THOUGHTS ON THE RELATION OF DOCTRINE TO EXEGESIS

During the Gottesdienst conference last week I was once again reminded that without good systematic doctrine exegesis will certainly go astray. Sometimes we take things for granted and the obvious gets passed over. As one of my fellow editors said, exegesis is more fun. However, if there is not a sober doctrinal framework, one might become drunk as he imbibes of the Scriptures and stumble around in all kind of dangerous territories. After all, every attractive heresy and false teaching is proclaimed to be Scriptural. But we have the advantage of our Confessions: 

“For thorough, permanent unity in the Church, it is necessary, above all things, that we have a comprehensive, unanimously approved summary and form of teaching. The common doctrine must be brought together from God’s Word and reduced to a small circle of teaching, which the churches that are of the true Christian religion must confess. They must do this just as the Ancient Church always had its fixed symbols for this use. Furthermore, this should not be based on private writings, but on the kind of books that have been composed, approved, and received in the name of the churches that pledge themselves to one doctrine and religion. Therefore, we have declared to one another with heart and mouth that we will not make or receive a separate or new confession of our faith. Instead, we will confess the public common writings, which always and everywhere were held and used as such symbols or common confessions in all the churches of the Augsburg Confession before the disagreements arose among those who accept the Augsburg Confession. We will confess them as long as there are on all sides, in all articles, a unanimous adherence to ‹and maintenance and use of› the pure doctrine of the divine Word, as the sainted Dr. Luther explained it. 

1.      First, ‹we receive and embrace with our whole heart› are the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the pure, clear fountain of Israel. They are the only true standard or norm by which all teachers and doctrines are to be judged.” 

Men like Robert Preus, David P. Scaer, and Kurt Marquart taught how the love of the Confessions led one to the love of good exegesis. In my Confessions I class at the seminary, it was Robert who taught me that everything in the Bible can be found in Genesis 1-3. I had come to seminary thinking I would be a systematician, but that launched me into the love of Biblical exegesis. The time spent with William Weinrich simply deepened my love for Lutheran exegesis and its connection to the historic Church’s confession of the Incarnation. Never take for granted the great gift we have been given in the Lutheran Confessions and their strong Christological and Sacramental emphases. 

Quotation from Paul Timothy McCain, ed., Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2005), 507–508.