From
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church In America
Volume 3, Number 2
Pentecost 1998
Confessional Renewal Movements
The 9.5
Theses
These theses
were written by a group of pastors from New Jersey and published in Lutheran
Forum (Vol. 29, No. 4, November, 1995) with commentary by Ronald B. Bagnall, Mark
Hoffman, Phillip Max Johnson, Linda Larson, John David Larson, Richard J.
Niebanck, Beth Schlegel, and Louis A. Smith.
Preamble
To the
people of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, "who have been
chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be
obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood," and to their
pastors: "May grace and peace be yours in abundance" (I Peter 1:2).
The ELCA is
in a crisis--a crisis of faith. The critical question is whether this church
will prove faithful to the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures and the catholic
creeds and evangelical confessions, or fall into apostasy--a fall which could
go either to the right or to the left. Many in the ELCA tilt toward the
right--the ideologies of enthusiasm, fundamentalism, nationalism, and pietism.
Many others lean toward the left--the ideologies of activism, feminism,
advocacy. This results in the appearance of a conservative versus liberal
struggle, but this appearance is an illusion. The real struggle is for faithful
adherence to the Scriptures, creeds and confessions over against their
subordination to these social or religious ideologies.
Whenever
such ideologies prevail, the Word of God is silenced among us and driven out of
the Church, and our people, left to their own devices, are deprived of that
true consolation which comes from "the Gospel of God ... concerning his
Son ... Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 1:1ff).
Praying for
the Church, rejoicing in the Gospel, convicted by the Word of God, we offer the
following theses, that our confession of the Faith might address the current
crisis directly and honestly. Our pastoral office compels us to speak.
Thesis 1:
The Revelation and Name of the Holy Trinity
When the Advocate
comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes
from the Father, he will testify on my behalf (John 15:26). "Throughout
the world the holy Church acclaims, praises, worships" no other God than
the Lord God of Israel, revealed in and named by Jesus Christ as "the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Te Deum; Matthew 28:19; Augsburg
Confession-Article I).
We reject
the false teaching that the naming of God as Father is a human construct to be
understood on the analogy of human fatherhood; that it designates Israel's God
as male; that the Trinitarian Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is inherently
oppressive to human beings in general or to women in particular; or that
substituting triadic terms is adequate.
The Word of
God is silenced among us and driven out of the Church whenever the Name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is ignored, minimized, marginalized,
suppressed or altered in the Church's preaching and praying, baptizing and
confessing.
Thesis 2:
The Bondage of Humanity to Sin
Therefore,
just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin,
and so death spread to all because all have sinned (Romans 5:12). The Church
confesses "that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves"
(LBW--Brief Order for Confession and Forgiveness; Augsburg Confession--Articles
II, XVII, XIX).
We reject
the false teaching that would place ultimate hope in human goodness and
self-fulfillment, that would confuse sin with failure or lack of virtue, that
would exchange confession of our sin before God for self-analyses of perceived
human problems.
The Word of
God is silenced among us and driven out of the Church whenever we sinners are
not held accountable before the holy and righteous God.
Thesis 3:
The Person and Work
of God the
Son
Without any
doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed
in throughout the world, taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:16). The Church
confesses and believes in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, "the
eternal Son of the Father," crucified and raised for the salvation of the
world, "worthy of all worship" (Te Deum; Augsburg Confession--Article
III).
We reject
the false teaching that would separate the man Jesus from the risen Christ, and
diminish his particular identity by "re-imagining" him as female,
speaking of him as androgynous, or using him as a "Christ-principle."
We also reject the false teaching that Christ is for Christians only, that he
is but one savior among many, that faith is salutary apart from the particular
work of Christ.
The Word of
God is silenced among us and driven out of the Church whenever, under the guise
of a false pluralism, we do not boldly proclaim the man Jesus Christ, the Jew
from Nazareth, as the unique and universal Savior, the One for the many.
Thesis 4:
The Proclamation of Forgiveness, Life and Salvation
For by grace
you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). The Church "acknowledges one Baptism for the
forgiveness of sins," in which God has justified the ungodly and promised
salvation from sin and death, from devil and hell, and from God's own law and
wrath, "and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers" (Nicene
Creed; Te Deum; Augsburg Confession--Articles III and IV).
We reject
the false teaching that would replace God's eschatological salvation with
therapeutic rejuvenation, material well-being, social transformation, the
spread of provisional human justice, or other good and desirable effects in
what unbelief would label "the real world."
The Word of
God is silenced among us and driven out of the Church when the singular and
specific promise of the Gospel is traded for the promise of some worldly good
or the plans and pleas for human betterment.
