Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1954, Page 30

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380 Proceedings of the Forty-Third Convention,

comes natural resistance, but never willful resistance. “The eternal
saving will of God is universal,” Dr. Reu states in his dogmatics,
“but in its enactment it becomes particular by the willful and per-
sistent resistance of man” (Lutheran Dogmatics, 1945 ed., p. 310).
Predestination, according to American Lutheran church doctrine
today, is nothing more or less than the universal will of God’s grace
in its enactment, or as it is realized in time. Recently their position
was defined in the Lutheran Standard in the following words:
“Divine Election or Predestination is that act of God by which He
chose for Himself, from eternity, all those in whom His saving grace
would accomplish its blessed purpose.”

The fact that this definition bears great similarity to the word-
ing of the Common Confession is evident when we hear it again:
“God from eternity, solely because of His grace in Christ and with-
out any cause whatever in man, elected as His own all those whom
He makes and keeps members of His kingdom and heirs of eternal
life. The Holy Spirit by the Gospel has called us and assured us
of our status before God, testifying to us that He has chosen us for
Himself in Christ from the foundation of the world, and by the im-
putation of Christ’s righteousness has given us the assurance that
He will present us faultless before the throne of His glory.”

“Solely because of His grace in Christ and without any cause
whatever in man,” as exclusive as it may sound in its heaping up
of particles, does not necessarily rule out the distinction made be-
tween natural and willful resistance in man. “Elected as His own
all those whom He makes and keeps members of His kingdom and
heirs of eternal life” is not the same as saying that his election
was unto faith and that it was a cause of man’s salvation, since it
can just as well be interpreted to mean an election in view of faith,
the enactment of the universal will of God’s grace as it is realized
in time,

We therefore feel that the critique of our Wisconsin Synod’s
Union Committee is perfectly justified when it asks for the in-
clusion of the following points for a correct presentation of this
doctrine:

a) a clear and unmistakable statement that this election is an
election unto faith (Acts 13:48; Eph. 1:5; 2 Thess. 2:13);

b) the positive assurance that this election is a cause of our
salvation and what pertains thereto (Trigl., p. 1065, par. 8;
Cf. also Matt. 24:24; John 10:27-29; cf. John 6:65);

and when it states: “The article also falls short of confessional
clarity by failing to state that God’s eternal decree of election did
not merely set up a description of those who will be saved, but
means that He has chosen ‘each and every person’, a specific num-
ber, unto faith and eternal life (Personenwahl, Form. Conc., XI,
par. 23; Brief Statement, Art. 39).”

We are of the conviction that the confessional clarity set forth
in the Brief Statement is necessary for the preservation of truth
over against the unscriptural presentations of this doctrine which
have appeared in American Lutheran circles. The Brief Statement
plainly sets forth the fact that all those who are brought to faith
here in time “have already from eternity been endowed by God
with faith.” It furthermore clearly rejects anything in man as