SOME CASES OF CONSCIENCE ON LUTHERAN CHURCH GOVERNMENT
To all my fellow ALBP forum members!
Now, where it concerns the question of Lutheran Church Government, I now make the following foundational
a priori assumptions:
1: That 1 Corinthians 14:34/35 and 1 Timothy 2:11/12 are still in full force today exactly as written and exactly as it reads at face-value; and that it absolutely forbids women to PUBLICLY ADDRESS the ASSEMBLY (includes of course, PREACHING, TEACHING, EXHORTATION, LITURGICALLY READING THE SCRIPTURE, LEADING IN PUBLIC PRAYER, PROPHESYING, SPEAKING IN TONGUES, EXORCISM, ...) and/or put forth questions in a voice LOUD and PUBLIC ENOUGH TO PUBLICLY ADDRESS the ASSEMBLY; and that this precept is a universal and perpetual divine law;
2: That neither CONGREGATIONAL SINGING nor DEVOTIONAL RESPONSES are included in the prohibition;
3: That the REASONS for these prohibitions are universal and of natural moral equity, based on the divine order of creation of the sexes, according to which, the man is the head of the woman; and that this divine order of creation of the sexes is part and parcel of the divinely prescribed perpetual and universal natural law of mankind;
4: That the Lutheran Confessions of Faith are to be subscribed according to a
quia and not just merely a
quatenus sense, or else one cannot be Lutheran;
5: That C. F. W. Walther's doctrine of the supremacy of the Voter Assembly within the local congregation (to wit, the congregation though its congregational meetings, and through the votes of all adult male members of the congregation in such meetings, are the supreme governing authority in the local congregation, which by the way, was the classical distinctive doctrine of Congregationalism, and which WELS and the CLC continue to hold even today) is the ONLY church polity which agrees with the teachings of the Bible and Lutheran Confessions on church government.
Special emphasis will be placed under the fifth assumption. The burden of proof is on those who DENY the fifth assumption which I have made. No wonder that women and children were INELIGIBLE to VOTE in such a Voter Assembly, since C F W Walther officially taught for a DOCTRINE that the Voter Assembly of a given local congregation possesses SUPREME
de jure divino ecclesiastical authority and jurisdiction in all matters of the local congregation provided firstly that no doctrine taught in the Bible & Lutheran Confessions should be debated, nor changed, nor relaxed, nor abrogated, nor any NEW doctrines should be added thereunto and secondly that the decision made by the congregation should not be contrary to the laws of God nor to the doctrines taught in the Bible and Lutheran Confession! "Woman Suffrage" + "Voter Supremacy" = HERESY. Woman suffrage and Waltherian Voter Supremacy cannot
both be mixed together in the
same Voter Assembly of the
same local congregation without violating the Divine Order of Creation of the Sexes: Genesis 3:16, 1 Corinthians 11:3, 7-10, 1 Corinthians 14:34 (quoting Genesis 3:16), 1 Timothy 2:11-13.
Now under all 5 of these assumptions:
1: According to the teachings of the Bible and Lutheran Confessions, is the unit of electoral representation in a congregational voter assembly the family or the individual?
2: According to the teachings of the Bible and Lutheran Confessions, are adult sons (i.e. at least 21 years old) living with their father eligible to vote in the same Voter Assembly of the SAME local congregation as their father, or is that contrary to their duty of obedience to their father?
3: In light of the teachings of the Bible and Lutheran Confessions, especially including that part of the Table of Duties which prescribes it to be the duty of servants to be obedient to their masters, are male servants living in the household of their male master of the house to vote in the same Voter Assembly of the SAME local congregation as their master, or is that a violation of the plain Scriptural precepts which teach that servants MUST obey their masters?
