# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1938_S223
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Intersynodical and Doctrinal Matters 223

4. Whenever Paul speaks of eternal election, he does so with
a feeling of unspeakable gratitude for the grace experienced or for
the purpose of consoling believers in all manner of tribulation, but
in no case implying that God had considered him and the rest of
the believers better than the others and had elected them unto
faith on that account or that his election is due to a grace of God
that exists exclusively for the elect.

5. The eternal election of the believers unto sonship is not
founded upon a second, different will of grace but upon the identical
universal will which God earnestly entertains regarding all men.

6. Beyond these truths Scripture teaches nothing concerning
the relation of the universal plan of salvation to the eternal election.
For that reason all attempts to combine the two and thus to explain
why some come to faith and salvation and others do not are human
constructions, which should be avoided. As such a well-intended
but nevertheless human construction we consider the statement of
the old dogmaticians, made under peculiar circumstances, when
they said that the eternal predestination took place intuitu fidei.
It is true, if the term “election in view of persevering faith (intuitu
fidei finalis)” is interpreted in this manner only, that God has
decreed from eternity to give on J udgment Day — for the sake of
the merits of Christ imputed to them —the crown of glory to those
whom He Himself by His grace has brought to faith and has kept
in faith unto the end, then such an interpretation expresses indeed
a truth clearly revealed in Scripture. It is also true that the Scrip-
ture doctrine of election includes as the final step the glorification
of the elect. But Scripture and the Confessions do not say that
the eternal election, or predestination unto the adoption of chil-
dren, took place in view of faith. Hence, for the sake of clarity in
doctrinal presentation this terminology should be avoided.

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Wl. The Church

In connection with the doctrine of the Church the question
debated was whether it is permissible to speak of a visible side of
the Church when defining its essence. We declare that to do so is
not a false doctrine if by this visible side nothing else is meant than
the use of the means of grace.

IV. The Office of the Public Administration of the Means of Grace
The office of the public administration of the means of grace
is a divine institution. The power to forgive or retain sins, to preach
the Law and the Gospel, has been committed by Christ not to an
individual person, as Peter and his so-called successors, nor only
to the twelve apostles nor to a special order, but to all Christians,