LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 324

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
78. David Blankenhorn, whose research supports the assertions of this
entire paragraph, calls the declining numbers of men who raise the children
they beget “our most urgent social problem,” Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem (New York: Basic Books, 1995).
One may also consult The National Marriage Project website at www.mar
riage.rutgers.edu regarding the problem of fatherlessness in America. On
the problem of comparatively less male than female commitment to Christianity, see also David Murrow, Why Men Hate Going to Church (Nashville:
Thomas Nelson, 2005).
79. See Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, The Divorce Culture (New York:
Alfred A Knopf, Inc., 1996), 50–64, on changing female attitudes regarding
divorce. David Popenoe and the Rutgers University National Marriage Project studies state that roughly two-thirds of divorces are initiated by women
(see “The Top Ten Myths of Divorce,” http://marriage.rutgers.edu/Publica
tions/pubtoptenmyths.htm). More men than women are using internet services to seek a spouse. See graphs attached to Carl Bialik, “Marriage-Maker
Claims Are Tied in Knots,” Wall Street Journal (July 29, 2009), A11. On
growing numbers of intentional single motherhood, see Emily Yoffe, “And
Baby Makes Two,” Slate (March 20, 2008), online edition at www.slate
.com/id/2185944/pagenum/all/.
80. See Phil 2:5–11. Note the connection between Christian submission
and humility. TDNT, Vol. 8: 45.
81. AE 36:116.
82. “To this congregation and to every member of it belong the keys, the
power to forgive sins, and to proclaim the gospel—privately, and publicly
if one is required to do so by others having equal authority.” AE 36:298.
83. AE 36:138–139, 145.
84. See The Service of Women in Congregational and Synodical Offices, 1. The priesthood also requires that all Christians, male and female,
are to judge the doctrine of their pastors. C. F. W. Walther, “The Sheep
Judge Their Shepherds,” at www.reclaimingwalther.org/articles/sheep.htm.
85. Women in the Church provides a brief background to the concept
on p. 9. The term is sometimes used in the plural, “orders of creation,”
with reference to the fact that creation includes the establishment of such
various orders as marriage and economic vocation. Either in the singular
or the plural, “The point of this doctrine is to affirm that Christians like
all other human beings exist in a framework of universal structures that
are there prior to and apart from the fact that Christians believe in Christ
and belong to his Church.” Carl Braaten, No Other Gospel (Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1992), 120.
86. The “order of redemption” reminds us that in Christ, by faith, we
are all “one in Christ”—not Jew, Greek, male, female, etc. (Gal 3:28). See
Women in the Church, 22–27, which concludes its comparison of the orders: “The individual characteristics of believers are not abolished by the
order of redemption,” 27.
87. Mickey L. Mattox in “Luther on Eve, Women, and the Church”
notes that the reformer develops his understanding of women primarily

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from the Old Testament, not the New Testament, and, specifically, from
Eve. The Pastoral Luther: Essays on Martin Luther’s Practical Theology,
Timothy J. Wengert, ed. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2009), 255.
88. Gustaf Wingren, Luther on Vocation, trans. Carl C. Rasmussen
(Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1957, reprint CPH, Concordia Heritage
Series, n.d.), 172.
89. Lutherans have referred to three “uses” of the Law of God. The first
is the Law’s use as a curb or check against human sinfulness as it condemns
sin and threatens punishment. The Law’s ability to show us our sin and
bring us to repentance is its second use. The third use is the guidance it
offers for Christian living that pleases God. Formula of Concord, Ep and
SD, Article VI.
90. A helpful survey of this topic in recent LCMS history is found in
Scott Murray, Law, Life, and the Living God: The Third Use of the Law in
Modern American Lutheranism (St. Louis: CPH, 2002).
91. “Here one should also note that Abraham says that he spoke most
respectfully to his wife. He did not give an order and did not say: ‘You must
obey me; I compel you; I demand from you.’ No, he said: ‘I beg you,’ and
he does not consider her action obedience; he considers it a favor, as though
by a superior person, in accordance with Peter’s precept (1 Peter 3:7): ‘Bestow honor on the female sex.’ But why did Moses record this? Doubtless
in order to present an example of a very fine marriage, something which
is indeed a rarity on earth but is most pleasing both to God and to men.
Therefore by means of this very example Peter exhorts spouses to learn to
love each other and to treat each other with respect and not as people are
now in the habit of doing. Husbands generally are lions in their homes and
are harsh toward wives and domestics. Similarly, the wives generally domineer everywhere and regard their husbands as servants. But it is foolish for
a husband to want to display his manly courage and heroic valor by ruling
his wife. On the other hand, it is also unbearable if wives want to dominate.
Such marriages—where both are capricious—are common, as the proverb
has it: ‘Three things are rare, but they are pleasing to God: harmony among
brothers, love among neighbors, and accord between spouses.’ The reason
is that people generally enter into this kind of life without prayer and, like
swine, regard only what is carnal. Therefore the wife does not see what is
truly good in her husband. On the other hand, the husband sees in his wife
only what displeases him. Since there is no mutual tolerance between them,
quarrels and countless outbursts of anger arise.” AE 3:353–54.
92. For example, Jerome questions false views of submission: “[F]requently wives are found to be much superior to husbands at ordering and
running the house, and educating the children, and maintaining family discipline, while the husbands live in luxury and pursue mistress after mistress.
Whether wives of such caliber should rule, or fear, their husbands, I leave to
the reader’s judgment.” Quoted by J. C. Cavadini, “The Sacramentality of
Marriage in the Fathers” Pro Ecclesia 17:4 (Fall 2008), 445.
93. See Augustine’s Eighty-three Different Questions in Fathers of the
Church, vol. 70, 42 and also his The Christian Combat, in Fathers of the
Church, vol. 21, 338–39, as referenced and quoted in Thomas C. Oden, Life
in the Spirit (San Francisco: Harper, 1992), 8.

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