LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 322

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322

II. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

A G U I D I N G S TAT E M E N T
ON THE CHARACTER
AND PROPER USE OF
THE SACRED SCRIPTURES1
God spoke, and it was so (Genesis 1). Together we
acknowledge that God works by His Word. The Word
of God brings creation into being in a way beyond
human knowledge — a way that can only elicit doxology, not human understanding. Then, to a fallen world
God spoke through prophets in great compassion with
human speech for human comprehension (Gen. 15:1).
And now “in these last days,” with grace beyond comprehension, “he has spoken to us by his Son”: the Word
by whom He upholds His universe and, yet, the Word
made flesh. The Son, who dwelt among us, reveals that
God is love as He bears sin and death in a great exchange that grants us resurrection and eternal life (Heb.
1:2–3; John 1:1–4, 14, 18).

A G U I D I N G S TAT E M E N T O N T H E
CHARACTER AND PROPER USE
OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES

God’s Word is not silenced. He speaks through human
voices proclaiming His excellencies. He bespeaks us
righteous in sermon and absolution. He declares His Word
by human lips over baptismal water and eucharistic bread
1
This statement, “God’s Word forever shall abide” (“A Mighty Fortress Is Our
God,” verse 4; see LBW 228, 229; LSB 657), was conceived at the Sept. 9-10,
2015, meeting of representatives of the LCMS and NALC where we agreed
to prepare a joint statement on the authority of Holy Scripture. The LCC
representative for the ongoing discussions — although unable to be present
for these discussions — affirmed both the goal and this document. The
present document uses materials provided by both groups (see the attached
bibliography for resources that informed our discussions) and is the result of
further conversation and consideration at the March 16-17, 2016 meeting of
the representatives. The statement’s initial purpose was to serve as a foundation and guidelines for our deliberations, on the basis of God’s Word, both in
areas where we seek to express a common position and also regarding such
topics and practices as may divide us. It is offered here as a report from the
representatives involved in these discussions.

and cup. And He speaks with clarity and authority in the
Holy Scriptures, which we recognize and confess to be “the
only guiding principle and rule” for all Christian teaching,
preaching, life and practice (FC SD Binding Summary 9).2
We confess together that the Bible is the written Word of
God. We confess this even as we recognize that it is a collection of human writings spanning a time period of more
than a thousand years in three different human languages.
We confess this even as we recognize that the biblical texts
address a variety of particular circumstances and exhibit
the influence of cultural particularities, historical experiences, individual character traits and so forth.
We confess that the Bible is God’s written Word as part
and parcel of our deepest confession — that Jesus Christ
is the very Son of God, God incarnate, “very God of
very God” and the Savior and Redeemer of all humankind. We confess that the Bible is God’s Word because its
entire message is focused on Jesus Christ and His saving
work. He is the heart and center of Scripture and the key
to its true meaning. We trust the Bible because it has led
us to trust in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. As St. John
reminds us: “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by
believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31; cp.
John 5:39). We rejoice in the truth that comes in Christ
2
Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from the Book of Concord are from
The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, ed.
Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000).

God’s Word forever shall abide | 2
alone — the truth that is given by God’s gracious act of
sending His Son: “Long ago, at many times and in many
ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in
these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he
appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he
created the world” (Heb. 1:1–2).
With the Church of every era, we regard these texts as
the authoritative Word of God, because the Gospel of
Christ is known through them and they alone rightly
guide the life of faith. Our Lord Jesus Himself declares the
trustworthiness of the Hebrew Scriptures when He quotes
their authority, saying time and again, “It is written”
(e.g., Matt. 4:4, 7, 10; Luke 24:46). He also assures us that
His apostles, whose testimony undergirds the entire New
Testament, were inspired by the Holy Spirit and that their
writings are trustworthy in every way: “But the Helper,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).
Therefore, we joyfully confess that we are not strangers
to God and His truth, for in justifying us sinners He has
made us members of His household, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself
being the cornerstone” (Eph. 2:19–20). The Scriptures’
prophetic and apostolic testimony to God’s work from
creation until Christ’s future return and renewal of
creation is the only trustworthy basis for knowing God
rightly. Its authority is complete. We receive it with joy
and accept its truth without qualification.

Part 1: How Did the Bible Get Here?
1. Lutheran confessional theology teaches that God
has given humankind a revelation of Himself in His
works of creation. The self-disclosure of God in the
realm of nature is called “general revelation.” The
revelation of God in nature, which does reveal God’s
wisdom and power (Rom. 1:20), nonetheless
is finally a revelation of God’s law.
a. Ever since the entrance of sin into the world,
the whole creation groans under the bondage of
corruption (Rom. 8:19ff). Our whole physical
environment witnesses to the judgment of God
who visits death on the works of His own hands
because of human rebellion against Him.
b. Since general revelation does not witness to the
grace that pardons but only to the wrath that
punishes sin, the sinner responds to the revelation

