and can neither abolish nor create this exismost intimately to the imperial ideology and ecclesiastical tence, nor run away from the judgment that man is, as he
enthusiasm of the Constantinian era.
is, lacking in his state of existence before God.12
Nonetheless, it remains the task of the church to proWhen the church does this, it will then be able to speak
claim the righteous, unchanging will of God (FC SD to those issues in our nations and times where the divine
V, 17 [Kolb-Wengert, 584]) for his world and its popula- standards of Gods will have been abandoned, despised, or
tion in a manner that is relevant to today. The church is wantonly rejected. It will then have to proclaim that God
thus obligated to be critical of its contemporary setting. in his holiness will not allow such offenses and revolt to
Contemporary life also affects the church and its mem- be tolerated or passed over. At the same time, though, it
bers. One cannot deny that the church is influenced and will speak even more clearly that God himself, in his Son,
affected by worldly societal trends and tendencies. These Jesus Christ, has already overcome this evil, so that our
movements do not only find expression outside and contemporary hearers are not thrown into arrogance or
despair (FC SD V, 10 [Kolb-Wengert, 583]).
11 See Charles Hill, Charta Oecumenica: Guidelines for the
The church will today, as always, warn, and where
Growing Cooperation among the Churches in Europe, Conference of
necessary,
even accuse. It speaks to situations where the
European Churches, May 2003, http://www.ceceurope.org/wp-content/
uploads/2015/07/ChartaOecumenica.pdf and Ecclesiology and
Theological Dialogue, Conference of European Churches, accessed 5
August 2016, http://www.ceceurope.org/ecclesiology-and-theologicaldialogue/.
18
Gunther Wenz, Theologie der Bekenntnisschriften der evangelischlutherischen Kirche, vol. 2 (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1998), 73.
12
validity of the divine standard is being foundationally or

practically challenged, but always with the goal of calling
men back into the fellowship and freedom that God preserves and offers in himself. The church has to proclaim
that God, who is visible in Jesus Christ, took it upon
himself to repair the broken fellowship between him and
mankind, in order to free the totality of humankind and
each individual man out of the injurious bonds in which
we are ensnared, out of the dominion of the ruinous
powers around and in us, from the self-inflicted lot of
threatening destruction.
4. Repentance as the Core Attitude of the Christian Church: Ecclesia Semper Paenitens
In confession and repentance, we are placed before
God and are asked what our condition is before him.
Simultaneously, a judgment is rendered upon us when
we wish to master our life with our own powers. In Gods
eyes, the problem is our conviction that we are our own
masters and that we control the world while, in reality, we
orbit only around ourselves. Thus, all people are subject
to the judgment that their lives are a failure when and
because they look to themselves.13 We must recognize this
and confess that we neither have nor do what we ought
(LC, Kolb-Wengert, 477). Thus, in our confrontation with
the holy God, we realize that we have fallen short of the
goal of our existence.
In this moment we are called to self-recognition, to an
unadorned, unvarnished, and unsparing regard of our real
condition. However, the measures used by such self-assessment, which are grounded in faith, do not lie within us
but in Gods ordinance. Hence, the insight and confession
arises that I am none other than the one exposed before
God in the light of his ordinance and according to the
measure of his command. Such a confession is a Yes to my
No and conversely a No to my Yes. I must affirm that I do
not measure up to that which God wants of me, and at the
same time deny that such a not-measuring-up is in order.
One of Luthers fundamental insights is that those who
realize the untenable state of their being and the abysmal
condition of their lives recognize that they can provide
neither a foothold nor a foundation for their lives. They
rely on and hold fast to the fact that help comes from
somewhere else, specifically from God. For this is the
essence of a genuinely Christian life, to acknowledge
that we are sinners and to pray for grace (LC 9 [KolbWengert, 477]). This desperately desired affirmation of
divine aid comes from the gospel, for in absolution God
promises us that when we reach the end of our resources
he opens new possibilities to us. Exactly at the point where
we believe escape is impossible, God lets us know that he
provides a new way for us. The fundamental insight of
Martin Luther was that this repentance stays with the
Christian unto death (SA III 3 [Kolb-Wengert, 318]).
This insight understands the entire life of a Christian as
a process led by the Holy Spirit and aiming at final salvation. The Spirit works to make the man truly pure and
holy (SA III 3 [Kolb-Wengert, 318]). Here Luther has in
mind a procedural event that is founded in a theology of
baptism.
Repentance is therefore nothing other than a return
and stepping towards baptism (LC IV Baptism, 79 [KolbWengert, 466]),14 nothing other than baptism (LC
IV, 74 [Kolb/Wengert, 465]), indeed, on a daily basis.
On the other hand, Luther can also emphasize the progressive aspect of baptism, which connects to the idea
of sanctification as it was developed in the exposition of
the Third Article of the Creed.15 Regarding the basis set
in baptism, it states: started once and continuously proceeding in it (LC IV, 65 [Kolb-Wengert, 465]), or, in the
nexus of the aspects of the return into baptism and the
proceeding forth from this baptism, it states: This is what
it means truly to plunge into baptism and daily to come
forth again (LC IV, 71 [Kolb-Wengert, 465]). In this daily
process of return to the founding date of Christian existence lies the prerequisite for all continuation forward on
the path of Christian faith and life. The new life should
be lived so that it continually increases and proceeds forward (LC V, 24 [Kolb-Wengert, 469]). This is no less than
the catechetical exposition on Martin Luthers first of the
95 Theses: When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said,
Repent [Mt 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to
be one of repentance.16
What is usually applied to the life and conduct of
individual Christians may be suitable for the life of
the church as well, for according to Martin Luther, the
church is maxima peccatrix the biggest sinner of all.
See Albrecht Peters, Kommentar zu Luthers Katechismen 4, Die Taufe.
Das Abendmahl (Gttingen, 1993), 94100; Wenz, Theologie, 118123.
14
Bernhard Lohse, Luthers Theologie in ihrer historischen Entwicklung

und in ihrem systematischen Zusammenhang (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht, 1995), 278280; Wenz, Theologie, 611613.
15
13
This is really what it means to begin true repentance. Here a person

must listen to a judgment such as this: You are of no account...here no
one is righteous, (SA III, 3 [Kolb-Wengert, 312]).
16
LW 31, 25.
19
The Wittenberg Reformation had in mind to recall the

Roman church to the biblical truths as summarized in the
Augsburg Confession:
As can be seen, there is nothing here that departs
from the Scriptures or the catholic church, or from
the Roman church, insofar as we can tell from its
writers. Because this is so, those who claim that
our people are to be regarded as heretics judge
too harshly. The entire dissension concerns a few
specific abuses which have crept into the churches
without any proper authority. (AC, Conclusion of
Part One [Kolb-Wengert, 59])
This said, Melanchthon and the Augsburg confessors
issue a call for repentance to the adherents of the papal
church. For with deep-rooted certitude, Melanchthon can
say that just as the church has the promise that it will
always have the Holy Spirit, so it also has the warning that
there will be ungodly teachers and wolves(Ap VII, VIII,
22 [Kolb-Wengert, 177]). The church as it exists under
the circumstances of this time and age, is a corpus permixtum, a mixed body consisting of saints who truly
believe the Gospel of Christ, and at the same time, of
many hypocrites and wicked people, who are mixed in
with these (Ap VII/VIII, 28 [Kolb-Wengert, 178]).
For the church to manage its contemporaneity in a
critical manner therefore means, first and foremost, that it
becomes aware of its own interwovenness with the times
in which it exists. It will therefore first take to heart that
which it voices in a critical manner to the world outside
itself, if it wants to ensure the credibility of its declaration
and message. Thus the church itself will always have to
answer to the question as to whether and to what extent
it, together with its members, holds itself to those divine
standards that it feels compelled to address.
Therefore, the church is obliged to confess and admit
to many a transgression against divine standards, both
on behalf of its members and also of itself in its aggregate. However, it is exactly this stance that will not affect
its credibility but rather strengthen it, provided that it is
spoken not from a position of hubris, but from one of
befitting humility and informed by the knowledge of its
own failings with regard to the divine standards when it
speaks from its conscience in this manner. In that case a
confession of guilt spoken by the church repentance!
does have its place and is meaningful. For here, too,
applies Luthers thesis: The true treasure of the church is

the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.17
5. Towards the Celebration of the 500th

Anniversary of the Reformation
What fundamental insights can Lutheran theology and
church provide as genuine contribution to the celebration
of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, and how can
these insights be communicated to our time?18
It should be noted19 that where the authors of the
Lutheran Confessions are concerned, Luther is regarded
as being the authoritative, hermeneutic frame of reference
for the proper understanding of especially the Confessio
Augustana (FC SD VII, 41 [Kolb-Wengert, 600]). They
explicitly follow this Luther in determining the relation
between the word of God in the Holy Scriptures and the
subordinate Confessions of the early church, as well as the
Lutheran Reformation, so that Holy Scripture alone is the
one true guiding principle, according to which all teachers and teaching are to be judged and evaluated (FC SD,
Binding Summary 3 [Kolb-Wengert, 527]). Holy Scripture
is and remains exclusively canon, whereas the Confessions
take up a witness function, admittedly with the claim
to truth (FC SD, Binding Summary 12 [Kolb-Wengert,
529]). By contrast, the theologians of ones own camp are
at least on principle not denied the capability to err (FC
SD, Antitheses 19 [Kolb-Wengert, 529-531]). During the
second half of the sixteenth century, and with this canonisation of Luther, Melanchthons scholars, who understood
themselves to be Luthers heirs, have attempted to reconstitute and safeguard the tension-filled unity and polar
harmony of Lutheran theology and church.
For the Lutheran church, it is that Luther who
became instrumental with his catechisms in presenting
the Christian community with an introduction to a life
guided by God.20 He thereby points out that Holy Baptism
is Gods salutary self-communication, which brings to us
Gods grace, the entire Christ, and the Holy Ghost with
his gifts (LC IV, 41 [Kolb-Wengert, 461]), just as the
17
LW 31, 31.
Joachim Track, Die lutherische Stimme in der kumene, in Was

heit hier Lutherisch! Aktuelle Perspektiven aus Theologie und Kirche
(Hannover 2004), 234275.
18
Cf. Werner Kln, Was machen wir aus Luther?, in Das Bekenntnis der
Kirche zu Fragen von Ehe und Kirche. Die Vortrge der lutherischen Tage
2009 und 2010, (Lutherisch glauben 6), ed. Karl-Hermann Kandler
(Neuendettelsau, 2011), 90117, esp. 113117.
19
20
Cf. Werner Kln, Anleitung zu einem Gott-gelenkten Leben: Die

innere Systematik der Katechismen Luthers, LuThK 29 (2005): 1835.
20
sacrament of the altar, which he views as this great a treasure, which is daily administered and distributed among
Christians, provides the new human being with constant
fortification in his battle against Satan, death, and sin
(LC V, 39 [Kolb-Wengert, 470f]); and just as the Lords
Prayer invokes Gods irrefutable willingness for mercy in
just such a battle, a battle that becomes inevitable for a
Christian precisely by partaking in Gods self-giving and
self-revelation, a Christian who, in the battle of the gospel
for the gospel, takes on his enemies (LC III, 65-67 [KolbWengert, 448f] and LC III, 8081 [Kolb-Wengert, 451]).
Luther is perceived and presumed as being the one
who construes the Credo for us, thereby gratefully accepting what God does for us and gives to us (LC II, 67
[Kolb-Wengert, 440]) and the implementation thereof
in the reality of Christs liberation act, since Christ has
brought us from the devil to God, from death to life, from
sin to righteousness, and keeps us there (LC II, 31 [KolbWengert, 434]).
It is that Luther who substantiates the identity of
Christianity and church as being Trinitarian, and who
identifies the Christocentric aspect as being a distinctive
feature of Christendom and Christianity, compared to all
other forms of religiosity (and areligiosity) that are not
based on Christ or inspired by the Holy Spirit (LC II, 63
It is the Luther who is able to discern law and gospel as
being Gods immanent manner of speaking and acting21
in which the gradient from the extrinsic to the actual
work of God proceeds in such a way (FC SD V, 23 [KolbWengert, 585f]) that the church must never be found
wanting in proclaiming the declaration of forgiveness
and the salvation in Christ, seeing that it is a matter of
comforting and consoling those that are frightened and
fainthearted (FC SD V, 12 [Kolb-Wengert, 584]).
It is precisely this Luther who delineates Gods
Commandments in the context of faith as a directive
for everyone to make them a matter of daily practice
in all circumstances, in all activities and dealings (LC,
332 [Kolb-Wengert, 431]) and to serve as an instruction
manual for a Christian life of human sympathy that is
pleasing to God. It is this Luther who places the gospel
in its forms of implementation proclamation, baptism, Eucharist, and confessional penitence as the third
sacrament (LC IV, 74 [Kolb-Wengert, 465]) at the
centre of an encompassing Christian understanding

of a worship service (SA III, 4, Concerning the Gospel
It is the Luther for whom the wording of the sacraments words of institution in their literal sense was so
immovably fixed that he could not back down in this
regard whenever the real presence of the body and blood
of Christ in the celebratory worship of precisely this testament of Christ was called into question (LC V, 814
[Kolb-Wengert, 467f]), and is therefore being invoked
against the crypto-Philippistic deviances of the second-generation theologians in Wittenberg.22
It is the Luther who, with his Christological deliberations on the conceptual conceivability of the universal
presence of the human nature in Christ even after Easter
and Ascension, as well as on the promised sacramental presence of Christ sacrificed, has played a crucial
role in the formation of the Lutheran profile concerning
Eucharistic doctrine and Christology during the internal
reformatory disputes of the sixteenth century.23
It is the Luther who, by the differentiation of the two
realms (LC II, 150ff, 158ff [Kolb-Wengert, 407f]), the
release of secularism from clerical paternalism, as well as
the theological facilitation of the differentiation between
penultimate and ultimate (Dietrich Bonhoeffer),
thereby paved the way for the separation of church and
state, yet without ever having relinquished Gods reign
of power over all ages, nations, people and spheres of life
(LC II, 26 [Kolb-Wengert, 389]).24
It is the Luther who urged the Christian community of
solidarity to bear in mind that we must all indeed help us
to believe, to love, to pray, and to fight against the devil
(LC V, 87 [Kolb-Wengert, 476]), meaning the elementary
and fundamental day-to-day life of a Christian existence,
advising us to engage in the lifelong practice of being a
Christian. Luther in his commentary on St. Pauls epistle
to the Romans had stated: To stand still in Gods way,
means to go backward, and to go forward means ever to
begin anew.25 This is what daily reformation in personal
life and in the church is about! Ecclesia semper reformanda, hoc est: Ecclesia semper paenitens.
21
25
Cf. the citations from Luthers exegesis of Luke 5, 111 in the summer
homily of 1544, in FC SD V, 12 (Kolb-Wengert, 583f).
22
Cf. e.g., FC SD VIII, 4143 (Kolb-Wengert, 623f).
23
Cf. the citations from Luther, Large Confession concerning the Holy
Supper (1528) in FC SD VII, 92103 (Kolb-Wengert, 609f).
24
Also LC, The Lords Prayer, Fourth Petition, 7679 (Kolb-Wengert,

451).
Stare in via Dei est retrocedere, sed proficere est de novo incipere,
(WA 56, 486, 7ff).
21
6. Conclusion: Confessional Lutheran Churches

Their Mission in a Globalizing World
Coming from a post-Christian environment like
Germany, the once land of the Reformation, I have
learned that for the mission of the church, it is most necessary for us to cling faithfully to the biblical roots and
to assure ourselves of our historical and even confessional
identity. Reformation in this sense, is nothing but going
back to the roots and starting all over again. And if it
holds true that Christianity is in the process of moving
from the Northwest Hemisphere to the South and the
Southeast, or that it is emerging there, then Christians in
Europe (and northern America) are undoubtedly obligated to dialogue with the emerging southern churches
about what was once given to the Northern Hemisphere
in the biblical record and in the theological legacy of the
fathers of the early church, like Cyprian, Athanasius, and
Augustine, notably Africans all of them. Moreover, in the
era of globalization, the northern churches will have to
listen very carefully to what the emerging churches in the
south have to say on Christian identity and authenticity,
not least in the area of Christian conduct and ethics.
All in all, confessional Lutheran churches will have
to call people back into the fellowship that God grants
with himself and, in doing so, into the freedom that God
bestows on those who believe. In this sense the biblical-reformatory Doctrine of Justification is at the same
time the doctrine of Christian freedom and as such the
chiefarticleoftheGospel, the preservation of which is
paramount.26 In the context of the reality and effectiveness of the gospel, the believers subsequently live in a
liberated lebensraum (environment), albeit by means of
the will of God, the Law.27 In this sense human freedom
in the context of Christian faith and thus church proclamation means response,28 grateful response of the human
being who has been liberated towards freedom by God
himself through the sacrificial, death-defying commitment of his Son (Gal 5:1). The call to return to God, the
call to responsibility before God, is indeed nothing but
the call to freedom, the freedom of the children of God.
The Rev. Dr. Werner Kln is a professor of theology at
Lutheran Theological Seminary, Oberusel, Germany.
26
Foritisnecessary to retain the teaching of Christianfreedom in the

churches Itisnecessaryto retain thechiefarticleoftheGospel, (AC
XXVIII, 51f [Kolb-Wengert, 99]).
27
In this context Peters speaks of the breathing space of Christs

everlasting grace. Cf. Albrecht Peters, Gesetz und Evangelium, HST 2
(Gtersloh 1981, 1994): 54.
Oswald Bayer, Freiheit als Antwort: Zur theologischen Ethik
(Tbingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1995), 74.
28
22
The beginnings of any Lutheran

church matter explains the Rev.
The First Lutheran

Congregation: 15661585
and Beyond
Gijsbertus van Hattem in a paper

delivered at the 24th European
Lutheran Conference, Antwerp,
Belgium.
by Gijsbertus van Hattem
n September 2, 1566, almost fifty years after the monastery in the neighborhood of the church of St.
start of the Reformation on 31 October 1517, the Andrew. This monastery was founded in 1513 and had
first Lutheran church was officially organized strong ties with Wittenberg. Jacob Praepositius, the prior,
in Antwerp. The European Lutheran Conference (ELC) had been a student of Luther and came back to Antwerp in
was held in Antwerp in honor of this 450th anniversary. 1521. Other well-known names are those of Hendrik van
The scope of this paper cannot cover every detail of Zutphen, who also studied at Wittenberg; Hendrik Voes;
Jan van Essen as well as several
the 450-year history, but only
others. They openly announced
some important points. After
Already right after the
the Reformation ideas and spoke
an historical introduction of the
publication
of
Martin
against many wrong doctrines
sixteenth century, the focus will
Luthers 95 Theses on and
in the Roman Catholic Church.
be mainly on the Wonderyear,
Many citizens accepted the new
156667, the years until 1585, the
against indulgences, his
ideas. And then of course there
aftermath, and conclude with the
ideas came to Antwerp to
were the German merchants who
Lutheran church in our times.
his order brothers at the
owned a big share of the trade
Lutherans in Antwerp
Augustinian monastery in
in Antwerp and therefore also
This doesnt mean that there
the neighborhood of the
had a large influence in bringwerent Protestants or, more speing the Reformation to the Low
church of St. Andrew.
cifically, Lutherans, in the city of
Countries. This all contributed to
Antwerp during these fifty years.
a fairly large community of Lutherans in the beginning of
Antwerp was a thriving city and in that time, after Paris, it the 1520s, although there are no numbers to prove it.2
was the largest European metropolis north of the Alps. By
the middle of the sixteenth century, the population was Persecution and First Martyrs of the Reformation
around 100,000 inhabitants. Antwerp was an important The reaction of the government came without delay.
trade center and through its port, merchandise from all The so-called Low Countries, or the Netherlands, were
over the world was distributed, like it is nowadays as well.
Belonging to the Hanze, or Hanseatic League, a trade
2 Nicolaas Christiaan Kist, De Pauselijke Aflaat-handel, ook in
organization of cities in north and northwest Europe, it deszelfs invloed op de Kerk-Hervorming in Nederland, Archief voor
Kerkelijke Geschiedenis 1 (Leyden 1829): 204. Nicolaas Christiaan Kist,
provided a residence for traders of many nationalities.1
Nederlanders, in de XVIde Eeuw, aan de Hoogeschool te Wittenberg,
Already right after the publication of Martin Luthers in de Theologie gegradueerd, Archief voor Kerkelijke Geschiedenis 5(16)
95 Theses on and against indulgences, his ideas came (Leyden 1845): 346. Jacobus Proost of Iperenses/Sprenger, Biografisch
lexicon voor de geschiedenis van het Nederlands protestantisme (DeeI
to Antwerp to his order brothers at the Augustinian 1978): 263264. Paul Esti, Het vluchtige bestaan van de eerste
Lodovico Guicciardini, Beschijvinghe van alle de Nederlanden;
anderssins ghenoemt Nederder-Duytschlandt (Amsterdam, 1612),
49104. Guido Marnef, Antwerpen in de tijd van de Reformatie.
Ondergronds protestantisme in een handelsmetropool 15501577
(Antwerpen, 1996), 2190.
1
Nederlandse Lutherse gemeente. Antwerpen 15661567, (Amsterdam,

1986), 79. Johannes Wilhelm Pont, Geschiedenis van het Lutheranisme
in de Nederlanden tot 1618, (Haarlem, 1911), 2324. Martin Jhering,
Wandlungen und Aufbrche. Der Weg der Niederlndische Gemeinde
von Antwerpen nach Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt/M, 2014), 208.
Johannes Cristoffel Schultz Jacobi, Oud en nieuw uit de geschiedenis der
Nederlandsch-Luthersche Kerk, 5 dln. (Rotterdam, 1862), 2077.
23
part of the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V, who was

gaen, vermits deselve de ketterye smaeken, op de
born in Ghent (Flandres) in 1500. Antwerp was part of
confiscatie ende verbeurte van hunne goederen en
Brabant, as Brussels was. Charles V, as we all know, was
de nog personelyk te worden gestraft; geene famose
not a friend of the new ideas. In April 1521, at the Diet
libellen oft rondeelen en balladen te schryven, uyt
in Worms, Luther was made an outlaw, and in Charless
te geven en voor kerkdoren en poorten te slaen en
whole empire actions against the Reformation were
plekken tegens degene die geene Luthersadherentundertaken. He issued some laws against the heretics, the
en syn .4
so-called ketterplakkaten, and fostered the Inquisition.
The Antwerps Archievenblad also contains lists of all
It did not take much time before the consequences the persons that because of their heretic faith were perwere felt in Antwerp. In 1522, Prior Praepositius was secuted, imprisoned, and/or executed. This is a valuable
imprisoned and recanted, but changed his mind again, and indispensable source for sixteenth century Antwerp
and managed to get out of the city to become a pastor history.
in Bremen until his death in 1562. The same happened
These volumes show that the repression of the
to Van Zutphen, the new prior and he was also able to so-called heretics was taken seriously. This also marked
escape. Not so with Hendrik Voes and Jan van Essen. They the atmosphere for the coming years and decades when
were imprisoned, refused to recant, and on July 1, 1523, many were persecuted and executed. People met secretly.
were executed at the Grote Markt in Brussels, burned at Lutherans had questions about these hidden meetings
the stake for their adherence to the Reformation doctrine. and asked Luther for advice. Luther disapproved such
They are considered the first two
meetings and suggested creating
Lutheran martyrs, making this
a house church for the household
a date to certainly remember in
By 1540, another
or to emigrate to a place where it
seven years from now. The monwas allowed to publicly profess the
reformation movement
astery of the Augustinians was
Lutheran doctrine. This inspired
inspired by Jean Calvin
already demolished in October
many to do so.5
had gained strength in the
1522. When Luther heard about
Other Protestants
Low Countries and was by
the execution, he wrote a comforting letter to the Christians
By 1540, another reformation
far more militant than the
in the Low Countries and commovement inspired by Jean Calvin
Lutheran Reformation.
posed a hymn, Ein neues Lied
(b. 1509, France) had gained
3
wir heben an.
strength in the Low Countries and
In the nineteenth century, the secretary and archivist was by far more militant than the Lutheran Reformation.
of Antwerp at the time started the endeavor of publish- Luther himself actually did not engage with Calvinists
ing the official documents of the city. The first volume as much as many think. He had more to do with the folwas published in 1864 from a first series that would lowers of Ulrich Zwingli (b. 1484), the Swiss reformer.
have thirty volumes, twenty of which were by him, and And then there was a third, much smaller group, the
that are now known as the Antwerps Archievenblad (AA, Anabaptists, who were followers of Menno Simons (b.
Antwerp Archives Bulletin). The series starts with and 1496, Friesland). They actually played a minor role in the
covers mainly the sixteenth century and much important events of the years to come, but were severely persecuted.6
information can be found about the Reformation and the
reaction against it. In connection to the above described 4 Antwerps Archievenblad, I (22 Feb 1522), 172. Casper Christiaan
we read for example about the prohibition to read and to Gerrit Visser, Luthers Geschriften in de Nederlanden tot 1546 (Assen,
1969).
sell writings of Luther:
5 Victoria Christman, Pragmatic Toleration: The Politics of Religious
Boeken gemaekt door eenen geheeten broeder Lutherus niet te lesen, verkoopen of daermede om te
Schultz Jacobi, Nederlandsch-Luthersche Kerk, 34. WA 12, 7380, A
New Song Here Shall Be Begun, AE 53, 212216. Jos E. Vercruysse,
De Antwerpse Augustijnen en de lutherse Reformatie, 15131523,
Trajecta 16 (2007): 203.
3
24
Heterodoxy in Early Reformation Antwerp, 15151555 (Rochester,

2015), 36ff. Ferdinand Jacob Domela Nieuwenhuis, Bijdragen tot de
Geschiedenis der Huijskercken, Godgeleerde Bijdragen 30 (Amsterdam
1855): 404405. Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 1415. E.M. Braekman,
Het Lutheranisme in Antwerpen, Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis 70
(1987): 2425.
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 36, note 61. Robert Van Roosbroeck,
Het Wonderjaar te Antwerpen 15661567. Inleiding tot de studie der
6
The Antwerp Calvinists organized themselves and had

Margaret seemed to be approachable and the lower
established an unofficial congregation by 1550. By then nobility seized the opportunity. They made a covenant,
the Antwerp city government had developed a more con- and on April 6, 1566, they offered a petition to Margaret.
descending behavior against the Protestants. Trade was They demanded that the Inquisition cease and that the
more important, but not everything that the Protestants ketterplakkaten be nullified. She did not give in right
desired would be possible. But it allowed a certain free- away, but desired a softer approach in combating the herdom for the Protestants, as long they kept a low profile, etics. In reality, it was a victory for the Geuzen, as one of
and so they did, holding their meetings still in secret.7
Margarets advisors named them after they presented their
Another important aspect that needs to be mentioned petition and he tried to minimize it for her, saying: Ce ne
is that Antwerp developed itself in an important print- sont que des gueux (French for They are just beggars).
ing center. Another lecture today will focus especially on This nickname of Geuzen (the Beggars) was adopted by
this subject. Where there is trade and money, there is also the nobility as an honorary title and it was very symbolic,
space for other segments of a civilization to flourish. The since they promised fidelity to the king even to requiring
political situation was therefore largely influenced by the the beggars bag.9
economic situation of the city.8
Hedge-Preaching/the
But changes were on their way.
Wonderyear
Charles Vs health began to fail in
The Lutherans eventually
The halfhearted answer of the
his mid-forties. He had been conbecame closer to the
regent was enough for the
sidering abdication long before
Catholics
than
to
the
Calvinists to increase the presit became clear in the 1550s that
sure. Instead of secret meetings
Calvinists.
And
then
the
Protestantism in Germany would
church had also to deal with outside the city walls, as has
have to be tolerated. He handed
been recorded in 1565, they now
the Holy Roman Empire over to
theological controversies
openly met, still outside the city,
his brother, Ferdinand, in 1554,
from within, like if the bread challenging the city government.
and in October 1555, in Brussels,
should be broken at the
Up until this time, the city govhe resigned the sovereignty of the
ernment tried to minimize the
consecration
or
not.
Low Countries to his son, Philip
meetings to the leaders in Brussels
of Spain (15271598). The folby saying that most of the attenlowing January 1556, he resigned
Spain and Spanish America to Philip as well. In August he dants were foreigners. But now everyone could hear the
formally abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor and died in Psalms and the preaching. The first of one of these so
1558. His son, Philip II, also inherited the Low Countries called hagepreek (Dutch for hedge-preaching) was on
and had the strong purpose to have only one church in his June 13, 1566, hence almost 450 years ago. On June 24,
kingdom, the Roman Catholic Church, and not tolerate 1566, it was decided to stop meeting in secret. To attend
Protestantism. In 1559 he left the government of the Low a hedge-preaching was not without risk. Some meetings
Countries to his older half-sister, Margaret, Duchess of were guarded by armed guards of their own people to
Parma (b. 1522, the illegitimate daughter of Charles and protect the community and the preacher, and to warn
10
Maria van der Gheynst). She governed there from 1559 against a possible intervention by the government.
This brings us to the picture that illustrates the program
1567 and from 15781582.
of this conference. Frans Hogenberg (15351590) made
dozens of pictures illustrating the events that happened in
godsdienstonlusten te Antwerpen van 1566 tot 15 (Antwerpen, 1930),
those turbulent years. One of those pictures illustrates the
151.
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 1517. Pont, Geschiedenis van het

Lutheranisme, 45. Van Roosbroeck, Emigranten. Nederlandse
vluchtelingen in Duitsland (15501600) (Leuven, 1968), 19. Van
Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 152, note 1.
7
Francine de Nave, Antwerpen, dissident drulkkerscentrum in de 16de

eeuw: algemene synthese, Antwerpen, dissident drukkerscentrum. De
rol van de Antwerpse drukkers in de godsdienststrijd in Engeland (16de
eeuw) (Antwerpen 1994): 1322.
8
Jozef-Ernest van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen 17 augustus 1585 voor

en na (Antwerpen, 1985), 17.
9
Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 18. Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse,

18. Antwerpsch Chronykje, in het welk zeer veele en elders te vergeefsch
gezogte geschiedenissen, sedert den jaren 1500 tot het jaar 1574 ()
omstandig zyn beschreven (Leiden, 1743), 7577. Pont, Geschiedenis van
het Lutheranisme, 66. Van Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 7 note 2.
10
25
hedge-preaching south of the city. His picture at the same

time gives an idea of the distribution of the Protestants,
a detail that the occasional observer passes by. At the top
by the banks of the river Schelde is a first group of people
that, in front of a church, listen to a preacher. This group
is marked as Confessi, which means those who follow the
Augsburg Confession, the Lutherans. Two more groups
are pictured. The group on the left under the trees is
marked as the Walsche, the French-speaking Calvinists.
Antwerp had a large contingent of French speakers from
the south of the Low Countries and from France, not least
because of the economic relations with cities in those
areas. One of Antwerps most well-known printers came
from France, Christoffel Plantin. His printing house exists
still today as a museum. Antwerp was and is an attractive
city. On the other side of the trench, the last group on the
right listening to a Dutch preacher is marked Calvinsche.
The language was already in those days a dividing issue.
Interesting detail: There are no armed guards around the
more peaceful Lutherans. The strength of the different
groups is more or less the same, that means one Lutheran
for each two Calvinists, or one-third of the Protestants
were Lutheran and two-thirds Calvinists. This proportionality remains the same in the following years.11
The time period between Easter 1566 and Easter
1567 has been called the Wonderjaar (Wonderyear).
Protestants used this word in a positive sense because
of their advance. The Catholics used it in a negative
sense because of the terrible changes in the Christian
faith. Others rather preferred to call it a Hongerjaar
(Hungryyear) due to the economic consequences for a
large part of the population.12
F. Hoogenbergh, De 80-jarige Oorlog in Beelden (Den Haag, 1977),
3. Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 19. Jozef-Ernest Van Roey,
Antwerpen, het avontuur lijk bestaan van een stad (Antwerpen/
Rotterdam, 1995), 49. De kroniek van Godevaert van Haecht over de
troebelen vqn 1565 tot 1574 te Antwerpen en elders, 2 dln. Volume
1, ed. Robert Van Roosbroeck (Antwerpen, 192833), 6391.
Antwerpsch Chronykje, in het welk zeer veele en elders te vergeefsch
omstandig zyn beschreven (Leiden, 1743), 78. Pont, Geschiedenis van het
Lutheranisme, 69. Van Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 1819. J. Andriessen,
Het geestelijke en godsdienstige klimaat, Antwerpen in de XVIde
eeuw, Genootschap voor Antwerpse Geschiedenis (Antwerpen 1975):
215216. Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 65. Van Roey, Antwerpen,
het avontuur lijk bestaan van een stad, 90, 102. Esti, Nederlandse
Lutherse, 37, note 62. Guido Marnef, Protestanten in Noord en Zuid:
Krekhistorische beschouwingen n.a.v. een recente studie, Bijdragen tot
de Geschiedenis 70 (1987): 139145.
11
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 16. Antwerpsch Chronykje, in het welk

zeer veele en elders te vergeefsch gezogte geschiedenissen, sedert den jaren
1500 tot het jaar 1574 () omstandig zyn beschreven, 69. Erich Kuttner,
Het Hongerjaar (Amsterdam, 1949), 31.
12
26
More hedge-preaching followed, not only in Antwerp,

but all over Flandern, Brabant, and Holland. These
drew a large number of attendees. The one on August
10, 1566, for example, had 24,000 people. Surely not all
were Protestants; likely many came because of the novelty.13 Margaret got worried, and questioned the issued
regulations and laws. Antwerp reacted, reminding her
of the important position of the merchant and the trade.
Nobody was waiting for persecution. It was decided to
send one of the twelve noblemen of the Raad van State
(a council instituted in 1531 by the emperor to assist
the government in the Low Countries) to Antwerp to
sort things out. The one sent was William of Nassau (b.
1533), Prince of Orange, and also Landgraaf (viscount) of
Antwerp, among other titles. He arrived July 13, 1566, in
Antwerp and faced a major challenge in solving the religious tensions.14
William of Orange had an important role in the Low
Countries. Born in Dillenburg, Germany, and baptized
Roman Catholic, he was raised Lutheran. During his
further education at the court of Charles V in Brussels,
he became Roman Catholic, but kept sympathy for the
Lutherans. In 1559, Philip II appointed him as Stadhouder
of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht. His wife, Anna, was
from Saxony and Lutheran. His brother, Louis (Lodewijk)
of Nassau, was a professed Lutheran.15
Iconoclasm
Despite all his diplomacy, William of Orange was not
very successful. On the contrary, iconoclasm erupted and
reached Antwerp on August 20, just when William had
left the city for consultations in Brussels the day before.
The iconoclasts destroyed the interior of many churches,
among them the cathedral where the Calvinists managed
to preach. Lutherans and Calvinists differed in many
aspects concerning doctrine Holy Communion, for
example. Lutherans also tried to keep obedience to the
authorities and had no problems with the images and
altars in the churches. Iconoclasm was neither induced
nor supported by Lutherans. In the meantime, one priest,
Matthijs, became noteworthy because, despite the fact
that he was Roman Catholic, he preached in a Protestant,
Lutheran way, and attracted many people. The city
De kroniek van Godevaert, Volume 1, 63. Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse,
20, 24. Andriessen, Het geestelijke en godsdienstige klimaat, 215.
Marnef, Protestanten in Noord en Zuid, 140.
13
14
Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 20.
15
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 38.
government called him to the church of St. George in the

hopes of getting control of the situation.16
Agreement and the First Lutheran Church:

15661567
When William returned to Antwerp on August 26, he
managed to reestablish order. Some iconoclasts were
executed, others banned or punished. The Calvinists
requested freedom of religion, and the Lutherans did the
same on the 28th. The latter were struggling to know how
to act in this situation sui generis wherein the authorities did not take the initiative to establish the Protestant
religion, as happened in Germany or Scandinavia. The
requests resulted, after some negotiation, in William on
August 31, 1566, announcing that in the Low Countries,
with the approval of the king and the regent, the
Inquisition and the ketterplakkaten against the heretics
for the time being was suspended.17 The first Lutheran
church in a non-Lutheran country established with the
approval of the authorities was a fact.
The Lutherans, contrary to their practice, already had
called some pastors without the approval of the authorities and now asked for their approval. They also asked to
make some churches available for the Lutheran services.
Again they did not wait for an answer, but rented a barn
close to St. Michaels abbey (this abbey was demolished
under Napoleon rule).18
On September 2, 1566, William of Orange and the
Lutherans made an agreement, which included provisions19 to, among other things, not disturb the other
religions, and allowed the Lutherans to use, besides the
barn they already were renting, a place named Reyger,
close to the Paardenmarkt,20 and a place named Lijmhof,
Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 22. Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse,
2226. Van Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 50, 59. Andriessen, Het
geestelijke en godsdienstige klimaat, 216. De kroniek van Godevaert,
Volume 1, 98103. Antwerpsch Chronykje, in het welk zeer veele en
elders te vergeefsch gezogte geschiedenissen, sedert den jaren 1500 tot het
jaar 1574 () omstandig zyn beschreven, 95. Pont, Geschiedenis van het
Lutheranisme, 7273.
16
17
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 29. De kroniek van Godevaert, Volume

1, 105. Van Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 52. Gustaaf Asaert, De val van
Antwerpen en de uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt, 2004),
X, 149.
Asaert, Vlamingen en Brabanders, XI, 2223. Van Roosbroeck,
Wonderjaar, 66.
18
Asaert, Vlamingen en Brabanders, XI, 5658. Johannes Wilhelm

Pont, De belijdenis van de luthersche gemeente te Antwerpen over de
erfzonde, 1579, Nieuwe Bijdragen tot kennis van de geschiedenis en het
wezen van het lutheranisme in de Nederlanden 1 (Schiedam 1907): 124.
19
A. Thijs, Historiek der straten en openbare plaatsen van Antwerpen

(Antwerpen, 1973), 191.
20
close to the Oudaenstraat. And if we consider Matthijs

a Lutheran, then also St. Georges church should be
included, but only until September 25. They were also
allowed to call two pastors for each of the three places.21 This agreement did not differ much from the one
made with the Calvinists. The agreement was signed by
the different parties, for which the Lutherans seemed to
choose ad hoc some representatives, since they had not
really organized themselves yet. For their organization the
Lutherans were surely influenced by the Calvinists.22
Life of the Church

Membership What about the membership of the
church in 1566? Calculations differ, but as has been
pointed out before, it would be acceptable to estimate
one-sixth of the population being Lutheran, one-third
Calvinist, and one-half Roman Catholic. In a population of 100,000 this means roughly 16,000 Lutherans.23
This is an optimistic estimate since we will never know
the real membership. In January 1567, William reported
that 12,000 people had signed the Augsburg Confession.
Margaret estimated only 4,000. Lutherans were also
called Martinists, followers of Martin Luther, or
Confessionists, those of the Confession, a reference to
the Augsburg Confession of 1530.24
Most of the members were Germans, but also inhabitants of Antwerp, among them many wealthy ones, are
found in the member lists, such as the citys secretary,
Alexander Grapheus, and the alderman, Nicolaas Rockox,
Jacob van Wesenbeke, a good friend of William, and
Godevaert van Haecht, to name some of them. The latter
two both wrote about the events in those years, especially
21
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 30-32.
Asaert, Vlamingen en Brabanders, XI, 5658. Esti, Nederlandse

Lutherse, 3536, note 60. Schultz Jacobi, Nederlandsch-Luthersche Kerk,
1718. Johannes Cristoffel Schultz Jacobi, De toestand van Antwerpen
na de invoering van de Hervorming, Nederlandsch Archief voor
Kerkelijke Geschiedenis 15 (Leiden 1844): 115175. Van Roosbroeck,
Wonderjaar, 64. Andriessen, Het geestelijke en godsdienstige klimaat,
215. Johannes Lehnemann, Historische Nachricht von der im
sechzehenden Jahrhundert evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche in Antorff
und der daraus entstandenen niederlndischen Gemeinde Augburgischer
Confession in Frankfurt am Mayn, aus beglaubten Urkunden mitgeteilt
(Frankfurt/M, 1725), 56.
22
Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 5770. Braekman, Het

Lutheranisme in Antwerpen, 29. J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlanders in de
Republiek 1572-1630. Een demografische en cultuurhistorische studie
(Sint-Niklaas, 1985), 76.
23
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 37. De kroniek van Godevaert, Volume

1, 114. Schultz Jacobi, Nederlandsch-Luthersche Kerk, 19. Guillame
Groen van Prinsteren, Archives ou Correspondence Inedit de la Maison
dOrange-Nassau, Serie, dl. 3 (Leiden, 1835), 5.
24
27
van Haecht.25 Interestingly, almost all the suikerbakkers

(confectioners) of the city were Lutherans.26 Probably
Rubenss parents were also members of the church,
since in 1582, his mother-in-law, Clara Colyns alias de
Touion, in her will left a bequest to those of the Augsburg
Confession.27 She would have been delighted to know that
almost 450 years later a conference is being held at the
back of or on the grounds that her grandson bought in
1606 to build what today is known as the Rubens House,
as we are today, in experiencing this fitting setting for a
conference like this. Thanks to the Rubenianum for its
hospitality.
Church Buildings Immediately after the signing of the
agreement, the Lutherans (and the Calvinists) started to
build their churches. Both Lutheran church buildings at
Reyger and Lijmhof were finished before the end of the
year, though the places were used for open air services as
long weather permitted. The barn at St. Michaels in the
meantime had been improved with galleries and an altar.
The Calvinists did the same and built two churches, one
at the Wapper for the French-speaking, and one a little
bit further at Hopland for the Dutch-speaking They also
improved another location, but of course, no altars at
their churches.28
Pastors The six called pastors were Franciscus Alardus
(b. 1530, Brussels), Balthasar Houwaert (b. ca. 1525,
Brussels), Johannes Ligarius (b. 1529, East-Friesland),
Johannes Saliger (b.?, Lbeck), Dittmar Tymannus (b.
?) and Christian Warnerus (b. ?), and all had arrived by
mid-October 1566.29 Also Matthijs (van Statvelt ?), after
Asaert, Vlamingen en Brabanders, IX 423427. Esti, Nederlandse
Lutherse, 3738. Schultz Jacobi, Nederlandsch-Luthersche Kerk, 42.
Schultz Jacobi, Hervorming, 168169. Pont, Geschiedenis van het
Lutheranisme, 77. Van Roosbroeck, Emigranten, 183. Van Roosbroeck,
Wonderjaar, XVIIXVIII.
25
26
Andriessen, Het geestelijke en godsdienstige klimaat, 1X, 426.

Schultz Jacobi, Hervorming, 170, note 5. Oliver K. Olson, The Rise
and Fall of the Antwerp Martinists, Lutheran Quarterly 1 (1987): 98
119, 98. Frans Hendrik Mertens and Karel Lodwijk Torfs, Geschiedenis
van Antwerpen, 8 dln. (Antwerpen, 184553), 616.
27
Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 25, 67, 104.
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 4042, note 71. De kroniek van

Godevaert, Volume 1, 108, 117. Antwerpsch Chronykje, in het welk zeer
veele en elders te vergeefsch gezogte geschiedenissen, sedert den jaren 1500
tot het jaar 1574 () omstandig zyn beschreven, 98. Van Roosbroeck,
Wonderjaar, 98, 139. Pont, Geschiedenis van het Lutheranisme, 76,
note 4. J.C. Diericxsens, Antuerpia christo nascens et crescens seu acta
ecclesiam Antuerpiensem ejusque Apostolos ac Viros pietate conspicuos
concernentia utque ad seculum XVII, 7 dln (Antwerpen, 1773), Volume
IV, 345.
28
Esti, 4244. Schultz Jacobi, Hervorming, 141. Pont, Geschiedenis

van het Lutheranisme, 7981. Van Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 137138.
29
28
the closing of St. George and until the arrival of the called
pastors, had preached a while at the Lijmhof.30 Besides
the six pastors, the church also called six theological
advisors to help with counseling. Among them was the
well-known Matthias Flacius. The others were Herman
Hamelmann, Johan Vorstius, and three from Mansfeld,
Cyriacus Spangenberg,31 Martin Wolff, and Joachim
Hartmann (and some sources mention a seventh person,
a certain Dr. Ulsperger). They were all known as diehard, anti-Calvinist Lutherans.32 Flacius had an important
role.33
Services The agreement allowed for the Protestants
to hold services on Sunday and during the week on
a saints day. If no such day was on the calendar, then
on Wednesday. The Calvinists only used Sunday and
Wednesday for worship. The first service with Holy
Communion was celebrated on September 15 in the barn.
After the first communion service, it was celebrated every
Sunday. The congregation most likely used a translation
of the German Bonner Hymnal from 1544, which contained psalms and all Luthers hymns, except one.34 Apart
from the instruction in the church, plans were made to
have their own schools for the education of the children
in a Lutheran way.35 Also an agenda was written by the
advisors with the order of services. Agenda. Christian
Liturgy of Gods congregation in Antwerp, holding to the
genuine, pure and unaltered Augsburg Confession. It
contained an order for a communion service, one without
communion, one for a baptismal service, and one for a
wedding service.36
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 47, note 92. Schultz Jacobi, NederlandschLuthersche Kerk, 31. Floris Prims, Geschiedenis van de Sint-Jorisparochie
en -kerk te Antwerpen (13041923) (Antwerpen, 1923), 154155.
30
Pont, Geschiedenis van het Lutheranisme, 6980. Johannes Wilhelm

Pont, De Luthersche kerken in Nederland. Haar belijdenisschriften,
kerkeordeningen en liederenschat historisch toegelicht en ingeleid
(Amsterdam, 1929), 7496.
31
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 4447. Schultz Jacobi, NederlandschLuthersche Kerk, 2834. Van Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 184.
32
Schultz Jacobi, Hervorming, 156. Van Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar,

137. Pont, De belijdenis van de luthersche gemeente 1579, 121164.
Braekman, Het Lutheranisme in Antwerpen, 2338. On pages 2627,
Braekman misses the point about the advisors.
33
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 4751. De kroniek van Godevaert,

Volume 1, 108. Pont, Geschiedenis van het Lutheranisme, 79. Van
Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 183. Casper Christiaan Gerrit Visser, De
Lutheranen in Nederland tussen katholicisme en calvinisme 1566 tot
heden (Dieren, 1983), 72.
34
35
De kroniek van Godevaert, Volume 2, 19, 45.
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 56. Johannes Wilhelm Pont, De

luthersche kerk in Nederland (Baarn, 1908).
36
Antwerp Confession Lutheran literature had been

circulating for years already in Antwerp, for instance,
Luthers Small Catechism, but more was needed. Several
publications appeared of which one is significant, the
Antwerp Confession.37 It brings in 23, often long, articles of the Lutheran doctrine professed by the Antwerp
Church. It was signed by the six called pastors. On one
side it confirmed the Lutheran doctrine (affirmativa);
on the other side it condemned the Roman Catholic, the
Anabaptist, and the Calvinist doctrines (negativa). The
way the others interpreted Holy Communion takes a long
part of the confession in articles XVI and XVII.
Church Seal The Church also had a seal that 400 years
later was reintroduced in the third Lutheran church in
1962. It depicts the Lamb that is worthy to open the Book
with the seven seals (Rev 5). The broken seals hang on the
open book, which reads EVANGELIUM IESU CHRISTI.
Heavenly light beams from above. The inscription around
the seal reads SIG. ECCL. EVANG. CONF. AUGU. VRB.
ANTUE (Seal of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg
Confession in the City of Antwerp).38
William had tried all those months to get the Lutherans
and Calvinists on the same page, asking the Calvinists to
accept the Augsburg Confession, so that the Provisions of
the 1555 Peace of Augsburg could maybe also be applied
to the Low Countries, since Charles chose to use the
peace treaty for only some regions of his empire. Williams
efforts were in vain. That Lutherans and Calvinists were
not able to work more together pleased the government.39 How the old adage divide and rule (conquer)
fit the situation. The relationship with the Catholics was
not much better. When theological advisor Spangenberg
left Antwerp, he declared, In Antwerpen Christ hangs
between criminals, the papists and the Calvinists.40 But
in the months to come, the Lutherans eventually became
closer to the Catholics than to the Calvinists. And then
the church had also to deal with theological controversies
from within, like if the bread should be broken at the consecration or not.41
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 56. Johannes Wilhelm Pont, De
luthersche kerk in Nederland (Baarn, 1908).
37
J.K. Schendelaar, Lutherse Kerkzegels in Nederland (Utrecht, 2000),

24.
38
Olson, Antwerp Martinists, 98119. Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse,

5764.
39
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 65. Schultz Jacobi, NederlandschLuthersche Kerk, 5 dln (1864), 2224.
40

Volume 1, 129130. Pont, Geschiedenis van het Lutheranisme, 82. Van
Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 285286.
41
Reaction and the End

One may think that everything was settled and peace
had returned to the city. To some extent this is true. The
Catholics were reorganizing, despite the divisions, and
people tried to pick up normal life. But Margaret hadnt
been inactive all those months. Although she had sent
William to mediate, she did not agree with his solution.
She had sent secret agents to keep her informed about the
plans of the Lutherans and Calvinists and to support the
Roman Catholics,42 so she was well-informed about what
was going on. She also had ordered a couple of times to
end the non-Catholic services in Antwerp, but Lutherans
and Calvinists each time referred to the agreement of
September 2. When she in January 1567 demanded it
again, the Lutherans got worried. The theological advisors were leaving and returning to where they came from,
Flacius being the last one to leave by the end of February.43
Margaret continued the pressure, and on February
20, she ordered again the end of all heretic services and
ordered the pastors to leave the city. William, who had
managed to protect the Protestants so far, now with his
keen insight into the political and military situation,
realized that the cause of the Reformation in Antwerp,
and elsewhere in the south of the Low Countries, for the
moment was lost. On March 13, Margaret sent in the
army, which stayed for the moment out of the city. The
Calvinists tried with an armed opposition to gain control over the situation, but it failed, partly because the
Lutherans did not join them. Rather the Lutherans joined
the city government, faithful to their principles to obey
the authorities. By March 15, it was all over. Margaret
ordered the closing of all non-Catholic churches,
although William and the city government pleaded to let
the Lutherans keep their churches, but it did not help.44
From March 20 on, the Protestants started to leave
the city. On April 10, the city government ordered the
Protestant pastors to leave the city in 24 hours. Along
with the pastors, about 4,000 Protestants left the city. The
42
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 65.
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 70. De kroniek van Godevaert, Volume 1,

174. Van Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 289, 317334.
43
Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 24. Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 70

72. Antwerpsch Chronykje, in het welk zeer veele en elders te vergeefsch
omstandig zyn beschreven, 121. Schultz Jacobi, Nederlandsch-Luthersche
Kerk, 3941. Pont, Geschiedenis van het Lutheranisme, 8788. Pont,
De Luthersche kerken in Nederland, (Amsterdam, 1929), 8586. Van
Roosbroeck, Wonderjaar, 362383. Andriessen, Het geestelijke en
godsdienstige klimaat, 217218. De kroniek van Godevaert, 208209.
44
29
next day, twenty more ships with refugees left. Lutherans

mostly emigrated to the north part of the Low Countries
(the Netherlands today) and to Germany, mainly
Frankfurt, where a flourishing congregation was founded.
It should be noted, however, that most of the Lutherans
did not leave.45 An estimated 10,000 people left the city in
the following months and year, among them Jan Rubens,
lawyer and alderman, with his wife, Maria Pypelincx.
They went to Siegen, where their son Pieter Paul, the
master painter of the contra reformation, was born in
1577 and baptized Protestant.46 This means that, on the
other hand, many Protestants stayed but conformed to
the new rules and went back to secret meetings. The first
Protestant adventure in Antwerp was over. For almost
seven months Antwerp had known a certain freedom of
religion. Now a time of repression would start.
Repression: 15671576
And it started right away. The Spanish Army entered the
city on April 26 and came to stay for a couple of years.
Once also the Duke of Alba as commander had arrived,
another period of turbulent years started for Antwerp. The
churches of the Protestants were demolished.47 The Raad
van Beroerten (Council of Troubles, or popularly called,
Blood Council) was installed. The first heads to roll
were those of the counts of Egmont and Hoorne. Many
Lutherans and Calvinists who stayed in the city and were
known as such were persecuted and many of them executed. A citadel was built for the army and as a warning
to the city not to revolt. Difficult years of repression followed, culminating with the Spaanse Furie in 1576. Also
William was condemned. In 1568, he chose openly in
favor of the Reformation and started to resist the Spanish
occupation. The so-called Eighty Years War began and
only ended in 1648 with the peace of Westphalia. It would
take until 1576 before the Protestants would again get the
freedom to profess their faith publicly.48
Van Roosbroeck, Emigranten, 33, 183. De kroniek van Godevaert,

Volume 1, 210212. Schultz Jacobi, Hervorming, 172175.
45
Rik Torfs, Rubens religieuze kunst Wat vandaag? (Lezing St. Paulus,
Antwerpen, 2004), 2. Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 25.
46
Esti, Nederlandse Lutherse, 76. De kroniek van Godevaert, Volume 1,

220222, 237. Antwerpsch Chronykje, in het welk zeer veele en elders te
vergeefsch gezogte geschiedenissen, sedert den jaren 1500 tot het jaar 1574
() omstandig zyn beschreven, 134, 137. Schultz Jacobi, Hervorming,
152, note 5.
47

Volume 2.
48
30
The Second Church: 15781585

With the Pacification of Ghent on November 8, 1576,
which gave freedom of religion, many of the refugees
returned in the hopes of living in a free country. But actually only on July 22, 1578, did the governor, Archduke
Matthias of Austria, make this possible with the
Religious Peace. In every place where at least 100 people
professed the same faith, there was also the freedom to do
it openly. On September 18, 1577, the Prince had already
arrived in Antwerp. Ten and a half years after, he left it in
the Wonderjaar.49
On August 29, 1578, Lutherans were given the
barn by St. Michaels Abbey, the St. Anna Chapel at the
Keizerstraat (Keizerskapel), and the attic of the Hessen
House to assemble. On October 22, the St. Georges
church nave, and later also the choir and the rest, and
the church of the Carmelites on the Meir followed (as
noted above, this was probably the church which Rubenss
grandmother attended). Also the church of the monastery
at Falconplein (?) (Falcontinnenklooster), and in August
1581, the St. Walpurgiss church (to replace the barn) were
given to the Lutherans.50
In 1566 the church had services in Dutch and
German; now there were also services in French. The salaries of the pastors were paid by the city from September
1581 on. The number of Lutherans grew fast, and they
needed pastors. Adolf Fischer, Carel de Meijer, Stephanus
Praetorius, and the well-known Cassiadorus de Reyna
were some of the many pastors that served the Lutheran
churches in those seven years until 1585.51
Many of the documents published twelve years earlier came in handy now. A new document was the
Confession on the Original Sin, which settled the dispute that already disturbed the church in 1566. De Reyna
wrote a catechism, Willem Van Haecht wrote a psalter
in Dutch, and Charles de Navire wrote a songbook in
French.52
From all the church locations only the attic and the
Keizerskapel survived until our days. St. Georges church
was demolished during Napoleons rule and another
Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 3536. Pont, Geschiedenis van het
Lutheranisme, 397400.
49
50
Pont, De belijdenis van de luthersche gemeente 1579, 161. Edm.

Geudens, De Keizerskapel (Antwerpen, 1920), 24. Van Roey, De Val van
Antwerpen, 67. Prims, Geschiedenis, 165, 168.
Braekman, Het Lutheranisme in Antwerpen, 29. Pont, Geschiedenis
van het Lutheranisme, 402410.
51
52
Pont, De belijdenis van de luthersche gemeente 1579, 119159.

Braekman, Het Lutheranisme in Antwerpen, 30.
church was built on the location in the nineteenth century. The building of what is now the Lutheran Church is
from the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century,
built on the grounds that came available after demolishing
the 1542 city wall in the midst of the nineteenth century.
The Fall or Antwerp

The siege started in 1584 and the subsequent fall of
Antwerp on August 17, 1585, to the Duke of Parma
brought the city back to Spanish, and Roman Catholic,
rule.53 Unlike in 1567, the Protestants were given four
years to decide what they wanted. They could recant and
stay, or keep their faith and go. They also were allowed
to take with them all of their goods. The population of
Antwerp had decreased to 82,000 in 1579. By 1589, it
would decrease by another 40,000 to 42,000.54 Many went
to the Protestant north and helped the Dutch to their
Golden Age in the seventeenth century. Many went to
Germany. Antwerp Lutherans were all over the place. An
era of nineteen turbulent years ended in a defeat for the
Reformation in the south of the Low Countries, but at
least in the north, freedom of religion was achieved.55
And Beyond
With half of the population gone away, and with the
port closed because the Dutch had blocked access to it,
Antwerp turned into a sleeping city. But in the almost
two hundred years of the contra reformation it was very
active in the fine arts. Many of those famous painters
were Protestants (Jordaens), or influenced by them (Van
Dyck), or from Protestant origin (Rubens).56
During these 200 years, as before in the time of
repression, the (very) few remaining Lutherans kept a
low profile and only had services for their own households.57 They were occasionally served by pastors from
Amsterdam. This small but brave congregation had an
oval seal, which depicts a tree, probably a date palm.
The inscription reads: A.C.A. QUO PRESSIOR EO
VALENTIOR (Antwerp [Congregation] of the Augsburg
Confession: stronger through persecution).58
The Calvinists had their small congregation, the
53
54
Asaert, Vlamingen en Brabanders. Braekman, Het Lutheranisme in

Antwerpen, 3031.
55
56
57
Braekman, Het Lutheranisme in Antwerpen, 30.
58
Schendelaar, Lutherse Kerkzegels, 2425.
Brabantse Olijfberg, and survived. After the Peace of

Westphalia in 1648, Protestants were tolerated.59 This
all changed when Napoleon came in 1792. The port
was reopened. In 1801, a law was passed that gave equal
rights to Catholics, Calvinists, and Lutherans. After the
independence of Belgium in 1930, the Calvinists organized themselves and founded the Protestant Church of
Belgium in 1539. The first King of Belgium, by the way,
was Lutheran, although not a really active one. Other
Lutherans that came to Antwerp were the Norwegians,
who in 1870 finished building and owned the church
building at the Tunnelplaats until last year. This is the only
remaining Lutheran church in Antwerp built as such.
With the open port, the Germans came again, among
them Lutherans, and they had a strong presence in the
years before the First World War and had their services
at the Protestant church in the Lange Winkelstraat, and in
the church, demolished in 1975, in the Bexstraat.60
The Third Church: 1939Present

In 1934, a small evangelical Protestant congregation was
formed at the initiative of Lambert Hellings. Through
his contact with the Scandinavian Lutheran pastors, he
turned to the Lutheran churches abroad and his congregation adopted the Lutheran Confessions in 1939.
Difficult years were ahead with the eruption of World
War II. The congregation was offered for a while the use
of the Norwegian Church. After the war, a house in the
Geulinckxstraat was used till the death of Pastor Hellings
in 1956. Again, there were difficult years until the next
pastor, Hendrik Zijlstra, arrived in 1958. Services were
now held in the Swedish Church at the Italilei, but their
own building was needed. This was found in 1962 in the
Tabakvest and after some renovation work and fitting
of church windows, the church was dedicated in May
1964. Pastor Zijlstra retired in 1985 and since April 1986,
Gijsbertus van Hattem has been the pastor. In 2002, the
Lutheran Church was recognized by the government. In
2014 it celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the church and 75 years of this third Lutheran
Church in Antwerp.61
Van Roey, De Val van Antwerpen, 101. Dick Wursten, De
gemeente onder het kruis, de Brabantse Olijfberg (16481798),
De Band (kerkblad VPKB): Antwerpen, 2015. Also see http://www.
protestantsekerkantwerpennoord.be/historie-protestantmomentopnamen.
htm
59
60
Christuskirche
Gijsbertus van Hattem, Gedenkboek van de Evangelisch-Lutherse Kerk

te Antwerpen. Weer 50 jaar lutherse kerk in Antwerpen en 25 jaar van de
inwijding van het huidige kerkgebouw (Antwerpen, 1989).
61
31
The Lutheran Church of Belgium has churches in

Antwerp and Brussels and is a founding member of the
Antwerp Council of Churches in 1972. On the international level, it is a member of the International Lutheran
Council and of the European Lutheran Conference. It is
hosting these days a conference in Antwerp and many
Lutherans of different European countries and from the
U.S. are in our midst today.
The Rev. Gijsbertus van Hattem is the president of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Belgium.
32
Is mission a sign of the church?

The Rev. Dr. Klaus Detlev
Mission as Nota Ecclesiae?:

Testing the Scope of
Augsburg Confession 7 and 8
Schulzs presentation from the

Concordia University Irvine
Joint Professors Conference
explains.
by Klaus Detlev Schulz
n our discussion of AC VII and AC VIII, a few the mission discussions orbited around these articles
fundamental questions have to be answered if we gradually illuminated their missiological potential.2
bring systematics and missiology together, as Im told
I. Stage 1: Mission marginalized
to do. How do the two articles in the Augsburg Confession
The ecclesiology of the Augsburg Confession as
relate to missions? How does ecclesiology inform mission
and how does mission inform ecclesiology? Is, as my title defined in AC VII did not go unnoticed by mission scholindicates, mission a sign of the church? Here we touch on ars. For example, in an essay, Theological Education in
Missionary Perspective, David Bosch
a sensitive topic. In terms of becoming
takes a stab at the Protestant definiinvolved in mission both theologically
Mission is not
tions of the church, of which AC VII
and in practice, Lutheranism is a
the
possession
of
was the first:
Johnny-come-lately. It took time to
a few committed
develop a missiology that would clarify
Another factor responsible for the
Christians more
issues related to foreign missions. Of
present embarrassment in the field
course, as rightly pointed out, Luthers
of mission is that the modern mispious than others
theology and Lutheran theology is a seed
sionary enterprise was born and
. . . but rather it
1
bed for missions, yet the seed still had
bred outside the church. The church
belongs to the
to sprout and bear fruit. Over the history
especially the Protestants did
church,
the
baptized
of Lutheranism, voices came forward, of
not regard itself as called to mission.
body of believers.
which many were formative figures to
The Reformation definitions of the
the LCMS, and gave important impulses
church were concerned with what
for mission. In researching the questions above, it became
happened inside the church: on preaching, the
evident to me that in Lutheranism there is a particular
Sacraments and discipline. The church was a place
progression in the knowledge on missionary ecclesiology,
where something was being done (passive voice),
and AC VII and VIII were directly drawn in and
and not a people who did something ... Conseaddressed in this process. Thus, in this presentation Id
quently when the missionary flame was eventually
like to walk with you through some stages reflecting that
kindled, it burned on the fringes of the institutionprogression in chronological order, starting with a historic
al church, frequently meeting with passionate reinvestigation, but then ending on a contemporary note
sistance from the official church. The well-known
relating to mission issues today. In all of this progression,
multiplication of missionary societies had a disasAC VII and VIII stood, and still stand, steady as pillars
trous influence on the subsequent development
saying what they have said for exactly 486 years, whereas
of the study of mission as an academic discipline.
2
Herbert Blchle, Die missionarische Dimension in der Theologie

Luthers, in Die Einheit der Kirche: Dimensionen ihrer Heiligkeit,
Katholizitt und Apostolizitt (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1977),
367. Luther did not speak just on occasions and periodically to the
questions about mission to the heathens. His entire theology is rather
permeated by a missionary dimension.
1
Now a missiological reading of the Lutheran Confessions is a common

thing to do. It started with Franz Wiebe, Missionsgedanken in den
lutherischen Bekenntnisschriften, in Lutherisches Missionsjahrbuch
fr das Jahr 1955, ed. Walther Ruf (Neuendettelsau: Selbstverlag der
Bayerischen Missionskonferenz, 1955), 15-71. For the latest attempt
see, Tim Huffmann, The Lutheran Confessions and Mission, Trinity
Seminary Review 33 (Summer 2012): 19-37.
33
When missiology was eventually granted a place

in theological institutions, this was the result of
pressure from missionary societies, or (particularly in the United States) from students, or in some
instances even from a government. On the whole
neither the churches nor the theological schools
themselves welcomed the intruder. Mission was
an appendix to the church; missiology would be
no more than that in the theological curriculum.
Traditionally theology was subdivided into biblical,
systematic, historical and practical disciplines and
it was not clear how and where missiology should
fit in.3
Lutheran identity then scholars are quick to argue, and

perhaps rightfully so, that it is focused on its teaching
identity, and not on mission identity, of instructing the
doctrine through the ministry of teaching the Gospel
through the Lehramt in the church, as AC V, 1 (KolbWengert, 41), and our Article AC VII point out, and not
through the office of a missionary to the world.
Second, it is also true, as Bosch points out, that
there were stations in the history of Lutheranism where
Lutheran theologians and leaders resisted for right
or wrong reasons certain individuals efforts to
respond to the Lords mandate of going to other nations.
The famous hymnist Philip Nicolai (15561608) published De Regno Christi in which he
I need to address this statement
laid out a global ecclesiology that
Whereas other
on a number of levels throughout
proved his and others interpretasocieties were driven by tion of Romans 10:18 that through
my presentation. Two reactions
immediately come to mind. First, it
a strong eschatological
the work of the twelve apostles the
is true, as Bosch says, the definition
gospel had already reached all parts
focus of bringing in the
of the Augsburg Confession speaks
of the world, and if non-Christians
end and doing mission
of a church as the congregation of
now existed in certain pockets, it
to the glory and honor
saints in which or among whom
was because they had shunned the
of God, the Lutheran
the Gospel is purely taught and the
gospel. The Lutheran Superintendent
sacraments rightly administered.
mission expanded
of Augsburg, Heinrich Ursinus
This definition does in fact place the
(16081667), and the Protestant
the universal church
word in the midst of believers (the
Council (Corpus Evangelicorum) at
by enfolding people
congregation of saints). At best it
Regensburg dismissed Justinian von
through baptism into
reflects a missio ad intra; the outside
Welzs (16211668) request for perthe Lutheran church.
world; the missio ad extra, however,
mission to go to Surinam because
is left unmentioned. Thus, can mishe and his Jesus-Love-me society
sion be counted as part of Lutheran identity? Even in would bring to the people non-Lutheran principles such
his On the Councils and the Church (1539), Luther does as asceticism and mysticism.6
not include in the seven signs of the church the sharing
of the gospel to the world outside, although his seventh
sign of the church as bearing the cross could be implicitly understood as a consequence of its life and witness in sacraments as something the gospel gives to the believers to make
Christs presence known to all through the social reality of a Christian
and to the world.4 But where is the sentness character and community as it lives with one another and with other non-believers
the churchs orientation towards the world explicitly men- among them. The Evangelizing Church: A Lutheran Contribution, eds.
Richard Bliese and Craig van Gelder (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress
tioned in Lutheran ecclesiology?5 If it comes to defining Press, 2005), 10
6
3
Missiology. An International Review, vol. X, no. 1 (January 1982): 17
Luthers Works (LW), Vol. 41, eds. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C.
Oswald, Helmut T. Lehmann (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999,
c1966), 164.
4
The authors of the book The Evangelizing Church: A Lutheran

