The Voters' Assembly Is Invested With Authority from God
By Rev. Jack Cascione

 

The Word of God is always supreme in the church. According to God's resistible will He allowed Adam to pick the fruit, Cain to kill Abel, millions to ignore Noah, Israel to reject Judges, Israel to reject Him, Judas to betray Him, and His own church to crucify Him. The clergy cannot exercise more authority over God’s Church than God.

A number of pastors question the Supremacy of the Voters’ Assembly. This writer was stunned at how many LCMS pastors will not agree to this Biblical teaching of the LCMS by its founder C.F.W. Walther.

The ranting against Voter Supremacy on the TableTalk mailing list runs well over 100 pages just from June 30th to July 10th. Such a revolt against the Synod’s historic position by its clergy can only result in the destruction of the LCMS.

This writer was also disappointed that all the quotations verifying this position from LCMS sources were completely ignored in the voluminous negative response. These quotations are once again placed at the end of this article.

What does supremacy mean? It means that the Voters’ have the full authority of the Office of the Keys given to them by God in Mat.18:17ff, Acts. 6:3, 1Cor.4:5. They also have full ownership and full authority over the church property and affairs of the congregation according to the laws of the State.

One must also ask what part of the Office of the Keys does the Voters' Assembly not possess once they have called a pastor? The answer is: the Congregation has full possession of the Office of the Keys and has never surrendered its possession or authority of the Keys to anyone.

What part of the Office of the Keys does the pastor possess over which the Voters do not maintain authority? The answer is:... none. The Congregation has the right to judge if the doctrine taught by the pastor is in agreement with the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions. The pastor is first accountable to God and then to the Voters. The Congregation is not accountable to the Pastor but only to God.

Some pastors say, "I can't find the Voters' Assembly in the Bible." This is nothing but semantics to avoid the issue. Walther described the Voters by a process of elimination.

First: Children under age 21 were excluded from voting because they are under the authority of their parents. God did not hold any of the children under 21 accountable for the sins of the children of Israel for refusing to take the land according to Num 26:4. Also, all those under 21 were not to make a sacrifice as an adult according to Exo 38:26. The text says 20 years of age but age 21 left no doubt as to having attained adulthood by God's definition.

Second: Walther excluded women from voting because they should not exercise authority over any man in the church according to 1Cor. 14:34 and 1Tim.2:12. A vote is an exercise of authority.

Third: Walther understood the Congregational Assembly or Voters' Assembly to be the church according to these two verses because the congregation has the Office of the Keys. Any gathering that has the authority to call a pastor must be the church or the congregation. If the Voters’ are not the "church" none of the pastors serving in the LCMS are really pastors because they were not called by the church but the Voters' Assembly.

Fourth: There are also men who refuse to participate in the Voters' Assembly. The final number of voters according to Walther are the men who choose to join and attend the Voters' Assembly. Any claim that the Voters' are not the Congregation despises God's order for the Christian Congregation.

Pastors who attack the Biblical validity of the Voters' Assembly as a divinely ordained institution are negating and denying the validity of their own "calls". The Hyper-Euro-Lutheran Pastors claim they have the Sacrament of Ordination and thus try to prove the validity of their "calls" apart from the "call" issued by the Voters’ Assembly.

Perhaps these pastors will need special ordination by a Swedish Lutheran Bishop to be properly "called". Perhaps some of them are already engaged in secret reordination rites with the appropriate "Bishop" presiding.

Others try to avoid the issue of Voter Supremacy by claiming God’s Word is supreme. There is no question about the supremacy of God’s Word. Rather the question is the accountability of the Pastor to the Voters’ Assembly.

Obviously the pastor does not meet with the "Word of God." He meets with the Voters. In such a meeting, right or wrong, the Voter’s decision has authority over the pastor. When the Voters cease to listen to God's Word the Pastor must suffer expulsion. Can we as pastors expect a better reception than Christ received?

The Word of God is supreme but the pastor cannot compel the congregation to follow it, not anymore than God compelled Adam not to eat the fruit. The pastor and the congregation walk by faith. Faith is not coerced or compelled. The fruit only appears when the tree is alive. The Word of God causes faith in the congregation. Faith causes the works that the pastor observes in the life of the congregation. These works must be the congregation's works as they respond to the love of Christ and not the result of the pastor's authority or they are dead works.

The claim to possess and exercise pastoral authority is actually a cheap substitute for the authority of God's Word. The issues that a pastor cannot deal with in the pulpit are certainly beyond his reach in the Voters' Assembly. Therefore let the Word remain supreme and let it rule the hearts and minds of the Voters to the degree of faith God has given. Let them obey God's Word and not be burdened by the obedience that the pastor imagines is part of his office. Otherwise the pastor will be hanging fruit on a dead tree by saying, "You must do this because I say so."


