LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1977, Page 132

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

132 RESOLUTIONS

4. That a ‘conversion experience,’ ‘baptism with the
Spirit,’ or other inner religious experience is necessary
for, or should be urged upon, Christians in order that
they may be certain either of having faith and salvation
or of the indwelling of God’s Spirit. :

5. That a Christian who has not had such an experience
either has an incomplete faith, is unconverted and is
still living under the rule of sin, or has only accepted
Christ as his Savior but not as his Lord. _

6. That the sanctification of a Christian is incomplete
unless he possesses the gift of speaking in tongues.

7. That God promises healing and health to every
Christian in this life and that, if such healing does not
occur, it is due to a lack of faith. .

8. That God gives guidance and leadership to the church
today through visions and dreams of direct prophecy.

and

WHEREAS, Such doctrine is dangerous to the

salvation of man, since it directs Christians to seek
assurance of forgiveness, faith, and the indwelling of
the Spirit in their own experience instead of in the
promise of the Gospel; and

WHEREAS, The espousal of such doctrine often leads

to division within and between congregations even
when charismatic Christians are well intentioned and
seek to make God-pleasing use of spiritual gifts;
therefore be it

Resolved, That the LCMS acknowledge that such
doctrine is contrary to the Holy Scriptures, adds to the
Gospel, and is dangerous to the salvation of men; and
be it further

Resolved, That the congregations of the Synod be
warned against such false teaching and that the
pastors of the Synod be strongly urged to emphasize to
their congregations in a positive way what the
Scriptures teach concerning the work of the Holy Spirit;
and be it further

Resolved, That we urge congregations in which such
doctrine has been introduced to study the CTCR’s
documents on the charismatic movement (“The
Charismatic Movement and Lutheran Theology,” 1972,
and “The Lutheran Church and the Charismatic
Movement,” 1977) and to seek brotherly counsel; and be
it further

Resolved, That brotherly guidance and admonition
be given by District officials to pastors and/or
congregations who are involved in the charismatic
movement to guard against such false doctrine so that
they do not endanger their own souls and the souls of
those committed to their charge; and be it finally

Resolved, That we encourage the members of our
congregations to exercise more fully their right and
responsibility to participate in the spiritual work of the
church that would glorify their Savior.

Action: Adopted as amended (12).

(The convention amended the proposed resolution by:
1. adding the entire third whereas;
2. adding to the fourth whereas: “and therefore contrary to
--. men to teach:”
3. substituting in the same whereas the 8 points listed for
the original 5 points:
1. that God desires every Christian, following Baptism,
to have a “second experience” such as the “baptism
with the Spirit,”

2. that God desires to give the gift of “tongues” to every
Christian,

3. that if such experience has not been received by a
Christian, it is due to the absence of commitment or
conversion, unconfessed sin in the believer, or
ignorance of such a promise of God,

4. that such experience is the assurance of the indwell-
ing of the Holy Spirit of God, and

5. that God reveals His Word and will through a direct
illumination of the Holy Spirit, apart from the written
Word of God, a view expressly rejected in the
Lutheran Confessions (AC, V. 2—4; FC, Epitome, II,
13; FC, SD, II, 4, 80; SA, IH, viii, 3, 10);

4. adding to the second resolve the words: “and that the
pastors ... the Holy Spirit.”

The convention adopted the amended resolution shortly
after refusing to table it.

The points listed in the second and third whereases are
quoted from the document mentioned in the second whereas.
See CW, p. 430.)

To Declare Ourselves
on the Historical-Critical Method

RESOLUTION 3-11

Report 3-01 I, B, 8 (CW, pp. 38-39); Overtures 3-
60—3-61 (CW, p. 87)

WHEREAS, The historical-critical method makes
decisions about the origin, nature, and interpretation of
the Biblical literature on the basis of a historical
reasoning which by definition is a procedure unable to
deal with supernatural intervention and operations;
and

WHEREAS, The use of such historical reasoning in
accounting for the origin of the Biblical literature tends
to minimize the “connection between the Spirit and
history” (CTCR Document: “Revelation, Inspiration,
and Inerrancy,” page 3, par. 9) and fails to take into
account that in history the Spirit creates that which is
not of this world; and

WHEREAS, The use of such historical reasoning not
only obscures the Spirit’s connection with the history of
the Bible’s origin but at the same time emphasizes the
human factors in the production of the sacred literature
in such a way that the Bible is virtually reduced to a
product of merely human thought and experience; and

WHEREAS, Such historical reasoning, by accounting
for the production of the Biblical literature chiefly in
terms of merely historically conditioned responses to a
series of needs and situations among God’s people in
the Old and New Testament eras, and by regarding the
Biblical literature as only human beings’ writings, so
tenuates the Spirit’s authorship as to evaporate the
unity of the Bible and to make inoperative the basic
principle that the Bible interprets itself; and

WHEREAS, Such historical reasoning, which
proposes that each constituent unit of the Biblical
literature must be understood wholly in the light of its
use through various states of oral and written transmis-
sion, negates also the principle that a Biblical text has
only one meaning; and

WHEREAS, A view of the origin and nature of the
Biblical literature that denies the unity of the holy
writings and ascribes multiple meanings to a sacred