Contribution recognize the deficit and thus connect word and
sacrament to Christian community saying: We do not believe that the
connection of the presence of Christ in the Christian community is
sufficiently captured in the phrase Word and Sacrament. They therefore
draw in Luthers fifth form of the gospel, the mutual conversation
and consolation of the brothers and sisters (SA III, 4) to word and
5
34
The reasons for questioning Welzs proposals were legitimate when

one reads his first tract entitled De Vita Solitaria (1663), subtitled
with The Hermit Life According to Gods Word. (Original title: De Vita
Solitaria, das ist / Von dem Einsidler Leben / Wie es nach Gottes Wort
/ und der Alten Heiligen Einsidler Leben anzustellen seye.) Welz sought
to revive a monastic holiness and evangelical asceticism for missionary
purposes that were influenced by theologians such as Eusebius of
Caesarea (260339), Augustine of Hippo (354430), the medieval
mysticist, Thomas Kempis (1379/801471), and Johann Arndt (1555
1621), the most influential Lutheran devotional writer and promoter
of a mystical tradition within Lutheranism. James Scherer, Justinian
Welz: Essays by an Early Prophet of Mission (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Eerdmans, 1969), 1517.
Johann Gerhard (15821637) defended the Lutheran

As we look back on our own Lutheran heritage, we
faith against the Anglican Hadrian Saravia (15311613), should note one important factor. In spite of the squabbles
who in his ecclesiological treatise (1590) De diversis that were going on, the theologians above never denied
ministrorum evangelii gradibus, sicut a Domino fuerunt the universal claim of the gospel. In fact, the Wittenberg
institute (Concerning the different orders of the min- faculty closes its statement with a prayer: May God keep
istry of the Gospel, as they were instituted by the Lord), the light of His holy Gospel always burning among us
claimed that the episcopal office continued the full and may among all nations an eternal church be gathoffice of the apostles and the authority to go univer- ered which in all eternity lauds and magnifies him,10 and
sal (ite mundum universum). Instead, Gerhard followed Gerhard in his Loci marvels at how the gospel spreads its
Nicolais geo-ecclesio arguments and also added that the wings because of its universal claim, and offered ecumenoffice of the apostles was unique and only the preaching ical charity to Roman Catholic mission efforts in India
and teaching functions remained for the church to con- and other parts of the world.11
tinue. But these functions, Gerhard said, were now tied
The problem is that the leading sixteenth and sevento the congregations to which such preachers were called teenth century theologians were not able or willing to
(Acts 14:23). The mandate to go to the world was a unique back up the call with an ecclesiology (which includes the
privilege the apostles had and it could not be continued office of the preaching) that would support the run of
through the office of a bishop.7
the universal gospel. Tying the office
In 1652, the Wittenberg facof preaching down parochially and not
The fact is that
ulty released a three-point statement
allowing it to be commissioned and
the
one
church
by
against the scruples of an Austrian
sent into the world as a missionary
faith exists and the
nobleman, von Wetzhausen, who
office should be seen as an overreaction
had queried why the followers of the
against false opposition coming from
satis est points out
Augsburg Confession were staying put
two sides,12 and that overreaction led
what it needs to
instead of going out to the world. First,
them to temporarily misunderstand
survive.
the faculty repeated Gerhards parochial
or falsely restrict AC V and AC VII
confinement of the preaching office, and
to parochialism. And today, all the
second, it promoted a kind of universal theism, namely above may seem to us an oddity, as we are heeding to
that according to Romans 1 and 2 and Acts 17:27, God left the universal call with an unrestricted and unimpeded
his footprints among all nations in the world so that no mission paradigm.
one can plead innocence. As punishment for their ignorance, God has removed all preaching of the gospel from
them, and he is not to be blamed for not restituting what
10 Mission in Quellentexten, 71.
had been lost.8 Third, the faculty closes by admonishing 11
Nicolai displayed similar charity: Even among the Roman Catholic
all rulers in the world to build churches and schools so and Jesuit missionaries the desire to save souls comes to the fore, and
that the preaching of the true Lutheran faith is furthered consequently what they preach is so close to the truth and the method
they follow so evangelical that at home they would be called heretics
worldwide and their citizens are protected from Papist Everywhere there is still baptism, through which many thousands of
children who die in their youth become heirs of eternal life. Philip
and Calvinistic errors.9
Mission in Quellentexten, ed. Werner Raupp (Bad Liebenzell: Verlag
der Liebenzeller Mission, 1990), 6869.
7
By contrast, the Lumen Gentium made preaching to them no longer

a necessity either by pleading for their innocence: Those also can
attain everlasting salvation who through no fault of their own do not
know the gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and,
moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to
them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does divine Providence
deny the help necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on
their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God. Lumen
Gentium 16, in The Documents of Vatican II, ed. Walter M. Abbott,
trans. Joseph Callagher et al. (Chicago: Follet, 1966), 35.
8
Mission in Quellentexten, 70-71.
Nicolai, Commentariorum de regno Christi, vaticiniis propheticis et

apostolicis accommodatorum Libri duo (Frankfurt: Johannes Spies,
1597). Wilhelm Loehe, Three Books about the Church, trans. James
Schaaf (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 93.
In his essay, Die Lutherische Kirche und ihre Mission, Wilhelm

Maurer correctly states that Lutheran Orthodoxy needs to be seen in its
treatment of apostolate and mission in light of two opposing thoughts,
1) The Roman Catholic Church and its supporters that had arrogated to
themselves the undiminished apostolate either in the form of monastic
mission or in the episcopacy and 2) A mystic-enthusiasm of Welz and
others infiltrating into the church that would question the accepted
interpretation of Scripture and the well-structured church order.
Wilhelm Maurer, Die Lutherische Kirche und ihre Mission, Kirche
und Geschichte: Gesammelte Aufstze, Band II, eds. Ernst-Wilhelm
Kohls and Gerhard Mller (Gttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1970),
192.
12
35
II. Stage 2: Universality, Mission and Ecclesiology

By the time the nineteenth century came around, we see a
development in how neo-Lutheran theologians embraced
a universal perspective that accepted the missionary office
and an ecclesiology that serves that universal motive of
the gospel. In the yet unsurpassed Lutheran ecclesiological treatment, Three Books about the Church, Wilhelm
Lhe defines the church as a creation of Gods word, and
that the word then comes out of the midst of the church
and reaches all people. First, he tackles the doctrine of
predestination, which gets in the way of that universal
perspective:
clear that the parochial setting of the ministry, as argued

in the seventeenth century, could not hold its sway for
long. When the territorial church first refused to ordain
his mission candidates, Ludwig Harms, the founder of
the Hermannsburg Mission Society, did so himself. In
his History of the Hanoverian Mission, Georg Haccius
comments on that event: After the ordination Harms seconded and sent the missionaries onto the mission field.
Thus, they were duly and lawfully called and ordained
and could therefore on the foundation of article fourteen of the Augsburg Confession move out confidently
and joyfully.15 Similar moves to advance the mission
office were done earlier with the Leipzig Mission Society.
Adolf von Harless (18061879), a professor at Erlangen,
and a member of the Leipzig Mission Societys board
(Missionskollegium), offered his own thoughts on the subject of our discussion:
Opposed to this teaching is the doctrine of the universal grace of God which is taught by our church.
It is Gods will that all men be saved and come to
the knowledge of the truth. [I Tim. 2:4]. God is completely sincere about this. This is why
Christ had to atone for our sins, and
Mission is the
not only for our sins but for the sins
church expressing
of the entire world. The means by
which we appropriate his atonement
and witnessing
Word and sacrament must be
Gods salvific
made known to all men for the Lord
intentions to the
says (Luke 24:46, 47). This is why
world through the
the call of the Word must come to all
preaching of the
men. Thus the doctrine of the universal call of all is the inviolable
gospel and the right
doctrine of our fathers.13
As far as their (missionaries) status

is concerned, it would be difficult to
dismiss the fact that it bears all marks
of a proper, Christian and apostolic
call. They are placed in the call of the
Lord to the Apostles: Go ye to the
world. They did not go on their own
accord, but have been found fit for
their office and have been placed into
it by those who in the Evangelical Lutheran Church have the right to do
administration of
so. The church is the community of
the sacraments.
Lhe reorients AC VIIs focus
believers, that keep themselves to the
towards within to one that now points
pure Word and Sacrament and such
to the outside world.
a community has sent them out with a loyal pledge
Thus, once that universal call was established, the issue
to their confession.
of sending preachers became a possibility, especially since
And Harless concludes: We cannot find anything
mission societies like Hermannsburg, Neuendettelsau,
amiss
here that would prevent us from considering them
and Leipzig had started to emerge who were willing to
step to the plate, regardless of territorial churches sup- rite vocatus in the sense of the 14. Article of the Augsburg
16
port or not. The first item to deal with was the question Confession.
of whether the missionarys office came directly out of the
word and sacrament ministry mentioned in AC V and
AC VII or whether the church was obliged to send and 15 Georg Haccius, Hannoverische Missionsgeschichte, Vol II
(Hermannsburg: Verlag der Missionshandlung, 1910), 217. The
commission individuals simply because the civil author- territorial church did come around and on 19 October 1857, duly
ities demanded it?14 In answer to that question it became examined and ordained twelve mission candidates in Hanover as
recorded by Harms himself in the Hermannsburger Missionsblatt
(HMB), no. 10 (October 1857): 150155.
13
Loehe, Three Books about the Church, 82.
14
An example of this would have been the response of August Herman

Frankes Halle Mission to the Danish rulers behest to provide preachers
for the Danish colony, Tranquebar.
36
Johannes Aagaard, Mission, Konfession, Kirche, Volume II (Gleerups,

Denmark: Clemenstrykkeriet, 1967), 719. In contrast, the Director of
Leipzig, Karl Graul, proposed that the church, which would emerge
from the missionaries work, should take over responsibility and not the
home church, including ordination and salary. Ibid., 718.
16
According to Wilhelm Maurer, the identification of

the office of pastoral ministry and missionary as the same
office was something new in the Lutheran church. The
nineteenth century neo-Lutherans broke open the territorial and parochial confinement of pastoral ministry
and congregationalism that persisted in the church orders
since the time of the Reformation. By having eliminated
monastic orders, Lutheranism had lost a strong arm that
worked mission to the world. Now they have reached a
point where pastoral ministry includes a worldwide, universal perspective and a mission obligation. Both pastoral
office and that of the missionary are identical. Their tasks
and duties were the same because they both were under
the mission obligation which goes out from the congregation and reaches out into the wide world of nations. And
both are tied to the ministry of word and sacraments,
proclaiming the one gospel and administering the sacraments that were instituted by Christ.17
Peter Brunner helps to summarize the issue: Jesus
mission mandate
and the outward look. Thus, we can conclude that the

missionary and the pastoral office both have their source
in the ministerium ecclesiasticum. Geographical locality is
not the matter because there is only one frontier or borderline: that of unbelief and belief, which runs, in fact,
right through the church as AC VIII indicates by placing
hypocrites among the vere credentes.19 Given this reality,
all preaching is to a degree evangelistic in focus.
III. Stage 3: Church and Mission Societies
Upon reading AC VII we notice one further omission yet

of great ecclesiological importance and still of relevance,
namely the question of who bears the responsibility for
sending in response to the universal call. AC VII does
not answer that question directly. It speaks to the church
as the congregation of saints. The emergence of mission
societies, however, necessitates an ecclesiological clarification as to whether the mission societies or the church
bear the responsibility for mission. In answer to this
question Lutherans gravitated towards
the church as the true agent of Gods
sending. We turn to the founding father
Imbued by the
of the LCMS, C.F.W. Walther, who in
Spirit of Gods
a sermon looked back to Germany,
mission, the
praising the work of mission societies,
churchs orientation yet pushing beyond to a missionary
ecclesiology:
towards the world
shows, that the missionary sent to the

nations of this world embodies the
pastoral office (ministerium verbi)
and expresses the Lords command
most closely This form of the
pastoral office, which dwells among
us as shepherd of the congregation,
Nevertheless, the mission societies
is one that is not of
must be understood fundamentally
and practically as that of a missionchoice. God defines that had arisen and were a sign of the
newly awakened Christian life were
ary. The pastor is the missionary,
her that way.
also at the same time a sign that the
who has remained put at that place,
situation in the church as a whole
where heathens were gathered to be
was
not
what
it
ought to be. For where the situation
disciples of Jesus. If we understand the pastor as the
is as it should be, it should not be necessary to form
missionary standing still, then it might be fairsmall mission societies in the church, but the whole
ly obvious, why the pastoral office belongs to the
church must itself be a great mission society. The
Church by divine law (de iure divino). The pastor
Lord has established it to be exactly this.20
is obligated to also be a missionary to those people,
who are not yet part of the Church through gospel
We notice that Walther is cautiously positive about the
and baptism. Similarly his pastoral service is estabsocieties contribution, since he places the missionary
lished like that of the missionarys by the sending
and the founding command of Christ.18
The texts spoken at ordination clearly indicate that
pastoral ministry does not exclude the idea of sentness
Georg Schulz, The Lutheran Understanding of the Pastoral Office in
Missions, unpublished article, p. 2.
17
Peter Brunner, Vom Amt des Bischofs, in Pro Ecclesia I (Berlin:

Lutherisches Verlagshaus, 1960), 235-292.
18
19
Although the church is, properly speaking, the assembly of saints

and those who truly believe, nevertheless, because in this life many
hypocrites and evil people are mixed in with them, a person may use
the sacraments even when they are administered by evil people (AC
VIII, 2 [TBC, 43]).
20
C. F.W. Walther, The Mission Society Established by GodIs. 43:21

in C.F.W. Walther, The Word of His Grace: Occasional and Festival
Sermons (Lake Mills: Graphic Publishing Company, 1978), 19.
37
obligation on the church as a whole. Further down in

the sermon he answers his own rhetorical question,
who is it then, to whom the responsibility to preach
the Gospel among all the people on earth has been
committed after the death of the apostles? ... Is it
true, then, that the work of converting is the responsibility of the public servants of the church
alone? No, it is notThe true mission society that
has been instituted by God Himself is nothing else
than the Christian church itself, that is the totality of
all those who believe in Jesus Christ This means
that Christ was not content just to give faith as an
invisible thing to those who belong to his church,
but he also gathers them by the visible sign of Holy
Baptism into outward visible congregations.21
Walther follows an ecclesiology that places all
Christians, the congregatio sanctorum, as Gods mission
society, joined by the love for the spiritual needs of their
neighbors, by enfolding outsiders through baptism into
the body of Christ. Walther does not leave the church
invisible but obliges the visible church, the coetus baptizorum to respond: According to Gods Word, Walther
says, the church has been baptized into one body. This
means that Christ was not just content to give faith as an
invisible thing to those who belong to His church, but he
also gathers them by the visible sign of Holy Baptism into
outward visible congregations.22
We have here an ecclesiological definition of mission
that was a concern pushed by many Lutherans in the
nineteenth century formative figures around the
identity of the LCMS. Lutheran mission, though pursued
at first by mission societies and pious believers, ultimately
became an ecclesial concern. The first Lutheran to be
vocal on this issue was a Hanoverian pastor who had frequented with Wyneken and who had become influential
on Lutheran ecclesiology and mission through his tract,
Die Mission und die Kirche (The Mission and the Church),
written in 1841. A few quotations from that tract must
suffice to explain his point: Mission, I now claim,
must have an ecclesial character. It must proceed from
the church and abide in the church. It must be nothing
other than the church itself in its mission activity (27).
Therefore the church as the community, as the organic
body of the Lord, has the command for mission (28).
But the relationship is mutual. Mission also cannot go

without the church. From the church it has the right of
existence, for the Lord did not want a church and mission,
but a church engaged in mission (28).
In the nineteenth century, steps were taken to form
a closer organizational union between mission and the
church. We see this also in the LCMS where the Office
of International Mission (OIM) and Office of National
Mission (ONM) are organized and structured within the
LCMS, and the LCMS assumes in its bylaws the role of
sending overseas, which many would declare antiquated
and in need of overhaul. And yet, the underlying fact
remains: mission is not the possession of a few committed
Christians more pious than others, who on the basis of a
second level decision band together, but rather it belongs
to the church, the baptized body of believers. To find an
ecclesial way of expressing that obligation is characteristic
of the Lutheran church and mission.
IV. Stage 4: The Confession, Church and Mission

By connecting mission to the church, a further issue
had to be clarified, which was the question of to whom
were those who went and preached accountable in their
proclamation and witness? Since they cant leave unattached to the church, AC VII became instrumental in
answering that question and it shaped the identity of
Lutheran confessional mission. That became evident in
the justification of Lutherans creating their own mission
societies built on an ecclesiology which argued that the
Evangelical Lutheran church represents the true church
visibly because it administers the sacraments according
to the Lutheran Confessions. Non-denominational, parachurch organizations like Basel, or faith based missions
like the CIM (China Inland Mission) of Hudson Taylor,23
or Moravian missions, could no longer receive Lutheran
support. Lutheran mission was distinctly different than
the above. It defined mission objectively in confession and
spirituality, and the call to serve was mediated through
the church and not based on the internal, personalized
call and accountability to the Lord alone as we see with
Hudson Taylor. Moreover the signs, especially baptism,
were elevated consciously to a mission sacrament and the
church is raised as the spiritual mother of all those who
will be saved.24
So when Wilhelm Lhe embraced the universal call
23
21
Walther, Mission Society, 20.
Klaus Wetzel, Die Stellung Hudson Taylors im Kontext der

Missionsgeschichte, Evangelikale Missiologie (1/15): 923.
22
24
38
of the gospel including the sacraments for North

America, he remarked, Christ had to atone for our sins,
and not only for our sins but for the sins of the entire
world. The means by which we appropriate his atonement
Word and sacrament must be known to all men.25
Mission was understood as nota ecclesiae, as a bearer of
the signs of the church to the world, the pure preaching of
the gospel and the right administration of the sacraments,
and through these acts the world and all nations would
be blessed. Especially the adverbs pure and right
instructed Lutheran mission to align its proclamation and
teaching in accordance with the Lutheran Confessions.
Johann Gottfried Scheibel would be the first Lutheran
picking this motive for the mission in Dresden associated
with old Lutheran pastor Johann Georg Wermelskirch
(18031872) the society later to be relocated to Leipzig.
In 1835, Scheibel pleaded:
pure confession, it obviously has the highest treasures of

the church unperverted.27 To illustrate the point of the
supremacy of the Lutheran Confessions, Lhe uses a metaphor of a king drinking pure water from a spring when
he could also have quenched his thirst with impure water
from a buried cistern.28
The interest in promoting an ecclesial-confessional
identity for mission was also promoted by Ludwig Petri,
who asked the following questions in his treatise Mission
and the Church (1841):
It is obviously neither loving nor wise nor just for
mature, European Christianity to withhold from
the heathen world the profit that it has earned
through the most painful experiences, in the hottest battles, among the greatest dangers, and with
the bitterest losses, so that they may earn the profits themselves along the same dangerous, perhaps
even more ruinous pathShall we transmit dogma
to the heathen so vaguely that they and Christianity
with them must once again endure all the controversies in which we have bled: the Arian, Pelagian,
Sacramentarian and others likewise? That appears
to me equally foolish and unjust. If in our doctrine
we have the truth and the correct understanding of
the Scriptures, then we owe it to the heathen. If we
have something good in our ecclesial nature, e.g.
in our divine services or in our principle concerning the relative freedom of ceremony and structure,
why should we withhold it from them? In any case
there will remain so many battles for the heathen
that we might well spare them the avoidable ones
as much as we can No missionary who is commissioned by us can, as it were, simply learn the
Scriptures by heart and speak in his own words
without any exegesis, interpretation, and particular
rendering. (8, 2211, 11)
Now, as much as one mentions this fact, we can

no longer ignore the confessional differences, for
missionaries are preachers, receive the ordination, which is a churchly-confessional act, teach
on the Lords Supper, distribute the sacrament, and
this is either understood Catholic, or Reformed,
or Lutheran. According to the Lutheran Confessions, you cannot have a Lutheran-Reformed
Lord Supper 26
The motive for mission became the interest to bring
the word and the sacrament to the world the Lutheran
way. Whereas other societies were driven by a strong
eschatological focus of bringing in the end and doing
mission to the glory and honor of God, the Lutheran mission expanded the universal church by enfolding people
through baptism into the Lutheran church.
And Lhe, who believed that mission was the one
church of God in her motion, the actualization of the
one universal, catholic church, a truly ecumenical stance nonetheless hailed the visible Evangelical
Lutheran Church as the center of all denominations, for
she is in possession of the true word of God as expressed
in the Lutheran Confessions. As he would say: If the
Lutheran Church has the pure Word and sacrament in a
25
26
Volker Stolle, Wer seine Hand an den Plug legt: Die missionarische
Wirksamkeit der selbstndigen evangelisch-lutherischen Kirchen
in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert (Gross Oesingen: Verlag der
Lutherischen Buchhandlung: Heinrich Harms / Oberurseler Hefte,
1992), 94.
And so we see that a stage has been reached where the

church and mission are fused consciously in promoting
the faith. Lutheran confessional mission was born and its
identity was based on AC VII, and it became important
to declare ones own ecclesial and mission identity in contrast to other particular churches and mission activities.
These intentions reached their apex in 1892, when at the
founding of the Bleckmar Mission (now Lutheran Church
27
28
39
Mission), two principles were approved at the synod

of the Hanoverian Free Church in 1899: The Lutheran
church can pursue only Lutheran mission, 2. Lutheran
mission can only be pursued by a Lutheran church. In
1953, in view of partner churches emerging on the field,
a third statement was added by its executive director,
Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf: Lutheran mission work must
lead to a Lutheran Church.29
This third statement took into consideration not
the issue of what occurred back home, but was directed
towards the church that resulted from the preaching
of the word. The confessional element as goal became
important at that juncture. Whereas the English churches
were all pursuing the three self-principles, the Lutheran
missionaries followed more the goals of pursuing a pure
confession to the degree that collaboration with just any
mission was no longer acceptable. And yet, the ecumenical character would remain in focus in that Lutheran
mission furthers the one church, the una sancta, through
its own preaching and teaching.30 The LCMS stands in
this tradition since its first missionaries, Theodor Naether
(18661904) and Franz Mohn (18671925), were influenced by Walthers confessional stance on the verbal
inspiration of Scripture and its infallibility as Scripture
and the Confessions teach it, and decided to take a
stance against an emerging, rationalistic understanding
of Scripture.31
V. Stage 5: Affirming the Copernican turn:

Ecclesiology and the missio Dei
One important contemporary missiological principle
that now stands unshakable is the Copernican turn which
was defined at Willingen in 1952. Then in the report
paper on the conference the following statement authored
by Leslie Newbigin was released:
29
The first two were written by Heinrich (Wilhelm) Gerhold (1838

1899). Volker Stolle, Das Missionsverstndnis bei der konfessionelllutherischen Missionswirksamkeit im 19. Und 20. Jahrhundert,
Kirchenmission nach lutherischem Verstndnis (Mnster: LIT Verlag,
1993), 124148, therein 142143. For a discussion of these three
principles, see Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf, Lutherische Kirche treibt
Lutherische Mission, in Lutherische Kirche treibt Lutherische Mission.
Festschrift zum 75 jhrigen Jubilum der Bleckmarer Mission, ed.
Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf (Bleckmar: Mission Evangelisch=Lutherischer
Freikirchen, 1967), 1347.
30
For this reason, Lutheran missions extends an ecumenical charity

by not discounting the fact that as much as errors are evident in the
missions of other denominations, the possibility of them creating faith
though their preaching still exists.
Stolle, Wer seine Hand an den Pflug legt, 85. Naether and Mohn
would be sent back to India by the LCMS in 1894 and 1896 respectively.
31
40
Mission has its source in the Triune God. Out of

the depth of his love to us, the Father has sent forth
his own beloved son to reconcile all things to himself that we and all men might through the Holy
Spirit be made one in Him with the Father in that
perfect love which is the very nature of God.32
This development of placing mission in the hands of
God as the starting point and not the church might sound
not that trenchant. However, looking at history, mission
until World War II was largely associated with what the
church desired, and in their pursuit of missions, many
goals were formulated that had little to do with what
God actually wanted. In his book Mission of God, Georg
Vicedom puts it best:
There is the danger that the church itself may become the point of departure, the purpose, the subject of the mission. This is not, however, in accord
with Scripture, since it is always the Triune God
who acts, who makes His believers members of His
kingdom. Even the church is only an instrument in
the hands of God. The church herself is the only
outcome of the activity of God. The Conference of
Willingen accepted the concept missio Dei to describe this fact.33
Mission is anchored in the ontology of God, which
bears itself out in functionality: God is what he does, he
sends his Son. Born out of the inner-Trinitarian movements of the early church fathers, the missio Dei concept
builds on the outward economic Trinity that Gods purpose in mission is to send his Son to redeem his created
world through the work of the Holy Spirit.34 As a term, it
In the sectional The missionary calling of the Church, International

Review of Missions, 41 (1952): 562. See also Classic Texts in Mission &
World Christianity, ed. Norman E. Thomas (Maryknoll: Orbis Books,
1995), 103104.
32
Georg Vicedom, The Mission of God (Saint Louis: Concordia

Publishing House, 1965), 45.
33
34
Karl Barths presentation in 1932 entitled, Die Theologie und die

Mission in der Gegenwart, addressed to pastors at a conference in
Brandenburg, reminds the audience: Must not the most faithful, the
most convinced missionary think seriously about the fact that the
concept missio in the ancient church was a term from the doctrine of
the Trinity, the designation of the divine self-sending, the sending of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit into the world? Karl Barth, Die Theologie
und die Mission in der Gegenwart, Theologische Fragen und Antworten
(Zollikon: Theologischer Verlag Zuerich, 1957), 100126, therein p.115.
In this presentation, Karl Barth does not mention the missio Dei. It is
not he but the conference at Willingen in 1952 and Karl Hartenstein to
whom the missio Dei concept must be attributed. Hans Wiher, Missio
Dei (Teil 2), in evangelische missiologie 2/15, 92.
must first be understood as a genitivus auctoris, or subjective genitive, namely that the Trinitarian God is the one
who sends, more precisely, that the Father sends, but who
himself cannot be sent, and then also as an attribute genitive by which God is seen also as the sent one in his Son.
Vicedom says:
God sends His Son; Father and Son send the Holy
Ghost. Here God makes Himself not only the One
sent, but at the same time the Content of the sending, without dissolving through this Trinity of revelation the equality of essence of the divine Persons.35
Unfortunately, over the years the term missio Dei has
been discussed and promoted by numerous faith traditions, and as a result its use has become more a bane
than a boon. For this reason, some call it a shopping
cart or a Trojan horse.36 In contrast to ecumenical
interpretations, where the agenda is set by the world and
the church is marginalized in Gods mission, we would
have to think church centric, namely that Gods mission
takes the church as his instrument, and that salvation
history comes through the proclamation of the church
distinct from Gods direct dealings in the world (i.e.,
Heilsgeschichte versus Weltgeschichte). The positive side
of the term missio Dei is that it thinks of the church and
mission as coming from the Triune God, and that the
church is assuming a central place in the divine activity
towards the world. AC VII is incredibly helpful here in
that, by mentioning the signs and that the Holy Spirit is
working through them, it explains how soteriology works
in contrast to alternative proposals like social gospel or
liberation theology, or the fast emerging Renewalism. By
taking up the church in the mission of God, the church
is also in her being missiologically understood. She does
not adopt mission or considers it accomplished through
programs in the church. She should fundamentally
understand her existence in Gods mission to the world
and thus be oriented towards the world and transform her
existence in Gods mission into functionality according to
the sequence: The church is, the church does what it is.
The church organizes what it does.37
To elevate this consciousness for a missionary ecclesiology that avoids the dichotomy of ecclesiology and
missions, the term missional has been coined. One of the
key insights offered by Darrell Guder in his Missional
Church is that, the ecclesiocentric understanding of
mission has been replaced during this century by a profoundly theocentric reconceptualization of Christian
mission. We have come to see that mission is not merely
an activity of the church. Rather, mission is the result of
Gods initiative.38
Lutheranism has yet to respond to this use of the term
missional. Novel terms generally raise skepticism among
theologians over their value. Certainly the framework
proposed would have to be welcomed, and yet the lack
of a Lutheran contribution to that term justifies concerns
over its interpretation. The term missional as currently
understood in missiological circles does not embrace an
ecclesiology as defined in AC VII. It therefore remains
unclear how the mission of the Holy Spirit works since no
means are mentioned. In fact in the recent upgrade of the
book Missional Church (1998), the Missional Church in
Perspective (2011), the authors admit that they have only
made modest investigation into what the sacraments and
ordination would mean for the term missional church.39
As of now, the concept promotes an enthusiasm with no
clear description of Gods delivery system and no ministry in its support. For that reason, unless modified, the
term missional has little to offer in terms of structuring
Lutheran mission.40
When we apply the missio Dei to AC VII and VIII,
these two articles presuppose that the Holy Spirit has
done his work of gathering a worshipping community
around his means, the signs. It should be said that the
article on the church does not stand isolated from its preceding articles. According to Wilhelm Maurer, Articles
I-VIII represent a sequence in a salvation history scheme.
For the activity of Gods gathering work preceding the
coming about of the church, we would point to the articles AC III and IV, the objective work of Christs death for
the sinful world and brought to the community through
Missional Church, ed. Darrell Guder (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1998), 4.
38
35
Vicedom, The Mission of God, 8.
David Bosch, Transforming Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1991),

392.
36
Craig van Gelder and Dwight J. Zscheile, The Missional Church in

Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation (Grand
Rapids: Baker Academics, 2011), 64. For a discussion on ontology and
functionality, see John G. Flett, The Witness of God (Grand Rapids/
Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2010), 292.
37
39
Van Gelder and Zscheile, The Missional Church in Perspective, 61.
40
I have pointed this out in Mission from the Cross (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 299. I also refer here to an
unpublished presentation by Ken Schurb, The Church in Luthers Large
Catechism: Missional? at a conference in Missouri where he makes
initial investigation into the concept and draws similar conclusions as
I do.
41
the work of the spirit in AC V. This is indicated by Luther

in the Large Catechism:
Christ has acquired and won the treasure for us by
his sufferings, death, and resurrection, etc. But if
the work remained hidden so that no one knew of
it, it would have been all in vain, all lost. In order
that this treasure might not remain buried but be
put to use and enjoyed, God has caused the Word
to be published and proclaimed, in which he has
given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply to us this
treasure, this redemption. [LC II, 38 [TBC, 436])
The church should understand herself in the mission
of God and not at the beginning or the endpoint. Full
ecclesial mission is only accomplished when the church
recognizes her missionary nature and position in the
mission of God as having been gathered and now sent,
and when mission is understood churchly.41 This is the
Copernican turn that Lutheranism accepted in 1980 at
the Luther Academy at Ratzeburg where the term missio
Dei was vetted by Lutheran scholars and published under
a book entitled Lutheran Contributions to the missio Dei.42
The theological implications of this Copernican shift
are apparent for missiology as a theological discipline and
as a hermeneutic principle. Just as Gods act of sending
his Son is not a secondary act, so too the church cannot
make mission her secondary act. Theology can no longer
marginalize missiology, otherwise it is bad theology. The
sad fact is this: that since the introduction of a fourfold
discipline during the Enlightenment, theology always
suffers from a fragmentation with no unifying telos. That
unifying telos or framework of theology is now seen to be
mission. Thus, as Stan Nussbaum puts it: Missiologists
are not asking for a bigger slice of the pie, it is a total
restructuring of theology as a discipline.43
Thus, the Trinitarian missiological approach is more
encompassing than looking at fragments of theology to
explain missions.44 Christopher Wright demonstrates this
hermeneutical perspective from Scripture:
The writings that now comprise our Bible are themselves the product of and witness to the ultimate
41
Stolle, Wer seine Hand an den Pflug legt, 103.
Lutherische Beitrge zur Missio Dei (Erlangen: Martin-Luther-Verlag,

1982).
42
43
Stan Nussbaum, A future for missiology as queen of theology?

