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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2026, Page 342

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

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

342
Ov. 5-10

•

The lake of fire and brimstone (Rev. 20:10) — a place of
torment into which the devil will be thrown, where the beast
and the false prophet have already been thrown, to suffer for
all eternity;

•

A final judgment place for those who did not confess (Rom.
10:9) and believe in (John 3:16; Mark 16:16) Christ as Lord
and did not serve Him with their lives on earth, or said
another way— “who do not know God and do not obey the
gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess. 1:8), described as a place
of great suffering, where there is weeping and gnashing of
teeth (Matt. 8:12), where their worm does not die and the fire
is not quenched (Mark 9:48), where there is everlasting
punishment (Matt. 25:46) in the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41), punished with everlasting
destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and
from the majesty of his power (2 Thess. 1:9), and

•

Abaddon (mentioned in the Hebrew text of Job 26:6; 28:22;
31:12; Prov. 15:11; Psalm 88:11; and the Greek text of Rev.
9:11), which seems to be a place of destruction in the Old
Testament references and the literal Hebrew name of the
angel who reigns as king over the bottomless pit in the
Revelation text, also known as Apollyon in Greek; and

To Encourage and Promote
Biblical Teaching of Creation
WHEREAS, Christians are surrounded by teaching that contradicts
the Scriptures concerning creation; and
WHEREAS, Many of the most prominent defenders and
institutions of the biblical doctrine of creation produce literature
that has false teaching mixed into it; and
WHEREAS, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) is
one of the largest denominations to uphold the Lord’s six-day
creation of the universe (LCMS, A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal
Position of the Missouri Synod [adopted 1932], Article 1); therefore
be it
Resolved, That we urge the Synod’s congregations, pastors,
district leadership, and schools to uphold and promote the biblical
teaching of creation and to provide increased educational
opportunities on the subject; and be it further
Resolved, That Synod leadership and institutions (such as
Concordia Publishing House and institutions of higher learning) be
encouraged to make this a priority for the next triennium and in
years to come.
South Wisconsin District
Ov. 5-11

To Restore Apostles’ Creed to Historical Form
regarding Christ’s “Descent into Hell”
WHEREAS, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Tim.
3:16); and
WHEREAS, God’s Word is never to be added to nor subtracted
from (Rev. 22:18–19; Deut. 18:20); and
WHEREAS, God’s Word is very clear that Christ Jesus died, was
buried, and was fully dead in the grave until raised to life by God
on the third day, Sunday (Matt. 12:40; 16:21; 17:22–23; 20:18–19;
27:50–28:7; Mark 15:37–16:6; Luke 23:44–24:8; John 19:30–
20:18; Acts 2:22–32; Rom. 4:24–25; 8:11; 10:9; 1 Cor. 15:3–8); and
WHEREAS, Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27 and 2:31 reference Christ
Jesus not being abandoned to the grave (Sheol in Hebrew, Hades in
Greek), meaning abandoned in the realm of the dead; and
WHEREAS, The Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades
are not the equivalent of our English word hell; and
WHEREAS, The English word hell, in contemporary
understanding and usage, is the sum total combination of multiple
biblical words and concepts, including
• Gehenna — the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem,
formerly the place of child sacrifices before Jerusalem
became the holy city of the Israelites, a place where there
was a constant fire because of the garbage being burned;
•

Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4) — the place where God sent the angels
who had sinned, placing them in chains of darkness to be
held for judgment;

•

The abyss (Luke 8:31; Rev. 9:1–2, 11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1, 3)
—a place of confinement and perhaps suffering for the evil
spirits;

2026 Convention Workbook

WHEREAS, The Greek word φυλακή, used in 1 Pet. 3:19, which
is often translated as prison in the English text, literally means a
place where something or someone is carefully watched, protected,
or guarded, and is also the exact word used by Luke in Luke 2:8 as
the shepherds “kept watch” over their flocks by night, is never used
to imply a place of suffering or punishment; and
WHEREAS, Francis Pieper in his Christian Dogmatics ([CPH,
1951] II:314) cites 1 Peter 3:19 as the proof text for Christ Jesus’
descent into hell spoken of in the modern Apostles’ Creed; and
WHEREAS, Even if this text from 1 Peter 3:19 was referencing
our modern understanding of hell it would still be properly placed
in the Creed after Christ Jesus was “made alive by the Spirit,” after
the resurrection, not before as is stated in the modern Apostles’
Creed; and
WHEREAS, The Old Roman Creed, upon which the Apostles’
Creed was based, does not contain any mention of Jesus’ descent
into hell (e.g., Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom [New
York: Harper and Row, 1931], 46–47); and
WHEREAS, The Nicene Creed, which predates the Apostles’
Creed, also does not contain any mention of a descent into hell by
Jesus following His death; and
WHEREAS, There is no clear text of Scripture that speaks of Jesus
“descending” to some place after His death, nor any text of
Scripture that speaks of Jesus going to a place called hell nor to a
place that carries with it our modern understanding of that term; and
WHEREAS, The only reference to Christ Jesus descending to the
lower parts of the earth is in Eph. 4:9, and is most probably a
reference to Jesus’ incarnation, to His descent from heaven to earth
(Phil. 2:7), used in contrast to His ascent back into heaven (Eph.
4:8); but if this descent is a reference to Psalm 16:10 or Acts 2:27,
31, then it is a reference to Sheol and/or Hades, not a reference to
our modern understanding of hell; and
WHEREAS, The earliest versions of the Apostles’ Creed were
written in Greek, and the oldest record we have of this Creed is in a
letter from Marcellus of Ancyra to Pope Julius I in or about A.D.
340–341 and has no inclusion of the phrase “descended into hell”