Revisionists retain control of the Missouri Synod
Looks like the Liberal/Methobapticostalist alliance has retained control at the LCMS convention in Houston. President Kieschnick has been re-elected, as has First Vice-President Diekelman. Paul Meier is Second Vice-President, and John Wohlrabe is Third (Wohlrabe was a leading Confessionalist candidate for President).
Still waiting for word on the proposal to declare intercommunion with the American Association of Lutheran Churches.For me, this is a kind of line in the sand- for reasons made all too clear here.
If Missouri is, in any meaningful sense, still Missouri, it will not countenance pulpit and altar fellowship with a church body which practices open communion and the other syncretistic practices mentioned in the letter linked to above- and it will insist on an answer as to how a church body whose self-description is as "confessional" can also describe itself as "charismatic."
HT:Preachrblog
Still waiting for word on the proposal to declare intercommunion with the American Association of Lutheran Churches.For me, this is a kind of line in the sand- for reasons made all too clear here.
If Missouri is, in any meaningful sense, still Missouri, it will not countenance pulpit and altar fellowship with a church body which practices open communion and the other syncretistic practices mentioned in the letter linked to above- and it will insist on an answer as to how a church body whose self-description is as "confessional" can also describe itself as "charismatic."
HT:Preachrblog
Comments
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Dr. Luther taught the Sacramental Union. Anybody can say the believe in the Real Presence (Episcopal, Catholic, Methodist, etc.) while the Sacramental Union is the "in, with, and under" which no other Confession believes.
I don't mean to nit pick, but it's important.
More serious is the point that a great many people believe in the Real Presence who do not believe in the pure Gospel. The followers of Rome and Constantinople come to mind. And if AC VII is taken seriously, they therefore fall short of the minimum standard of unity required for altar fellowship.
Bear in mind, too, the Galesburg Rule, to which the AALC gives lip service- but denies with the language you cite. If you recall, the rule is "Lutheran pulpits for Lutheran preachers only, and Lutheran altars for Lutheran communicants only; if otherwise, by exception rather than by rule." To issue the invitation in question is to draw the line a great deal more broadly than that. It is also to break with the understanding of the Church of the ages that fellowship in communion is nothing more or less than a mutual recognition of each other's orthodoxy.