Missiology. An international review 42, no. 1 (January 2014): 5766.
Ross Langmead, What is Missiology? Missiology. An international
review 42, no. 1 (January 2014): 67.
44
42
mission of God...Mission is not just one of a list of

things that the Bible happens to talk about, only a
bit more urgently than some. Mission is ... what its
all about.45
Missiology no longer is satisfied with a proof text
method where a few nuggets here or there validate
mission. Rather, it reads the Bible missiologically and
understands the church missiologically. And Wright
takes the Trinitarian focus one step further and sees in
Christ not only the Lord and Savior but also the one sent
by God and who sends his church. Thus, according to
Wright, Christocentric theology must also be missional.
Unfortunately, Wrights hermeneutic is wide and sweeping: important distinctions between Gods missio generalis
and specialis are not made. What is the difference between
the First Article or the cultural mandate and the mission
mandate to proclaim the gospel, to which again AC VII
points? How important is it exegetically and biblically
that in the Gospels God desires his word preached, heard,
and then received through baptism? Mission is a kerygmatic sacramental act and stations in Scripture should be
identified as Gods true mission where that happens.
VI. Stage 6: Struggling with Contemporary

Challenges
If one follows Dana Roberts report published in Missiology
on the history of the American Society of Missiology
(ASM) founded on 8-11 June 1973 one will note
the troubling past missions had in North America.46 By
the early 1970s, the collapse of missions legitimacy was
imminent. The fall of colonialism and the Vietnam War
played havoc on missions. Nationalist movements in
many countries blamed missionaries for being complicit
with Western occupation and they bid them to go home.
The criticism of missionaries resulted in students losing
interest in what they deemed a colonial enterprise; mission studies at denominational seminaries were aborted
or replaced with other courses, and at the universities the
secularization of religious studies marginalized missions
and evangelism. The Second Vatican Councils (1962
65) concessions to other religions caused many Roman
Catholic missionaries to leave the field or the church.
And the only professional society for mission studies
Christopher Wright, The Mission of God (Downers Grove: IVP, 2006),
22.
45
46
Im paraphrasing here Dana Robert, Forty years of the American

Society of Missiology: retrospect and prospect, Missiology. An
international review 42, no. 1 (January 2014): 625.
that remained was the seminary-based Association of

Professors of Missions, which had dwindled in numbers
to just a few.47 Thanks to the endeavors of ASM, mission
survived both in practice and as a subject in theological
education. But its survival was built around three controversial themes on which there was dissent, even within
the Association: collaboration and convergence (i.e., ecumenicity), church growth, and contextualization.
These three themes still captivate missiological discussions today. AC VII speaks to these three subjects,
and we can be thankful for the reference to satis est:
First, AC VII professes an ecumenicity based on the
una sancta, which transgresses denominational lines.
ACs point is not so much to argue for visible unity, but
rather to point out that unity should not be associated
with one visible church, the Roman Catholic Church.
Instead, the Augsburg Confession sought to redefine the
true unity with the gospel of justification by faith. Thus,
in spite of all the visible disunity of the church visible, the
Confessors could argue that the true unity of the church
still persists by faith alone, and it is not an article of sight
but of faith. However, though this one church they call
the una sancta exists by faith alone, it needs the visible
signs of the church, the pure preaching of the gospel, and
the right administration of the sacraments in order to be
created and to survive. In contrast, ecumenical relations
today wish to see a greater visible unity, thinking that this
is what the AC pleads for.48
The LCMSs reason for existing and its identity is
shaped by AC VII, for the reference to the pure preaching
of the gospel and the right administration of the sacraments define her relationship with other visible churches.
In other words, not denying that the true unity of the
church is by faith and that it exists across denominational
lines, the quest of visible church bodies coming together
is guided by that very sentence on the pure preaching
of the gospel and the right administration of the sacraments. In case anyone has his doubts about what pure
preaching of the gospel means, the LCMS has always
drawn in FC SD X, 31 (as long as these churches are

otherwise united in teaching and in all the articles of the
faith)49 as an important commentary. By that we see that
the Confessors are not gospel minimalists50 but rather, the
gospel of justification, though truly the queen in shaping
our identity, stands in a long line of other doctrines that
are to be upheld. If we were, for example, neatly defining the gospel but then to ignore a properly understood
ministry or predestination, then the gospel would not be
preached and it loses its relevance. What alternatives to
this approach do we currently have? Should we take the
approach of American Evangelicalism, whose basis for
unity is mostly subjectivism, a personal experience with
Christ, and an indwelling of his Spirit, a conversion and
a display of personal holiness expressed at revivals? Or
should we go with an Evangelical Confessionalism, as we
see it in the Lutheran World Federation and the World
Council of Churches, which makes as its only basis for
unity the doctrine of justification by grace that has been
so altered that it hardly represents what the Confessions
teach, and allows it to coexist with a lot of doctrines that
actually contradict it?
The fact is that the one church by faith exists and the
satis est points out what it needs to survive. However, to
demand visible unity with one another, the teaching of
the gospel and all its articles become relevant, and this
validates why the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the
LCMSs identification with it, exists. This explains the
longstanding rule for Lutherans in North America that
Lutheran pulpits and altars are for Lutheran pastors only;
more specifically as a communio in sacris rule which
applies to missions also.
Second, in terms of Church Growth, AC VII speaks
on the work of the Holy Spirit who through his means
gives faith where and when he pleases. No mention is
made of human programs and social sciences as the
means contributing to quantitative growth of the church.
The Augsburg Confession, including AC VII and VIII,
have made their primary focus the word of God, and not
47
49
48
Robert, Forty years, 7.
On 30 October to 8 November 2013, the World Council of Churches

Assembly met in Busan and passed a unity statement calling for greater
commitment to the visible unity of the church. The statement says: In
faithfulness to this our common calling, we will seek together the full
visible unity of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church when we
shall express our unity around the one Table of the Lord. In that case
the marks of the church draw the lines, and everything that does not
belong to them, such as practices and traditions, belongs to the other
side of the line. They are human traditions and do not belong to the
unity of the church.
For this reason the churches are not to condemn one another
because of differences in ceremonies when in Christian freedom
one has fewer or more than the other, as long as these churches are
otherwise united in teaching and in all the articles of the faith as well as
in the proper use of the holy sacraments (SD X, 31 [TBC 640]).
50
Leif Grane sees AC VIIs teaching of the Gospel in a minimalistic

way: The AC could very well be characterized as preconfessionalistic,
since it in no way envisions nor encompasses the idea of a confession as
a line of demarcation of one denomination from another. The Augsburg
Confession: A Commentary, trans. John H. Rasmussen (Minneapolis:
Augsburg Publishing House, 1987), 97.
43
the church, as it is represented in Roman Catholicisms

hierarchical system and her traditions. It is the viva vox
evangelii that serves and remains as the foundational
principle of the true church of Christ (AC VIII). The
Reformation defines the church as the creatura verbi and
therefore makes the church of all time and in all places a
fruit of the living, proclaimed word of God and the means
of grace. That is why, with Martin Luther, Walther can call
the church the mother where salvation is found and not
outside of it.51 The missiological lesson we take from this
is that the Reformation and the Confessions motivate us
not to seek the growth of the church, but the proclamation of the gospel from which the church comes about and
lives. Growth and expansion of the church over all parts
of the world are only consequences of this missionary
motive of proclaiming the gospel.
Third, on contextualization, AC VIIs satis est also
serves as an important qualifier in that it is enough for
the true unity of Christianity around the world to be in
agreement on the pure preaching of the gospel and the
right administration of the sacraments, and not on rites
and ceremonies. This means that it provides an opening
for local communities to express their practice in ways
different to ours.52 However, AC VII takes a universal or
catholic perspective for all churches around the world
to agree on what is their common purpose, which is not
to jeopardize the pure preaching of the gospel and the
administration of the sacraments with local theologies
and syncretism.53 From AC VIIs point of view, unity was
found in faith and in the consent of the gospel (consentire de doctrina evangelii) and not in human traditions
that the Roman Catholic Church was enforcing on every
worshipping community. Today that argument for satis
est pushes for the freedom and autonomy of congregations in ceremonies and worship that may endanger any
form of unity in worship. If we follow the context of AC

then we are cautioned not to think that way. The introduction of Lutheran agendas was an immediate project
the Reformation began, and Melanchthon argued that
once the rites, whether universal or local, are established
as not necessary for salvation, they are nonetheless kept
for the sake of tranquility and peace in the church (Ap
VII, 33-34).54 By being incorporated into the adiaphora
of the church, like the vestments and the dishes for Holy
Communion, liturgy and music became indifferent matters. Whether theology and practice can be seen as so
divorced from one another is a huge question to which a
liturgical missiology could provide guidance with principles from Luthers love for music and the theology of the
Reformation. It is as urgent a matter as it ever has been.55
It might be true what Andrew Walls says: that we will
never meet universal Christianity in itself, but always in
local expressions, and that means in a historically, culturally conditioned form.56 However, AC VII and AC VIII
offer a universal perspective on what the church needs for
her survival and that is the pure preaching of the gospel
and the right administration of the sacraments, and in
contrast to pluralism as relativism, we assume that one
interpretation of this gospel exists and one interpretation
for the sacraments also. Here AC VII and VIII provide the
metanarrative, one that curbs the creation of local theologies and a radical contextualization of the gospel that
holds a church and her theology captive to the cultural
context. AC VIIs reference to the teaching of the Gospel
and the right administration of the sacraments calls for a
meta-theology, and the Creeds and the Confessions serve
that meta-theology against attempts to localize and syncretize the gospel. This may be what Paul Hiebert suggests
with his concept of critical contextualization.57
54
Grane, The Augsburg Confession, 96.
He [the Holy Spirit] has a unique community in the world, which is

the mother that begets and bears every Christian through the Word of
God, which the Holy Spirit reveals and proclaims (LC II, 42 [TBC
436]).
Claudio Seifert, Towards a Liturgical Missiology: Perspectives

on Music in Lutheran Mission Work in South Africa, submitted in
accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology
in the subject of Missiology at the University of South Africa (October
2003), 6.
52
56
55
51
Discussions around contextualization are rare in the LCMS, though

in great need if the gospel is to find its place in North Americas
ethnicities. A laudable attempt to bring contextual issues to our
attention recently came from Larry Vogels study, Americas Changing
Demographic Landscape, Journal of Lutheran Mission 2, no.3 (June
2015): 10-28.
53
The allowance for freedom in rites and ceremonies does seems to

place the ius liturgicum in congregations, if one goes with current
LCMS practice. However, it is evident that such freedom was left
to territorial churches: our churches teach and not to local
churches belonging to that territory. This explains the strong push for
uniform agendas from the outset of the Reformation.
44
Andrew Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History:

Studies in the Transmission of the Faith (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1996), 235.
57
Critical contextualization sees cultures as both good and evil, not

simply as neutral vehicles for understanding the world. No culture
is absolute or privileged. We are all relativized by the gospel. Thus,
Paul Hiebert points out: On the global scale this calls for both local
and global theologies. Local churches have the right to interpret and
apply the gospel in their contexts, but they also have a responsibility
to join the larger church community around the world to seek to
overcome both the limited perspectives each brings and the biases
each has that might distort the Gospel. Paul Hiebert, The Gospel
in Human Contexts: Changing Perceptions of Contextualization, in
Conclusion
Given what has been said, the underlying argument is
that mission is a nota ecclesiae, a sign of the church that
has its roots in AC VII and VIII in the preaching of the
gospel and the administration of the sacraments. All
that was needed is a shift in scope that embraces a focus
towards the world. Mission is the church expressing and
witnessing Gods salvific intentions to the world through
the preaching of the gospel and the right administration
of the sacraments. Thus, imbued by the Spirit of Gods
mission, the churchs orientation towards the world is one
that is not of choice. God defines her that way. If mission
is treated as a nota ecclesiae, then AC VII and VIII will
remain missiologically valuable and important anchors
in addressing questions as these six stages demonstrate.
But then affirming a missionary ecclesiology, we will also
have to make adjustments in the way we teach missions
in the curriculum and how it is practiced in the life of the
synod and congregations. Moreover, when mission is the
life of the church, then she is obliged to step forward and
address current issues and challenges as a church and not
surrender or outsource much of her missionary life to
individual interest groups.
The Rev. Dr. Klaus Detlev Schulz is professor of Pastoral
Ministry and Missions, dean of Graduate Studies and
director of the Ph.D. in Missiology program at Concordia
Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Missionshift. Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium, eds. David

J. Hesselgrave and Ed Stetzer (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group,
2010), 82-102, therein p. 93 and 94. Paul Hiebert, who takes a cultural
perspective, nonetheless praises the value of creeds: One method often
overlooked by Protestants are catechisms. Like the early church creed,
these are brief theological summaries that can be readily memorized
and recalled. Today many Protestants have smorgasbord theologies,
and lack a simple, coherent understanding of the gospel (Bibby 1987).
Confessions and catechisms not only provide a comprehensive view of
Christian faith, but they also preserve that faith over time. Churches
that recite them, even after the members have lost a vital, living faith,
can experience revival later as the younger generation raised in the
church grasp these truths. Paul G. Hiebert, R. Daniel Shaw, and Tite
Tienou, Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian Response to Popular
Beliefs and Practices (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1999), 253.
45
Discover what this collection of

essays by the Lutheran World
A Review and Comment of
The Self-Understanding of
the Lutheran Communion
Federation says about the Gospel,

the sacraments and why its
churches believe in reconciled
diversity.
by Albert B. Collver III
Introduction / Background
has regarded all the member churches in altar and pulpit

fellowship.3 The action taken by the EECMY in 2013
threatened to undo the communion shared among LWF
member churches. News of the EECMYs decision to
sever with the CoS and ELCA spread across the LWF. As a
result, the LWF formed committees and began to prepare
documents to address the topic of communion, in particular, about what it means to be in
At that meeting, Mekane Yesus
communion with each other. Most
elected to become the first and
The viewpoint presented recently, the LWF released two
only member of the LWF to
documents to explore what comthat each church discerns
date to register its disagreement
munion means.
with the ELCA by severing all
how to live out the
The documents describe the
existing ties with its American
message of the gospel
LWFs self-understanding of comsister church. Mekane Yesus
gives
the
appearance
munion. The first document is
announced it would deny shartitled, Understanding the Gift of
that all churches are
ing Holy Communion with
Communion: The Quest for a Shared
equal and that there is no
ELCA leaders and pastors and
Self-Understanding of the Lutheran
called on all Ethiopian Evancolonialism, or preferred
Communion A Reader.4 This docgelical Church Mekane Yesus
reference point, for
ument is a collection of essays that
departments and institutions
interpretation.
describes the reconciled diversity
(at every level) to implement
position of the LWF. The document
this decision. At the same time,
essentially takes the position that
Mekane Yesus ended its relalike-mindedness does not serve as the bond of our
tionship with the Church of Sweden and any other
he Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane

Yesus (EECMY) in its General Assembly, held
from January 28 to February 2, 2013, decided to
sever relations with the Church of Sweden (CoS) and the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) over
their decisions on same-sex marriage/partnership and
ordination of same-sex ministers.1
Lutheran churches who have openly accepted

same-sex marriage.2
The decision of the EECMY threw the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) into a crisis. Since the LWFs
Seventh Assembly held in Budapest in 1984, the LWF
1
Martin Junge, Claiming the Gift of Communion in a Fragmented

World, in Understanding the Gift of Communion: The Quest for a
Shared Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion, 915 (Geneva,
Switzerland: The Lutheran World Federation, 2014), 10.
2
Sarah Dreier, Disagreements over Homosexuality Divide African

Churches and the ELCA, Word & World 34, no. 2 (2014): 189.
46
The Lutheran World Federation, Past Assemblies and Themes,

2016. https://www.lutheranworld.org/content/assembly. The Seventh
Assembly was held in Budapest, Hungary, 22 July 5 August 1984.
The venue constituted another milestone: the first LWF Assembly
and meeting of a major international Christian organization in the
Second World, the then Communist countries of Central and Eastern
Europe. Delegates suspended the membership of two white Southern
African churches due to their continued failure to end racial division in
their churches. Member churches affirmed pulpit and altar fellowship
through a constitutional change. The Assembly resolved to ensure an
equal number of female Assembly delegates by the Ninth Assembly.
Understanding the Gift of Communion: The Quest for a Shared
Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion A Reader, ed.
Witness, Department for Theology and Public (Geneva, Switzerland:
The Lutheran World Federation, 2014). The document can be found
at https://www.lutheranworld.org/sites/default/files/DTPW-SelfUnderstanding_Communion-low.pdf
4
togetherness as a communion of churches,5 rather it is the

fact that the churches are united via Augsburg Confession
VII in the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. Gospel is defined as excluding
the law and ethical questions. Essays in the document
also identify the rejection of homosexual love as a new
form of colonialism.6 The second document is titled The
Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion: A Study
Document.7 This document is shorter than the other and
describes communion as a gift and a task. The LWF has
sent it to all members for comment and will present it as
a vote before the world assembly in 2017. This document
will be the focus of this essay.
instruct the churches, but rather the churches decide how

to live out the gospel in their own contexts. Each church
interprets for themselves what the Scripture means for
them. It appears that the Scriptures are subordinate to
human interpretation. One wonders if such a view can
still claim sola Scriptura as its confession. The viewpoint presented that each church discerns how to live
out the message of the gospel gives the appearance that
all churches are equal and that there is no colonialism, or
preferred reference point, for interpretation. The CoS and
the ELCA can discern that living out the message of the
gospel means the acceptance of homosexual love in their
context, while the EECMY can decide that living out the
message of the gospel does not accept homosexual love in
Analysis
their own context.
The document begins with a Preface by Dr. Martin
Second, the hermeneutical move the document asks
Junge, General Secretary of the Lutheran World the member churches to make is to examine cultural
Federation. The Preface states that the members of the and socio-ethical paradigms in light of the gospel of Jesus
LWF are a communion of churches. A goal of the LWF Christ. The LWF will maintain that homosexuality is a
for the 2017 Reformation celebration is to show the world cultural and socio-ethical paradigm and not something
what it means to be an ecclesial commuforbidden by the Holy Scriptures. The law
nion from a Lutheran perspective.8 Junge
of God is subsumed by the gospel. Natural
next states that a hallmark of Lutheran
How is the
Law is simply a cultural and socio-ethecclesiology is unity in reconciled diverical paradigm that can be dismissed by
gospel defined
sity. The next sentence explains what
churches today, much as the Christian
and what is
reconciled diversity means.
church dismissed the Jewish ceremonial
included in that
law in the first century.
At all times and in every place, churchdefinition?
The document begins by discussing
es discern how faithfully to live out the
autonomy and accountability. Although
message of the gospel in their contexts.
in the past, the LWF regarded church bodies as autonAs part of this process, they are called to review
omous, this understanding does not fit well with the
and examine cultural and socio-ethical paradigms
9
current understanding that the LWF is a communion
in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
rather than a federation of independent, autonomous
There are several significant points in this statement.
church bodies. Presently, the LWF is putting forth the
First, churches discern how to live out the message idea that autonomy needs to be balanced with accountof the gospel. Note that the Scriptures do not inform or ability to the other members. In light of the current
disruption within the LWFs communion, there are two
possible readings: 1) The EECMY was wrong to break
5 Understanding the Gift of Communion, 15.
6 Understanding the Gift of Communion, 96. The failure of the church
communion with the CoS and the ELCA as this was an
and Christians to accept homosexual love given in the framework
autonomous act; 2) The CoS and the ELCA did not sufof faithful and conjugal relationships reverts into a condemnation
ficiently take into account the socio-cultural contexts
of homosexuality that is a reenactment of exclusionary categories
inherited from a colonial and patriarchal past.
of other churches when they decided to accept homosex7 The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion: A Study
ual love. Although there are two possible readings, the
Document, ed. Department for Theological and Public Witness
sense of the document indicates more displeasure with
(Geneva, Switzerland: The Lutheran World Federation, 2015). The
document can be downloaded from https://www.lutheranworld.org/
the EECMY for breaking fellowship, than it does with the
sites/default/files/Exhibit 9.2 The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran
CoS and the ELCA for not taking socio-cultural conCommunion.pdf
8 The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion, 5.
texts into account. This is made clear when the document
9 Ibid.
explains the role of church law.
47
Church law governs various aspects of the life of an

individual church, such as who is eligible to receive
communion or to be ordained to the ministry. The
various principles expressed in church law reflect
both a theological understanding of the church
and local conditions. Both of these are culturally
mediated.10
of the same sex, some approach these issues under

the rubric of the pastoral imperative to be inclusive,
while others assert that entertaining such a decision can undermine the integrity of the communion. For this reason, we should not qualify these
issues as socio-ethical alone but also as issues of
church order and discipline that play a role in the
proclamation of the gospel.14
In other words, the decision of a church body to ordain

or not ordain a person is tied to the local culture. There
The LWF would like to present the issue as being about
is not a clear Scriptural word regarding the qualifications the proclamation of the gospel. Some churches, like the
for ordination, but it is culturally determined. Therefore, CoS and ELCA, believe that the ordination of people with
both the CoS and ELCA can decide that their local cul- homosexual orientation and the blessing of same-sex
ture allows for the ordination of practicing homosexuals relationships is a matter of the gospel. At the same time,
and the EECMY can say that their culother churches (the majority of churches
ture does not allow it, but this difference
within the LWF) believe approving such
in culture is not divisive of the commuthings is against the gospel. Note that
Is the Holy
nion or fellowship in the LWF; it is part
Scripture the word the LWF does not recognize that this
of the reconciled diversity.
is a doctrinal issue. It is socio-ethical
of God? Or do the and a matter of church order, which the
As a result of the broken commuHoly Scriptures
nion between the EECMY, the CoS, and
document previously said was culturally
the ELCA, the document notes, the
merely contain the mediated.15 The document next suggests
churches have started to ask themselves
that these differences might be related to
word of God?
how to engage with disagreements in the
the Reformation concept of adiaphora,
communion in a critical but constructive
involving matters pertaining to human
way.11 The document acknowledges that the churches of traditions, rites and ceremonies and so marked a space for
the communion face questions regarding family, marriage acceptable differences.16 The LWFs Self-Understanding
and sexuality. While some churches have taken official of Communion, at the very least, suggests that the conpositions on these issues, others have not. And then there troversies within the LWF over the ordination of people
are those that are in the process of discerning how to with homosexual orientation and the blessing of relationengage with these questions.12 The document acknowl- ships between people of the same sex might be regarded
edges that marriage and sexuality are issues facing the as adiaphora. Understanding this matter as an adiaphoLWF. The document does not state that this essentially ron would allow some churches to ordain homosexuals
is a divide between the old colonial powers (Europe and and bless same-sex relationships and would allow other
the United States) and the global South. The document churches to refrain from the same without dividing the
states correctly that it is a question of being true to the LWF communion. It is akin to saying that sexuality and
gospel.13 Left unsaid is that the churches supporting marriage issues are no more church divisive than whether
homosexuality and those who oppose it do not share the a church in Africa uses drums during worship while a
same gospel.
church in Germany or North America uses the pipe organ
The LWF describes the situation as follows:
for worship.
Considering current controversies, such as the ordination of people with homosexual orientation
and the blessing of relationships between people
14
Ibid.
10
The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion, 14.
11
12
The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion, 14. Church law

governs various aspects of the life of an individual church, such as who
is eligible to receive communion or to be ordained to the ministry. The
various principles expressed in church law reflect both a theological
understanding of the church and local conditions. Both of these are
culturally mediated.
13
16
48
15
The next section of the document provides resources

for accountable decision making. The format of this
section contains four theses statements followed by a
subsection under each thesis titled, Our conviction and
Need for discussion. The goal of the resources is to
orient the communion in the task of discerning how to
live together in the midst of diversity.17 A brief examination of the theses/resources follows.
Thesis or Resource 1: The gospel is the core of our
life in communion.18 The Our Conviction sub-section
begins,
The unifying core of our Christian faith and of
our Lutheran confessions is our salvation in Jesus
Christ by grace through faith, witnessed in Scripture that reveals Gods unconditional love for us
(Eph 2:8) The conviction shared by all churches of
our communion is that the reality and gift of Gods
justifying grace is the foundation of Christian belief and life, and that Christian practice and good
works follow from faith, which looks to grace for
unity (Gal 3:25-29). This unity is established by the
Word that constitutes the church as the visible body
of Christ.19
Indeed, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the center of fellowship and communion. This prompts two significant
questions: How is the gospel defined and what is included
in that definition? Generally speaking, the LWF defines
gospel very narrowly to mean Gods justifying grace.
Historically, in connection with communion, that is,
altar and pulpit fellowship, Lutherans have not defined
agreement in the gospel in a narrow sense, but in a
broader sense to include agreement in doctrine, including teachings both of law and gospel. Different Christian
denominations, who have very different teachings and
understandings on a variety of doctrines, can agree
with one another that the gospel is narrowly defined as
the justification of the sinner. Yet, such agreement that
Christ justifies the sinner has not been seen historically
as sufficient to permit communion or fellowship between
Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, and
so forth. Historically, agreement in doctrine and teaching
also was required.
Additionally, in order to agree on the justifying grace

of God, one must also agree on what God is justifying or
saving us from. In the context of the conflict among LWF
members, some member churches regard the practice of
homosexuality to be a sin that is in need of Christs forgiveness, while other member churches in the LWF do
not regard the practice of homosexuality, particularly
when it occurs in a faithful and conjugal relationship, to
be a sin. On the one hand, the LWF members that regard
the practice of homosexuality as a sin would understand
the gospel of Jesus to offer forgiveness to those people
who repent of homosexuality. On the other hand, the
LWF member churches who do not regard the practice of
homosexuality, particularly which occurs in faithful and
conjugal relationship, to be a sin (CoS and ELCA) would
not understand a reason to repent or receive forgiveness
for that activity hence the gospel of Jesus does not provide forgiveness for that lifestyle simply because it is not
required or needed. This example demonstrates that there
is not an agreement on the gospel of Jesus in the narrow
sense, since one party regards it as a sin in need of forgiveness and the other does not. So it seems that the LWF
defines the gospel in an even more narrow sense, one that
simply acknowledges Gods justifying grace without any
agreement or acknowledgement of sin. This is not to say
there must be agreement about the enumeration of sins,
but rather agreement in the basic categories described by
the Ten Commandments (Decalogue). The topic of what
is intended by agreement in the gospel will be addressed
further when the next thesis/resource is addressed.
Next the LWF document references but does not quote
or explain in detail Dr. Martin Luthers The Freedom of
a Christian20 as a significant work that helps us understand the new relationship that God establishes. The
document states that a distinction must be made between
hearing Gods voice as a will demanding conformity to
external moral laws or as a promise to renew our whole
existence by granting us a new identity in Christ.21 These
statements could be interpreted in a few ways, one of
which is that socio-ethical issues (such as marriage and
sexuality) involve a conformity to external moral laws,
rather than living within the promise. The document
gives the impression that Luthers The Freedom of a
17
18
Ibid.
Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian, in Luthers Works,

edited by Harold J. Grimm and Hartmut Lehmann, trans. W.A.
Lambert, 31 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), 327377. Hereafter
referred to as AE for the American Edition.
19
Ibid.
21
20
49
Christian supports the position that is presented in this

document. Indeed, Luthers The Freedom of a Christian
divides the Scriptures into two basic categories: command
and promise.22 Luthers view does not nullify the law or
Natural Law. Luther writes, The law must be fulfilled so
that not a jot or tittle shall be lost, otherwise man will be
condemned without hope.23 Martin Luther would not see
his writings as undoing the Scriptural prohibition against
homosexual practice. Luther certainly would affirm forgiveness for those who sought it, but he would not say
that the law and command of God was nullified. Luther
did not practice the gospel reductionism advocated in this
paper. The practice of gospel reductionism allows for one
to say that a literal interpretation of the creation account
as found in Genesis, or rejecting that God actually
stopped the sun for Joshua, is not problematic since such
rejection does not affect the gospel principle of justifying
faith. In a similar manner, gospel reductionism is used to
dismiss socio-ethical matters such as homosexuality as
not affecting the gospel principle of justifying faith.24 The
LWF in this document has adopted a gospel reduction
argument to allow the acceptance of homosexual love.
Under this sections Need for Discussion subsection,
the document states that although fellowship/communion is an action of God, individual member churches can
take actions that make it more difficult for us to experience communion and so grieve the Holy Spirit of God
(Eph. 4:30).25 What decisions that grieved the Holy Spirit
and made it more difficult to experience communion are
not clear. Is the document speaking about the decisions
made by the CoS and ELCA regarding homosexuality?
Or is the document speaking about the decision made
by the EECMY to break fellowship? Both? At this point
the document is unclear. The following context seems to
imply that the decisions refer to the actions taken by the
CoS and the ELCA. Nevertheless, contextual demands
require churches continually to discern law and gospel
22
AE 31, 348. Here we must point out that the entire Scripture of God
is divided into two parts: commandments and promises. Although the
commandments teach things that are good, the things taught are not
done as soon as they are taught, for the commandments show us what
we ought to do but do not give us the power to do it.
23
Ibid.
24
Edward H. Schroeder, Law-Gospel Reductionism in the History of

the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod, Concordia Theological Monthly
43, no. 4 (April 1972): 233. Thus, for example, according to critics
the Law/Gospel reductionists can argue that cosmological or mythic
aspects in Joshua and Genesis are to be interpreted as such inasmuch as
this interpretation does not affect the Gospel.
25
50
in response to pastoral needs and political realities, and

may cause churches to take decisions that other churches
might not understand. The context implies that decisions refer to the actions taken by the CoS and the ELCA,
and that their decision about homosexuality was the
result of their discernment of law and gospel and pastoral care concerns. Political realities also are mentioned.
This implies that governmental pressure and/or shifting
public opinion may have influenced the decision taken by
these two churches bodies to embrace homosexuality. The
last line is rather colonialistic and paternalistic to say
some churches might not understand.26 The churches
of the global South understand but believe the decision
of the CoS and the ELCA to embrace homosexuality is
against the word of God. It seems if the interpretation is
reversed and that decision refers to the EECMYs action
to sever fellowship with the CoS and ELCA then it would
also apply. Their decision was based upon a discernment
of law and gospel and pastoral care concerns for the souls
of people. Finally, the CoS and ELCA do not accept the
action of the EECMY to sever fellowship. The reality is
that the dispute in the LWF is not a matter of understanding, but rather a fundamental disagreement over the word
of God.
The document next states, Members of the communion should be able to disagree with each others decision
without necessarily threatening the unity of the communion. This is true on condition that such a decision is not
deemed to compromise the common affirmation of justifying faith.27 These statements make the assumption that
the ordination of practicing homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex relationships is an adiaphoron, a matter
of indifference, and not a doctrinally divisive matter.
Such a statement neglects the fact that the issue is about
a disagreement over what the Holy Scriptures teach, not
an adiaphoron such as whether or not African churches
can use drums in worship while European and North
American churches use a pipe organ. The LWF document
states that the decision of accepting homosexuality is not
deemed to compromise the common affirmation of justifying faith. As indicated earlier, there is no agreement on
justifying faith without an agreement on Natural Law and
the Decalogue. Without agreement that sin condemns
and what those sins are, such as the Sixth Commandment
that forbids any sexual activity outside of marriage
26
Ibid.
27
Ibid.
between a man and a woman, there is no agreement on

the gospel which forgives such sins.
The second thesis/resource is Word and sacraments
are events of communion.28 This next section picks up
the Augsburg Confession, Article VII, as the definition of
the church.
The church is identified as evident in those places
where the gospel is preached purely and the sacraments are rightly administered. According to CA
VII, it is enough (satis est) for the true church and
its unity that we preach the gospel and celebrate
the sacraments properly. God promises that this
church will last forever.29
The position of the LWF in regards to communion/
fellowship is that It is enough (satis est) if a church
preaches the gospel and celebrates the sacraments. Again,
in this case, the gospel is narrowly defined to be teaching
that God justifies and forgives. Although this narrow
definition of the gospel has allowed the LWF to form
its communion, this same narrow definition is demonstrating a significant weakness by revealing the disunity
of various LWF member churches regarding how the
Scripture should be interpreted. When member churches
share a basic definition of natural law and the Decalogue,
the limitations of such a narrow definition of the gospel
are not as immediately apparent. However, now that
Natural Law and the Decalogue are rejected by some
member churches, the disunity between them is more
apparent. The LWF perhaps is incapable of recovering
Natural Law and the Decalogue so it must now resort to
hermeneutical tricks and narrow definitions of the gospel
in order to maintain unity and their communion.
The interpretation of Augsburg Confession, Article
VII, is rather significant to the concept of fellowship/
communion.30 As Dr. Roland Ziegler identifies, there
are four basic interpretations of AC VII.31 The first, as
advocated by Albrecht Ritschl, emphasizes the gospel
over doctrine.32 This view argues, The foundation of the
church as church, that is, the preached gospel and the
28
29
Ibid.
30
See Albert B. Collver, Augustana VII: The Church and Fellowship,

Journal of Lutheran Mission 2, no. 5 (2015): 3844.
31
Roland F. Ziegler, Doctrinal Unity and Church Fellowship,

