The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty Years by Pastor David Lau CHAPTER 1

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Discussion Outline of The Church of the
Lutheran Confession Fifty Years by Pastor
David Lau
The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
Yearsby Pastor David Lau -- CHAPTER 1
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• Chapter I The Grace of God
• By the grace of God I am what I am, and His
  grace toward me was not in vain (1 Corinthians
  1510).
• We teach that the Holy Spirit creates one Holy
  Christian Church which consists of all believers
  in Christ.... We joyfully acknowledge that the
  Lord knows His elect children even though some
  are members of false-teaching churches.... We
  pray that all who believe in the Lord Jesus may
  be preserved in this faith to their end and
  finally receive, by His merits and mercy, the
  crown of eternal life. (CLC Statement of Faith
  and Purpose)
• In telling our history we will be recounting what
  was said and what was done by various individuals
  and congregations at certain times and certain
  places. We will be comparing these words and
  actions with what God says in His Word...But we
  will not be judging hearts or motives that is
  God's prerogative.

The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
Yearsby Pastor David Lau -- CHAPTER 1
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• Chapter 2 Confessional Lutheranism
• 
  Our Confession
• We affirm the canonical Scriptures as the
  verbally inspired Word of God.We confess the
  Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds and the
  Particular Symbols of the Lutheran Church as
  published in the Book of Concord of 1580, because
  they are a true exposition of the Word of God.

The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
Yearsby Pastor David Lau -- CHAPTER 2
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Dr. Martin Luther1483-1546
The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
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The sectarians who deny the bodily presence of
Christ in the Lord's Supper accuse us today of
being quarrelsome, harsh, and intractable,
because, as they say, we shatter love and
harmony...In philosophy a tiny error in the
beginning is very great at the end. Thus in
theology a tiny error overthrows the whole
teaching... Doctrine belongs to God, not to us
and we are called only as its ministers.
Therefore we cannot give up or change even one
dot of it. (Luther's Works,
Volume 27, pp. 36-37).

• Luther not to be revered as idol or saint
• Rather, appreciated as a restorer of Gods truth
  through the WORD

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• Decline of Lutheranism in Europe in the 1600s
• Weakened through mixture of church and state
• Lack of focus on mission work
• Rise of PIETISM, RATIONALISM

The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
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Early Lutherans in America1623-1839
Confessional Lutherans land in New York and
Delaware, 1623
The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
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Early Lutherans in America1623-1839
Later Lutheran immigrants to NE American colonies
deeply influenced by pietism, rationalism
The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
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Early Lutherans in America1623-1839
Confessional revival of the 1800s, spurred on by
Prussian Union and resulting immigrants
The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
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Early Lutherans in America1623-1839
Saxon German Lutherans arrive in Missouri in
1839, forming the strongly confessional Lutheran
Church Missouri Synod
C.F.W. Walther
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Inter-synodical Associations of the 1800s

• Liberal NE General Synod, founded 1820
• More conservative General Council, 1867

(Many other independent synods formed on mainly
ethnic lines -- Germans, Norwegians, Danes,
Swedes, etc.)
The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
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U.S. Liberal Lutheran Consolidation, pt. 1
The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
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U.S. Liberal Lutheran Consolidation, pt. 2
ELCA
The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
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Inter-synodical Associations of the 1800s

• Should confessional Lutherans be a part of the
  (more conservative) General Council? Doctrinal
  questions remained

• Millenialism
• Pulpit and Altar fellowship
• Lodges

The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
Yearsby Pastor David Lau -- CHAPTER 2
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A Truly Confessional OrganizationThe Synodical
Conference, 1872
Comprised of The Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois,
Minnesota, and Norwegian Synods
Meeting of Synodical Conference Representatives
in Saginaw, MI, 1912
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A Truly Confessional OrganizationThe Synodical
Conference, 1872
They were determined to cling to the precious
treasure of the pure doctrine ... unchanged and
unadulterated as a whole and in all its parts, as
set down from the Word of God in the Confessions
of our Lutheran church, and with God's help
faithfully to testify and do battle against every
falsification of this priceless treasure... we
cannot agree to carry on church fellowship with
obviously false teachers and un-Lutheran spirits
for the sake of outward church union or to pull
on one synodical yoke with such with whom we have
no true unity of spirit. -- Prof. F.
A. Schmidt of the Norwegian Synod
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The Church of the Lutheran Confession Fifty
Yearsby Pastor David Lau -- CHAPTER 4