LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2026, Page 209

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
R62.2

209

Wyoming District Board of Directors
February 2, 2024
Page 2

February 2, 2024

the January 1967 CTCR minutes, this drafting committee appears to have included Martin
Franzmann, parish pastor Alvin Wagner, and CTCR executive secretary Richard Jungkuntz, along
with Concordia Seminary’s Herbert J.A. Bouman and Hebert T. Mayer. It is uncertain how any or
all of these individuals specifically contributed to the draft document. By our count, the paper
included on your website was the sixth of eleven such drafts reviewed before acceptance of the
final version.

Wyoming District Board of Directors
ATTN: The Rev. John Hill
2400 Hickory St.
Casper, WY 82604
Re: 2021 Wyoming District 1-01 “To Confess the Immortality of the Soul and to Clarify the
Synod’s Public Doctrine”
Dear President Hill,
Greetings in Christ!
We write in response to the 2021 Wyoming District Resolution 1-01, “To Confess the Immortality
of the Soul and to Clarify the Synod’s Public Doctrine,” which was received via correspondence
dated July 28, 2021 and which asked the Commission to clarify the following: “Does the Synod,
in its teaching, affirm that man has in any way an immortal soul, deny this, or leave it as an open
question?” The Commission apologizes for any delay in responding to this matter. As is our
custom, this assignment was placed on our agenda during the last triennium and referred to one of
our standing subcommittees, which discussed it at length. However, due to the need to complete
several pressing assignments from the Synod in convention and from the Synod president before
the end of the triennium, we placed your request on hold. It was also anticipated that other
overtures to the 2023 convention might be submitted on this topic which would allow us the
opportunity to address your concern, perhaps together with other concerns, in the new triennium.
(Ultimately no such overtures were submitted to the 2023 convention.). Again, we sincerely
apologize for any delay and offer the following determination in response.
First, in reviewing 2021 Wyoming District Resolution 1-01, several factual errors were cause for
confusion on the Commission, leading in part to a delay in responding sooner. The resolution
specifically cites a 1969 paper by J.A.O. Preus II, entitled “Immortality of the Soul and
Resurrection of the Body,” suggesting that the paper was submitted to the CTCR for discussion
immediately prior to the adoption of its report, “A Statement on Death, Resurrection, and
Immortality.” However, the Commission has no record of this paper in its files. After downloading
the paper from the Wyoming District website, the CTCR noted that this appears to be a personal
copy of the draft belonging to then-CTCR secretary Ralph Bohlmann, who wrote in Dr. Preus’s
name as author and a date of (what appears to be) March 6-8, 1969, and who noted it as “Draft
#1.” After extensive study in our minutes, it was found that, in the first place, the date of this paper
is actually March 6-8, 1967. The CTCR did not meet on March 6-8 in 1969, but it did meet on
those dates in 1967. Furthermore, Dr. Preus was not the sole author of this draft, but served as the
reader of the draft at the March 1967 meeting. In fact, our minutes indicate that this document was
drafted by a committee consisting of Preus and four other authors or contributors. According to

Second, the draft ultimately approved by the Commission in March 1969 was, in fact, principally
written by Preus himself. He had revised the aforementioned March 1967 paper for review at the
Commission’s February 10-12, 1969, meeting. That paper was then condensed by Herbert Mayer
and approved at the March 13-15, 1969, meeting, subsequently being published as “A Statement
on Death, Resurrection, and Immortality.” Based on this background research, it should be noted
that the paper cited in your resolution and posted on your website was not an alternate draft by
Preus that was rejected by the CTCR, but an earlier committee draft that was revised by Preus
himself and was eventually condensed into the final 1969 CTCR report.
Third, and to the matter at hand, the Commission believes its 1969 report clearly affirms the
immortality of the soul. It does so primarily by rejecting two very different alternatives to the
biblical affirmation of the soul’s immortality. On the one hand, it unequivocally rejects “soul
sleep” as the teaching that “between death and resurrection” the soul of the Christian is “not
conscious of bliss” (III.6f). On the other, it specifically rejects the pagan view of the immortality
of the soul, namely, “that the soul is by nature and by virtue of an inherent quality immortal, as the
pagans thought and as is taught in a number of fraternal orders today.” It furthermore goes on to
claim that this latter view of the immortality of the soul “denies the Christian Gospel of the
resurrection of our Lord and of the resurrection of the believers through Him alone” (III.6e). In
these statements, as throughout the document, it amplifies the assertion of 1967 Resolution 2-30:
“That the soul of man does not cease to exist after death and that only those who believe in Christ
receive eternal life.” In the Commission’s view, the Synod and our own 1969 report categorically
reject any definition of the soul that denies the immortality of the soul or teaches an immortality
other than that found in Scripture (whether “soul sleep” or pagan iterations of immortality).
We note further that the position of Synod and its explanation in the 1969 report were not a serious
matter of contention at that time, nor—in the CTCR’s view—are they a major subject of contention
in the Synod today. The 1973 convention unanimously commended the 1969 report, finding “the
doctrinal content of this position paper to be in agreement with Holy Scripture and the Lutheran
Confessions” (1973 Res. 2-03). In the decades since, no concern was officially raised regarding
this issue until a single overture in 2019 (Ov. 5-28, “To Encourage Our Pastors to Preach and
Teach in a Very Clear Way the Promise of Everlasting Life”).
To respond as unambiguously and directly as possible to the Wyoming District question regarding
Synod’s teaching on the immortality of the soul, the Commission answers in the affirmative: the

Wyoming District Board of Directors
February 2, 2024
Page 3
LCMS does hold to the biblical doctrine of the immortality of the soul. It steadfastly rejects related
errors such as “soul sleep” and pagan notions of immortality. Yet it has always been hesitant to
say more about the immortality of the soul than Scripture does.
The Commission acknowledges that neither its report, nor Synod in convention, have addressed
this topic as comprehensively or as definitively as some might wish. The concern for greater
precision on such matters is understandable given our commitment to preaching and teaching the
Scriptures with utmost clarity. We commend the Wyoming District for the seriousness with which
it takes that task. At the same time, we would intone the words of Franz Pieper—included in the
1969 report, yet well worth stating again—concerning the importance of hewing closely to the
words of Scripture on these challenging eschatological matters: “Holy writ reveals but little of the
state of souls between death and resurrection. In speaking of the last things, it directs our gaze
primarily to Judgement Day and the events clustering around it” (Christian Dogmatics 3:511). On
this matter, we must say no more—and no less—than Scripture.

The Commission on Theology and Church Relations
Adopted Unanimously, February 2, 2024

2026 Convention Workbook