Concordia Theological Quarterly 78, no. 34 (2014): 5979.
32
Ziegler, Doctrinal Unity, 61. Ritschl wants to emphasize doctrina

evangelii, not doctrina evangelii.
administered sacraments, and the foundation of the unity

of the church are the same. This implies that differences
in doctrine are no longer church dividing.33 The second
view is most famously articulated by theologians of the
Prussian Union and by the Leuenberg Agreement (1973).
34
This view, unlike the first view, advocates for more than
consensus in preaching the gospel and administrating
the sacraments, but requires a doctrinal agreement in
the gospel. This agreement in the gospel is defined in a
narrow sense. The LWFs view appears to be a conflation of the first and second interpretations of Augsburg
Confession, Article VII. The third interpretation of AC
VII holds that consensus consists in
recognizing that the Holy Scriptures as the norm
and standard of teaching and in regarding the Lutheran Confessions as the correct exposition of the
Scriptures that and not much more. This means
that other questions that are not addressed in the
confession should not be divisive.35
As a result, topics not explicitly mentioned by the
Lutheran Confessions do not require agreement. The
fourth interpretation of the AC VII holds that the consensus necessary for the unity of the church consists in
everything that the Scriptures teach.36 This is the position taken by the member churches of the International
Lutheran Council (ILC).37 In contrast to the position of
the ILC, which calls for agreement in everything that the
Scriptures teach for fellowship/communion, the LWF
does not require agreement in the Scriptures but instead
bases fellowship/communion on the agreement that
the gospel (narrowly defined) needs to be preached and
the sacraments need to be administered. This minimal
approach taken by the LWF demonstrates its weakness in
the current controversy by holding the position that some
members can regard homosexuality as a sin while others
33
Ibid.
34
Ziegler, Doctrinal Unity, 63. The second school of thought on the

meaning of AC VII sees the necessity of a doctrinal consensus, not
just an agreement in the preaching of the gospel, but restricts it to a
consensus on what the gospel (in the narrow sense) and the sacraments
are. This is the interpretation and the ecumenical model that was
first proposed by some theologians of the Prussian union and much
later by the Leuenberg Agreement (1973), by which the churches that
subscribed to it entered into full church fellowship.
35
Ziegler, Doctrinal Unity,6465.
36
Ibid.
The International Lutheran Councils website can be found at http://

www.ilc-online.org.
37
51
can regard it as part of a God-pleasing life and remain in

fellowship/communion.
This section also makes statements about the celebration of the Lords Supper. The document views the Lords
Supper as an act which creates fellowship rather than as
an expression of the fellowship/communion that exists
because of a common confession of faith.
our communion is damaged.39 The EECMY currently will

not celebrate the Lords Supper with the CoS or the ELCA.
The LWF document tried to acknowledge that baptism
is one of the gifts given to the church that incorporates
people into the body of Christ. The document, however,
allows for the possibility of unbaptized believers, that is,
those who profess faith but remain unbaptized.
The sacred meal is the means by which the church

is constituted as body, and a body is only a body insofar as it is diverse We are diverse, but diversity
is a part of the mystery of our salvation (Rom 12:3-8).
We have been justified and our justification does
not only validate diversity; it produces it.38
In certain regions of the LWF there are people who

desire Baptism but can only do so at considerable
expense to themselves or their loved ones. There
is need for the communion to acknowledge their
faithfulness, even though they are unable to experience Baptism.40
The interpretation taken by the LWFs document

hangs on the understanding of the body of Christ as
found in 1 Corinthians 11. When 1 Corinthians 11 speaks
of discerning the body, the first and primary sense is the
discernment or recognition that Christ gives his true
body and blood in the Lords Supper. There is a secondary sense in which 1 Corinthians 11 speaks of discerning
the church as the body of Christ. Yet this is secondary to
the discernment and recognition of Christs true body
and blood, given to eat and to drink for the forgiveness
of sins. When Saint Paul speaks about sinning against the
body of Christ, he is first and foremost speaking about
denying that Christ gives his body and blood to eat and to
drink for the forgiveness of sins in the Lords Supper, and
only in a secondary way speaks of acknowledging other
Christians who are part of the body of Christ.
The incorporation into the body of Christ is found
in baptism. In baptism, a person is incorporated into
Christs death and resurrection (Rom 6:113). Historically,
not all those who were baptized were admitted to the
Lords Supper for a variety of reasons, ranging from a
lack of instruction, to differences in the confession of
faith, to unrepentant sin. Connected to baptism was the
confession of the Creeds. It is not the celebration of the
Lords Supper that constitutes the church as the body, but
rather the administration of baptism that incorporates a
Christian into the body of Christ. The Lords Supper is
practiced among Christians who share the confession of
faith and it reflects their unity and incorporation into the
body of Christ. The LWF document is certainly correct
when it says, when we are unable to celebrate together,
This statement takes up the topic of the so-called

non-baptized believers who claim to believe in Jesus
but who refrain from being baptized for socio-cultural or
political reasons.41 There is a distinction between people
who hear the gospel, believe, and are not able to be baptized and those who choose to not be baptized so that they
do not cause divisions within their household, or so they
can get married, or so that they do not lose a job, etc.42
Jesus himself said, Whoever does not take up his cross
and follow me is not worthy of me (Matt 10:38). At some
point, deciding that pleasing father or mother, or seeking
a spouse, or retaining a job instead of being baptized is in
fact a de facto rejection of baptism.43
38
52
39
Ibid.
40
Ibid.
41
Sam Thompson, Reaching Out to the Non-Baptized Believers:

Missiological Implications from a Lutheran Perspective, Missio
Apostolica 2 (2014): 248. However the non-baptized believers we are
concerned with in this discussion are those who are genuine in their
faith affirmation and do not necessarily reject or despise Baptism. They
are convinced that Jesus is the only God, the Way and the Truth, and
that His life and work on the cross is sufficient for the forgiveness of
their sin and for their salvation. However, due to various socio-cultural
and political reasons and/or because of the failure of the church to
effectively minister to them, they still remain as unbaptized believers.
These believers could be the fruits of missionary efforts of some
institutionalized churches or para-church organizations.
Herbert E. Hoefer, Churchless Christianity (Pasadena, California:
William Carey Library, 2001), 24. All of the women speak of their
desire to be baptized. No children are baptized, except in Christian
families. The boys attend Sunday School for a while, but soon the
father takes them with him into work at the business. The girls are
not baptized because it would affect the chances of their marriage
arrangements, so each non-baptized believing girl must try to work it
out with her husband later on.
42
43
Matthew 10:3439: Do not think that I have come to bring peace

to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have
come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a persons
enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father
The next significant thesis/resource says, The Word

of God creates and affirms both unity and diversity.44
The Conviction or belief of the LWF is The Word of
God, mediated through the Holy Scriptures, is the source
of ecclesial communion, and of the churchs life, hope,
and belief.45 The significant challenge with this statement is that the LWF regards the word of God to be
mediated through the Holy Scriptures, this is to say that
the Holy Scriptures are not necessarily the word of God
nor are they equated with the word of God. The LWF
does not affirm that the Holy Scriptures are the word of
God. In contrast to the LWF position, the churches of
the International Lutheran Council (ILC) hold that the
Holy Scriptures are the word of God. Dr. J.A.O. Preus
in It is Written explains, To Jesus, Scripture is truly and
properly the Word of God, God speaking to us. In Mark
7:13 He speaks of the Law of Moses as the Word of God
and compares it with the tradition of the Jews which He
puts far beneath the Law.46 This is a major point of difference. Is the Holy Scripture the word of God? Or do
the Holy Scriptures merely contain the word of God?
The LWFs position understands that the word of God
is mediated through the Holy Scripture, which is to say
the Holy Scripture merely contains the word of God but
is not the word of God. This view allows for portions of
the Scripture to be ignored or excised, particularly if it is
not convenient for a position one desires to take, such as
the affirmation of the ordination of homosexuals or the
blessing of same-sex marriages.
The LWF document next asserts The testimony of the
Holy Scriptures is not a monotone but a choir of many
different voices. Diversity, then, is sanctioned in Scripture
(Gal 2:710).47 What is meant is not entirely clear. What
does it mean that the Holy Scripture is not monotone?
Does it mean that the Lord employed various authors,
who wrote in different styles and literary genres? Does
it refer to a higher critical view of interpretation of the
Holy Scriptures that some LWF member churches teach?
Nor is it clear how the next statement logically follows
or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not
take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his
life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
44
45
Ibid.
Jacob A.O. Preus, It Is Written (Saint Louis, Missouri: Concordia

46
47
that Diversity, then, is sanctioned in Scripture. What is

diversity? Galatians 2:710 is cited, which speaks of the
gospel going to the Jews and to the Gentiles. If by diversity it is meant that the gospel is for all people of every
nation, tribe, race, and language, then the Scripture does
sanction diversity. However, in contemporary English,
diversity has different political connotations.
Within the context of the document, diversity seems
to speak to how hermeneutics should be done.
Therefore, it is essential to be aware of the range of
scriptural utterances contained in the Bible rather
than to focus on a narrower selection of texts. This
diversity is reconciled through the shared core of
the Scriptures: all Lutheran churches affirm the basic authority of Scripture interpreted through the
hermeneutical key of the gospel of the liberating
grace given in Jesus Christ. 48
First, this section of the document seems to say that a
diversity of texts rather than a narrow selection should
be used to understand issues in a biblical way. In light of
the controversy within the LWF over homosexuality, it
appears that the proposed hermeneutical key seeks to dismiss the few or narrow passages that speak clearly about
homosexuality (Gen 19; Lev 18:2223, 20:13; Rom 1:2427; 1
Cor 6:910; 1 Tim 1:10). Instead of these six passages from
both the Old and New Testament that speak clearly on the
topic of homosexuality, the document encourages the
range of scriptural utterances understood through the
hermeneutical key of the gospel. This argument refers
back to the earlier discussion about the definition of the
gospel, either narrowly defined as justification by grace or
broadly defined to include all the teachings of Scripture.
The final thesis/resource says, The gospel entails freedom, respect and bearing with one another.49 This thesis/
resource seems to intend to limit the freedom and autonomy of self-governing, independent church bodies. Yet,
the statement seems more directed against the EECMY
than it is against the CoS and the ELCA. Sometimes, the
neighbor makes decisions that we do not feel free to make.
In such situations, the churches may be called to bear with
one another, respecting differing choices as expressions
of their own freedom.50 In this case, it seems that the
church bodies who do not agree with the decisions of the
48
footnote goes hereit wasnt on the document
49
50
Ibid.
53
CoS and the ELCA are told to bear with another and to
respect that decision. Churches are supposed to recognize
that they will have different opinions but these differing
opinions, even if some believe they are against the word
of God, are to be respected and ultimately accepted.
Conclusion
The LWFs The Self-Understanding of Communion is a significant document because it attempts to pacify or restore
unity which has been broken within the communion.
The LWF member churches will vote on this document
to determine if it will be how they interact with each
other going forward. The document makes the attempt to
bridge differences between views held by the global North
and the global South. The confession and hermeneutical
presuppositions of the LWF collectively is less than that of
some of the member churches. For instance, collectively
the LWF cannot say that the Holy Scriptures are the word
of God, yet some of the members of the LWF do in fact
confess and believe this. The document confesses AC VII
in a lesser form by reducing the satis est (it is enough)
to mean simply the proclamation of justification by grace,
rather than the more complete form that gospel refers to
doctrine in all its articles. Finally, the document takes a
gospel reductionist approach to the Scriptures, in particular, to natural law and the Decalogue. The end result
of such an approach effectively concludes that the LWF
as a communion should accept the ordination of homosexual clergy and the blessing of same-sex relationships.
Although the document does not explicitly say this, it is
hard to envision any other conclusion. It is hard to imagine that this approach will create lasting peace within
the LWF communion. It would be far better if the LWF
members discussed the actual difference in biblical interpretation and the different views toward the Scriptures.
Perhaps with the expression of honest disagreement in
document, the LWF actually could find a greater unity.
The Rev. Dr. Albert B. Collver III is LCMS director of
Church Relations and assistant to LCMS President
Matthew C. Harrison.
54
Hear about how the Ethiopian

Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus
Rejoice: The Church Is

Built on the Rock
has undergone persecution and

suffering and how it has received
Gods grace even more.
by Berhanu Ofgaa
Introduction and Words of Greeting1
would like to begin with brief words of visitation made by LCMS President Matthew Harrison
greetings from the church I represent and my own two years ago has elevated the level of this partnership. I
personal salutation. I am a graduate of Concordia hereby would like to convey the congratulatory words of
Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I have my church for the election of the president for the third
been a rostered pastor of the LCMS before rejoining the term and express her best wishes that this term be years
Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (hereafter of great blessing.
As a result of all these developments, the EECMY has
referred to as the EECMY), where I hold the position of
General Secretary. (Mekane Yesus means the dwelling a high regard for the LCMS and her commitment to the
place of Jesus.) I have been a missionary at-large in the Holy Scriptures and her strong Lutheran identity rooted
Ohio district for over six years, working among African in the Book of Concord. The great contributions the
immigrants. Working in both the EECMY and the LCMS is rendering in supporting the EECMY seminaries, specially strengthening the Master
LCMS context has contributed towards
of Arts in Theology (M.A.) program
bridging the relationship between
Although heavily at the Mekane Yesus Seminary (MYS)
the two church bodies. Thank you for
challenged, the
through provision of faculty members
offering me the privilege of being at this
and resources, is so spectacular. At presgreat podium and allowing me to deliver
survival of the
ent this joint venture between the two
this presentation.
church was certain
church bodies is moving towards launchBefore proceeding with my presenbecause
of
Jesus
ing a Ph.D. program at the MYS by 2017.
tation, I would like to convey greetings
promise.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to
from my church. The EECMY has been
recognize the incredible contribution of
in partnership with the LCMS in the last
few decades. This accompaniment and walk together in individuals whom God has used and moved to support
Gods mission and the partnership we shared during these this ministry, especially the bridging ministry of Rev. Dr.
years has gradually deepened the relationship between the Albert Collver and the generosity of Mr. Bruce Gilbert,
two church bodies. The incredible support the LCMS has who funded more than forty Master of Theology scholarrendered to the EECMY especially has meant a lot to us, ships at the Mekane Yesus Seminary.
Despite the various challenges and confrontations
as the LCMS stood by the EECMY when the EECMY severed her relationship with her former traditional partners, Christianity today is facing in our present global context,
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and the EECMY is flourishing in all aspects of her growth.
the Church of Sweden (CoS), because of their legalization For instance, as the statistical report from 2015 shows, in
of same-sex marriage and ordination. As the saying goes, one year alone, over four million unchurched people have
A friend in need is a friend indeed. On top of this, the heard the good news through the witnesses of the laity,
1
This presentation was given at the 66th convention of the LCMS, held
July 2016 in Milwaukee, Wis.
55
more than half a million converts have been won and

joined the church, and over 1,000 ministers have graduated from the seminaries of the church and joined the
ministry. We thank God for this spectacular result.
The EECMY has been blessed with human resources,
while the LCMS has been blessed with theological
resources and faithfulness to the Scripture, which is something the rest of the Lutheran world needs and desires.
Once again, ameseginalehu, or thank you. After having
said all these as expression of our partnership, I would
like to turn your attention to the topic of my presentation.
Lord and him alone. The mystery of this joy is the security
of being in the secret place of the Most High, which is the
security of being on the unmovable foundation on which
the church of Christ has been built. This essay depicts
the secret of this special joy, reflecting on the enormous
joy and great blessings the EECMY experienced during
severe persecution under the Communist government of
Ethiopia a few decades ago. Before dealing with this testimony in depth, it is important to discuss the theme of this
convention, On this rock I will build my church, to lay
a foundation for this reflection. This text was spoken in
response to the confession of Peter about Jesus. This text
REJOICE THE CHURCH IS BUILT ON THE ROCK
depicts the real foundation on which the church of Christ
has been built.
Rejoicing in the Lord
The phrase on this rock is so sigI would like to begin with the words
nificant for our study. In this context
The persecution
of Paul, the prisoner of the gospel. He
the phrase on this rock carries deep
couldnt move
stated, Rejoice in the Lord always; again
meaning. Examining what the phrase
the church an
I will say, rejoice (Phil 4:4). As this verse
incorporates is so significant for the
implies, we as Christians are called to
inch from her firm interpretation of the theme of this conrejoice in the Lord. This includes rejoicconfession and
vention. What then does the phrase
ing both in his suffering and his glory. We
on this rock signify? The dictionary
witnessing to the
rejoice when we suffer for him and with
meaning of a rock is a large mass of
Lordship of Jesus
him, and also when we partake in his
stone forming a hill.2 The rock in the
in public.
glory. This shows that there are two types
Old Testament symbolizes security and
of joy we are called to experience as Gods
defense.3 It also means a strong foundapeople. The first is the experience of joy
tion that no one moves or stands against (Matt 7:24). It
in suffering for him through cross bearing. The second is
signifies the foundation on which Jesus built his church,
the joy that comes as a result of it. Peter is right when he
which is the confession of Peter.
stated to those who were experiencing suffering, After
The Book of Concord in the Treatise on the Power and
you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who
Primacy of the Pope interprets this passage:
has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself
However, as to the declaration: Upon this rock I
restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you (1 Pet
will build My Church, certainly the Church has
5:10). Thus, this presentation incorporates both of these
not been built upon the authority of man, but upon
joys the church of Christ is called to experience, with spethe ministry of the confession which Peter made,
cial emphasis on the faith journey of the EECMY.
in which he proclaims that Jesus is the Christ, the
Rejoicing in Suffering
Son of God. He accordingly addresses him as a
In the above-stated biblical text, Paul brings up special
minister: Upon this rock, i.e., upon this ministry
joy Gods people are called to experience in the midst of
For He built His Church not upon man, but upon
severe persecution, suffering, and cross-bearing. This is
the faith of Peter. But what was his faith? Thou art
a joy that flows from the experience of the cross. This is
the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Hilary
a special joy the church of Christ is called to experience
says: To Peter the Father revealed that he should say,
in tragic circumstances and hostile environments. This
Thou art the Son of the living God. (Tr 25, 28 [Trijoy is not based on the fulfillment of material blessings,
glotta, 511513])
prosperity, health, wellbeing, or success in living. It is a
special joy that comes from cross bearing after all these 2 Rock, Dictionary.com, http://www.dictionary.com/browse/rock.
other sources of physical joy are gone. It is a joy in the 3 The New Bible Dictionary, ed., J.D. Douglas (Inter-Varsity Press, 1976),
1098.
56
Therefore, the building of the church is upon this rock

of confession; this faith is the foundation of the church.
To further explore what this phrase means, it is worthwhile to investigate the four central themes of Peters
confession. These central themes incorporate Jesus as a
living God, Jesus as the expected Messiah, Jesus as the
Son of God, and Jesus as the cornerstone (Eph 2:19).
Here the Greek term Christ
equals the Messiah in Hebrew. In the Old Testament, God never promised a coming Messiah
at least the Old Testament prophets never used
that exact title. And yet pervading the entire Old
Testament was this promise and expectation of a
deliverer whom God would one day send to free his
people from all bondage and oppression. And so
Jesus as a Living God
Messiah became the title that Gods people used
The first key affirmation of Peter in his confession was the
to sum up all of their hopes and expectations for
fact that Jesus is the living God. The church is the comthe coming deliverer and King the promised son
munity that confesses that Jesus is the living God. The
of David. Now so far in Matthew, the title Messiphrase Jesus is the living God carries a deep underah or Christ has appeared only six times. Five of
standing of God. First, it implies that he is a living God.
these times are Matthews own narrative comments
This is the very nature that makes him different from the
(four of which are in the introductory first chapter)
dead idols of the Gentiles. Here Peter affirms that Jesus of
and the sixth time is when Herod inquired about
Nazareth is not an ordinary religious leader, but the living
where the Christ was to be born. In
God. By this he implies that in him there
all of his preaching and teaching,
is the same life that is in the Father. This
Jesus had never once claimed this
The church was
implies the fact that Jesus is life himself,
title for himself. And yet Peter, havand also the fountain of life to others.
counted worthy
ing listened to Jesus preaching and
Peter, in this regard, had a profound
to suffer and to
teaching, and having understood the
understanding. He had confessed simsacrifice
for
Jesus.
meaning of his miracles, now for the
ilar testimony about Jesus at another
very first time assigns this title to Jeincident. According to the Gospel of
sus, implying that Jesus is not simply one of the
John, the multitude who followed Jesus after the miraprophets He is not one among many He is
cle of the bread murmured and drew away because they
not a forerunner preparing the way.4
stumbled over Jesus referring to himself as the bread
of life. Even his own immediate disciples stumbled and
Peter affirmed that Jesus was the true Messiah, the
struggled with Jesus difficult word about being the bread deliverer. This affirmation is the other key statement on
of life. Then Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You which Jesus built his church. The real church is founded
have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and on the testimony that Jesus is the Christ of God.
have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God
(John 6:6869). This implies how much deeper Peters Jesus as the Son of God
understanding of Jesus was. For Peter, Jesus was more The third affirmation of Peter in his confession is the fact
than the physical bread. He realized that Jesus is the bread that Jesus is the Son of God. This affirmation, as some
of life. This profound testimony is the real foundation on scholars state, connotes the interpretation that his being
is not by creation, as angels and men are, nor by adopwhich the real church of Christ is built.
tion, as saints, nor by office, as magistrates, but by nature,
Jesus as the Christ
being his own Son, his proper Son, the only begotten of
The second key affirmation of Peter is the fact that Jesus the Father, of the same nature with him, being one with
is the Christ of God. In other words, this means that Jesus him, and equal to him.5 As the apostle John states, the
is the true Messiah, promised by God, prophesied of by main purpose for which the gospel was written was to
all the prophets from the beginning of the world, and disclose this very secret about Jesus. It was to disclose
expected by the people of God. This includes all his offices the secret that Jesus is the true Son of God (John 20:31).
of prophet, priest, and king, for which he is anointed by
God, and that this Messiah was not a mere man, but a 4 Matthew 16:13-18, Living Word Bible Church, 11 March 2012, http://
livingwordbible.org/Sermons/Matthew/Matthew16.13-18.pdf, 2.
divine person.
5
Ibid.
57
As it has been stated in Hebrews 5:5, the Father said to

Jesus, You are my Son, today I have begotten you. This
implies that Jesus is begotten as the Son of God at his
royal coronation and at his appointment as the high priest
of his people.
This confession, as uniform, is what all the disciples of
Christ agreed in. They took him, one and all, and acknowledged him to be the Son of God, a phrase expressive of
his divine nature and distinct personality. They indeed
judged him to be a prophet, but not that prophet that was
to come, superior to all prophets. Here he is owned to be
the Christ, which not only takes in his prophetic office in
a higher sense than they understood it, but all his other
offices, and declares him to be the promised Messiah,
who they thought and spoke most honorably of.6 This is
another ground on which Jesus has built his church.
Jesus as the Cornerstone

Peter affirms that Jesus is a cornerstone that carries this
whole foundation in his first epistle. He states, You come
to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight
of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living
stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy
priesthood (1 Pet 2:45).
This text implies that Christ is the living stone. It
also implies that those who believe in him are also living
stones. In a similar way, the apostle Paul stated to the
church in Ephesus, You are built on the foundation of the
apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
cornerstone (Eph 2:20). This text implies that Christ Jesus
is the cornerstone that carries the foundation.
It is this cornerstone (Jesus) and faith in him that
sustains the church to endure in the midst of suffering
and persecution. More than that, it enables the church
to rejoice in suffering, as Saint Paul affirms based on his
personal experience, we rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance (Rom 5:3).
In light of this, I would like to share with you about the
sufferings the church in Ethiopia in those tragic circumstances and hostile environments has undergone and the
joy that generated from this painful experience.
REFLECTION ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE EECMY

As the EECMY is a church born in the midst of opposing circumstances and has walked through a painful path
since the days of her formation in confrontation with
6
Ibid.
58
various forces of evil working against her, reflecting on

the experience of this church would better demonstrate
the practicality of the above biblical teaching.
Thus we will deal with the faith journey of this church
classifying it into two parts. The first part discusses the
joy in the experience of suffering. This is what the church
has gained during the severe persecution by the Derg
Communist government of Ethiopia. The second part
deals with the blessing that thereafter follows, which
means the present flourishing growth of the church.
The Joy in the Experience of Suffering

The journey of the EECMY quite from the days of her
formation has been full of experiences of strong confrontations because of opposing circumstances and
challenging environments she passed through, especially the duration of the experience of suffering severe
persecutions and various sorts of trials that threatened
her survival had been so horrible. Those days had been
moments of walking in the shadow of death. This deep
experience of suffering had a tremendous contribution
towards the spiritual formation of the church. It had
much contribution in shaping the life of this church.
On the one hand, this horrible experience the church
had undergone in those days was so devastating and
destructive. The brutal action taken against Christianity
in general: The closing down of congregations, banning
of worship services, detention of many ministers, severe
trials and death of many ministers and church leaders,
and loss of church properties had severely damaged the
church. It was a duration when church properties were
confiscated and the existence of God and his church were
totally denied. It was a duration when many believers had
been brutally tortured, beaten, harassed, intimidated, lost
their jobs, detained, and faced various sorts of sufferings
and trials. Those evil moments were when many leaders and ministers of the gospel were brutally tortured to
death, when many top leaders like the Rev. Gudina Tumsa
suffered repeated imprisonments and faced a cruel death.
Especially, it was the moment when many young people
were atrociously tortured and faced various sorts of trials,
including being forced to deny Christ. As I myself have
been a partaker of these trials and sufferings, I testify this
as a living witness.
Nevertheless, all these horrible actions didnt and
couldnt stop the church from boldly declaring the
Lordship of Christ. Although heavily challenged, the survival of the church was certain because of Jesus promise.
The persecution couldnt move the church an inch from

her firm confession and witnessing to the Lordship of
Jesus in public. The church was counted worthy to suffer
and to sacrifice for Jesus. All these challenges and confrontations from the forces of evil couldnt prevail against
this church, as Jesus said. The words of Jesus, the gates
of hell cannot prevail against it, have been demonstrated
and proven in the experiences the church in Ethiopia
underwent. This severe persecution and test of faith
endured by the EECMY in those horrible days, even
though it shocked and rocked her foundation, did not
move her an inch from her firm confession.
The experience of this atrocious suffering, on the other
hand, made a great contribution towards the qualitative
and quantitative growth of the church. The experience of
persecution as stated above has contributed to the growth
of the church in many other aspects. First, it had a tremendous contribution to the numerical growth of the church.
The experience of persecution invigorated Christian witness. The testimony of heroes of faith during their trials
was a moving and powerful experience of witnessing for
Christ. It empowered the witness of the victims of this
suffering. Here, the words of the Rev. Tumsa, who was the
General Secretary of the EECMY, are worth mentioning.
He stated, We as Christians cannot simply tolerate a bad
situation and keep quiet. It is our duty to act, to speak,
and even risk our life. The power of the resurrection is
experienced only through death.7 Such bold and powerful witness has impacted many people and has drawn
many, even the persecuting cadres, to Christ.
There were instances where the cadres sent to congregational services for spying and closing churches ended
up joining the church, having been touched by Gods
power.8 As the ancient saying goes, The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Gospel. In a similar way, through
the seed sown during this horrible experience, the
church experienced a blooming growth and expansion.
As statistical reports show, the church had demonstrated

tremendous numeric growth during those years of
persecution. Numerically, the church increased in membership by 1.1 million during those seventeen years of
persecution.9
Second, the experience of persecution had a great
contribution towards qualitative growth of the church.
Qualitatively it had a great contribution to the spiritual
formation of the church, both on individual and community levels, enhancing the purity of faith. Persecution
detaches believers from the natural world and attaches
them to the supernatural world; it detaches from the
things of this world and attaches to the heavenly.10 It relegates the victims to the experience of losing things of
this world in order to gain Christ. Such a journey of faith
draws believers to the life of the cross with its absolute
dependency on God. Paul has spoken in support of this
view while sharing his own personal journey of faith to
the Philippians. Here he states that he sacrificed everything for Christ in order to gain him. He says:
But all those things that I might count as profit I
now reckon as loss for Christs sake. Not only those
things, I reckon everything as complete loss for the
sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
thrown everything away and consider it as mere
refuse, so that I may gain Christ and be completely
united with him. (Phil 3:79)
Third, persecution of faith has a great contribution to
transformation of life. It purifies faith like gold. In this
regard it is important to consider the words of Peter to
those who were facing persecution. He states:
In this you rejoice, though now for a little
while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your
faith more precious than gold that perishes
though it is tested by fire may be found to result
in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. (1 Pet 1:67)
Johannes Launhardt, Evangelicals in Addis Ababa (19191991): With

Special Reference to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church MekaneYesus and
the Addis Ababa Synod (Mnster: Lit Verlag, 2004), 248.
7
Launhardt, Evangelicals in Addis Ababa, 266. A different approach

was used to close the Entotto Mekane Yesus Church. During 1986
A man from the Security office called the pastor Qes Belina Sarka on
the telephone and asked him to bring the keys of the church. Belina
answered that he had to come himself and close the church if he had an
order to do so. The security agent called three times, but Belina did not
act. Finally, the man came himself with the intention to get the keys of
the church. Since the church was packed with people, the agent had to
wait for the end of the gathering. In the end of the service, however, he
decided to join the congregation.
8
According to Peter, suffering refines faith as gold is

refined by fire. It increases the vitality of faith.
Gudina Tumsa, Report on Church Growth in Ethiopia in Witness

and Discipleship (Gudina Tumsa Foundation: Addis Ababa, 2007), 138.
9
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, trans. R.H. Fuller (New

York: MacMillan, 1949), 73.
10
59
Fourth, the experience of persecution transformed the

ministry of the church. The closing down of the churches
and stopping of public worship by the government order
forced the church to operate underground where small
groups of people gathered for worship. This unique practice of ministry born in the midst of suffering in those
days continued effectively and is still in operation. As a
result, today most members of the church are structured
into small groups. Small group or cell group ministry is a
new experience the church explored during this horrible
time. The development of small group services contributed to the growth and multiplication of members. It
enhanced the growth of the church in two aspects. First,
it enhanced the numerical growth of the church as it provided better access to reach out to family members and
other unchurched people, as these small groups were
among the community and they were so close to individuals interested in the program. Second, it enhanced the
qualitative growth of the church as it was the best forum
of edification and nurturing of faith through the Bible
studies conducted, reflections, and sharing of testimony
of life. It also developed a strong mutuality as it was a
forum for sharing one anothers burdens through prayers.
Fifth, persecution introduced the victims to miraculous signs and wonders. During the time of persecution,
events occurred that had no natural explanation. Under
torture, courageous Christians bore witness and stood
firm in the face of their adversaries. To stay firm in the
confession under threat of death is a miracle and a gift of
God. The bold witness of these Christians even at times of
their trials led their tormentors to Christ. Some victims
were tortured to the point of death, yet lived even when
medical science said they should not recover or even that
they should die. These people were healed through the
prayers of the church and lived to continue to share the
gospel.11 All these testimonies demonstrate the secret of
Launhart, Evangelicals in Addis Ababa, 246. One day an armed cadre
entered the room of the prisoners and asked for a girl called Gennet.
Since two girls among the detained had that name, both were taken
out of the room. At first the younger Gennet was cross-examined,
threatened, and beaten. When the cadre failed to get the answers he
was expecting, he took his pistol, drilled it into Gennets acoustic
duct and deafened her. Next Gennet Leul Seged was interrogated. She
was stripped of her clothes, thrown to the ground, and beaten. When
these measures did not work one of the most cruel torturing methods,
called wofei lala, was applied. Gennet Leul Seged claims that she felt,
consciously, only the first hard blow on her feet. Then she experienced
that even in this situation Christ was close to her. After two months of
imprisonment and harassment the Bethel youth group was released.
None of them had given up their faith. The two girls called Gennet,
however, were badly injured. They saw many doctors but without
success. Finally, the hearing of the younger Gennet was restored while
11
60
rejoicing in suffering. The apostle James affirms this fact

in his writing to the saints undergoing tests of faith:
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials
of various kinds, for you know that the testing of
your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect
and complete, lacking in nothing. (Jas 1:24)
This was the secret that turned things upside down
and resulted in this great victory in the midst of severe
suffering. It was the fact that the church is founded on a
strong base, Christ.
The Joy in the Experience of His (the Lords) Glory

