LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 178

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178

Theology and Church Relations

the promise of the Spirit through faith.” [Kolb, Wengert The Book of
Concord, emphasis added]

and
Whereas, The reading of Holy Scripture publicly to the people is
the means whereby God blesses His people with faith, so that the public reading of Scripture is the means whereby the Holy Spirit publicly
teaches the faith and increases faith in the hearts of His people; and
Whereas, It is not only the reading of the Gospel that is working
alongside the Sacrament of the Altar to create and sustain faith, but
it is the reading of the Old Testament and Epistle lessons as well; and
Whereas, It is impossible to divorce the Word from the Sacrament
in the liturgy, and even less possible for one to divorce the reading of
the Scriptures from the sermon; and
Whereas, Our Lord Jesus through St. Paul tells Timothy to give
attention to the “reading,” “exhortation,” and “teaching [of Scripture]”
(1 Tim. 4:13); therefore be it
Resolved, That the 2010 LCMS convention recognize:

1) That in the public reading, exhortation, and teaching of Scripture
God Himself is speaking, as the Augsburg Confession teaches, “in
those who hear the gospel, that is to say, in those who hear that God”
[Latin text]; and
2) That the public reading, exhortation, and teaching of Scripture is
part and parcel of “the office of preaching” through which God
“gives the Holy Spirit who produces faith” [German text]; and
3) That [Latin text] “the ministry of teaching the gospel and administering the sacraments” is one and “the ministry of teaching the
gospel” necessarily involves “reading” as much as “exhortation and
teaching”;

so that it is divisive and offensive to have female readers in the
divine service, even as it would be to have female “exhorters” and
female “teachers” in the divine service; and be it further
Resolved, That the convention ask that its pastors and congregations remove such offense from our midst by refraining from using
female readers in public worship as well as female assistants to distribute Christ’s holy body and precious blood.
Trinity
Tryon, NC
3-31

To Return to Scriptural Position on Birth Control
Whereas, Until the 1930s, most major Protestant denominations,
along with the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church,
opposed birth control; and
Whereas, The Bible prohibits birth control (see “Nine Reasons
Why the Bible Prohibits Birth Control” by Charles Provan, Christian
News, February 28, 1988, reprinted in The Bible and Birth Control);
and
Whereas, Martin Luther strongly condemned birth control
(Luther wrote in his comments on Gen. 38:9–10 [American Edition,
p. 21]: “Accordingly, it was a most disgraceful crime to produce
semen and excite the woman and frustrate her at that very moment.
He was inflamed with the basest spite and hatred. Therefore he did
not allow himself to be compelled to bear the intolerable slavery.
Consequently, he deserved to be killed by God. He committed an
evil deed. Therefore God punished him.”); and
Whereas, John H. C. Fritz, in his Pastoral Theology, long used
as a textbook in LCMS seminaries, shows that birth control “is sinful”: “It is a willfully setting aside of God’s will and command, Gen.
1:28; 1 Tim. 5:15, 2:15; Gen. 8:9–10” (p. 177); and
Whereas, Lutheran Hour Speaker Walter Maier, in a chapter titled
“The Blight of Birth Control” in his marriage manual For Better ,
Not for Worse, shows that birth control is sinful and contrary to the
Bible (pp. 377–421); and

Whereas, A major factor in the decline of church growth is the
ever-decreasing size of the families of pastors and church members;
therefore be it
Resolved, That the 2010 LCMS convention declare that the
LCMS still accepts the scriptural position of Martin Luther on birth
control and the position long promoted in the LCMS by such orthodox LCMS theologians as John H. C. Fritz, Walter Maier, Martin
Nauman, Theodore Laetch, and many others.
Trinity
New Haven, MO
3-32

To Prepare Study on Practice of Cremation
Whereas, In Gen. 3:19, after man sinned, God said to Adam,
“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the
ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust
you shall return,” signifying that God’s people are to be buried; and
Whereas, In Rom. 6:1–5 Paul tells the Christians living in Rome
to be different from the pagans: “Are we to continue in sin that grace
may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in
it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with
him by Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of
life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall
certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Paul uses
the term “buried,” while the Roman practice of cremation signified
a different belief than the Christians’ resurrection of the body); and
Whereas, In our committal service in the Lutheran Service Book
Agenda (p. 130), which uses the phrase “ashes to ashes, dust to
dust,” taken from the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer
and found nowhere in Scripture, a pastor may implicitly be giving
approval for cremation; and
Whereas, In the past, cremation was the exception (now, in postChristian America, cremation has become a normal practice in many
communities, increasing from 3.56 percent in the 1960s to an estimated 39 percent by 2010 and growing); and
Whereas, Cremation was not practiced in the Christian Church
for 2,000 years and was viewed as a denial of the statement in the
Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in … the resurrection of the body” (and
our funeral is the last message of our Christian faith we give to our
family and friends and the community); therefore be it
Resolved, That the Synod in convention ask the CTCR, in consultation with a group of congregational pastors and the seminary
faculties, to prepare a study on the practice of cremation and especially of its implications for our public witness.
St. Mark
Chesterland, OH
3-33

To Maintain Practice of Requesting Theological
Opinions from Seminary Faculties
Whereas, Since the Reformation, Lutheran theological faculties
have responded to requests for theological opinions; and
Whereas, This practice has existed in the LCMS for more than
one hundred years; therefore be it
Resolved, That when occasions arise where such opinions are
needed, the Synod encourage its congregations, districts, and other
entities to maintain this tradition by requesting opinions from the
seminary faculties.
Zion
Fort Wayne, IN

2010 Convention Workbook

2010 Convention.indb 178

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