Download Audio “A Sterner Kind of Admonition and Love” On August 6, 1945, the Milwaukee Journal reported that “an atomic bomb, hailed as the most terrible destructive force in history and the greatest achievement of organized science” was loosed by American B-29 bombers on Japan. The city of Hiroshima was covered with “an impenetrable cloud […]
Download Audio Romans 16:17 and 18 As fellowship questions grew increasingly contentious, the proper interpretation and application of Romans 16:17 and 18 came under greater debate. Missouri’s Brief Statement had applied the passage to all heterodox Christians, including non-Synodical Conference Lutherans, even over such nonfundamental doctrines as millennialism, election, and conversion. footnote: Missouri’s citation of […]
Download Audio A different fellowship history? To Confessional Lutheran writers and readers, the 1938 Union Resolutions, and the American Lutheran’s support for them, revealed a changed understanding of the practice of prayer fellowship. Conservatives sought to demonstrate that their position – prayer fellowship based on full agreement in doctrine – was the position Walther, Pieper, […]
Download Audio Why wasn’t Wisconsin invited? Wisconsin declined the 1935 invitation to enter negotiations with the ULCA, according to Reim, because those negotiations were “based upon the premise that no real difference existed between the various Lutheran bodies of America.” At its 1935 convention, however, Wisconsin “publicly mentioned the need of taking up the abandoned […]
Download Audio Wisconsin and Lutheran Union Included among the nine resolutions adopted by Missouri’s 1938 convention was 6c: “As far as the Missouri Synod is concerned, this whole matter must be submitted for approval to the other synods constituting the Synodical Conference.” The Wisconsin Synod, however, had shown little enthusiasm for the doctrinal positions of […]
Download Audio The Brux case Friederich Bente’s 1905 essay, “Warum koennen wir keine gemeinsame Gottesdienste mit Ohioern und Iowaern veranstalten und abhalten?” (“Why Can We Not Establish and Maintain Common Prayer Services with the Ohioans and Iowans?”) offered the most comprehensive Missouri condemnation of prayer fellowship among those not united in doctrine. Bente granted that […]
Download Audio Chapter 3 Fellowship Becomes the Issue “Gentlemen,” Edmund Reim told one of his seminary classes in the early 1950s, “the Boy Scouts will never break up the Synodical Conference.” Resolutions adopted at Wisconsin’s 1953 convention “hit the nail on the head” in their recognition of unionism as “the root of all the tensions […]
Download Audio “We were shocked beyond measure” Here, however—perhaps for the first time—Missouri made a decision without regard to its sister synods of the Synodical Conference, which the Wisconsin and Norwegian synods could not readily excuse. Synodical Conference opposition to Scouting was difficult for many to understand, but Wisconsin could at least take comfort that […]
Download Audio “Our Synod will take care of the spiritual needs of all our boys” While continuing to oppose participation in the military chaplaincy program on doctrinal grounds, the Wisconsin Synod was especially eager to demonstrate that it could minister to its servicemen with its own resources and without compromising its convictions. Almost no Wisconsin […]
Download Audio A parting of the ways War’s end postponed resolution of questions regarding the chaplaincy and inter-Lutheran cooperation, but by the mid-1930s threats from overseas dictators forced the issue to resurface. Delegates to Missouri’s 1935 convention instructed newly elected president John Behnken to appoint a committee to investigate whether calling men as chaplains into […]