The second joy, as it has been stated above, is the joy in the
glory of the Lord. This was the experience that followed
the suffering. As a result, today the EECMY rejoices in
this special joy of celebrating the glory of the Lord. This
part deals with this special joy we experience in the Lord.
The EECMY, established in the late 1950s after a century-old labor of the western missionary endeavor with
20,000 baptized members, has now skyrocketed to 7.8
million members, organized into 8,500 congregations
and 4,000 plus preaching places (mission stations). This
incredible growth from 20,000 to 7.8 million members
taking place in so short a time span is another proof of the
strength of the foundation on which the church has built
and the mighty power working in the church.
The history of the EECMY after the downfall of the
Communist government has been a history of great
success and achievement. It was the moment when the
power and authority Jesus granted to his church has been
publicly displayed. It has been when the closed down
churches resumed their public worship. It has been the
duration when the formerly confiscated properties of the
church have been returned.
This moment after the downfall of this evil government has been the duration when the church upheld high
the keys of heaven entrusted to her in declaring Christ
in public loudly, making use of facilities the Communist
government built for running its evil purposes, like revolutionary squares, stadiums, and big meeting halls. As
a result, this moment has been a duration of flourishing growth and expansion, when the former persecutors
and cadres joined the church, repenting of their former
a Bethel youth group prayed for her, and Gennet Leul Segeds leg was
restored to health during a prayer meeting in the Bole Meserete Kristos
Church, on 21 December 1978.
sinful actions and practices. This duration has been which she has been established, the rock that no earthly
when the EECMY demonstrated spectacular growth in power can move and overcome, neither hell nor heaven
all aspects, especially in membership growth. As the sta- can prevail against it. It calls upon the contemporary
tistical reports of the church show, the growth in the last church surrounded with multiple strange doctrines and
twenty-five years since the downfall of the Communist confusing philosophical thoughts to stand firm, adhering
government has been explosive. By the end of the down- to her sound biblical doctrine (Eph 2:19) and shining to the
fall of that government, there were 1.5 million members. decaying world, full of darkness and despair, upholding
Today, the membership of the church, according to the the message of the cross without shying off and retreating.
2015 statistical report, is over 7.8 million.
It calls upon the contemporary church to strongly resist
Especially, the present numeric growth of this church the devil and principalities of evil forces operating in our
since the launching of her Five Year Strategic Plan was global context from snatching the keys of the kingdom out
so spectacular. This strategic plan, which is the first of of her hand, standing firm on her confessional ground. It
its kind, launched as of January 2013 and has had a very calls upon us to be watchful of the signs of the time and
significant effect on the growth of the church, especially be careful on how we walk, as Paul says, so that we may
in increasing the involvement of the laity in mission. no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and
Among the many strategic goals incorcarried out by every wind of doctrine, by
porated in this plan, the mission of
human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful
Rejoice in the
sharing the gospel with thirty million
schemes (Eph 4:14). It also calls upon the
cross of Jesus; the
unreached people in that time span
contemporary church, drowned in the
gates
of
hell
will
(20132017) within and outside the
sea of the globalized world, to reclaim the
not prevail against keys of the kingdom entrusted to her in
nation has shown fabulous and fruitful
results. The comparison of the results
earnest prayer and repentance.
the church!
achieved before and after the implemenFurthermore, this essay calls on the
tation of this plan, which means contrasting before and contemporary confessional Lutheran churches to be
after 2013, shows a tremendous difference. It increased watchful and critical of the evils of the day with spiritual
the yearly numeric growth of the church from a three discernment and join hands in fighting them. Especially
percent to an eight percent average. The major factor for it is a time when we, churches of the same theological
such drastic change was the mobilization of the laity in position, need to join hands and wrestle against these
evangelism. In this regard it is worthwhile to mention the forces of evil, holding up high the banner of the cross,
participation of the laity in summer evangelism, which declaring boldly in public the Lordship of Christ and the
has displayed spectacular results. The mobilization of the unchanging gospel in the changing world without any
laity in summer evangelism has been conducted in the retreat that Jesus is still a living God, the Christ, the Son of
last three years as part of the strategic plan. This summer, God, and the only way of salvation. Rejoice in the cross of
from 15-30 August 2016, it has been planned to share Jesus; the gates of hell will not prevail against the church!
the gospel with five million unchurched people through
Therefore:
mobilizing 5,000 congregations and receiving one million
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without
new members into the church. This spectacular accomwavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let
plishment is another source of our joy. We therefore
us consider how to stir up one another to love and
rejoice in the Lord for this great blessing. We rejoice in
good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is
him in both our pains and blessings.
the habit of some, but encouraging one another,
Conclusion
The above enumerated facts in our essay, based on the
reflection on the experiences of the faith journey of the
EECMY, depict the secret of rejoicing in the Lord in every
circumstance, good or evil. It calls upon the contemporary
church to keep on rejoicing in the Lord and him alone,
standing firm on the unwavering solid foundation on
and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
(Heb 10:23-25)
May the gracious Almighty God bless the convention!
The Rev. Dr. Berhanu Ofgaa is general secretary of the
Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus.
61
Discover the priorities and

specific areas of concern
A Theological Statement
for Mission in the 21st Century
that call for particular

emphasis for the mission
efforts of the LCMS.*
by Matthew C. Harrison
Background
eflecting our commitment to the document, A Theological Statement of Mission. Just as

proclamation of the gospel, The Lutheran the current document is the result of a Synod convention
ChurchMissouri
Synod
(LCMS)
in resolution (2013 Res. 1-031A), the 1991 CTCR docuconvention has adopted resolutions in support of ment was produced as a result of a Synod convention
missions for decades. In 1986, for example, Resolution resolution (1986 Res. 3-02). For decades, the Missouri
3-02 was adopted, resulting in the 1991 publication Synod has passed resolutions in conventions in support
of A Theological Statement of Mission by the LCMS of mission. This reflects how the Missouri Synod takes
seriously Christs mandate for the gospel
Commission on Theology and Church
to be proclaimed to the entire world. The
Relations (CTCR). As the context both
1991 CTCR statement on mission and
domestically and internationally has
Christ
himself
is
the current document demonstrate how
changed since the end of the twentieth
the content of the
each generation and age of the church
century, it is helpful to express the
must confess and put into practice
gospel, and thus
timeless truths of Gods desire to save all
the faith given to us by our Lord Jesus
people in contextual and contemporary
of the churchs
Christ. The two documents, while writlanguage for the situations the church
mission of Witness
ten in different styles, are in harmony
encounters in the present age.
(martyria),
Mercy
with one another, expressing the same
Most recently, Resolution 1-03A was
(diakonia), Life
truths about Christs mission and the
adopted in 2013, calling for the develTogether (koinonia). churchs response to our Lords mandate.
opment of a Theological Statement of
In fact, the CTCR statement on mission
Mission for the 21st Century by the
states about itself, This statement was
end of 2014 that would form the basis
not envisioned as an end in itself but as a tool that would
for Synod-wide study of the subject.
In fulfillment of this resolution, A Theological be available for possible use by the various units of the
Statement for Mission in the 21st Century was devel- Synod as they seek to develop their own individual misoped and adopted by the Board for International Mission sion statements. In this regard, the 1991 CTCR statement
(BIM) and the Board for National Mission (BNM). This has served as a helpful tool. In like manner, the following
version was published in the Journal of Lutheran Mission, statement seeks to be a helpful tool for the present time. It
March 2014, pages 60-69. The Commission on Theology is a consideration of various aspects of the churchs misand Church Relations (CTCR) reviewed, provided feed- sion in a way that is consistent with Synods three-fold
back, and helped revise the final version, which was emphasis on Witness (martyria), Mercy (diakonia), Life
commended to the Synod in Convention 2016 Resolution Together (koinonia).1 Although the following document
5-18, To Commend A Theological Statement for Mission
for the 21st Century for Synod-wide Study and Use.
1 Witness, Mercy, Life Together is an attempt to describe what the
*In November 1991, the LCMS Commission on church always has done proclaim the gospel, care for peoples bodily
needs, and have fellowship and community together as the church.
Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) released a Relating these themes to the Greek nouns martyria, diakonia, and
62
seeks to address mission from a distinctively Lutheran

theological perspective, it is not a missiology per se. As
such, it will not engage the wide variety of perspectives
found in that discipline, reflect the many fine contributions of various scholars in that field, or address all of the
practicalities of mission practice. Rather, it seeks to set
forth priorities and specific areas of concern that call for
particular emphasis for the mission efforts of the LCMS
at this time.2
1. God. Where the Holy Trinity is present via the gospel

and received in faith, there cannot but be Witness (martyria3), Mercy (diakonia4), Life Together (koinonia5). These
koinonia is not a suggestion that they are either translation equivalents
or full conceptual parallels. Whatever titles are given to such churchly
work or whatever terms are used, these activities have been a part of
the churchs life since the beginning. See Albert B. Collvers Witness,
Mercy, Life Together: Bible Study (Saint Louis, Missouri: Concordia
Publishing House), 2011. In Mission from the Cross: The Lutheran
Theology of Mission (Saint Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing
House, 2009), Klaus Detlev Schulz describes both the Trinitarian nature
of mission (see chapter 6, 8797) as well as the activities of the church
and Christians that could be summarized by terms such as Witness,
Mercy, Life Together. Schulz adds the idea of leitourgia as he diagrams
the churchs work (237). He also refers (1) to the work of proclamation,
confession and witness (see 1417, 161167), (2) to the churchs
diakonia (101104), and (3) to the church as a new community (see
chapter 13).
2
For a helpful and trustworthy guide to the particular discipline of

missiology, Schulzs work, mentioned in the previous footnote,
Mission from the Cross, is noteworthy. It thoroughly engages the field
of missiology and the work of various other missiologists and
constructs a distinctively Lutheran missiology that is relevant for our
particular time.
While the term martyria can be translated witness, its frequent if
not primary application in the New Testament is to the testimony of
the apostolic eyewitnesses of our Lord. This is true of the noun and
its verbal cognates in the book of Acts, in the Gospel of John, and
elsewhere in the New Testament. Here it is used in the more general
sense of the churchs proclamation.
3
The diakon- word group is the subject of significant discussion in

contemporary exegetical circles and is never translated as mercy
(eleos is the Greek word for mercy). While the lexical understanding of
the language of diakonia and related terms has undergone significant
change, the idea that the word group may include such things as
rendering specific aid, service, help, or other expressions of mercy
cannot be doubted. The word diakonia is recognized by many English
speaking people because the words deacon and deaconess are
derived from it. Translations of the New Testament often render it
as ministry or service. It is used here to denote acts of mercy
or mercy in action. This fits with the use of the verbal cognate of
diakonia to describe the work of Jesus and his merciful sacrifice in
Matthew 20:28 (Mark 10:45). The noun is used to describe the charitable
work of Christians in Romans 15:25 and 2 Corinthians 8:1920. The
noun diakonia is used in a similar way in Acts 11:29; 2 Corinthians 9:1,
12.
4
Life together is not a translation for koinonia, which is normally

rendered by terms such as communion, fellowship, participation,
or sharing. Life together is a helpful expression, however, that captures
an essential aspect of the churchs fellowship/participation/sharing,
since such koinonia is what the life of Christians together with one
5
three reflect Gods very being as Creator, Redeemer and

Sanctifier,6 and they encompass his holy and gracious will
for all in Christ Jesus namely that all come to believe in
and bear witness to Christ, reflect divine compassion, and
live together in forgiveness, love, and joy in the church
(AC I [Kolb-Wengert, 37]).7
2. Humanity. It is the deepest offense to natural man

that, apart from the life-giving witness of God in Christ,
he is blind, dead and an enemy of God (Eph 2:89); incapable of true fear of God and true faith in God (AC II,
1 [Kolb-Wengert, 3639]; 1 Cor 1:2225); and is, therefore,
helpless under the damning and merciless hammer of
divine law (Jer 23:29). The condemnation of the law knows
no respect for persons, much less class, ethnicity or sex.
The witness of the gospel (word and sacrament) is the sole
source of life for the dead, the only remedy for sin, death
and the devil. Thus, the entire life of the Christian individual and the church is lived in and for the fact that the
Son of man came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).
3. Christ, the content of the Gospel. Christ himself is

the content of the gospel, and thus of the churchs mission
of Witness (martyria), Mercy (diakonia), Life Together
(koinonia). The gospel is defined by Christs person, words
and works, and it transcends time and space. Just as Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, so
the gospel is the unique once-for-all offering of Christ,
the God-man, for the sins of the world (Heb 10:10). The
blood of Jesus Christ, Gods Son, cleanses us from all sin
(1 John 1:7). The work is finished and completed. Christ
has acquired and won the treasure for us by His sufferings, death, and resurrection (LC II, 38 [Kolb-Wengert,
436]). The communication of the gospel may vary culture
another is all about.
6
The use of these economic titles for the Triune God [Creator,
Redeemer, Sanctifier] echoes Luthers Small Catechism and should
not in any way be taken to imply avoidance of the biblical name of the
Blessed Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
7
Please note that this document wishes only to echo the catholic
faith of one God in three Persons (Athanasian Creed 13, KW 24).
Therefore, to reflect Gods very being is not to define the blessed
Trinity, nor is it to suggest that the triad of Witness, Mercy, Life Together
fully encompasses the entirety of Gods attributes. Rather, it simply
expresses that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are perfectly united in the
work of witness, mercy, and life together as they create, redeem, and
sanctify. The work of witness reflects the Word who is God; the work
of mercy reflects God who is love; and the work of life together reflects
the Trinity in unity as well as the mystical union between Christ and his
church. This also echoes the CTCRs Theological Statement of Mission
which stated: Mission begins in the heart of God and expresses his
great love for the world. It is the Lords gracious initiative and ongoing
activity to save a world incapable of saving itself (5).
63
to culture, but the fundamental definition of the gospel as

justification is timeless because it is biblical (Rom 3:2126;
4:5). [W]e receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God out of grace, for Christs sake through
faith when we believe that Christ has suffered for us and
that for His sake our sin is forgiven (AC IV, 1 [KolbWengert, 38, 40]).
and administering the sacraments was instituted (AC V,

1 [Kolb-Wengert, 41]). Thus the church, the assembly of
all believers in Christ, is found where the word of God is
found, where the gospel is purely preached and the holy
sacraments are administered according to the gospel
(AC VII, 1 [Kolb-Wengert, 42]). The word of God
read, spoken, proclaimed will not return to God empty
but will accomplish his purpose (Isa 55:1011) and will
4. Christ, the Source and Model for the life of faith. bring people to faith in Christ where and when it pleases
Faith lays hold of Christ, and from him it is enlivened and God in those who hear the gospel (AC V, 2 [Kolbgiven its impulse and model for Witness (martyria), Mercy Wengert, 41]). That is why the church is not recognized
(diakonia), Life Together (koinonia). Jesus spends himself by individual faith or works, which may be invented or
completely (Mark 1:38) to bear witness as the Son of God contrived, but by these external marks, the pure teaching
sent for the salvation of the world (John 3:16). Jesus has of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments
compassion on the needy within and outside the commu- in harmony with the gospel of Christ (AP VII and VIII
nity of faith (Mark 7:28). Jesus establishes a community
[KolbWengert, 174]).9 Therefore, where the word of
of believers who are brothers and sisters (Acts 2; Mark
God is found; where Holy Absolution
3:31 ff.), who are not to lord it over each
is proclaimed (the specific announceother (Matt 20:25) but to live together
ment of the forgiveness of sins for the
Bearing witness
in forgiveness (Matt 18), love (John 15)
sake of Christ); where Holy Baptism is
to the saving good
and mutual service (John 15:12; Mark
done in the name of the Father, Son and
news of God for
10:45; Phlm 2). Oh, faith is a living, busy,
Holy Spirit; where Christs true body and
active, mighty thing, so that it is imposus in Jesus is the
blood are given by his word of promsible for it not to be constantly doing
fundamental task of ise, there you will find the church, the
what is good (FC SD IV, 10 [Tappert,
assembly of believers in Christ, and there
the church
1011]). While the churchs work of
you will find Christ himself. Moreover,
(Matt 28:19).
extending of Christs Witness (martyria),
where Christs church is located in the
Mercy (diakonia), Life Together (koinoword and sacraments, there you will find
nia) in community will always be but a weak reflection of Witness (martyria), Mercy (diakonia), Life Together (koihis own, where there is no Witness, Mercy, Life Together nonia) (Gal 2:89).
in forgiveness and love, there is no church, no faith in
Christ.8 To paraphrase Luther, Christ is both sacramen- 6. Witness is the sacred and fundamental task of the
tum and exemplum, both sacrament (gift) and model for church. Bearing witness to the saving good news of God
the Christian.
for us in Jesus is the fundamental task of the church
(Matt 28:19). This leads to the making of disciples. The
5. The saving word of God. Gods means of bringing apostolic witness is connected to the death and ressalvation in Christ is the word of God proclaimed: The urrection of Jesus Christ. The preaching of the gospel
word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that consistently proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah promised
is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you by the Old Testament Scriptures, preached the damning
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in law in full force (You killed the author of life [Acts 3:15])
your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will and preached forgiveness through repentance, faith and
be saved (Rom 10:89). So that we may obtain this faith, Holy Baptism. This apostolic message is to predominate
our confession says, the ministry of teaching the gospel proclamation by called preachers within the community
of believers, the proclamation of evangelists to those out8 This is not to suggest that, in some wooden fashion, Witness, Mercy,
Life Together are the marks of the church in the sense of AC VII. It
side the church, and the witness of every Christian in the
seeks only to emphasize that where the gospel is rightly preached and
context of his or her vocations in life. It is the sacred task
sacramentally administered, there the Holy Spirit will be creating faith
through the witness of Christs gospel. Such faith will result in active
love of the neighbor (mercy) and will sustain the fellowship of believers
(life together). See 5 below.
64
Compare with Ignatius, The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans:

Where Christ Jesus is, there is the catholic church, 8.
of preachers to know the Scriptures ever more profoundly as the gospel of the incarnation; humiliation and exuland constantly to seek to improve the craft of preaching tation of Christ; his Baptism and ours; Absolution; the
that the gospel may be preached in its biblical fullness and Holy Supper; the doctrines of grace, conversion, elecwith clarity to its hearers. It is the sacred task of preach- tion, bound will and more. The gospel is, in fact, replete
ers to equip the saints to bear witness to Jesus to their throughout the Scriptures and to be applied pervasively
friends, family, and others who are placed before them in and winsomely in manifold ways according to the need
their daily vocations. The word of God is equally effective of the hearers. As confession, the witness of the gospel
for salvation, whether proclaimed by Christ, the angels, rejoices in standing for the creedal truth as it is in Jesus. It
called preachers, or shared by common Christians among is as simple as the earliest confessions of the faith (Jesus
one another, or with those who do not yet know Christs Christ is Lord, Phil 2:11; LC II, 27) or the Small Catechism
forgiveness (Isa 55:11).10 In order to carry on Christs or as replete as the Nicene Creed or the Formula of
witness into the world, the church is entrusted with train- Concord. The churchs goal is always witness unto saling, teaching, and making pastors
vation in the simple message of
through theological education. This
salvation by the blood of Jesus and
witness will accompany the churchs
growth into the full confession of
The word of God is
corporate work of mercy (the
the orthodox Lutheran faith. The
equally effective for
mercy is Christs) and will dominate
Lutheran church rejoices that salsalvation, whether
the churchs life together. Where
vation is found wherever simple
proclaimed by Christ, the
Christ is not preached, there is no
faith in Jesus and his merits is
angels,
called
preachers,
Holy Spirit who creates, calls, and
found, but it always seeks a witgathers the Christian Church, withness and confession consisting of
or shared by common
out which no one comes to Christ
the whole council of God (Acts
Christians among one
the Lord (LC II, 45).
20:27). Lutheran mission is creedal
another, or with those
Dr. C. F. W. Walther asked to
and catholic.
who do not yet know
whom the responsibility to preach
8. Mercy as sacred vocation. The
Christs forgiveness.
the gospel among all people of
church is Christs body, and as such,
the earth has been committed. He
she continues his life of mercy as a
answered:
witness to the love of God for body and soul. The church
Here we see that it is the people of the New Testahas a corporate life of mercy toward those within the
ment, or the Holy Christian Church, that God has
orthodox fellowship of believers, toward the broader
prepared or established, to show forth His praise in
community of Christians and to those outside the church
all the world. That means that the church is to make
(Gal 6:10). The church can no more ignore the physical
known the great works of God for the salvation of
needs of people than Christ could have refused to permen, or that which is the same thing, to preach the
form healings or persons can be separated into body and
Gospel to every creature. Even Isaiah gives this tessoul in this life. Thus, the early church heartily and vigtimony, having been enlightened by the Holy Spirit:
orously continued Jesus ministry of healing and care for
The true mission society that has been instituted by
the needy (Acts 6; 2 Cor 89). This witness, through mercy
God is nothing else than the Christian church itself,
accompanying the gospel, has been a missiological force
that is the totality of all those who from the heart
of the church in its great periods of advancement, espebelieve in Jesus Christ.11
cially in times of desperate need and persecution. The care
for the widows (Acts 6) and Pauls collection for Jerusalem
7. Witness and confession. Witness and confession are (2 Cor 8-9) are the great prototypical models for mercy for
two inseparable aspects of the churchs life in this world. the church for all time. We care for people in need, not
Witness to Christ is as simple as John 3:16 but as fulsome with any ulterior motive, nor even in order to proclaim
the gospel. We proclaim the gospel and care for the needy
10 See also 16 below.
because thats who Christ is, and that is who we are as the
11 C. F. W. Walther, The Mission Society Established By God, in The
church in this world (John 14; Acts 4:12).
Word of His Grace (Lake Mills: Graphic Publishing Co., 1978), 20.
65
9. Life Together as bestowed and lived. Our Life
bear witness is to speak not of ourselves but of another

Together in Christs church is not acquired by human Christ Jesus. The apostolic church is sent to repeat the
decision or merit; it is a gift. Just as one does not elect witness of the apostles that Jesus Christ, true God and
ones own family, so we are brought into Christs holy true man, is the only Lord who saves.
people by the action of the Triune God. God is faithful,
You notice, said Luther, that concern for the poor
by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, is the other work of the apostles.13 Saint Paul exhorts the
Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor 1:9). The Lord has called, church to care for the poor. In the third century, Tertullian
gathered, enlightened and sanctified us through the wrote how the pagans would say of the Christians, See
gospel to live together as his church. Life in this commu- how they love one another.14 The way that the church
nity is a gift that entails responsibility. We see this in Pauls cares for the needs of those within the church is a witness
exhortation to Ephesians to bear with one another in love, to the world. Yet the mercy of God does not stay within
eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of the church but goes out from the household of faith into
peace (Eph 4:3), even as he is quick
the entire world.
to add that we were called into the
[W]e preach the Gospel,
one body of Christ and faith in a
said
Luther while commenting on
Going about our daily
singular Lord. We cannot create
Galatians 2:9,
vocation as baptized
the unity of the body of Christ; that
in unanimous consensus with
members of Christs royal
is given. But we are to be on guard
you. There we are companions in
priesthood, we testify to
against teachings and practices that
doctrine and have fellowship in
would tempt us away from the one
Christ, speaking his saving it; that is, we have the same docLord, the one faith and the one
word, the same word we
trine. For we preach one Gospel,
Baptism that keep us in union with
regularly hear in preaching one Baptism, one Christ, and one
the one God and Father of us all.
faith. Therefore we cannot teach
10. Witness, Mercy, Life Together
and the same word we

read for ourselves in Holy
Scripture (e.g., through
personal and family
devotions).
in the apostolic church. The apostles testified to Witness (martyria),

Mercy (diakonia), Life Together
(koinonia) in the apostolic church.
An example of this can be found
in Galatians 2:7, 910. The apostles divided up the task of proclamation (witness) to the
circumcised and the uncircumcised. The apostles remembered the poor (mercy). The apostles extended the right
hand of fellowship (life together).
Bearing witness, says Luther, is nothing but Gods
Word spoken by angels or men, and it calls for faith.12
In Acts 1:8, the risen Lord says of his apostles that they
will be his witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and
Samaria and beyond those borders to the end of the earth.
It is the apostles who with their own eyes have seen the
Lord, touched him with their own hands and heard his
voice with their ears (see 1 John 1:14), who are designated
witnesses. We are witnesses only in the derived sense that
our words echo the reliable testimony of the apostles. To
Martin Luther, Lectures on Zechariah (1527) in Luthers Works, vol.
20, ed., Walther Miller, trans. Hilton Oswald (Saint Louis: Concordia
12
66
or command anything so far as

you are concerned, for we are
completely agreed in everything.
For we do not teach anything different from what you teach; nor
is it better or sublimer.15
The life together of the apostles was based upon

having the same foundation in Jesus Christ, that is, holding to the same doctrine. This life together is not created
by us but by the Lord. When the same doctrine is recognized in another Christian or in a church body, we have a
life together.
11. On being Lutheran today for the sake of Witness,

Mercy, Life Together. The Gospel and Baptism must
Martin Luther, Luthers Works, Volume 27: Lectures on Galatians,

1535, Chapters 56; Lectures on Galatians, 1519, Chapters 16, eds.
Jaroslav Pelikan, Walter A. Hansen (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 1964), 210.
13
Tertullian, Volume 3: Apology 39.6 AnteNicene Fathers, eds.

Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Peabody: Hendrickson
Publishing, 1996), 46.
14
Martin Luther, Luthers Works, Vol. 26: Lectures on Galatians, 1535,

Chapters 14, eds. Jaroslav Pelikan, Walter A. Hansen (Saint Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1963), 104.
15
traverse the world,16 said Luther. This is what Lutheran

missions care about faithfully preaching repentance
and faith in Jesus name, baptizing and teaching so that
those who belong to Christ in every nation are built up
in his word and fed with his body and blood. Mission
is, to use the words of Wilhelm Lhe, the one church
of God in motion, calling, gathering and enlightening
unbelievers through the pure teaching of the gospel. This
definition lies at the heart of what it means to be Lutheran
in mission. Lutheran mission is defined by an unqualified
(quia) subscription to The Book of Concord as the correct
exposition of the Holy Scriptures. We are in harmony in
the one biblical gospel and the Sacraments instituted by
Christ. Rejecting theological pluralism and its offspring
universalism, Lutheran mission is grounded in the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ, knowing outside of his word,
which is spirit and life, there is only darkness and death.
12. The church today as a community of Witness,

Mercy, Life Together. When the German mission leader
and theologian of the last generation, Friedrich Wilhelm
Hopf (19101982), asserted, The Lutheran Church can
only do Lutheran missions, he was observing that the
Lutheran confession is inseparable from mission.17 There
is no church without mission, and no mission without the
church. Evangelism becomes the churchs mission when
its goal is gaining souls for the local community of believers and planting the church as a witnessing, merciful
community of believers. When confession and mission
are pulled apart, both suffer. Mission without confession
is reduced to zealous fanaticism. There can be no confession without mission for confession takes place before
God and in the presence of a listening world. The mouth
of confession is the voice of mission always proclaiming
that Jesus Christ is the God who justifies the ungodly,
giving life to the dead in the forgiveness of sins. And this
forgiveness of sins is found only in the Christian church
where the Holy Spirit daily and richly forgives all my
sins and the sins of all believers, to use the words of the
Small Catechism. That is why, in the Book of Acts, those
who received the preaching of the apostles were baptized,
being added to the church, says Luke (Acts 2:41). In the
church created by mission, which has at its heart the
Werner Elert, Structure of Lutheranism (Saint Louis: Concordia
16
17
Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf, The Lutheran Church Plants Lutheran

Missions, trans. Matthew C. Harrison and Rachel Mumme, Journal of
Lutheran Mission (April 2015).
preaching of the gospel, those brought to faith devoted

themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, the
breaking of bread and the prayers (Acts 2:42). Church
and mission go together; you do not have the one without
the other.
The claim, no doubt disputed in our day, that Lutheran
missions lead to Lutheran churches is far from a parochial
appeal to brand-name loyalty or mere denominationalism.18 Instead, it is the recognition that the Holy Spirit
calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies a holy Christian
people through the pure preaching of the gospel and
sacraments administered according to the divine word.
Lutherans are glued to the scriptural truth that the Spirit
works faith in the hearts of those who hear the good news
of Jesus crucified and risen when and where it pleases
him. Faith is not created by human enthusiasm, crusades for social justice or strategic planning. Faith comes
through the word of the cross. Thats what Lutheran mission is given to proclaim. It is precisely in this Lutheran
understanding of mission that mercy and life together
converge.
Lutheran mission celebrates First Article gifts of language and culture. Lutheran mission has no interest in
changing the culture of a people as long as those conventions and culture are not sinful. In fact, Lutheran mission,
as found in the Reformation, seeks to bring the gospel to
people in their native language. Lutheran mission teaches
that Christian churches are to be subject to the governing authorities and do not engage in revolution. Lutheran
mission seeks to build capacity in the newly planted
churches so that, in the unity of faith and confession,
these younger churches may mature and live as true partners together with us in Witness, Mercy, Life Together.
13. Word of God. The Triune God is a speaking God.

By his spoken word, the Father brought creation into
existence (Gen 1:12; Ps 33:6; John 1:13). Christ, who is the
eternal Logos, speaks his words, which are spirit and life
(John 6:63). The word of Christs death and resurrection
the message of Gods reconciliation of sinners to himself
is preached. It is this preaching that creates faith since
18 Neither is this claim intended to be sectarian in nature. The Holy
Spirit is at work wherever the gospel is preached and the sacraments
are administered and, therefore, there exists throughout the world
under various names the catholic church (that assembly which holds
the catholic faith; see Athanasian Creed). Lutherans thank God for that
reality, but it is not a reason to minimize the importance of Lutheran
churches exercising their missionary responsibilities in a way that
is fully faithful to their Confessions, thus producing new Lutheran
churches.
67
faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word

of Christ (Rom 10:17). The Holy Spirit was breathed out
by Jesus to his apostles on Easter evening (see John 20:22)
and inspired them to put his word into writing so that
you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing you may have life in His name (John
20:31). It is through the prophetic and apostolic witness to
Christ delivered to us in the Holy Scriptures the Spiritinspired and inerrant word of God that we have access
to Jesus and life with him (see 2 Tim 3:15 and 2 Pet 1:1621).
The Holy Scriptures are to be interpreted in light of their
being given by the Triune God. The exegesis of the Holy
Scriptures cannot contradict their inspiration.19 Both
interpreter and context stand under the Holy Scriptures
and are, in fact, interpreted by the divine word. The internal clarity of Scripture is mediated through the external
clarity of its own words. Far from being an imposition on
the Bible, the right distinction of the law from the gospel
is nothing other than the distinction between letter
and Spirit (see 2 Cor 3:118). Without this distinction,
the Holy Scriptures remain a dark book (see AP IV, 56
[Kolb-Wengert, 121]; FC SD V, 127 [Kolb-Wengert,
581586]).
The Scriptures stand in the service of preaching.
Preaching that conforms to the prophetic and apostolic
Scriptures is the oral word of God and, therefore, a means
of grace. Preaching is never merely descriptive but always
a kerygmatic, efficacious proclamation that delivers condemnation to secure sinners and consolation to those
broken by their sin. Preaching is always a speaking of
either the law or the gospel in the present tense, creating
repentance and faith in those who hear, where and when
it pleases God (see Isa 55:1011; AC V, 23 [Kolb-Wengert,
4041]).
Preaching is not limited to the sermon but is also
individualized in the absolution where Gods servant is
entrusted to speak words that forgive sins now (see John
20: 2123; SC V, 1529 [Tappert, 349351]).20 The absolution is eschatological, that is, it brings the verdict of the
last day into time as Christ says, I forgive you your sins.
The absolution leaves no room for doubt for it is Gods
own word of promise to be trusted in life and death.
14. Baptism. Baptism is far more than a rite of initiation.

Oswald Bayer, Theology as Askesis, in Gudstankens aktualitet, trans.
E. M. Wiberg Pedersen, et. al. (Copenhagen: Forlaget ANIS, 2010), 49.
19
20
This is included under Baptism originally; see Kolb-Wengert,

360362.
68
While it is a line of demarcation between unbelief and

faith and hence not optional for mission, it is more than
an entry point into the Christian life. Dr. C. F. W. Walther
wrote, Let us never forget that through Holy Baptism we
have all joined the mission society which God Himself has
established.21 Baptism is best thought of as present tense,
hence, I am baptized and not I was baptized.22 Luther
notes, I am baptized, and through my baptism God, who
cannot lie, has bound himself in a covenant with me.23
Baptism is the Triune Gods gift whereby he demonstrates
his mercy by bestowing on us a new birth (see John 3: 36;
1 Pet 1:35; Titus 3:47). Baptized into his own name (Matt
28:1820), we have Gods own pledge and witness that we
belong to him through the forgiveness of sins (see Acts
2:3839) and are heirs according to the promise (Rom 6:1
11; Gal 3:2629; Col 2:1214). Therefore, Baptism will not be
withheld from infants or from new converts to the faith.
Since it is by Baptism that we are joined to the body of
Christ (see 1 Cor 12:1213), this sacrament is foundational
for our life together.
15. Lords Supper. Hermann Sasse described the sacrament of the altar as the churchs heartbeat.24 In this
sacrament, Christ gives his body and blood under bread
and wine for us Christians to eat and to drink. It is his
testament in which he bestows the fruits of his saving
sacrifice on the cross: His body given into death and his
blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Luther underscores the forgiveness of sins in the Small Catechism as he
engages in a threefold repetition of the words given for
you and shed for the forgiveness of sins. These words
show us that the sacrament of the altar is the testament of
Gods sure mercy for sinners. When we come to eat and
drink Christs body and blood, we come as beggars to the
feast of heaven. In this sacrament, we are not accessing
Christ by liturgical mimesis;25 rather we are proclaiming
21
Walther, The Mission Society, 24.
22
Thus Christians live in our baptism through confession and

absolution. By Gods grace we daily return to our baptism as we crucify
the old man in confession of sin and rise in accord with the new man
in holy absolution (the forgiveness of sins). This gift therefore keeps the
objective nature of Gods grace ever before us so that we do not fall into
relying on our experience or emotion. For these reasons we also strive
to retain individual confession and absolution in the church.
Martin Luther, Luthers Works, Vol. 35: Word and Sacrament I, eds.
Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton Oswald, Helmut Lehmann (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1999), 36.
23
Hermann Sasse, We Confess the Sacraments, trans. Norman Nagel

(Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1985), 151.
24
25
Mimesis means imitation, mimicry.
the Lords death until he comes (see 1 Cor 11:26). Eating

and drinking in the Lords Supper do not create life
together (koinonia) but confess and express this unity we
have in the proclamation of Christs death. Life together
(koinonia) in confessing him is always Christs work and
Christs gift by his word. Hence the practice of closed
Communion is a necessary corollary of the doctrine of
the Lords Supper.26 Bringing contradiction in teaching or
life in the Holy Communion fails to give witness to Christ
and what he gives us in and with his body and blood.
16. Priesthood of the baptized. The apostle Peter writes

to those who have been born again to a living hope
(1 Pet 1:3), that is, to those who are baptized into Jesus
death. He describes us as living stones that are built up
as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
(1 Pet 2:5). This priesthood is holy, that is, it is cut off from
the uncleanness of sin and set apart to live by faith in Jesus
Christ. Notice that the New Testament does not speak of
us as individual priests, each going his or her own way
and doing the work of a priest for ourselves. Rather the
New Testament speaks of our lives lived within a company of priests, a priesthood.
The priesthood offers spiritual sacrifices. These are not
sacrifices that atone for sin.27 Jesus did that once and for
26
The Missouri Synod has used different nomenclature to express the

idea of closed Communion at various times in her history. Different
terms have been used to describe the same doctrine and practice.
The terms closed Communion, close Communion and close(d)
Communion are equivalent terms. Article VI of the Missouri Synods
Constitution states as a condition of membership in the Synod,
Renunciation of unionism and syncretism of every description.
Article VI:b provides additional clarification by defining unionism
and syncretism as Taking part in the services and sacramental rites of
heterodox congregations or of congregations of mixed confession. The
practice of closed Communion then precludes receiving Communion
at churches that hold heterodox positions. The Missouri Synod has
adopted Dr. C. F. W. Walthers Church and the Office of the Ministry as
its official position in 2001 (Res. 7-17A). In Thesis VIII of Walthers
Church and the Office of the Ministry, Walther writes, Here the saying
of Augustine holds: Believe and you have eaten. As I said before: To
receive the Sacrament is a mark of confession and doctrine. Therefore,
whoever does not regard as true the doctrine of the church in which he
intends to attend the Sacrament cannot partake of the Sacrament in that
church with a clear conscience. (Download Walthers Thesis VIII at
http://goo.gl/gKqIOq.) Werner Elert, Eucharist and Church Fellowship in
the First Four Centuries, trans. Norman Nagel (Saint Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1966), 76. By closed Communion reference is to
the restricting of participation to full members of the congregation.
Participation in Holy Communion is directly connected to church
fellowship. See also CTCR, Admission to the Lords Supper (1999),
http://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=411.
27
Prayer is an important sacrifice and must not be confused with the

means of grace. Prayer is a confession of faith which recognizes that
Gods good and gracious will is done even without our prayer, as
all on the cross (see Heb 7:27). The sacrifices that we offer
are spiritual sacrifices, the sacrifice of a broken heart and
contrite spirit (see Ps 51:17). This is the life of repentance:
Daily dying to sin and living in the newness of Christs
forgiveness. In other words, the whole life of the believer
is one of sacrifice. This is the point that Paul makes in
Romans 12:1 where he writes,
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies
of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but
be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that
by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Everybody in the ancient world knew that sacrifices
were dead, not living. Jerusalems temple resembled a
slaughterhouse more than a church. The priest, smattered
with blood, looked more like a butcher than a clergyman.
Pauls words must have jarred his original readers for he
writes of a living sacrifice. We present our bodies as living
sacrifices for we have died to sin in Baptism and now live
in Christs resurrection (see Rom 6:111).
This priestly life is our vocation, our calling. We live
it out in our daily callings in the congregation, in civic
community (citizenship), the family and the place of
work. Here we who have received mercy from the Father
show forth that mercy in our dealings with others, and it
is here that we bear witness to Christ by proclaiming the
excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his
marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9).
Going about our daily vocation as baptized members
of Christs royal priesthood, we testify to Christ, speaking his saving word, the same word we regularly hear in
preaching and the same word we read for ourselves in
Holy Scripture (e.g., through personal and family devotions).28 The content of our witness is always Christ,
Luther makes clear in the Small Catechism. Prayer does not seek to
control or manipulate God. Prayer does not engage in superstition that
goes beyond what the Lord has promised in his word. Prayer is the
expression of the justified sinner who humbles himself before Gods
almighty hand and by the Spirits work through word and sacrament
is led to rely upon Christ alone while praying as the Lord prayed
in Gethsemane, Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done. See
CTCR, Theology and Practice of Prayer (2011), 1820.
28 Schulz, Mission from the Cross, 242243, reminds us that Luther
emphasizes that every Christian has the right and obligation to pass on
and witness Gods Word in his personal sphere of life. In fact, Luther
may at times even use the term preach (predigen) for this act, implying
that the incumbents of the priesthood of all believers are actually
given a certain task to proclaim the Gospel wherever they may be. The
69
crucified and raised from the dead for all. In so doing,

we are inviting others into the same life we have received
from Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the only real life there
is: that given in word and sacrament. Baptized believers
will often be found urging others, believers and unbelievers alike, to come and see (John 1:39) what Christ has
done for them and for all.29
17. Office and offices. There is one office that Christ

has instituted for the proclamation of his word and the
giving out of his sacraments. This is the Office of the Holy
Ministry (see John 20:2123; AC V, XIV, XXVII). Through
the call of the church, the Lord places qualified men into
this office (see 1 Cor 14:3338; 1 Tim 2:814). The men who
serve in this office are to be properly trained and capable
(see 1 Tim 3:17; 2 Tim 2:17; 4:15; Titus 1:59) of the task of
being stewards of the mysteries of God (see 1 Cor 4:12).
The church may not be without this office for it is to this
office that Christ has entrusted the preaching of his word
and the administration of his sacraments.30 No one puts
himself into this office, nor does the church have the right
to refashion the office into something other than what the
Lord has instituted, or to put men into the office without
being called and ordained (see AC XIV). The church does
live in freedom to create offices that assist those who are
placed in the one divinely-mandated office of the ministry
of word and sacrament. These helping offices (auxiliary
offices) would include deacons, deaconesses, evangelists,
schoolteachers, catechists, cantors, parish nurses, workers of mercy, and the like.31 These are valuable offices of
context of this private preaching does not stand in conflict with the
pastoral ministry of preaching and administration of the Sacraments
publicly affirmed through the proper rite of vocation (rite vocatus).
29
Oftentimes, it is precisely this testimony from the priesthood of

the baptized that plants the seeds for the church in contexts where
the church has not yet been established, where ordained pastors or
missionaries are not present, or where the church is persecuted. The
word does not return empty (Isa 55:11) and faith can and does take root
and grow through the word when and where it pleases the Holy Spirit,
whether the gospel is spoken by laity or clergy. Thus the faith did not
disappear when missionaries were forced from China and pastors were
jailed. Even as Lutherans rejoice in that truth, we also recognize that the
witness of the laity does not mean the office of the pastor (or ordained
missionary) is thereby rendered unnecessary or expendable. See Schulz,
Mission from the Cross, 239247, and 17 herein.
Thus the AC calls this the office of preaching (das Predigamt AC V
1).
30
31
The Office of the Holy Ministry, or the office of preaching and

teaching, is founded on the apostles and prophets of Scripture and
is seen within such scriptural offices identified by the names bishop/
overseer (episkopos), elder (presbyteros), and shepherd (poimenos).
This preaching office includes within it not only the work of pastor
as Lutherans now identify it most commonly, but also evangelist and
teacher (Eph 4:11). In LCMS tradition an office of teacher, in distinction
70
service to the body of Christ and the world, but they are
not to be confused with the Office of the Holy Ministry
itself. The Office of the Holy Ministry might be said to be
the office of faith as Christ instituted it so that faith might
be created in the hearts of those who hear the preaching
of Christ crucified. Helping or auxiliary offices are the
offices of love for through these callings the love of Christ
is extolled in word and deed as his mercy is extended to
those in need.
Those whom Christ through his church has placed
in the Office of the Holy Ministry do not lord it over the
priesthood of the baptized, but they stand among the
baptized, as one of them, holding an office of service,
seeking only to give out the Lords gifts as he intended
(1 Cor 4:12).
18. Worship: koinonia, freedom, catholicity and

the limits of love. Questions of liturgical diversity and
uniformity need to be set within the context of the distinction between faith and love. Faith is freed by the
gospel from all works of self-justification, but faith is not
freed from the gospel or the means that Christ has instituted to bestow the gospel (the pure preaching of this
good news and the right administration of the sacraments
according to the divine word; see AC VII). Preaching
and sacraments require form, and this form is catholic
rather than sectarian or self-invented. Lutherans gratefully inherited the Western liturgical tradition filtered
through the sieve of justification by faith alone and honor
it as our heritage (AC XXIV [KolbWengert, 6872]).
Lutherans make a distinction between what Christ has
mandated and what his word prohibits. In between the
two are adiaphora, or middle things, which are neither
commanded nor forbidden by God. The middle category
of adiaphora does not mean that these matters are unimportant or indifferent; they are to be evaluated by how
they confess the truth of the gospel and sacraments. In
from the pastoral office, has been auxiliary in nature, working under
and assisting the one who has overall responsibility for preaching and
teaching. In other parts of the world, a particular office of evangelist
aids the churchs ministry in a similar fashion in the particular work
of outreach, church planting, and mission development, especially
where few ordained pastors are available. So also, the office of catechist
has developed in churches for the particular work of instructing new
believers. Thus, there is one overarching preaching office (see AC V),
but it is inclusive of certain responsibilities that may be shared with
others in offices that appear in various times and places in the church.
And, in addition, there may be other helping offices established which
fall only marginally within the scope of the work of the preaching office
or are even completely distinct from it (e.g., a church musician or a
parish nurse or an administrator of a food program). See also CTCR,
The Ministry: Offices, Procedures, Nomenclature (1981).
times when a clear confession is called for, the Formula

of Concord reminds us, matters of adiaphora may cease
to be adiaphora (see FC SD X, 10 [Kolb-Wengert, 637]).
Ludwig Adolph Petri notes that mission must abstain
from establishing confessions, accepting new customs in
the divine service, uniting separated confessions and the
like. As soon as mission begins to do something like that,
it is manifestly in the wrong, for none of those tasks is
charged or relegated to mission.32 This is to say that matters of liturgical practice are not best left to the individual
but should reflect our confessional consensus so that both
the freedom of faith and the love for brothers and sisters
is maintained.33 Love is always given to patience and deference to the weakness of the fellow believer (see Rom 14),
but it may never be used as an excuse to compromise
the truth of our confession. Liturgical diversity within
the larger catholic context will be guided by the need to
maintain unity in both faith and love (see FC SD X, 9
19. Visitation. Sometime after his first missionary journey, Paul said to Barnabas, Let us return and visit the
brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of
the Lord and see how they are (Acts 15:36). So the church
today following also the example of the apostles, Luther,
Melanchthon and others engages in evangelical visitation, appointing people to the task so that we encourage
and assist one another in the confession of Christ before
the world. In our Synod, we come alongside one another
to advise one another from the word of God. The focus
of our visitation of one another is faithfulness both to the
mission of Christ through the church to the world and to
our clear confession of Christs saving work. Visitors are
enjoined to come to the pastors and congregations and
mission stations as a brotherly advisor, reminding them
of the joy of serving in the mission and ministry of the
Ludwig Adolph Petri, Mission and the Church: A letter to a friend (Die
Mission und die Kirche: Schreiben an einen Freund), trans. David Buchs
(Fort Wayne: Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 2012).
32
33
This is not to deny the necessity of liturgical change as the church

enters new settings. An obvious example of necessary change is the
use of vernacular language for worship. That may also entail some
change of terminology itself where words or concepts are completely
alien. However, the concern of this section is that liturgical change
not take place in a way that is contrary to the Lutheran confession of
faith a confession that rightly stands in the western creedal tradition.
Thus, liturgical change, where it occurs, is always to take place in a
collaborative manner or a way that is catholic in nature. In such a way
not only are the concerns and needs of a local church considered, but so
also the needs of the wider contemporary church, and, even the church
of the past has a hearing.
church. Visitation is a continuing task in the church, carried out through all segments of the churchs life together.
When we visit our partners around the world, it must
also be in the same Christ-centered spirit as the Lords
apostle who, before his visitation with them, writes to the
Romans, I long to see you, that I may impart to you some
spiritual gift to strengthen you that is, that we may be
mutually encouraged by each others faith, both yours and
mine (Rom 1:1112).
20. Two kingdoms/discipleship. Luther observed that

the kingdom of Christ is one of hearing while the kingdom of the world is one of seeing. Discussions of the
place of the church in the public square inevitably lead us
to reflect on how the Triune God is active in his creation.
Luthers teaching on the two kingdoms does not segregate
Gods activity into the holy sphere of church leaving the
world to its autonomous devices. God is at work in the
world in two different ways, with different means and
with different ends. Hence Luther can use the imagery of
the ear to indicate Gods right hand governance whereby
he causes his gospel to be preached to bring sinners to
faith in Christ and through faith inherit eternal life. On
the other hand, the left-handed work of God is identified
with the eye, with seeing. In this kingdom, God uses law
to measure and curb human behavior so that his creation
is not plunged into total chaos and so that this world, subjected to futility (Rom 8:20), is preserved until the last day.
Authorities in the kingdom of Gods left hand evaluate on
the basis of evidence that is observable. Here distributive
justice is the order of the day. But in the kingdom of his
right hand, Gods verdict is the absolution, the proclamation of a forgiveness of sins not achieved by merit or
worth. When the two kingdoms are mixed or muddled,
law and gospel are confused.
Lutherans are concerned to keep the teaching of the
two kingdoms straight and clear for the sake of the gospel,
which alone gives forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation. Luther fumed that the devil is incessantly seeking
to brew and cook the two kingdoms together.34 Satan
would like nothing better than to dupe folks into believing
34
The devil never stops cooking and brewing these two kingdoms
into each other. In the devils name the secular leaders always want
to be Christs masters and teach Him how He should run His church
and spiritual government. Similarly, the false clerics and schismatic
spirits always want to be the masters, though not in Gods name, and to
teach people how to organize the secular government. Thus the devil
is indeed very busy on both sides, and he has much to do. May God
hinder him, amen, if we deserve it! (Martin Luther, Psalm 101, 1534,
American Edition, Vol. 13, 194195.)
71
that salvation comes through secular government or conversely that the church is the institution to establish civil
righteousness in the world. Either confusion displaces
Christ and leaves sinners in despair.
The teaching of the two kingdoms is necessary for the
sake of the gospel. This teaching guards us from turning the gospel into a political ideology. The gospel works
eschatologically, not politically, as it bestows pardon to
sinners and establishes peace with God. It is a faith-creating word of promise heard with the ear, trusted in the
heart, and confessed with the tongue. Christians, who live
by faith in this promise, also live in this world where we
use our eyes to see, to discern, to evaluate. The realm of
the political is not to be dismissed as ungodly or unworthy of the Christians involvement. God is at work here
too. But he is at work here to protect and preserve his creation, making it a dominion where life can flourish. Gods
left-handed work is not to be confused with salvation, but
it is a good gift of daily bread to be received with thanksgiving by those who know the truth.
So Lutherans neither put their trust in political processes nor do they eschew political involvement. The
teaching of the two kingdoms is an indispensable gift
in an age beset by temptations both to secularism and
sectarianism.
21. Stewardship. The question of stewardship begins

not with what I have but with what the Lord has given me.
Therefore, stewardship begins with the gifts of the Triune
God. This is reflective of the way that the apostle Paul
deals with stewardship in 2 Corinthians 8. Paul does not
start with an assessment of the resources of the congregation or with legalistic instructions about how much they
should be doing to meet their quota. Rather, he begins
with Gods grace, with Gods undeserved gift in Christ.
Christians give not to win Gods favor but on account of
his prior gift, salvation in Christ Jesus. In 2 Corinthians,
stewardship is connected with assisting those in need, in
showing mercy.
This is the pattern of Christian stewardship. Just as in
Romans 12, where Paul makes his appeal to Christians
that they present their bodies as living sacrifices by the
mercies of God, so here Paul wants his hearers to know
first of all about Gods grace. Anchored in the unmerited riches of Gods mercy for sinners in Christ, the
Macedonians are eager yes, begging for the opportunity to take part in the offering. They exceed the apostles
imagination or expectation. What do they do? They give
72
themselves first to the Lord and then, Paul says by the will
of God, they give themselves to us.
Lutheran missions seek to be good and faithful stewards of the resources the Lord has given to his church.
Faithful stewardship seeks to build capacity in partners
while not creating harmful dependencies. In this way, the
entire body of Christ may be strengthened in its stewardship. We recognize that we are accountable to each other
in our mutual confession of the faith and in our handling
of valuable resources human, financial, and property.
The financing of missions and use of funding requires
transparency at every level lest the witness of Christ be
diminished, mercy be overshadowed by greedy self-interest, and our life together fractured.
22. Lutheran identity. Mission, as with the entire life

of the Synod, will be guided by confessional identity and
integrity. Bound to the Holy Scriptures as the infallible
word of the Triune God and convinced that the Book of
Concord confesses what the Bible teaches, we will joyfully and without reservation make this good confession
before God and the world in light of the last day (see Matt
10:32; 2 Tim 4:18). We will not be ashamed to be Lutheran
in all that we do. Like our forefathers at Augsburg, we
will speak Gods testimonies before kings and not be put
to shame (Ps 119:46). We will teach this theology without
duplicity at home and globally to any and all who are
open to hear our confession. Given the seismic shifts in
world Lutheranism away from the historical confession
of the Lutheran church, we will seek to strengthen lonely
and disenfranchised Lutherans who seek to be faithful in
doctrine and practice.
23. Theology of the cross. The theology of the cross

(see 1 Cor 1:182:5) stands in sharp contrast to the prevailing theology the theology of glory. The theology
of the cross shows God at work under opposites, giving
life through death, showing mercy in wrath, making himself known in his hiddenness, and manifesting strength
in weakness. The theologian of glory attempts to access
God by way of various ladders: moralism, rationalism
or mysticism. The theologian of the cross confesses God
condescending to humanity in the weakness of the baby
of Bethlehem and the man of Calvary. The theologian of
glory would judge a church successful on the basis of how
well it accomplishes certain goals defined by the tenants
of this world. The theologian of the cross recognizes that
the church is hidden under suffering and defeat.
Christs church faces many enemies from within and

without. She bears the mark of the holy cross, not as an
identifier for its own sake, but as a consequence of bearing witness to and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The church in every place bears the Holy Cross to some
degree. The church in some places bears what appears to
be a smaller cross than the church in other places, yet no
matter how small or big the cross, it serves the same purpose: A witness (martyria) to the world and, as Formula
of Concordia XI confesses, to conform us into the image
of the image of the crucified Son of God. It should not
surprise us, the Lords people, that his holy church takes
on the appearance of the crucified Son of God. In fact, it
is a great honor and joy that the Lord conforms us into his
image. This is why St. Paul says in Romans 8, I know all
things work for good. The life of the church is cruciform
in shape. The apt words of Hermann Sasse ring true: All
that we think and do in the church has to be cleansed by
the theology of the cross if we are to escape the perils of a
theology of glory.35 The theology of the cross will forever
be a litmus test of the genuineness of Witness, Mercy, Life
Together in our midst.
The Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison is president of The
Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod.
Hermann Sasse, We Confess Jesus Christ, trans. Norman Nagel (Saint

Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1984), 52.
35
73
With this work in hand, both
Book Review and

Commentary
clergy and laity will find their

fear of speaking of unexplained
occurrences abated.
Afraid: Demon Possession and Spiritual Warfare in America

by Robert H. Bennett (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2016)
by Leonard Astrowski
r. Robert H. Bennetts second book, Afraid:

Demon Possession and Spiritual Warfare in
America, is his latest installment in a series focusing on
phenomenology. In these works, Bennett focuses on
demonic oppression, possession, and the manifestation of
evil forces.
While Dr. Bennetts first book I Am Not Afraid:
Demon Possession and Spiritual Warfare: True Accounts
from The Lutheran Church of Madagascar (Concordia
Publishing House, 2013) deals primarily with accounts
from places removed from the contemporary American
church by both distance and time, his second work sets
its gaze on domestic soil. It, perhaps, is easier to dismiss
Bennetts first work, rationalizing
his arguments away as things that
happen over there, or as things
that happened then. Regardless
of the primary source evidence recorded and analyzed by
Bennett, alongside the record of
Scripture and esteemed Lutheran
sources such as Martin Luther
and C.F.W. Walther, the reader
may still remain the sceptic.
Turning his analysis to contemporary America in
this second installment, Afraid, Bennett again produces
primary source evidence often the experiences of the
author himself collected from around the nation. Dr.
Bennett takes the reader from the Midwest, through New
Orleans, and to the American Southwest. He sets before
the reader evidence found in mundane American life.
The reader is asked to consider the testimony of witnesses
found in otherwise unremarkable everyday life suburban homes, a rural parsonage, hotels, tourist traps, and
television. The desire is to confront the skeptic, especially
the Christian student of contemporary Western thought,
with the spiritual reality around him. Bennett confronts
the reader with this reality, which is often routinely confessed, but is more routinely ignored, by an individual
believer. Bennett brings to center stage the truth that is
always present but often dismissed although it exits right
next door, if not in the readers own life experience.
The title of Dr. Bennetts work might lead the bookstore browser to think of this as a sensational piece. After
all, who doesnt like a good ghost story? Indeed, Rev. Dr.
Bennett is an ordained minister in a confession that prides
itself on the scholarship and the ability of her ministers
to analyze and communicate deep theological concepts.
Dr. Bennett is a member of a church body that takes great
pains to rightly point out the fraudulent claims of those
that allege ecstatic experience.
It is a church body that crinkles
its nose at the slightest whiff of
sensationalism. This makes it all
the more remarkable that this
work is destined to be found on
the shelves of Lutheran clergy
and laity, as well as the clergy and
members of other confessions.
The reason for this leap from
bookstore shelf to trained pastors study is simple. Dr. Bennett presents his work as
one of scholarship. Indeed it is. Bennetts research allows
the evidence to speak for itself. The reader might be disappointed to discover that absent from this work are
accounts of rotating heads and levitating bodies. Bennett
simply presents everyday lives influenced by fear. He
presents the accounts of people who are afraid. According
to Bennett and the evidence he shares with the reader, it
is often fear that influences the individuals actions. It is
this fear, as Bennett convincingly argues, that opens the
individual to spiritual attack.
Remedies offered to people under such attack, notes
Bennett, are not found in special incantations, the use of
The book shines as a

solid analysis of Scripture
and as blossoming from
a well-thought-out
confession of Christ.
74
sacred objects, or the visitation of holy sites (Bennett

notes that these are often the source of trouble), but in
Christ alone. No bells, no whistles, no whiz-bang and
light shows. Only Christ is offered as remedy. This is what
makes this book special. This is what makes this book a
source of comfort. This is what keeps the work out of the
morass of sensationalism and in the realm of scholarship.
The book shines as a solid analysis of Scripture and as
blossoming from a well-thought-out confession of Christ.
Hollywood is nowhere to be found in this work.
In Afraid, Dr. Bennett shares his scholarship with
the reader through a number of vignettes. While certain
details are changed to protect privacy, these vignettes
serve as the source material for Bennetts analysis and
conclusions. Woven throughout these vignettes are
glimpses of how the church, particularly the Lutheran
church, throughout time has always aided people under
the influence of demonic forces how the church rescues people from fear. Bennett does this by referring the
reader, as the church has and should, first and foremost
to Christ. Bennett demonstrates, using Scripture, how
Christ is the One who has already defeated Satan and his
demons. Dr. Bennett also draws from the churchs liturgy
and hymnody and how these point the hearer repeatedly to Christs victory. Repeatedly, throughout the book,
the reader is invited into the life of an individual under
demonic oppression or possession. Repeatedly, the reader
is shown how these demonic forces are overcome through
the word of Christ and his victory spoken through the
mouths of simple men. The reader is left to clearly understand that it is not the individual, or even the pastor, who
does battle with Satan. The reader is left to understand
that the Lord Jesus Christ has already defeated Satan.
The person under demonic attack is simply pointed to
Christ and instructed to cling to Christs victory. This
again leaves no room for a television mockumentary. One
is struck by the quietness of these events. Simple prayers
prayed. Familiar Scriptures read. Christ proclaimed. The
result? No thunderous voices and dripping walls. Just
simple and yet profound peace the peace of Christ.
Also, Dr. Bennett avoids the pitfall of trying to
solve mysteries that cannot be solved by human beings.
Bennett notes that it is often difficult to draw strict lines,
or even recognize the lines, between demonic influence
and mental illness. Yet Bennett indicates that the various
health care vocations all a gift of God work alongside
the spiritual caregiver to affect healing. These vocations
each have a unique God-given role in the well-being of
the individual. Each, according to Bennett, are to be used

as necessary. Pastors are not to wash their hands of an
individual requiring medical attention. Rather, they are
encouraged to expand the circle of care as required while
never relinquishing responsibility for spiritual care.
In Bennetts analysis of the hodgepodge of American
spirituality, one will find many reasons that may cause
fear. However, while there are many reasons a person
might be afraid, Bennett gives reason to not be afraid.
With this work in hand, both clergy and laity will find
their fear of speaking of unexplained occurrences abated.
They will find courage to speak and to listen. They will
find the Christ who repeatedly instructs us to not be
afraid. This is the benefit of this book.
The Rev. Leonard Astrowski is pastor of Immanuel Lutheran
Church, Rock Island, Ill.
75
Theologians will find this

to be a challenging dialogue
Book Review and

Commentary
on the timely topic of what

confessional Lutherans can
and should say about the use
and attributes of the Holy
Scriptures.
Build on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets: Sola Scriptura

in Context (Cambridge: Evangelical Lutheran Church of England, 2013)
by Brian Flamme
uilt on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets:

Sola Scriptura in Context is a collection of six
papers presented at the Westfield House International
Symposium in August 2012. The volume spans a readable
174 pages. The six major contributions cover the topics
of biblical hermeneutics, the Christological basis of
Scripture and its attributes, the status of Lutheran
confessions as drawn from Scripture, the word of God
according to both Islam and Christianity, the danger of
enthusiasm at the time of the reformers and in modern
contexts, and finally the danger of biblicism.1 Of the six
papers, the volume includes prepared responses to five
of the papers, save for Dr. Bombaros paper on biblicism.
The editor, Dr. Anssi Simojoki,
admits this is unfortunate, since
this paper elicited a stronger
reaction than anything else at
the entire Symposium (vii).
Apparently there was some
concern that Dr. Bombaro
was verging dangerously close
to Gospel reductionism a
charge he categorically denies
(vii). There are some important
questions that should be asked in light of Dr. Bombaros
paper, but more on that later.
Overall, I found the volume to be a challenging dialogue on the timely topic of what confessional Lutherans
can and should say about the use and attributes of the
Holy Scriptures. The prepared responses ask perceptive
questions of the presenters that give context and clarity to the issues raised by the papers. Some of the most
edifying contributions came from international authors
from outside the Missouri Synod, like Dr. Randrianasolos
response to Dr. Wenzs paper in which he stresses that
the divine authorship of the Scriptures demands a robust
quia appropriation of our confessions. Also, I was pleased
with Dr. Simojokis keen identification of enthusiasm in
contemporary hermeneutical trends that rends the Holy
Spirit from the text of Scripture.
Of course, the responses do
not cover all the critical questions
that could be put to the presenters, though no doubt much of
the ensuing discussions at the
Symposia must have addressed
more than is contained in the
book.2 Two papers brought up,
in my mind, important concerns
that I will try to articulate.
First to consider is Dr. Klohas paper on biblical
hermeneutics. His major problem is multiple interpretations of Scripture and the meaning of the text (8). It seems
that Kloha understands a texts meaning as not intrinsic
if the text is read with the right hermeneutical principles,
but rather created through an interplay between the text
and the conditional circumstances of the reader or hearer.
Ones situational concern produces the meaning that the
reader draws from the text (1213). The result appears to
be that the text can have as many meanings as there are
readers and contexts. Though Kloha gives the impression
Jesus himself assures

us that his church that
clings to her confession
will endure against
hells gates.
The following is a list of the major papers titles and authors with
their respective respondents. I. Wast is das? The Nature and Basis
of Biblical Hermeneutics by Jeffery Kloha with a response by Boris
Gujevic (342). II. The Word Was God: Inerrancy or Christology by
David P. Scaer with a response by Daniel Johansson (4566). III. Quia
Quatenus: Scripture and Confession by Armin Wenz with a response
by Joseph Randrianasolo (6998). IV. God has spoken through the
prophetsand by the Son: Word of God in Islam and Christianity
by Adam Francisco with a response by Martti Vaahtoranta (101120).
V. Letter or Spirit? Modern Enthusiasms by Anssi Simojoki with
a response by Jonathan Mumme (123150). VI. Biblicism and the
Imminent Death of American Evangelicalism by John Bombaro
(153174).
76
The editor regrets that the extended conversations and the panel
discussion must wait for a later edition (vi).
that some created meanings can be flat out wrong, he

does leave room for a given text to have multiple interpretations that are acceptable. Indeed, he writes that there
are multiple possible faithful ways to hear a text (13).
How do you ensure a faithful reading? The solution is to
have a right goal or telos. According to Kloha this is the
end of double love toward God and the neighbor, which
he obtains through looking at Augustine, Falacius, Luther,
and the Scriptures (3235). With the right goal, faithful
interpretations presumably result.
First, how do we actually know if we have obtained
an appropriate goal? According to Klohas model it seems
that multiple goals could present themselves through
trying to discern the meaning of the
text given the varied circumstances
of the reader. Is the goal discerned
from a tradition of interpretation,
say the faithful writings coming from
the church? Which church, creeds, or
theologians should we heed? Could
we feasibly think of better goals, like
faith toward God and love toward the
neighbor, since this includes the comfort of Jesus cross and precludes the possibility of mere
legalistic readings of Scripture? Second, if meaning is
created and not intrinsic to the text, can the Christian
have certain comfort for his conscience that he is reconciled to God and forgiven for Christs sake? I would hope
that the preaching of the gospel has an objectivity that is
prior to a persons attempts at creating meaning, that the
meaning grabs ahold of the sinner dead in his trespasses
who cannot but twist the promises of the gospel into killing words of law.
My second group of concerns centers on Dr. Bombaros
scathing critique of biblicism. I was surprised by the caustic tone that was seemingly directed against Lutherans,
like myself, who in the simplicity of our faith trust in
the inerrancy (Ps 119:160; John 17:17), infallibility (John
10:35), efficacy (Rom 10:17; Heb 4:12), sufficiency (2 Tim 3:1617), and clarity (Ps 119:105; 2 Pet 1:19) of the Bible.3 These
attributes, to which I contend the Scriptures themselves
testify as well as the teachings of our Lutheran fathers,
are to Bombaro the marks of biblicism (157ff) that are
killing the possibility of witnessing to our world.4 I do not

have enough room for a point by point challenge of the
paper, though in another place that might well be necessary, but I will challenge him on two points. Bombaro is
concerned that our adherence to six-day creation as the
first two books of Genesis describes and our preaching
of sexual ethics makes biblicists a laughing stock in an
enlightened society (159). He writes, No one is listening (172). So what? Jesus said that his saints would be
hated by the world (John 15:18). And if the world is not
listening, that does not mean that sinners are not hearing
the preaching of forgiveness for their salvation, even if we
preach the Scriptures doctrine to dwindling congregations. Jesus himself assures us that his
church that clings to her confession
will endure against hells gates (Matt
16:18). Our prayer is to remain faithful
in the midst of the condemnations of
the world (Matt 10:3234; Luke 12:8).
Second, Dr. Bombaro argues that
the Lutheran teaching about the Bible
as the sole source and sole rule is a
departure from the Lutheran principle
of sola Scriptura, which is patently false (165). I do not
know how else to take it when we confess our adherence
to the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and
New Testaments, as to the pure, clear fountain of Israel,
which alone is the one true guiding principle, according
to which all teachers and teaching are to be evaluated
and judged (SD [KolbWengert, 527]). We grant other
authorities besides the Scriptures as taught by the Fourth
Commandment. But when it comes down to it, We must
obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). Scripture stands
in judgment of all other authorities, even in matters pertaining to history, ethics, and science. If we lose one jot
of Scripture, even a gospel reductionist principle must be
called into question. This is not to say that Christ does not
indeed stand at the center of the matter of Scripture as its
formal principle. This is one of the major emphases of the
Symposium that I wholeheartedly agree with. However,
when the other doctrines of history, ethics, the angels, or
anything else that can be discerned through careful study
of the text is attacked, it comes at a price of denigrating
the glory of Christ, even if we do not realize it because of
the ignorance of our flesh.
Our prayer is to
remain faithful in
the midst of the
condemnations of
the world.
Biblicisms characteristics as all-authoritative, sufficient, infallible,

inerrant, and wholly inspired are a massive and unavoidable obstacle to
the ability to proclaim the gospel today not just for American biblicists
but for confessional Lutherans (166).
Given Dr. Bombaros description of biblicisms marks, I am not ready

to concede the pejorative for use against the vast majority of pastors and
congregations in the Missouri Synod.
77
Words, spoken and written, are seemingly weak. They

can be abused and misunderstood. But just because a
persons words can be twisted and misunderstood, that
does not mean that what they said or written have been
destroyed. How much more so for Gods words that
he has seen fit to set into human writing and placed on
human lips for delivering to us the fruits of his Sons death
and resurrection. For since, in the wisdom of God, the
world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God
through the folly of what we preach to save those who
believe (1 Cor 1:21).
The Rev. Brian Flamme is associate pastor of Hope

Lutheran Church, Aurora, Colo.
78
This book provides a solid

pastoral resource for a true
Book Review and

Commentary
evangelical seelsorge (care of

souls) that directs sinners to
the cross of Christ.
Martin Luther: Preacher of the Cross A Study of Luthers Pastoral Theology

by John T. Pless (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2013)
by Ely Prieto
ithin these pages, Professor John T. Pless

shares with his readers one side of Luther
that is rarely discussed or even known by many people
Luthers pastoral heart! As we approach the 500th
anniversary of the Reformation, many books about
Martin Luther have been (and will be) released. These
books certainly offer interesting aspects of Luthers life,
talk about the Reformation movement, and share Luthers
theology and many other facets of the Reformer. However,
not many of them will talk about Luther as a pastor and a
preacher. Next to his work in the classroom, a great part
of Luthers daily life in Wittenberg was
taken up with pastoral duties more
than anything else.
In his years serving as a pastor, Pless
says that Luther was a constant source
of inspiration, curiosity, and challenge.
The more Pless studied Luther and his
theology, the more he saw how his own
pastoral practice was influenced by the
pastoral Luther. When he accepted the
call to the seminary in Fort Wayne to
teach practical theology, Pless was
determined to use Luthers writings to
teach the care of souls. This book condenses fifteen years
of teaching experience and reveals how Luther put his
evangelical theology to work in actual cases of pastoral
care (11, 14).
Right at the introduction of the book, the reader is
reminded that for Luther, genuine pastoral care is a theological undertaking. This has nothing to do with finding
psychological or sociological solutions for the problems
and struggles of life, but instead addressing the human
being with Gods word, applying law and gospel (14). For
Luther, the task of theology is very specific: To deal with
man as sinner. The proper subject of theology is man
guilty of sin and condemned, and God the Justifier and
Savior of man the sinner. Whatever is asked or discussed

in theology outside this subject, is error and poison (15).
Pless says that, for Luther, distinction between Law and
Gospel is not a theoretical identification of specific texts as
either Law or Gospel; it is instead a functional distinction
that is critical for pastoral diagnosis of a persons spiritual condition before God (15). However, this functional
distinction between law and gospel is not something that
pastors can attain by themselves. It is only under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, it is through oratio, meditatio, and
tentatio, that true pastors are made.
Oratio is anchored in the reading and
hearing of Gods word and it is this word
that creates faith in Christ Jesus and
kindles prayer. True meditatio is not an
internal thing as if something magical
would happen as someone tries to clear
up his mind. Meditation is grounded
in the externum verbum; it draws one
outside of himself into the promises of
Christ (faith) and into the need of the
neighbor (love) (15, 18-19). Tentatio is
nothing new in the life of a pastor, and
Luther was bold to say that the devil is
the best teacher of theology. Temptation is necessary for
the Christian life in general, but especially for preachers of the word. According to Luther, tentatio turns the
student of Gods word into a real theologian. It prepares
and equips the pastor to serve as an instructor of consciences by granting him the capacity to distinguish the
law from the gospel (21). Pless concludes by saying that
Luthers triad, oratio, meditatio, and tentatio, shapes the
ongoing life of the pastor, as he is forever dependent on
the power of Gods promises (22).
For Luther, proper pastoral care is grounded in the
theology of the cross and not in the theology of glory.
Luther also understands that the work of pastoral care
Proper pastoral
care is grounded
in the theology
of the cross
and not in the
theology of
glory.
79
is to be directed by the word of the cross delivered in

sermon and sacrament so that living faith in Christ
might be created and sustained (22, 25). Pless is quick
to remind the reader that along with preaching and the
Lords Supper, Luther prizes confession and absolution
as a means of pastoral care. The ultimate goal is always
to comfort the consciences of terrified believers and
strengthen their faith to live under the cross in the lively
hope of the resurrection (27-28).
After establishing the foundation for the art of
pastoral care, Pless moves on to show how the pastor
Luther applies his evangelical theology in real situations
of care of souls. In the following chapters, Plesss many
years of Luther studies shine through. By quoting the
catechisms and Luthers Letters of Spiritual Counsel, the
reader is exposed to Luthers pastoral heart in a deep and
meaningful way.
Chapter one talks about the general visitation of
Saxony, which provided a clear x-ray of the spiritual reality of those days. The ordinary people knew absolutely
nothing about the Christian faith, and unfortunately
many pastors were unqualified to provide religious
instruction. On top of that, they were poor preachers. This
sad diagnosis prompted Luther to write his catechisms,
which provided a basic summary of Christian doctrine,
along with a template for teaching the faith. Soon, the
catechisms became a reliable guide for both pastors and
people in the parish, helping Gods people to live under
the cross and in hope of the resurrection (39-41).
In chapters two and three, we learn how Luther
provided pastoral care for people facing melancholy,
depression, doubt, and despair. As someone who also
faced depression and doubts in his own life, Luther
directed people not to their own thoughts and feelings,
but instead he drew them away from self-absorbed reflection and led them to the baby of Bethlehem, the man
of Calvary, the true Son of God! God is for us in every
way and Satan cannot harm Gods children, for they have
another Lord. Yes, faith may be weak and wobbly, but
Christ is strong and sure (44-45)!
Chapter four brings us to the arena of pastoral care in
light of vocation, which is another genius theological contribution from Luther to the church. The Christian is the
larvae dei, the mask of God, and his or her vocation is to
serve. God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does. Christ sacrificed himself for us on the cross; we
now give ourselves sacrificially to our neighbor in love
80
(65). In this chapter, the reader finds helpful insights from

