I. Needed: A realistic "model" of the Missouri Synod conflict Background II. The basic principle A. The confessional principle The Lutheran confessions Background: Europe Prussian Union Background: America The church in the confessions "More" than the confessions? A fatal fallacy: Doctrines or documents? A. The biblical principle The Bible in the confessions Rationalism, historical criticism, and Missouri Luther in fact and fiction Foreground III. The counter-confessional (Ecumenical) attack Sclerosis: Prelude to haemorrhage The collapse of confessional concepts of church and fellowship the use of the confessions as a rabbit's foot The question of church politics Center stage IV. The counter-biblical (critical) attack The critical contagion in stages: ULC ALC LC-MS Historical criticism: definitions and distinctions Gospel and incarnation Lutheran "controls": Law/gospel or Sola Scriptura? Theology of the cross or secular cringe? V. Epilogue.