# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S438
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

438

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

WHEREAS, Grammatically the word day (‫ יוֹם‬Yom’) is undeniably
used in Hebrew as in English in a variety of ways, yet in the context
of Genesis 1, the most natural sense is understood as an
ordinary/normal evening and morning day; and
WHEREAS, The official position of The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod (LCMS) regarding creation is, “We teach that God
has created heaven and earth, and that in the manner and in the space
of time recorded in the Holy Scriptures, especially Genesis 1 and 2,
namely, by His almighty creative word, and in six days. We reject
every doctrine which denies or limits the work of creation as taught
in Scripture. In our days it is denied or limited by those who assert,
ostensibly in deference to science, that the world came into
existence through a process of evolution; that is, that it has, in
immense periods of time, developed more or less of itself. Since no
man was present when it pleased God to create the world, we must
look for a reliable account of creation to God’s own record, found
in God’s own book, the Bible. We accept God’s own record with
full confidence and confess with Luther’s Catechism: ‘I believe that
God has made me and all creatures.’” (A Brief Statement of the
Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod “Of Creation,” Adopted
1932, paragraph 2), therefore be it
Resolved, That the South Wisconsin District in convention,
2018, confess and reaffirm that God created the world and
everything in it in six days, and is to be understood as six literal
ordinary/normal days as defined by evening and morning; and be it
further
Resolved, That the South Wisconsin District in convention
encourage the Synod in convention 2019, to confess, reaffirm, and
formally make the Synod’s official position, that God created the
world and everything in it in six days, to be understood in the natural
sense of the Genesis 1, as ordinary/normal, sequential days.
South Wisconsin District
Ov. 5-24

To Require the Teachings of Creation and the Fall
as God Has Revealed Them in Holy Scriptures in
all Congregations, Schools, and Synod Institutions
WHEREAS, The Holy Scriptures clearly teach in Genesis 1 and 2
that God created the universe (the cosmos or heavens and the earth
in English) out of nothing by His Almighty Word of command; and
WHEREAS, God Himself defined the days of Genesis 1 and 2 as
solar days when He wrote this interpretation into stone on Mount
Sinai, saying, “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but
the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall
not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male
servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner
who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Ex.
20:9–11); and
WHEREAS, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS)
confessed God’s inspired and inerrant divine exegesis of Genesis 1
and 2 in its Brief Statement (1932) when it said, “We teach that God
has created heaven and earth, and that in the manner and in the space
of time recorded in the Holy Scriptures, especially Genesis 1 and 2,
namely, by His almighty creative word, and in six days”; and

WHEREAS, Those who attack the plain sense of Genesis 1–3
usually do so in order to defend a macro-evolutionary view of the
origin of life; and
WHEREAS, Every form of macro-evolutionary theory requires
millions of generations of death before the dawn of humanity while
the Holy Scriptures teach that death came into the world through the
sin of Adam (Rom. 5:12f.); and
WHEREAS, If sin is not the cause of death, then the death of Jesus
Christ in our place is also not the end of death; and
WHEREAS, Any form of macroevolutionary theory is an attack
not only on the nature of the Holy Scriptures but upon the
redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross itself; and
WHEREAS, Recent controversy has made it clear that some within
the LCMS are confused about what the Word of God teaches
regarding these issues; therefore be it
Resolved, That we memorialize the Synod in convention to
reaffirm that all who teach in congregations, schools, colleges,
universities and seminaries of Synod are to teach and use doctrinally
sound materials that are available regarding the creation of the
universe (the cosmos or heavens and the earth in English) and the
fall of man, specifically that the universe (the cosmos or heavens
and the earth in English) was created in six solar days by God’s
command and that all death is a result of sin; and be it further
Resolved, That we memorialize the Synod in convention to direct
the LCMS President’s office to conduct a review and report within
the next triennium of how the theory of evolution is being addressed
at each of our colleges, universities and seminaries; and be it finally
Resolved, That we memorialize the Synod to direct each district
president to review and report within the next triennium how the
theory of evolution is being addressed in the respective
congregations and schools of his district.
Montana District
Ov. 5-25

To Preserve the Authority and Clarity
of the New Testament Scriptures
WHEREAS, “The object of all textual criticism is to recover as far
as possible the actual words written by the author” (Kirsopp Lake,
Text of the New Testament [London 1913]); and
WHEREAS, The standard critical edition of the Greek New
Testament is Novum Testamentum Graece, often called NestleAland, abbreviated NA followed by the number of the relevant
edition; and
WHEREAS, Decisions in Nestle-Aland have sometimes been
based on erroneous historical-critical ideology, not faithful textual
criticism; therefore be it
Resolved, That Synod in convention establish a task force to
study the need and means of providing the resources to properly
evaluate new editions of the New Testament text; and be it further
Resolved, That the goal be the recovery as far as possible of the
actual words written by the New Testament authors and inspired by
the Holy Ghost and the methodology be the faithful traditional
textual criticism found in the New Testament and the classical
studies since the reformation; and be it finally
Resolved, That the task force report to the 2022 Synod
convention on the progress of its work.
Rocky Mountain District

2019 Convention Workbook