Thesis 5:
The Holy Spirit
and the
Means of Grace
So faith
comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ
(Romans 10:17). The Church confesses and believes in "the Holy Spirit,
Advocate and Guide," who "calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies
the whole Christian Church" through, and only through, God's means of
grace, which is the preaching of the Word--i.e., through Scripture, sermon,
Baptism, Absolution, and Communion (Te Deum; Small Catechism-Creed-Article III;
Augsburg Confession-Articles V, IX-XIII).
We reject
the false teaching that the Holy Spirit is given apart from the preached Word
and sacraments, that the Holy Spirit is evidenced by human enthusiasm or
activism, that the Holy Spirit is to be equated with the dynamic of social,
political and spiritual movements. We reject the false teaching that the Church
grows through human ingenuity and energy. We reject the false teaching that
God's liturgy is a tool for the advancement of political, cultural or
therapeutic programs. We reject the elevation of organizational success, growth
in numbers, and political and therapeutic activity to the status of marks of
the Church.
The Word of
God is silenced among us and driven out of the Church when the true means of
grace--the preaching of the Word and the sacraments--no longer define,
structure and center the ministry and mission of the Christian congregation.
Thesis 6:
The Vocation of the Baptized
and Good
Works
For we are
what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, to our way of life (Ephesians 2:10). The Church confesses that the
faithful are "bound to bring forth fruits--that is, the good works
mandated by God" in the Ten Commandments, and done for God's sake alone
(Augsburg Confession--Articles VI, XVI, XX).
We reject
the false teaching that would elevate advocacy for self-chosen high-visibility
causes above the common participation of Christians in the life of the world as
husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, employers, workers, artists, teachers,
doctors, lawyers, politicians, etc.
The Word of
God is silenced among us and driven out of the Church whenever the daily vocation
of Christians is denigrated
Thesis 7:
The Unity of the Church Catholic
For in the
one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or
free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). The
Church "believes in one holy catholic and apostolic Church,"
"the Body of Christ," which is the congregation of the faithful
gathered by the Holy Spirit to hear the preached Word and celebrate the
sacraments (Nicene Creed; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12ff; Augsburg Confession-Article
VII).
We reject
the false teaching of a North American liberal Christianity that would
substitute a politically-devised multiculturalism or inclusivism for the
Church's true catholic unity in the preached Word and sacraments. We reject the
false teaching of a North American conservative Protestantism that would
substitute an invisible, spiritual experience of fellowship for the concrete
reality of the preached Word and sacraments.
The Word of
God is silenced among us and driven out of the Church whenever the visible
unity of the churches is not actively pursued in terms of the true God-given
unity of the Church in Word and sacrament.
Thesis 8:
The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel
For 'no
human being will be justified in his sight' by deeds prescribed by the law, for
through the law comes knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). The Church teaches that
both law and gospel must continually be preached in the congregation of the
faithful: the law to convict people of sin and to promote God's temporal
justice, the gospel to forgive people of sins and to proclaim God's eternal
righteousness (Apology of Augsburg Confession-Article IV).
We reject
the false teaching that would identify God's law with achievable human goals
rather than as the call to repent from sin and to amend one's life before the
holy God. We reject the false teaching that would re-define God's gospel as
freedom which allows individuals to fulfill themselves and to do whatever
pleases them.
The Word of
God is silenced among us and driven out of the Church whenever it is no longer
held that God Almighty who created everything and gave us his law is the one
God who redeemed the creation and renews it through his Holy Spirit.
Thesis 9:
The Holy Ministry
Think of us
in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries (1
Corinthians 4:1). The Church teaches that the holy Ministry is the divinely
instituted public office of preaching the Word and sacraments in the
congregation of the faithful (Augsburg Confession-Articles V, XIV, XXVIII; cf.
Occasional Services-Ordination).
We reject
the false teaching that would define the holy Ministry as a "helping
profession," and so turn bishops and pastors into psychological counselors
or social activists. We reject the false teaching that would fragment the one
divinely instituted Ministry into so-called specialized ministries, as if the
circumstances of ministry determine its content and practice. We reject the
false teaching that ordained ministers are not subject to an exemplary standard
in their conduct and relationships, or that they may excuse immoral behavior by
an appeal to privacy or gospel freedom.
The Word of
God is silenced among us and driven out of the Church whenever the holy
Ministry becomes a loosely defined service to people rather than the specific
divine call to serve the Word of God, and whenever bishops and pastors are not
encouraged to adorn the holy Ministry with holy lives.
Thesis 9.5
(Epilogue): Confess and Pray
We believe that
you will come and be our judge. Come, then, Lord, and help your people, bought
with the price of your own blood, and bring us with your saints to glory
everlasting (Te Deum). Almighty God, grant to your Church your holy Spirit and
the wisdom which comes down from heaven, that your Word may not be bound but
have free course and be preached to the joy and edifying of Christ's holy
people, that in steadfast faith we may serve you and in the confession of your
name may abide to the end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Lutheran Book
of Worship-Matins and Vespers).