Word: pastors
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...with the briefcase, the Rev. George Crist Jr., 31-year-old pastor of LUTHERAN HERESY TRIBUNAL & PASTOR CRIST Where is up? Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Durham, Wis., was on trial for heresy. The seven men at the table were Lutheran ministers chosen to carry out the first formal trial for heresy ever held in the 60-year history of the Northwest Synod of the United Lutheran Church in America, largest (membership: 2,061,004) group of Lutheran synods in the U.S. The charge: "Holding, teaching and preaching doctrines in convict with the Lutheran faith...
Naturalistic Miracles. Pastor Crist (rhymes with mist), an aviation radioman in World War II, and the father of three children, got into trouble after the synod heard reports of "doctrinal deviations" by him and two other synod pastors who were his former schoolmates at Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary in Minneapolis. After examining a series of sermons by Pastor Crist, a fiveman investigating committee ordered him to trial on 14 counts of deviation, centering in his "use and interpretation of the Scriptures, and in his teaching concerning the person and work of Christ...
...Pastor Crist openly denied the virgin birth of Christ, expressed doubt about the Resurrection and Ascension, developed naturalistic explanations for Christ's Biblical miracles, e.g., he said of the miracle of the loaves and fishes (Matthew 14:15-21}: "Perhaps He prevailed on those who had brought lunch to share it with those who had not." The synod also accused him of denying the Lutheran doctrines of original sin, the efficacy of prayer and Christ's real presence in the Lord's Supper.* Pastor Crist, the synod charged, has abandoned the fundamental principles of Scripture interpretation...
Semantic Denials. Unabashed, Pastor Crist tried to justify many of his denials by semantics (on the Ascension: "Ascend means to go up ... Where is up?"), insisted that all his teachings constituted "a permissible point of view within the Lutheran Church." Some Lutheran synods permit liberal interpretations of the Augsburg Confession, the 16th century work embodying basic Lutheran beliefs. But the Northwest Synod, although one of the more liberal U,S: Lutheran groups, clearly faced in Crist's teaching a threat to its basic tenets...
...Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed them all to Britain, immediately touched a Baptist sore spot by making a plea for "the drawing together of the Church of Christ in the ecumenical movement." He got a quick answer from jovial, chubby Alliance President F. (for Fred) Townley Lord, a London pastor. Said Lord: "We decline to equate brotherly cooperation with sacrifice of essential principles . . . We do not share the views of those who talk about organizational division of Christendom...