# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2016_S165
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

IV. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that
some men will.224
More famously, and much more concisely, this is the theme sounded in
the prayer with which begins the Confessions of St. Augustine (354–430): “you
have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”225

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V. Conclusion
Augustine is not incorrect. Natural man—man outside of redemption in
Christ—is indeed, and must be, restless. This is the case precisely because,
created by God for the purpose of living in communion with him, men have
been endowed with some natural knowledge of God’s existence so that they
might by their very nature be prompted to “seek God, in the hope that they
might feel their way toward him and find him” (Acts 17:27). Man will therefore remain restless so long as he remains separated from God. Further, as
this natural knowledge of God encompasses also, and especially, a natural
knowledge of the law, sinful man cannot but be restless and uneasy in his
awareness that even this minimal knowledge leaves him with “no excuse”
before God (Rom. 2:1). Finally, unable and unwilling to face the stark implications of even this natural knowledge, sinful man actively seeks to suppress
it; his inability to do so completely, however, only further contributes to his
restless unease.226
Even in the relatively religious United States, indicators suggest that both
the number and the percentage of the “restless” continue to grow annually.
Recent data reveals, for example, that in addition to those who adhere to
many and various non-Christian religions, nearly 20% of Americans describe
themselves as unaffiliated with any religion. This includes more than thirteen
million individuals who describe themselves specifically as atheists or agnostics.227 Despite such statistics, however, the testimony of Scripture, confessed
also by the Lutheran confessors and dogmaticians, is that even those who
declare themselves atheists or agnostics in fact retain some knowledge of God
written on their hearts. To be sure, this is “not saving knowledge”; indeed,
its very possession may lead many to be “confused about the one true God”
and “to believe falsely that all religions lead to salvation.” Nonetheless, as the
above pages have attempted to demonstrate, it also remains true that some
“understanding of the natural knowledge of God can assist the members of
the congregations of the LCMS in their witness.”228
It is thus the Christian’s great privilege (and, indeed, the Lord’s great
mandate [Matt. 28:19]) to proclaim unto the world the good news that the God
in whom eternal rest is to be found need no longer be sought for—or hidden
from—but that this God has himself sought out, found, and redeemed his
fallen creatures. It is the Christian’s great privilege to announce that the law,
which even the unregenerate know pronounces death for those who break
it (Rom. 1:32), has been fulfilled by this God himself, who in human flesh
not only satisfied its requirements in the stead of sinful man, but also in the
226
On this point, see, e.g., R.C. Sproul, If There’s a God, Why Are There Atheists? (Orlando: Ligonier, 1997), 72–78.

224

C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory,” in The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (New York:
HarperCollins, 2001), 32–33.
225

Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1998), 3.

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227
Pew Research Center, “Nones” On the Rise, 9. To put this in some perspective, the number
of atheists and agnostics in the U.S. is roughly six times the number of LCMS Lutherans, and
approximately twice as many as the total number of American Lutherans.
228

Resolution 3-04A, 2007 Convention Proceedings, 121.

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sinner’s stead suffered the mortal penalty of its having been broken. It is the
Christian’s great privilege, therefore, to give name to the “unknown god” of
Athens, the “anonymous god” of civil religion, and the denied god of modern
skepticism and atheism—to proclaim “the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth
and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
Glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9–11).

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2016 Convention Workbook