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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 302

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

302

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Ov. 5-24

To Affirm and Bind Ourselves
to Biblical Doctrine of Young Age of Earth
WHEREAS, We are tempted to submit ourselves and the sacred
Scriptures to the human and fallen authorities of secular science and
reason; and
WHEREAS, Darwinian theories of evolution, which exclude the
possibility of divine creation from nothing and teach billions of
years of death contrary to Scripture’s history of redemption, require
immense spans of time to account for the biological state of our
world; and
WHEREAS, Contemporary cosmological and geological
arguments for the immense age of the universe, which also exclude
the possibility of divine creation and intervention, have been widely
accepted in universities, schools, and in popular society as the truth;
and
WHEREAS, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for
every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17); and
WHEREAS, “We confess our adherence to the prophetic and
apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments, as to the pure,
clear fountain of Israel, which alone is the one true guiding
principle, according to which all teachers and teaching are to be
judged and evaluated” (Formula of Concord [FC] Solid Declaration
[SD] Summary Content, Rule, and Norm 3 [Kolb & Wengert]); and
WHEREAS, The writings of Moses, including the book of
Genesis, are both theologically and historically authoritative for
Christ and his apostles, (Matt. 19:4; 22:31; Luke 16:31; 24:44; John
5:46–47; Acts 11:43; etc.); and
WHEREAS, Our Synod’s publicly stated position on the age of the
earth is set forth in “A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of
the Missouri Synod” (adopted 1932), Article 5:
We teach that God has created heaven and earth, and that in the
manner and in the space of time recorded in the Holy Scriptures,
especially Gen. 1 and 2, namely, by His almighty creative word,
and in six days. We reject every doctrine which denies or limits
the work of creation as taught in Scripture. In our days it is
denied or limited by those who assert, ostensibly in deference to
science, that the world came into existence through a process of
evolution; that is, that it has, in immense periods of time,
developed more or less of itself. Since no man was present when
it pleased God to create the world, we must look for a reliable
account of creation to God’s own record, found in God’s own
book, the Bible. We accept God’s own record with full
confidence and confess with Luther’s Catechism: “I believe that
God has made me and all creatures;”
and
WHEREAS, The genealogical evidence provided by Genesis 5 and
11, which dates the earth’s age near 6,000 years, excludes the
lengths of time necessary to wholly or partially accept
cosmological, geological, archaeological, and biological theories
which posit millions and billions of years of this earth’s existence;
and
WHEREAS, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:25); therefore
be it

2023 Convention Workbook

Resolved, That Mt. Zion Lutheran Church, Denver, Colo.,
memorialize the Synod in convention to confess:
• that the inspired and inerrant Scriptures relate the
authoritative historical accounts of man’s creation and
redemption; and
• the straightforward reading of the genealogies in Genesis 5
and 11 can and should be used to limit our public teaching
about the age of the earth to less than ten thousand years
instead of millions or billions of years;
and be it further
Resolved, That pastors, teachers, professors, and Synod officials
be memorialized to speak openly, without shame, and boldly about
our church’s unanimous confession of the Scripture’s authority
against the deemed-to-be-erroneous doctrines and secular
authorities which assert a history contrary to God’s Word and
develop resources for the education of the laity on this issue.
Mt. Zion
Denver, CO
Ov. 5-25

To Affirm and Bind Ourselves
to Biblical Doctrine of Young Age of Earth
Preamble
Luther on the Genesis 5 genealogy:
This is the greatest glory of the primitive world, that it had so
many good, wise, and holy men at the same time. We must not
think that these are ordinary names of plain people; but, next to
Christ and John the Baptist, they were the most outstanding
heroes this world has ever produced. And on the Last Day we
shall behold and admire their grandeur. Likewise, we shall also
see their deeds. For then it will be made manifest what Adam,
Seth, Methuselah, and the others did; what they endured from the
old serpent; how they comforted and maintained themselves by
means of the hope of the Seed against the outrages of the world
or of the Cainites; how they experienced various kinds of
treachery; how much envy, hatred, and contempt they endured
on account of the glory of the blessed Seed who would be born
from their descendants. No one must think that they lived
without the severest afflictions and endless crosses. These facts
will be made manifest on the Last Day. (Martin Luther, Luther’s
Works, Vol. 1: Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 1-5, ed. Jaroslav
Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 1
[Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999], 334–5)
WHEREAS, We are tempted to submit ourselves and the Sacred
Scriptures to the human and fallen authorities of secular science and
reason; and
WHEREAS, Darwinian theories of evolution, which exclude the
possibility of divine creation from nothing and teach billions of
years of death contrary to Scripture’s history of redemption, require
immense spans of time to account for the biological state of our
world; and
WHEREAS, Contemporary cosmological and geological
arguments for the immense age of the universe, which also exclude
the possibility of divine creation and intervention, have been widely
accepted in universities, schools, and in popular society as the truth;
and