# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_2001_S75
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT
2.
Affirm: That prayer is a response to God’s grace and
may be used to express our desires regarding spiritual gifts
and blessings (1 Corinthians 14:1; Luke 11:9–13).
Reject: That prayer or the charismata are means of
grace.
3.
Affirm: The Holy Spirit equips the church with spiritual
gifts to accomplish His gracious purposes among the people He calls to be His own.
Reject: That God has promised to give every spiritual
gift at all times, at all places, and to all congregations of
Christians.
4.
Affirm: The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts according to
His good pleasure and design (1 Cor. 12:11, 18). God’s people should be eager and desirous to receive the gifts that
God chooses to bestow upon them (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1).
Reject: That God’s people should unconditionally seek
specific gifts of their own choosing or demand to be blessed
with a specific manifestation of the Spirit.
5.
Affirm: The conclusion that someone today has received
a particular spiritual gift is a human judgment and therefore subject to error.
Reject: That God makes known to us in Scripture who
today has received a particular spiritual gift; that God’s
people have assurance from God apart from Scripture that
their judgment about the presence or possession of a spiritual gift is correct and accurate; and that God gives us an
infallible test to guarantee the authenticity of someone’s
claim to possess a spiritual gift.

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6.
Affirm: The Holy Spirit leads Christians to express their
unity in Christ in doctrinal agreement and in love.
Reject: That the basis of doctrinal unity in the church
involves only a common confession of articles of faith concerning the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
7.
Affirm: The Bible teaches everything necessary for the
knowledge of salvation and for leading a Christian life (the
sufficiency of Scripture) and Scripture alone is the source
and norm of spiritual knowledge and teaching for the
church today (sola scriptura).
Reject: That the Holy Spirit has neglected to teach in
Scripture any doctrine necessary for the salvation or sanctification of any soul and that something other than Scripture should be considered the source and norm of spiritual
knowledge and teaching in the church.
8.
Affirm: The New Testament speaks of a gift of prophecy
that God used on occasions such as those mentioned in Acts
11:27 and Acts 21:10, when He chose to supply practical
guidance and helpful information regarding temporal matters to His covenant people. The New Testament also
warns about false prophets (Matthew 7:15; Matthew 24:11
and 24; 2 Peter 2:1) and exhorts His people to test critically
that which purports to come from the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:16-22; 1 John 4:1–6).
Reject: That a prophecy from God will ever contradict
that which is already revealed in Scripture (Deuteronomy
13:1–4; cf. Luther, AE, vol. 24, p. 369) or fail to be accurate
in announcing something concerning the future (Deuteronomy 18:21–22).
Robert T. Kuhn, President

200l Convention Proceedings