# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S423
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

CHURCH LITERATURE AND PUBLICATIONS; PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS 423

congregations of the serious harm which such artistic
misrepresentations can do to the religious beliefs of
people of European descent and to those of African and
Asian descent; and
3. That the Synod provide the necessary funds to

Concordia Publishing House to revise all pictures of
Adam, Eve, and Noah so as to clearly represent all hu-
man races and to revise all pictures of angels to har-
monize such figures to Scriptural standards.

ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH

Wichita, Kans.

Cart L. BORNMANN, Pastor

RopertT QuabE, Chairman

FaitH LUTHERAN CHURCH

Kansas City, Kans.

RONALD FRICKE, Pastor

A. B. Yancey, Chairman

Rev. THomMas G. VAN DER BLOEMEN

Wichita, Kans.
(10-12)

To Promote Alternate Non-Germanic
Representations of Jesus
and Other Biblical Personages

WHEREAS, Various races and cultures through the
centuries have represented Jesus, the apostles, and
other Scriptural figures in terms of their own human
characteristics: and

Wuereas, Germanic Lutherans in past centuries have
represented Jesus and the apostles in their own human
terms (with white skin, blond or brown hair, blue eyes,
etc.); and

Wuereas, We, as Missouri Synod Lutherans in the
United States of America, are no longer a Germanic
people communicating only with Germans: and

Wuereas, Such Germanic representations of Jesus
and other Scriptural figures alienate many Americans
of African or Asian descent, who often say, “That's your
white Jesus,” or, “That's your white religion”: there-
fore be it

Resolved,

1. That The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
strongly urge its congregations to sponsor alternate ar-
tistic forms to a “north-European” Jesus; and

2. That the Synod subsidize the necessary funds to
Concordia Publishing House to promote such alternate
non-Germanic art forms of our Lord and other Biblical

personages. Zion LUTHERAN CHURCH

Wichita, Kans.

RoBertT QuaDE, Chairman

Cart L. BORNMANN, Pastor

FaItH LUTHERAN CHURCH

Kansas City, Kans.

A. B. Yancey, Chairman

RONALD FRICKE, Pastor

Rev. THomas G. VAN DER BLOEMEN
Wichita, Kans.

(10-13)
To Prohibit Use of RSV by CPH

Wuereas, Christians of all denominations are asking
the question: “What is wrong with the RSV?” and

Whereas, Christians are often misled to think that
changes in the RSV are based on new evidence, but this
is not so, according to the late Dr. William F. Beck of
The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod:

Many, perhaps most, of the changes which it has made
were known centuries ago, but were not introduced into
the AV or ARV simply because AV and ARV were gov-
erned by a radically different conception of the trust-
worthiness of the Hebrew text and of the way in which
it should be dealt with by the translator. The best He-
brew text available to scholars today differs very little
from the text which was used by the scholars who pre-
pared the version of 1611. The most important of the
“ancient versions” to which RSV constantly refers, the
Septuagint and the Vulgate, were known to them; and
all the other versions appealed to in RSV were known
to the revisers of 1901.

Wuereas, The late Dr. William F. Beck has also
stated in his critique of the RSV: “We Need a Good
Bible”:

We have searched through more than a hundred volumes
written by the translators of the RSV in order to find
evidence of a Christian faith, and we have found a hard
creed, as uniform and clear-cut as the Apostles’ Creed,
but denying all of it. For the first time in history men
who reject Christ, the God-man who saves us from sin,
have given us an “authorized version.”

Wuereas, The RSV comes from the National Council
of Churches, which is a questionable “Christian” or-
ganization, as can readily be seen by this poll reported
in Newsweek (June 26, 1967):

Last week, the NCC released a survey of 521 clergy and
laymen who attended the Council's 1966 General Assem-
bly in Miami Beach. Based on responses from 37 per cent
of the voting and alternate delegates, plus 298 consul-

tants and “accredited visitors” at the assembly, the survey
does indeed reveal a modest liberal stance.

To be sure, nearly two-thirds firmly believe in God,
and more than half (58°) confidently regard Jesus as
divine. .. . But in other specific areas, NCC assembly-
men seem to have jettisoned much of the old-time re-
ligion. Only one in four accepts Biblical miracles — such
as the virgin birth —as literally true. In fact. a third of
the respondents believe such miracles can be explained
by natural causes. The devil “definitely” does not exist
for one in three, and only 15 per cent believe that chil-
dren are born into the world already guilty of sin—a
doctrine basic to reformers Martin Luther and John
Calvin. Finally, with something less than triumphant
optimism, barely 62 per cent look forward with “com-
plete certainty” to a life after death.

Wuereas, A strong church cannot be built on a

doubtful Bible: therefore be it

Resolved, That the use of the RSV text in Sunday
school literature, etc.. by Concordia Publishing House
and Sunday school materials authors be prohibited; and
be it further

Resolved, That the President of the Synod request
the Commission on Theology and Church Relations to
thoroughly examine Dr. Beck’s critique and make rec-
ommendations concerning Dr. Beck’s critique of the
RSV to the next convention of the Synod.

Rev. Carl Hoffmeyer Rey. Reginald Muhl

Hamler, Ohio Stanwood, Iowa