# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1938_S222
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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222 Intersynodical and Doctrinal Matters

separate books of the Bible constitute an organic whole without
contradiction and error, John 10: 35, and are rightly called the Word
of God.

c. Since the Bible is the Word of God, it is the only source,
rule, and norm for faith and life and the ever fresh and inexhaust-
ible fountain of all comfort, strength, wisdom, and guidance, a means
of grace, for mankind, John 5:39; Rom. 1:16.

Il. Universal Plan of Salvation, Predestination, and Conversion

A. We confess that there is an eternal divine plan of salvation
according to which God before the beginning of time resolved to
prepare salvation for all through Christ, Acts 2:23; 4:28; 1 Pet.
1:20; ef. 2 Cor. 5:18, and to communicate the salvation prepared
for all mankind to all men through Word and Sacrament, Luke
14:16-24; Matt. 11:28; John 12:32; 1 Tim. 2:4-7. To this end it is
His purpose by His Word to work in all men true repentance and
creatively to produce saving faith in them, 2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 2:10;
1 Pet. 1:23, not irresistibly but in all cases with the same seriousness
and the same power, Luke 14:23; Is. 55:10,11. To this end He also
purposes to justify those who have come to faith, to preserve them
in faith, and finally to glorify them, 1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Pet. 1:5; which,
however, does not exclude, but rather includes, that those who have
come to faith must at all times work out their own salvation with
fear and trembling, Phil. 2:12; Heb. 3:14; Col. 1:23. To this
universal plan of salvation, revealed in Christ and proclaimed in
the Scriptures, all Christians must adhere.

B. We confess that in addition there is an eternal election, or
eternal purpose of God, according to which we declare with Paul
that the fact that we have come to faith and will finally be saved
is due to nothing whatever in ourselves nor to anything whatsoever
that we have done or not done, omitted or not omitted, with natural
powers or with so-called “powers of grace bestowed upon us,”
here in this life, but solely and alone to this eternal election, or
eternal purpose, of God, 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:3-6; Rom. 8: 28-30.

C. Concerning the relationship of the universal plan of salva-
tion and the eternal election to each other we declare the following:

J. Only when both are maintained with equal emphasis will the
full Scripture truth be expressed.

2. According to Scripture the eternal election took place solely
by grace, for Christ’s sake, and by way of the universal order of
salvation, and it is carried out in time in the same manner.

3. When Scripture speaks of this eternal election, it, as a rule
takes its position in time, after men have come to faith, and ix
presenting this doctrine, Scripture addresses itself only to believers