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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 74

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

74 THEOLOGICAL MATTERS

next convention and submit its document, either for
adoption or rejection, or amendment.

Rev. HENRY MOEHRING
Rev. WALTER J. GEFFERT
Rev. FRANK J. PIES

Rev. N. BorcHARDT

Rev. Paut Goip
Rev. C. TROSIEN

Rev. A. H. A. LoEBER
Rev. Jacos M. Raur

(2-05)
To Reject All Heterodoxy

Wuereas, The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
has become a heterodox church body in recent years
because of the toleration of false doctrine and false
teachers in its midst: therefore be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod, in its 1969 Denver convention. firmly and ab-
solutely reject all heterodoxy in its midst and affirm its
wholehearted desire to follow orthodoxy in all its doc-
trine, teaching, and practice. Rev. Rosert J. Lietz

Stover, Mo.

(2-06)

To Reaffirm Statements on Inerrancy
of Scripture

Wuereas, The continuing advancement of science
presents what appear to be ever new challenges to our
church’s doctrinal positions; and

WHEREAS, There are those within The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod including pastors and teach-
ers, who contend that there are mistakes, errors, or true
discrepancies in the Holy Scriptures; and

Wuereas, Such contentions are contrary to synod-
ically adopted doctrinal statements; therefore be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod go on record that the statement: “Since the Holy
Scriptures are the Word of God, it goes without saying
that they contain no errors or contradictions, but that
they are in all their parts and words the infallible truth,
also in those parts which treat of historical, geographi-
cal, and other secular matters, John 10:35” (Brief State-
ment, 1), is still a part of its doctrinal position; and be
it further

Resolved, That the Synod go on record that it still
supports the statement: ‘Every Word of the Bible is
God's Word, and therefore the Bible is without error.”
(A Short Explanation of Luther’s Small Catechism)

TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH
Austin, Tex.
TELForD Zocu, President

(2-07)

To Recognize the Real Theological Issue

of Our Day (Interpretation of Scripture)

WHEREAS, We live in a century in which the Lord of
history and of the church has seen fit to test our loyalty

to Him in ways quite different from those He used in
previous centuries; and

Wuereas, In the matter of Christian faith and doc-
trine the test of our loyalty to Christ has been placed
into a vastly different framework from that of previous
centuries (e. g., the new controversy regarding the basis
for interpreting the supernatural events recorded in the
Holy Scriptures); therefore be it

Resolved, That we request The Lutheran Church —
Missouri Synod in its 1969 convention, in the interest of
loyalty to Christ, to recognize officially that issues within
and between church bodies have changed, and that what
at one time may not have been an issue which separated
one church body from another may now have become a
truly divisive issue: and be it further

Resolved, That we request the Synod to recognize
officially the fact that the interpretation of Holy Scrip-
ture is the great and overriding issue within Christen-
dom and Lutheranism in our day: and be it further

Resolved, That we request the Synod. as a matter of
faithfulness to Jesus Christ, our Lord, to take a clear
stand on the interpretation of Holy Scripture along the
following lines, to wit:

Amid the many attempts of modern man to reduce
the supernatural, God-given events of the Bible (in-
cluding the creation of the world and of man, eternal
punishment for sin, the birth, miracles, resurrection, as-
cension, and present reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
substitutionary value of His death, the supernatural
origin of the words and content of the Bible, etc.) to
mere ideas produced by the mind of men, we believe,
teach, and confess that:

1. The events recorded in Scripture are historical in
the sense that they actually happened as Scripture it-
self declares them to have happened.

2. The events of Scripture which man must classify
as supernatural are indeed also genuine facts of history,
that is, they also, side by side with the “natural” events
recorded in Scripture, actually happened within time
and space.

3. The words and concepts in the Bible by which
these facts of history (whether “natural” or “superna-
tural’) are made known to us have their origin and
ultimate formulation in the mind of God the Holy Spirit,
who alone has the authority to interpret to men the
purpose and value for them of God's acts in history, as
He does in the case of the crucifixion of Jesus by raising
Him from the dead, Romans 1:3-4; 4:25; Acts 10: 40-43;
2: 22-36; 1:3; John 20: 24-31; Luke 24: 36-49; 1 Cor. 15:
4-23; 1 Peter 1:3-4.

4. When anyone denies these facts of Scripture, he
is also denying either the fact of man’s need for salvation
from sin (e. g., by denying the divine origin of the Law,
its unchanging character, or the existence of eternal
punishment). or he is denying the fact of the redemption
in Christ Jesus (e.g., by denying the deity of Jesus of
Nazareth, His bodily resurrection, or the substitutionary
atonement).

5. And therefore, to deny the facts of Scripture
(whether “natural” or “supernatural”) is: (a) to refuse