The Second Lutheran Answer

The second answer I received to the question “How do I know truth?” was; “We decide in Synod.” There are two variations of this answer (which make up two of my four answers) so I’ll treat them separately. The first of the two treats synod as the final authority of our church.

Invested in synod is all the authority of the LCA and so, if the LCA has any authority to decide, the synod exercises that authority.

When one of my colleagues asked his fellow pastors “What gives this synod the right to decide this issue?” He received the answer: “Synod gives synod the right!” In other words, the LCA gives itself the right to decide what Scripture says. The assumption behind this is that the LCA possesses the authority of the whole church to make such decisions. Yet the only evidence or argument we can use to support the LCA’s claim to his authority is the LCA’s own interpretation of Scripture.

I began to wonder not only if the LCA is right in claiming such authority, but is the LCA even a legitimate part of the Church? To justify the validity of any claim made by the LCA one needs to rely on that very ‘claimed’ authority. Of course, this would be true of any church group. The implication is that the authority and infallibility of any group’s decisions is reliant on the infallibility of its decision making process, and of those involved in that process. The problem is that the LCA deliberately and openly rejects any notion of its own infallibility. Yet it builds its ‘infallible truths’ on this fallible foundation!

There were some who insisted that the pastors alone, as ordained apostolic ministers, had been entrusted to uphold the truth and not the lay delegates who also voted at synod. There were those who advocated an ‘every member’ ballot on the matter, rather than the vote at synod. But all of these suggested methods of reaching a decision, including the one actually used, beg the question: “Does the LCA have the authority to make such a decision?” If we decide the LCA has no such authority, we must ask: “By what authority does the LCA presume to uphold the doctrines it does currently.”

Only if we could show that the LCA has the authority to determine the clear Word of God definitively in this matter can we begin to discuss the proper method the LCA could use to come to this decision. I never got that far, because I never received an answer to the first question.

Next: The Third and Fourth Answers