LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 88

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88 RESOLUTIONS

Wuereas, The affirmation requested by these over-
tures is an affirmation of a vital aspect of the church’s
faith, as is evident from the following considerations:

a. The heart of the New Testament message is the
Good News of an event which took place in history,
“under Pontius Pilate” in Palestine; this Good News
concerns a historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth; the
validity of the apostolic proclamation and the faith of
the church stand or fall with the historical reality of
the event (1 Cor. 15:1-19; John 15: 22-24). The Gospels
therefore invite historical investigation and are to be
taken seriously as historical documents.

b. The event recorded in the Gospels is unique,
without analogy in human history. It is nothing less
than God’s entering into human history for us men
and for our salvation in the Person of Him in whom
“the Godhead dwells bodily.” It is the crisis point and
turning point of human history, the coming in of the
new world of God, the dawn of the new creation. His-
torical investigation here moves in the presence of the
Creator, present in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth;
historical investigation must reckon with the unlimited
power of Him who raises the dead and calls into being
the things that are not. Here the miracle is not only
a possibility or probability; it is essential to the pres-
ence and activity of the Creator and Redeemer. Chris-
tian historical investigation must therefore beware of
measuring probabilities by standards taken from a sec-
ularized conception of history; the warning uttered by
the document “A Lutheran Stance Toward Biblical
Studies” (Part Two, Chapter 3) is very much in place.

c. The apostolic proclamation of the event and the
inscripturation of that proclamation took place under
the impulsion and discipline of the Spirit of Truth.
He glorifies the Christ through the witness of men. To
attribute to the church a creatively formative part in
the witness to the event is to fly in the face of all that
is revealed concerning the activity of the Spirit; such
an attribution introduces an intolerable synergism at a
crucial point in the saving work of God.

The Spirit moves and works in sovereign freedom,
and it has pleased Him to give the church the record
of Christ in a rich variety and diversity of human
accents, in order to bring home to man the whole un-
searchable riches of Christ. It is not the business of
the church to pick and choose among this variety, and
the church has no reason to be embarrassed by this
diversity. Rather it is the business of the Christian
and Christian scholarship to welcome and use this
variety and diversity for the enrichment and deepening
of their faith; therefore be it

Resolved, That the 1969 convention of The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod affirm the historicity of the
New Testament, making this affirmation as an act of
faith in the incarnation of our Lord as attested and
presented in living reality by the Spirit of Truth in
words which He Himself has taught.

Action: Adopted (8).

(The following amendment was offered but failed to
carry: To substitute in the first whereas “Therefore be it re-
solved that we affirm the following” for “as is evident from
the following considerations” and then to drop the resolved
printed above. Another unsuccessful amendment sought to
change the title to: “To Affirm the New Testament Record
of Our Incarnate Lord.”)

To Grant Woman Suffrage and
Board Membership
RESOLUTION 2-17

Report 2-01, I, J; Overtures 2-35, 2-36; Appendix II(CW,
pp. 59, 84—85, 514—522); 2-67U (URO, p. 8)

Wuereas, The Commission on Theology and Church
Relations, in accordance with Resolutions 2-05. and 2-06
of the New York convention, made “a detailed and ex-
haustive study of the entire question of woman suffrage
in the church” and of “the matter of full membership of
women on synodical boards, commissions, and com-
mittees”; and

Wuereas, The Commission on Theology and Church
Relations has submitted its report (CW, pp. 514—522);
therefore be it

Resolved, That we express gratitude to the Com-
mission on Theology and Church Relations for this
study; and be it further

Resolved, That we commend this study, as well as the
study of the special committee reported in the Pro-
ceedings, 1956 (pp. 553—569), to all congregations of the
Synod; and be it further

Resolved, That the Synod accept the following dec-
larations as guides on this matter:

1. Those statements of Scripture which direct women
to keep silent in the church and which prohibit them to
teach and to exercise authority over men, we under-
stand to mean that women ought not to hold the pastoral
office or serve in any other capacity involving the dis-
tinctive functions of this office.

2. The principles set forth in such passages, we be-
lieve, prohibit holding any other kind of office or mem-
bership on boards or committees in the institutional
structures of a congregation, only if this involves women
in a violation of the order of creation. We hold that they
do not prohibit full membership of women on synodical
boards, commissions, and committees. The manner of
filling an office or establishing membership on a board
or commission, in congregations or in the Synod, has no
prohibitory Scriptural implications.

3. We hold likewise that Scripture does not prohibit
women from exercising the franchise in congregational
or synodical assemblies.

4. We therefore conclude that the Synod itself and
the congregations of the Synod are at liberty to alter
their policies and practices in regard to women’s in-
volvement in the work of the church according to these
declarations, provided the polity developed conforms to
the general Scriptural principles that women neither
hold the pastoral office nor “exercise authority over
men”; and be it finally

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