e
to us from the Rationalistic period.

2. Tradition, from the civil and social arrangements of the national
churches from which we are descended, inherited through generations of
our predecessors in this country. We follow in the old ruts, and "the
way we have always been doing" puts an end to controversy.

3. Environment. Consciously or unconsciously we are influenced by the
practice of neighboring denominations.

The object of this chapter is to ascertain the historic principles of
the Lutheran Church in regard to church membership, to test their
validity by Scriptures and to apply them to present conditions.

The Church is primarily the communion of saints. Thus in the Small
Catechism: "even as He (the Holy Ghost) ... sanctifies the whole
Christian Church on earth." In the Large Catechism the same thought,
that the Church is the product of the Holy Ghost, is expressed in ample
terms. Rome's doctrine of the Church, as essentially an external
organism, was answered in the 7th Article of the Augustana with the
statement that the Church is the "congregation of saints," and this
Article was the object of special attack in the Confutation. In the
Apologia the Church is the congregation of those who confess one Gospel,
have a knowledge of Christ and a Holy Spirit who renews, sanctifies and
governs their hearts (Mueller 153, 8). In the Smalcald Articles: "Thank
God, a child of seven years knows what the Church is, namely the holy
believers and the lambs who hear their Shepherd's voice." The Formula of
Concord has no special article on the Church, but touches the question
incidentally and confirms the statements of the other symbols. (See
Rohnert, Dogmatik, p. 505.)

These teachings are in harmony with New Testament doctrine. Jesus said:
"Upon this rock will I build my church," the congregation of God's
children, the spiritual house which in the years to come "I will build."
This Church was founded through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on
Pentecost. When the Epistles were written Ecclesia had become the
established term. In Acts 2, 42, we find that Koinonia was one of the
essential characteristics of the Church. John uses the same term in his
first letter. This is the very truth repeated in the 7th Article of the
Augustana. Paul, in his letter to Titus, refers to Christians as those
who have believed in God; Romans 8, "God's elect;" also in Colossians 3,
1, "elect of God;" I. Peter 2, "holy nation, peculiar people;"