of God in nature by willfully suppressing the truth
to which it witnesses (Rom. 1:18). The sinner
either denies that there is a God (Ps. 14:1; 53:1)
or invents an idol whose wrath can be appeased
by human devices (LC I 18-23).
2. The revelation in which God makes Himself known
as a gracious God is called “special revelation.” While
special revelation cannot simply be equated with the
Holy Scriptures, since God spoke to His people in
many ways before any Scriptures were written and
has spoken to us in these last times especially in His
Son (Heb. 1:1–2), it is nevertheless true that it is in
the Scriptures that the knowledge of these special
revelations of God’s mercy has come to us.
3. The revelation given to us in the Scriptures about
all that God has done in human history to effect
our salvation comes from God. No prophetic teaching about what God was doing through His people
to keep His promise of sending a Redeemer arose
from any mere human reflection on an interpretation of Israel’s history. But men spoke from God
about these things as they were moved by the Holy
Spirit (2 Peter 1:20–21).
Apostolic proclamation concerning all that God did
in Christ was “revealed … through the Spirit” and
imparted “in words not taught by human wisdom
but taught by the Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:10, 13; Gal. 1:11–
12). The apostle Paul can declare of the Scriptures
that nurtured Timothy (and us as well) that “all
Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). So
also, he can claim the same Spirit as the One who
inspired his own writings (Rom. 15:18–19; 1 Cor.
2:13; Eph. 3:4–5).
4. Scriptures inspired by God were written by human
beings. God gave His Word to His Old and New
Testament people through human beings whom
He Himself chose and endowed to speak His Word
to concrete situations and circumstances in the
history of His people.

Part 2: What Kind of Book Is the Bible?
The Bible, inspired by God and written by men, is a
divine-human book. However, this is not to say that
these are two parts that can be separated. The divine
and the human in the Bible are combined in an inseparable union analogous to the union of the two natures
in the Person of Christ.

God’s Word forever shall abide | 3

2019 Convention Workbook

1. A book written by human authors
Lutherans acknowledge and teach that the Bible,
even though it is and transmits God’s very own
Word, is a thoroughly human book. They do not
have a docetic view of the Bible.3
a. One obviously human aspect of the sacred
Scriptures is that the language of the Bible is
human language, written to be read and understood by human beings. Accordingly, the Bible’s
language conforms to the usual principles of
grammar and syntax. The biblical literature
contains many of the literary forms and devices
used by other literature for the purpose of
effective communication.
b. The Bible, considered as written communication,
is human also in that it has a history.
i. In a sense, the biblical literature represents
a “development.” The Bible did not fall fullblown from heaven, but grew upon earth. The
biblical literature came into existence over a
period of many centuries and was written by
human beings for human beings who lived
in varying cultures and conditions, but the
message remains the same.
ii. Inasmuch as the Bible was written in history
by authors who were not insulated from the
culture in which they lived and wrote, and
inasmuch as its literature was not produced
in a vacuum but was originally composed
for and addressed to distinctively discreet
situations and circumstances, this literature
has a historical dimension that gives it its
own peculiar and concrete particularity. In
this sense, it bears the marks of a particular
time and culture.4
2. A book inspired by God
Lutherans, however, also teach that the Bible is a
divine book.
a. While Lutherans recognize that the Bible as an
historical phenomenon is open to investigation by
the historian, they believe and confess that there
is a not-of-this-world dimension to the sacred
3
The docetists were a heretical group in the ancient church who denied the
true humanity of Jesus. They held that He only appeared to be human.
4
For example, the situation in Corinth which occasioned Paul’s correspondence with that congregation had no precise parallel in any other congregation in apostolic times. If that particular situation had not occurred, Paul’s
letters to the Corinthians might not have been written at all or, at least, they
would have had a different complexion.

Scriptures, not discernible by historical research.
Lutherans, therefore, do not surrender the Bible
to historians as though they could by their methods give a full account of the origin and nature of
the biblical literature.
b. Lutherans will not admit that the historian has
the last word to say about the kind of a book the
Bible is. They will not permit the historian to rule
that the Bible is the product of precisely the same
processes that produce other literature.
c. Lutherans believe that in the history that occasioned the writing of the biblical literature God
was active in a unique way, so that there is a qualitative difference between the inspired Scriptures
and every other form of human expression.
3. A perfect unity
Since God is their primary Author, the Scriptures
differ qualitatively from other literature in that they
possess such attributes as unity and complete truthfulness or reliability.
a. Lutheran theology has always acknowledged that
there is a certain progression discernible in the
revelation that God gave of Himself and of His saving actions in history when earlier Scriptures are
compared with later Scriptures (as when the Old
Testament is compared with the New Testament.)
b. Lutheran theology also acknowledges that there are
in the Scriptures no conflicting or contradictory
conceptions of God and His ways with humanity,
but rather a perfect theological unity, despite different emphases in different biblical books and authors.
c. For Lutheran theology, it is a self-evident truth that
God’s revelation of Himself in the sacred Scriptures
is always perfectly consistent with itself.
d. Lutherans have given deep consideration to the
implications of our Lord’s two distinct natures
united in His person and the Bible’s character as
a book that is both human and divine.
i. With the Church through the ages we confess
that the divine and human natures and attributes of the incarnate Son of God relate to or
“communicate” with one another. There is,
no doubt, a mystery at work here not unlike
that of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the
undivided unity of the one God who made
heaven and earth, redeemed all humanity and
will renew the justified in the new creation.
Nevertheless, even as we confess these great

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