The following are some quotations that support the above position in the Redeemer Lutheran Church Constitution on the supremacy of the Voters' Assembly.

"Finally the congregation is represented as the supreme tribunal, Matt. 18:15-18: "‘Moreover, if thy brother.....’" ("The Form of the Christian Congregation" C.F.W. Walther, (1866) CPH 1989, page 24)

"Though the constitution made the congregation the possessor of all church power and the highest tribunal, it did safeguard the ministry in various ways. The tenure of office was made permanent. No calls to pastors providing for a time limit were tolerated in the Missouri Synod." ("Government in the Missouri Synod" by Carl Mundinger, 1947, CPH, page 196)

"The Congregation, Not the Pastor, Has Supreme and Final Jurisdiction.--In according with the Scriptures (see texts quoted in previous paragraph) [These passages are printed at the end of this article after the *.] Our Confessions say:--"Christ gives supreme and final jurisdiction to the church when he says: "Tell it unto the church'" (Smalcald Articles, Of the Power and Primacy of the Pope. Trigl.,p.511.) ("Pastoral Theology", John Fritz, CPH 1932, page 314)

"It also belongs in the constitution that the congregation in its own circle is the final and highest court according to Matt. 18:17. Therefore all its officers are responsible to it and may be removed from office in Christian order. But also all decisions and resolutions of the congregation which are contrary to God's Word or the [congregation's] confession are to be declared in advance null and void." ("Pastoral Theology" C.F.W. Walther, Fifth Edition 1906, CN, 1995, page 47)

"For the Lord Christ teaches in Matthew 18:17 that the ban should be put on those who will not obey the church or his congregation." Thus the church truly teaches nothing else than God’s Word. (Luther's Works LW 34:33)

"Therefore, every Christian should hold the view that neither St. Peter nor the apostles have in these passages been given power to rule or be on top." (LW39 page 90)

"Let this passage be your sure foundation, [1Cor.14:31] because it gives such an overwhelming power to the Christian congregations to preach, to permit preaching, and to call. Especially if there is a need, it [this passage] calls everyone with a special call-without a call for men-so that we should have no doubt that the congregation which has the gospel may and should elect and call from among its members someone to teach the word in its place." (LW 39:311)

"The Church of God has authority to appoint rites and customs in regard to festivals, food, fasting, prayers, vigils, etc., but not for others, only for itself; neither has it ever done, nor will it ever do otherwise. A church is a group or assembly of baptized and believers and under one shepherd, whether of one city, or of an entire country, or of the whole world. This pastor or prelate has nothing to ordain, because he is not the Church, unless it be that his church empowers him." (Pieper quotes Luther in Christian Dogmatics Vol. III page 431)

'Thus writes St. Paul (1 Cor. 3:21-23): ‘Therefore let no one glory in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come-all are yours. And you are Christ's and Christ is God's.' From this [passage] we learn that all things that even Paul and Peter had were only treasures from the jewel room of the believing Christians or of the church." ("Church and Ministry" C.F.W. Walther, 1851, CPH 1982, page 50)

"However, this equality of believers is abrogated and the church is changed into a secular organization if a minister demands obedience not only to the Word of Christ, his one Lord and Head and that of all Christians, but also to what his own insight and experience regard as good and suitable. As soon, therefore, as adiaphora or things indifferent, that is things that are neither commanded nor forbidden in God's Word, come in question in the church, a minister may never demand absolute obedience to what merely appears to him to be best" ("Church and Ministry" C.F.W. Walther, 1851, CPH 1982, page 312)

"It follows from these statements of Scripture that the congregation of believers enjoys a sovereignty under Christ which are not to be restricted or limited in any way. Christians may not be made subject to a minister or a priest, because they are all ministers and priests in their own right who have the privilege of approaching God directly. " ("The Abiding Word", Alfred von Rohr Sauer, Volume III, CPH 1947 page 306)

"As such they (congregations) possessed all the gifts and rights of the Church which Christ has bestowed upon it. Specifically, the function of the Christian congregation is to administer the means of grace in its midst and to serve in this world for the conversion of the sinner to God. This is nothing else than the administration of the keys of the Kingdom. (Matt. 18:17-20; "Tell it to the church"; Matt. 16:19, John 20:22-23, "Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.")....The church, therefore functions as the administrator of the office of the keys of the Kingdom." ("The Abiding Word", Richard Klan, Volume III, CPH 1947 page 383)


Rev. Jack Cascione is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS - MI) in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He has written numerous articles for Christian News and is the author of Reclaiming the Gospel in the LCMS: How to Keep Your Congregation Lutheran. He has also written a study on the Book of Revelation called In Search of the Biblical Order.
He can be reached by email at pastorcascione@juno.com.

July 11, 1999