Great Stuff Found on the Web — Pr Frahm points out a quote from Dr. Scaer’s “Missouri’s Identity Crisis”

There’s all this talk around the synod about the CTCR or other organizations producing the final say on this or that issue .. we of course can’t forget the fact that everything that we do has to be based on the bible and confessions and not on this or that bylaw or ruling.

Thanks to Pr John Frahm for finding and sending this quote out yesterday. It is from Dr. David Scaer from a paper that he wrote/presented in 2002.

Dr. David Scaer is professor of systematic theology at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. He is a colorful character and is considered the mentor of many pastors in the LCMS. The following article will give you and idea why is so highly revered.

This quote comes from the first full paragraph on page 5 of:

Missouri’s Identity Crisis: Rootless in America
David P. Scaer
The 25th Annual Symposium on the Lutheran Confessions
January 23, 2002
Concordia Theological Seminary

“Doing theology solely by referencing historic and officially approved documents can become an obstacle to taking the Scriptures on their own terms and to looking to the Confessions in controverted issues. Later documents become theological playing fields and sola scriptura and confessional subscription play a lesser role in doing theology. Another step is taken by a complex cross-referencing of CTCR documents. The end product is a midrash requiring knowing the intended sense of the CTCR at the time of their composition and the emotions of the conventions adopting these documents. We are faced with an historical criticism of another kind. Church documents can never be received as secondary scriptures, so that we assume for the synod an infallibility that we deny the Bishop of Rome. Just how useful some of these documents are is another issue, as for example the ministry resolution of July 2001. A Brief Statement is valuable as the word “brief” suggests it did not claim to be exhaustive.”

David P. Scaer. “Missouri’s Identity Crisis: Rootless in America,” Logia: A Journal of Lutheran Theology (Volume XII, Number 1, 2003); p.37

Click here for the audio presentation

Click here for the PDF. The quote above is found on page 5 of this PDF file.

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