Luther in terms of pastoral care for those whose callings
place them in dangerous places, where epidemics and
health issues become a threat to caregivers and pastors.
Luther also has a word of wisdom for soldiers, helping
them to understand their vocation in light of both faith
and love, devoting themselves to their work with clear
consciences before God (72).
As we face more and more conflicting ideas about
what marriage is and isnt in our society, chapter five
offers a breath of fresh air on this topic. Luther sees marriage as grounded in creation. He says, Who is there who
does not know that marriage was founded and ordained
by God, created in Paradise and confirmed and blessed
outside Paradise? (74). Pless adds a great comment when
he says, Gods Word establishes marriage in honor. It is
the devil who shames and slanders marriage (76). Luther
has much to say about marriage and in this chapter we
find him applying law and gospel in difficult marriage situations. Luther reminds us that marriage is a state under
the cross, and the cross puts an end to the romanticism
that sees marriage as an instrument of self-fulfillment.
Pless concludes the chapter by saying, Luther knows that
all of human life, including marriage, is hallowed and
received as a gift (80).
Mercy is one emphasis of the LCMS, and in chapter
six, we find lots of it. Luther was a man who received
mercy and he knew how to show mercy to those in spiritual and bodily need, offering pastoral care for the poor,
needy, and persecuted. Faith is active in love, and justification by faith frees the Christian to give and serve
his/her neighbor. We labor not for ourselves but for the
well-being of the people that God has placed in our paths.
Luther saw greed as idolatry and a sin against both faith
and love; generosity is the way to go when dealing with
our neighbor (81, 82). The Reformer was not afraid to
speak on behalf of the destitute and persecuted and comfort the imprisoned, pointing to Christ, the One who
became flesh to live among us. The presence of Christ
is not an abstraction for Luther. Christ is bodily present
through His Word, and no jail cell is so secure as to keep
Him out (86). Christs presence with his Christians, in
suffering, agony, and even death, is a source of real comfort and peace.
The last two chapters deal with the frailty of human life
sickness and death and how to provide pastoral care
for the grieving. Sickness and death was an ever-present
reality in Luthers day. The Reformer himself experienced

it in his own family when two of his daughters, Elizabeth
and Magdalena, died at young ages (109). Luther found
comfort in the risen Christ and the doctrine of justification by faith. The Lutheran Reformation provided a
new understanding of death and brought to an end the
ars moriendi practiced in the sixteenth century. As Pless
states, For Luther, the pastoral care of the dying would
be marked by the forgiveness of sins for Christs sake and,
within that absolution, the sure and certain promise of
the resurrection of the body to life everlasting (102-103).
The book also includes an appendix, Baptism as
Means of Consolation in Luthers Pastoral Theology,
which was originally delivered at the International
Congress for Luther Research meeting in Copenhagen
in August 2002 and later was published in Concordia
Theological Quarterly (January 2003). In this essay, we
learn that Luther did not limit baptism to the moment
of the rite, but asserted the enduring benefits of baptism
both for daily life and finally for the approach of death
itself (119-120). Here we also find Luther ministering
to his own mother, Margaret, when she was seriously ill
where through a letter he comforts her, directing her to
word and sacrament. At the end, he writes,
God has graciously called you. In the Gospel, in
Baptism, and in the Sacrament (of the Altar) you
possess his sign and seal of this vocation, and as long
as you hear him addressing you in these, you will
have no trouble of danger. Be of good cheer, then,
and thank him joyfully for such great grace, for he
who has begun a good work in you will perform until
the day of Jesus Christ. We cannot help ourselves in
such matters. We can accomplish nothing against sin,
death, and the devil by our own works. (120121)
A lengthy bibliography is also provided at the end of
the book for further reading and study of Luthers theology and care of souls.
In Martin Luther: Preacher of the Cross, Prof. John
Pless has done a magnificent work harvesting Luthers
thoughts and insights about his pastoral theology. With
its many examples and rich quotations from Luthers own
pastoral practice, it provides a solid pastoral resource for
a true evangelical seelsorge (care of souls) that directs
sinners to the cross of Christ. With the upcoming anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, I highly recommend
pastors reading, studying and discussing this book in
their conferences and meetings as they sharpen their
pastoral care skills. I also could see some examples and

stories of Luthers pastoral care being used as sermon
illustrations and shared in Bible classes as a way of edifying the faithful in the congregation.
The Rev. Dr. Ely Prieto is Urban Mission Developer for the
Texas District of the LCMS and serves as executive director
for LINC San Antonio.
81
The timeless and eternal power

of Gods word and the means
Book Review and

Commentary
of grace is what brings new life

into a world of death.
Becoming a Level Five Multiplying Church: Field Guide

by Dave Ferguson, Alan Hirsch, Todd Wilson (Ebook)
by Tim Droegemueller
ur Lord Jesus Christ spoke decisively in

Matthew 28:1820:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given

to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
These words, known as the Great Commission, are

our commission. And we sincerely thank God for all believers
in Christ who consider these
words, care about these words,
and seek to do what our Lord
commands here. It should be
clear to all of us that the thrust of
the Becoming Five concept is
the desire to make disciples, and
that intention is beautiful.
Secretly, I am always optimistic when reading a book or
article that has as its goal the furtherance of making disciples of our Savior. As a church
planter and pastor, I want to learn. I want to grow. I want
to be held accountable. I want to unlearn bad habits and
rejoice in eternally great things. You are reading this mission journal because you feel the same way. Both you and
I want to see Gods kingdom flourish. We want people to
be baptized. We want people to grow strong in the word
of God. We want them to learn all things our Lord Jesus
commanded for our blessing. We want to see churches
planted and churches multiply. And so we all share
that commonality with the authors of this book. These
authors want to see the Christian climate in our nation
change. They want it to improve and so do we! But as G.
K. Chesterton once wrote, The reformer is always right
about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what

is right. As we all know to be true, proposed solutions to
our issues can possibly even lead us into deeper problems.
The remedy could prove to be more fatal than the illness.
I do not think that this is the case here, but there is the
pressing need for bright objectivity.
In this review, I have a frightfully simple goal: to affirm
what is good and to reject what is bad. From my perspective, the following are points from Becoming Five that
are very good:
1.
We want to make biblical
disciples and not cultural
Christians. Yes.
If we think Jesus
church needs saving,
we are functionally
screaming every minute
of every day against the
finished work of Christ
on a cross.
82
2.
We need a stronger biblical
culture within our churches.
Yes.
3.
We have to ask why we are
doing the things we are doing.
Yes.
4.
Vision, strategy, budget, and
priorities matter. Yes.
5.
We need to reframe evangelism in the context of
discipleship. Yes.
6. The situation is bad and the patient (the church in our

country) is mostly sick. A diagnosis should be made.
Yes.
7.
The methods of mega-churches arent helping the
cause. Appeasing human beings and treating them like
customers is wrong. Yes.
8. Catering to cultural Christians in order to get them to
stick around is bad. Yes.
9. Jesus church on earth will always be living with tensions (i.e., the devil, the world, and the fallen flesh). Yes.
10. There is a reasonably large gap between our aspirations and our practices. Yes.
11. The priorities of an addition-focused scorecard will
actually become the things that hold us back from
multiplication. Yes.
12. Something of little importance can easily become a
major focus. This focusing becomes a distraction. Yes.
13. Risk is necessary. Yes.
14. Courage is needed. Yes.
15. Accountability is healthy. Yes.
16. We need strong, faithful, and biblically defined leadership. Yes.
17. The shackles of the status quo need shattering. Yes.
18. Putting an eye on our weaknesses is never easy. Yes.
19. It is hard to break free from bad or obsolete ideas. Yes.
20. The atmosphere of faking it is commonplace. The
horrible shock of this atmosphere is that people
almost have to be meticulously trained to be so contrived and impotent. It requires a
dedication to a bad framework and
illegitimate vocabulary. Yes.
stat junky and addition addict. As a recovering alcoholic

once told me, You can spot it, if you got it. Remember, at
the beginning of this review, I shared my secret optimism
about reading something new about church planting or
our life of witness. And yet, the other shoe usually drops.
Optimism turns to disappointment in a hurry. The disappointment ensues because of a particular void. The void
has become typical and commonplace, but it is certainly
deafening. And it almost always seems to go unidentified.
This is the same book that has been written in our
nation for decades. It is a best seller. The title changes, the
costs vary, but the chapters go on and on and on. We have
all read it. We have all written it. Lord, have mercy on us
all, for we have all recommended it. We love the book
because of what it promises. It promises to make Jesus
kingdom work. It tells us that the bride of Christ will
finally improve. Each paragraph of each page heralds a
future of success if we just do what is asked. We think that
by embracing the principles of mission experts, we will
become mission experts. Once we are mission experts,
we can create other mission experts. All we have to do is
take with water and swallow. In all fairness to the authors here, they say very
clearly that their only intent is to champion multiplication, and they do a good
job in that task. But still, these are only
good chapters of the same book that we
keep reading again and again and again.
We cant help ourselves. With optimism,
we keep reaching for the orange, plastic
pill bottle to cure the nausea. But what if
our recipes for success beyond cultural Christianity dont
actually cure it, but instead create it?
This is what is bad about Becoming Five:
1. The problem is actually worse than we think. This is
why we keep swimming in it regardless of our next
effort. We cant choose our way out of it. The problem
is as big, large, expansive, and inclusive as the spiritual
death we inherited from Adam and Eve (Rom 5:12).
Perhaps, though we are scared to admit it, original sin
and its condition continues to be a bit of a problem. It
really is. We are actually not the solution. Ever. Or at
all. Pragmatic solutions may not even solve pragmatic
problems, let alone an unfixable one.
Every step of
the way, the
bride of Christ
will be fighting
for her life.
In addition to the list above, I will also

add this: The identification of thoughts
and behaviors that contribute to scarce
or additional thinking are helpful. They
are a pretty exhaustive list and I believe
they would be beneficial for a discussion.
Many of the goals for starting churches
are good goals for us to consider. They push us to think
beyond the common misconceptions and pitfalls that
keep some congregations from planting churches. Also,
the stress on being held accountable is noble. Sometimes
we dont want to look honestly at our own situations. And
once looking, we certainly dont want someone to hold us
accountable to what is really going on! We simply want to
exist on the outside of the glass and criticize without ever
being in the arena. All of these things can help kick up
some dust and get us thinking about our ongoing need for
persistent repentance!
And now, as we shift from affirming the good to
rejecting the bad, please know this. This critique comes
from someone who is in the arena. It comes from
someone who cares a great deal about our Lords Great
Commission. It comes from someone who by nature is a
2. A stronger focus on what we do will not cause us to

leave Egypt. More behavioral management will not end
the zombie apocalypse (Eph 2:1). Our big problem is
83
our focus on us. Permit me to be so offensive. How well

we dedicate ourselves to manmade principles of the law
has little to do with the growth of the kingdom of God.
And if we succeed, it will only end up being a bigger
bang of a bigger hammer on a bigger gong at the end
of the show.
3. As long as the content of our public preaching is about
what we can do to be better at doing stuff for Jesus
(including reaching out for Jesus) and not Christ and
him crucified (from the powerful authority of a biblical text!), the hamster will keep flipping on the wheel.
There may be movement, but it wont last long.
4. The theology of glory cannot be Lutheranized. It just
cant. It is not possible. At the very point we do, we
un-Lutheranize ourselves. We can do it if we want to.
No one can keep us from doing it to ourselves. People
keep trying and succeeding. But how will it help us? I
am not saying that there isnt something we can learn
about accountability, the laws of creation, system
dynamics, common sense, or the aspects of leadership. We can and we should. But these things are gifts
of creation and shouldnt replace the Second and Third
Articles of the Apostles Creed. The exact moment we
turn to the mammon plan, we have the wrong operating system. No one can serve two masters. It will either
be God or mammon (Matt 6:24). Our confidence will
either be Jesus cross or manly glory. A hybridization
wont work. If we have the wrong operating system,
we will be failing even as we are succeeding and
multiplying.
5. Human beings have needs so deep that we cant even
perceive them. Human beings cant change themselves
and their church by targeting Jesus and crafting some
goals to help Jesus. That puts us where Jesus should
be, and it puts Jesus where we should be. Its not just
semantics. If we think Jesus church needs saving, we
are functionally screaming every minute of every day
against the finished work of Christ on a cross. It works
the other way around. It always has and it always will
until judgment day. Jesus targets us and delivers the
deeper solution to any physical paralyzation we have
through the forgiveness of sins.
6. In Becoming Five, the spiritual scorecard was criticized. It was done quite skillfully and was even
enjoyable to read. And it was meet, right, and salutary
to do! And yet what was the solution? A new spiritual
84
scorecard! And in a few short months, this new spiritual scorecard will be criticized. And what will be the
solution? Another new spiritual scorecard! Maybe success isnt the creation of a new spiritual scoreboard,
but the cheerful and joyful destruction of all of them.
Going scorched earth on the theology of glory may
actually not only be fun, but eternally valuable as we
live under the singularly different contours of the
mercy of the cross!
7. What is necessary isnt a movement of mathematics.
The language of measurements, layers, and levels is
the language of the law. It works well in Pokmon or
Skyrim, but it is the very vocabulary that confuses the
church about Gods grace. A better movement would be
the one that Jesus began in a sealed room with cowardly
people in John 20:19-31. It is a movement that defies
statistics and probabilities. As part of Gods people
living in the United States of America today, we could
actually see many people rediscover the clearly defined
sin snapping and power of Gods word and sacraments.
Wouldnt that be something?
8. If you want to plant a church, wouldnt you want to
actually understand what church is? In fact, isnt that
probably the best place to start? And in fact, if you dont
know what church is, could you actually be multiplying something different than what our Lord has called
us to multiply? The they of Acts 2:46-47 only comes
after the they of Acts 2:42. The early church they
were gathered around the apostles teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. They
gathered around the place where Jesus promised to be
(the gospel preached and the Eucharist delivered). As
a by-product of the word and sacraments, there were
miracles, awe, generosity, praise of God, favor with the
people, and growth. You cant put the cart before the
horse. You also cant produce a horse by building a cart.
9. The Great Commission is not what we do for Jesus
Great Commission. There is no need to look for a new
interpretation of disciple making. Jesus interprets it
himself. He says to make disciples by baptizing them
and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matt 28:1920). The first part of what we
are called to do until the Parousia of Jesus is to baptize
all people in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Im not trying to be picky, obstinate,
or a killjoy, but the word baptism should make the
radar. It should be in the book. Jesus said it himself.
10. A very large part of what Jesus commanded us to

observe, which is the second part of Christs Great
Commission, is Holy Communion. How is it possible
to walk in unity as the body of Christ when we cant
even Amen! where Jesus gives us his powerfully unifying gifts? If we cannot agree on where Jesus does his
unifying (i.e., the means of grace), should we expect
anything beyond division?
11. A paradigm will not unlock Jesus people, but it could
certainly make them sick. If the bride of Christ has
been feeding on a multitude of paradigms for a very
long time, she might not even know which medicine
is killing her. She is suffering more from misdiagnosis
than anything.
12. What about the sabotage of Christian marriage over
the last few decades? How has it affected the church?
After the slow, steady dismantling of any love or
respect for this gift over the last fifty plus years, it has
to be addressed. It has to be addressed constantly and
repeatedly. If husbands and wives arent equipped
for their commission and roles, wont we continue to
multiply sad standards and dysfunctional spiritual
behavior?
13. What about kids? What about having a little longer
term plan? How can we raise babies in an environment
where they can hear the word, grow in a confession of
Christ, and get extremely used to confessing their own
sin and rejoicing in the good news of Jesus mercy
for sinners? How can this become commonplace for
baptized and redeemed saints? How does the liturgy
affect this training? How about something like the
Lords Prayer? Or the expectation of all our families to
simply attend Bible study and Sunday school?
14. Every step of the way, the bride of Christ will be fighting for her life. Babylon wants her back and there is
always the temptation to regain friendship with the
world (Jas 4:4). Throw in the seductive proposals of the
demonic realm. And now add the biblical truth that
we are also always fighting ourselves. Romans 7 gives
us a good look at this corrupt nature! Lets just say,
there will be a measure of messiness in the church! It
will not be heaven on earth! However and yet in
spite of this colossal messiness, Jesus is still Lord of it!
15. Part of the beauty of what all Christians should hold
dear is how we are called to enter this messiness
with the very mercy of the cross! Works of mercy
have become an endangered species in our land as

more and more people focus on getting the results.
Only the theology of the cross grasps the heart of
the unreasonable love of God for broken people in
Christ. Ongoing mercy ministry would be extremely
important in terms of engaging a society that has forgotten what love is. Again, this was not the focus of
the authors, but this is a crucial need in not only our
mission churches, but in all our churches.
16. God continues to work through people who arent
very skilled. My closest advisor often encourages me
with these words: Lots of people dumber than us have
done this. What a comfort! The Lord works through
his people in spite of all their weaknesses. In fact,
those weaknesses can even be the very megaphone
where he proclaims the mercy of his Son through our
lives!
17. The Christian church grows and multiplies best within
the context of persecution. I know of one Mekane
Yesus church in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, that gave birth
to fifteen other churches within a few days! It was
at the same time that the bullets were raining down
upon the saints who steadfastly refused to give up the
preaching and teaching about Jesus Christ our Lord.
Lives were lost repeatedly at the hands of the socialists, but in the end, the gospel of Christ triumphed!
It will be hard for congregations to grow the right
way in an environment of apathy and affluence. It just
will. Perhaps we need to begin a process of humbling
ourselves and start relearning some things from our
Lutheran pastors coming from different parts of the
world. They know what its like to stand close to the
fire. They have been tested in it and by it. Many of
them have given up everything for the sake of biblical
conviction. They have no pension, no trust fund, no
savings, and sometimes no idea even where they are
going, but they trust the Lord of the church as they
Go (Gen 12:1-3)! There is much to learn from them.
18. Teaching what is true about the Bible matters. We
could even get to the point where we call this true
teaching sound or healthy doctrine. We want to
eat healthy food; dont we want healthy and accurate
teaching from the Bible? People keep saying ad infinitum and ad nauseam that doctrine doesnt matter.
They say in essence, all that matters is what we do
for Jesus. That isnt true! The content of your mission
is like the contents of a doctors syringe. The doctor
85
could do a double back flip before the inoculation, but

if there is water in the syringe, it wont cure the disease. There is only one antidote! If the antidote isnt
there for our deadly disease of sin, we are lost! The
fact that Jesus reconciled a spoiled, sinful humanity
to himself through his innocent blood even before
we loved him is a doctrine. That truth matters! That is
the central doctrine of not just the Lutherans, but all
Christians, and it is called justification! Accurate biblical doctrine matters. It is always a matter of eternal life
and death. Looking at the lack of godly offspring in
our nation should cause every one of us to repent. We
have not passed down the faith. If we pass down the
word of God as we have been called to do, we could
actually see a turnaround for the churches of the USA
in two decades. Now thats not a quick solution, but it
may be just what the Great Physician ordered (Deut
6:6-9).
Summary: The one problem is this simple. We trust
our plans to help Jesus succeed in his mission. If we continue to do this, expect more of the same. And if any of us
linger on as stat junkies and addition addicts, the jitters
are probably going to get worse. And yet, for all preachers of paradigms and followers of fads, there is a bright
and eternal road. The great thing about reading a book
like this and considering the plummeting numbers is to
rejoice that Jesus already undid the math. He himself fills
the broken equation with his divine word and blessings.
The stuff that he does goes way beyond improving situations and adjusting our plans. He actually raises people
from the dead so that they no longer trust the methods of this age (Col 2:8-12). Yes, we will always be trying
to reform something in this life. Absolutely. But what
makes Christians different is that they have actually been
discovered by the Solution. And now as we live under
the eternally fresh riptide of our baptism into Christ
(1 Cor 6:9-11), the greasy helpings of platitudes just dont
taste the same.
Consider this: Whether or not you actually believe the
divine word of the Son of God who miraculously delivers forgiveness, salvation, and even a new identity from
beyond the grave actually makes a pretty big difference in
how you see life, mission, family, and church (Rom 6:3-5;
Col 2:11-12). The timeless and eternal power of Gods
word and the means of grace is what brings new life into
a world of death. So this is what we trust as we are going
into all the world wherever our vocations find us. Period.
86
This shouldnt slow us down in our church planting, but

rather send us out in confidence even in the midst our
colossal failures!
For anyone interested in church planting, I would suggest reading something quite shocking. In Luthers Works,
Volume 41, pp. 148165, there is an arsenal of powerful
weapons against the devil, world, and flesh that perfectly
equip us for the days ahead. The reason the weapons are
powerful is precisely because they werent crafted by us.
If you have become curious enough after reading this,
investigate them for yourself. We are not alone nor are we
left alone (John 14:18). Christ reigns at the right hand for
such a time as this and he has rained down his comforter,
the Holy Spirit, upon his people. Until the close of the
age, there will be a people on this planet with whom our
triune God will dwell! What joy and comfort and courage
this gives us for our future! The true miracle is this: In
spite of all our efforts to improve Jesus kingdom on earth,
his kingdom has not only survived, but grown! The miracle of all of this is that for all the bad medication we have
been doling out to the bride of Christ, she keeps springing
out of her chair. Like an annoying or obnoxious gnat, she
keeps exasperating all those still trapped in the common
philosophies of this age. May all look in on her wonder
and rejoice in her Groom! His beloved church cannot fail
and will not go away. We have our Lords promise on it
(Matt 28:20).
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold,
I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matt
28:19-20
The Rev. Tim Droegemueller is pastor of Living Faith

Lutheran Church, Cumming, Ga.
Anyone engaged in Lutheran

mission and preaching today
Book Review and

Commentary
will find challenges and

encouragement in this volume.
Feasting in a Famine of the Word: Lutheran Preaching in the Twenty-First Century

Edited by Mark W. Birkolz, Jacob Corzine, and Jonathan Mumme. Forward by Jonathan Fisk (Eugene: Pickwick, 2016)
by Joshua C. Miller
t. Paul states in Romans 10 that faith comes by hearing the gospel through a preacher. In the Augsburg
Confession, Phillip Melanchthon declares that God has
established the preaching office in order to bestow justification on sinners. The Lutheran sense of mission is built
on the preaching office, since it is through it that sinners
are saved and believers comforted. In this volume, seventeen contemporary Lutheran pastors and theologians
reflect on the nature of preaching guided by the theological understanding that salvation in Christ is given
through preaching (xvii).
In his opening chapter, John Bombaro gives a survey of
American homiletics describing what kinds of preaching
prevail today and demonstrating
the unique charism Lutheran
preaching has to offer in the situation. Bombaro evaluates many
of the homiletical styles popular
in contemporary Christianity,
finding helpful things in some
of them, but also finding many
lacking in terms of how they
often do not actually deal with
a biblical text and routinely
abandon gospel proclamation for
thematic exploration resulting
in moralizing or patronizing (17). In Bombaros estimation, the main reason for such preaching today is the
prevalence of consumerism. He maintains that preachers
often preach poor sermons out of a desire to fulfill the
consumeristic desires of their hearers rather than out of a
deep understanding of the true task of the preacher (26).
Drawing on the work of Gerhard Forde, Johann Micahel
Reu, C. F. W. Walther, and Timothy Wengert, Bombaro
identifies the true task of the preacher as proclaiming
Gods condemning law and Gods saving gospel in first
person address to the hearers of the sermon (2026).
In the following essays each author expounds on

important aspects of this task. Mark Birkholz emphasizes the necessity of certainty when preaching. St. Peter
rested his case on the certainty of Jesus death and resurrection, proclaiming Christs work for hearers (3639).
The preacher today can also boldly proclaim that the
forgiveness of sins and salvation is certain, trusting
the Holy Spirit to work faith in hearers hearts (4042).
Paul Elliott argues that typology can be an appropriate
tool for preaching the Old Testament because the apostle Paul preached that in Christ Christians are part of
Israel reduced to one (5556). Elliott identifies the texts
about ancient Israel as a nation, Israels institutions, and
the Psalms (especially those of
lament) as appropriate venues
for using typology about Israel to
speak to Christians today (61).
Richard Serena, Roy Coates,
and Jacob Corzine all bring
insights from historical figures
into the conversation. Serena
comments on Nicholas of Cusa
as a preacher. While Serena
rejects the idea of Cusa as a proto-reformer, he does note certain
parallels between the Lutheran
understanding of the preacher giving Christ to hearers
and Cusas own notion of the preacher as a chef who serves
up the word of God to the hungry (71). Coates discusses
how Johann Gerhard understood systematic theology
and preaching to exist symbiotically, as preaching keeps
systematic theology from becoming philosophical and
speculative while systematic theology gives content and
basis to preaching so that it does not devolve into sheer
moralism (79, 9596). Corzine utilizes Johannes Brenzs
distinction between fides visibilia (faith evident in visible confession) and fides invisibilia (the faith of infants
The preacher today

can also boldly proclaim
that the forgiveness
of sins and salvation
is certain, trusting the
Holy Spirit to work faith
in hearers hearts.
87
and children flourishing into confession) (101111). One

of Corzines central points can comfort preachers and
hearers alike. Doubt, he says, is not an absence of faith
(unbelief) but an expressed need for assurance that Christ
gives through the preacher (115-116).
Jonathan Mumme and Steven Paulson highlight the
importance of direct address. Mumme explores the use
of such differentiated address by Paul and Luther, identifying the preacher as the medium for the voice of God
directly to the hearers (137). Similarly, preaching, says
Paulson, is not merely speaking about God, but speaking
for God (143). Eschewing analogy, Paulson argues for a
homiletic that really preaches Christ directly to hearers in
the effective words, I forgive you!
(143155).
Other authors expound on
aspects of the preachers task or
connections between preaching
and divine service, theology, and
the Christian life. Hans Jrg Voigt
navigates the troubled waters of paraenesis (exhortation to good works),
counselling that the preacher must
be careful not to confuse law and
gospel. Paraenesis should be understood as the law in
its third use, so as not to portray the gospel as making
demands. At the same time, the law does not empower
the believer to bear the fruit of the Spirit that flows from
faith; only the gospel can do that. Moreover, the preacher
should proclaim the gospel louder and larger than the
paraenesis itself, ensuring that the hearer is comforted
(163164).
John Pless, John Kleinig, and David Petersen address
the connections between preaching, the liturgy, and communion. Pless emphasizes that liturgical preaching should
be evangelical. The preacher should not merely talk about
liturgical or sacramental action but actually perform it.
Drawing on Forde and Oswald Bayer, Pless says that the
sermon should deliver the goods of the promise and
not get lost in analogies to washing and meals (177).
Likewise, Kleinig admonishes that the preacher should
not just say that life is available but identify where (i.e.,
in the Lords Supper) and then give it to the hearers (179,
190). Petersen encourages preaching in every service and
emphasizes that the preacher should preach the promise of the gospel in Scripture directly to hearers and not
simply impersonally read the text (208).
Esko Murto underlines the connection between preaching and the doctrine of original sin. Abandoning this
doctrine, says Murto, leaves the door open to works righteousness. Then, warns Murto soberly, salvation is up to
the supposedly free will of the individual and the preaching
office becomes merely a marketing venture (223).
Jeremiah Johnson and Jakob Appell connect preaching
with pastoral care. In what is perhaps the most touchingly pastoral essay in the book, Johnson stresses the
importance of preaching lament for Christians undergoing suffering. He offers lament (crying out to God on the
basis of Gods promise in the midst of suffering) as a gift
from God through which the Christian may find a vehicle for the anger and grief that comes
in suffering (226, 238239). Appell
addresses preaching as the cure of
souls, wherein the pastor is a physician administering the word and
sacraments to the patient (255256).
In the final two chapters of the
book, Daniel Schmidt and Gottfried
Martens address some practical homiletic concerns. Schmidt encourages
preaching in the present tense to be
present to their hearers (274). Martens admonishes the
preacher to bring out the law and the gospel in the text
rather than to woodenly (in the Prussian style) force
categories of generic law and gospel on the hearers, as
well as to preach the promise of the gospel indicatively to
hearers (296298).
Anyone engaged in Lutheran mission and preaching
today will find challenges and encouragement in this
volume. Though it focuses much on theory, the book also
highlights significant practical concerns, including the use
of direct address, personal pronouns, and present tense,
and faithfulness to the text. Each essay is focused but
never loses sight of the goal of preaching to give salvation to the hearers. The authors here present a much more
evangelical approach to preaching than some popular
consumer-centric methods, one that recognizes and proclaims the truly effective means of mission and preaching
the preached gospel of Christ that is the means of grace
itself. Preachers reading this volume will find encouragement to be faithful in their callings, but they also may find
their own faith strengthened by the gospel.
Each essay is
focused but never
loses sight of the
goal of preaching
to give salvation to
the hearers.
88
Dr. Joshua C. Miller is adjunct professor at Augsburg

College, Minneapolis, Minn.

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What is the purpose of the Journal of Lutheran Mission?

What is the purpose of the Journal of Lutheran Mission?

What are some of the topics discussed in the essays in the book?

What are some of the topics discussed in the essays in the book?

Journal of Lutheran

The Journal of Lutheran Mission

Rev. John Fale, executive director, LCMS Office of International Mission

From the President

Ecumenical and Mission

his issue of the Journal of Lutheran Mission

The first paper shows the little-known history of how

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

the Associated Church Press. This is a recognition

LCMS, LCC and NALC Leaders RElease Joint Statement on Scripture.............................................. 2

Published by The Lutheran Church

Three church bodies discuss

LCMS, LCC and NALC

s an important step forward in the ongoing

Suitable Methodology of Interpretation; and Proper Use

Topical sections of the statement include: How did

their mutual confession regarding

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

This statement serves as a foundation

Gods Word Forever Shall

where the LCMS and others seek to

his statement, Gods Word Forever Shall Abide

bespeaks us righteous in sermon and absolution.

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from the Book of Concord are

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

is given by Gods gracious act of sending His Son:

Part 1: How Did the Bible Get Here?

b. Since general revelation does not witness to the

Part 2: What Kind of Book Is the Bible?

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

analogous to the union of the two natures in the Person

For example, the situation in Corinth which occasioned Pauls

historical phenomenon is open to investigation by

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

doubt, a mystery at work here not unlike that of

wherever the Word is rightly preached and

1. What is true of each individual nature

3. Our Gods humble work in this divine

a. We realize that the term inerrant (or terms like

Lutherans are not fundamentalists. We note that fundamentalism,

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

b. Lutherans do hold that to declare the inerrancy or

historically, is a movement within Reformed theology holding to five

f. The Lutheran Confessions confess the truthfulness

Part 3: Suitable Methodology of Interpretation

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

every pericope is applicable immediately to every

For example, concerning the Third Commandment, Luther said:

of the Bible is the Gospel of Gods free grace toward

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

Part 4: Proper Use of the Bible

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

and apostolic Scriptures of both testaments are the

Resources for Further

A Comparative Study of Varying Contemporary

b. Since general revelation does not witness to the

1. What is true of each individual nature

3. Our Gods humble work in this divine

a. We realize that the term inerrant (or terms like

b. Lutherans do hold that to declare the inerrancy or

f. The Lutheran Confessions confess the truthfulness

5.Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession

6.Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg

5. Towards the Celebration of the 500th Anniversary of