LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 71

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THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 71

2-81

To Preserve a Proper View of Law of God

Wuereas, It is stated in some parts of the LCMS that the
only word or revelation of God to the world is the Gospel;
and

Wuereas, God has first of all revealed Himself in the Law,
first in nature and then to the prophets of Israel; and

Wuereas, Since all that God reveals is good, therefore His
Law is good and a perfect revelation of Himself; and

Wuereas, Man’s inability to understand and to fulfill the
Law rests in himself and in no way with God; and

Wuereas, The Gospel confirms the Law by telling us that
Christ fulfilled the Law by His holy and sinless life and that
He died to fulfill its penalties and that His resurrection from
the grave shows that He was successful in these endeavors;
and

Wuereas, Christians now receive the Law not only to
condemn the sin remaining in themselves, but also as the
joyful instruction from a loving heavenly Father to trusting
children; therefore be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
confess that the Law is the first revelation of God: that it is
still valid in the life of the Christian; and be it further

Resolved, That the Synod condemn any opinion which
states that Law is no longer the Word of God to God's
people.

CatvarRy LUTHERAN CHURCH
Topeka, Kans.

Charles Krueger, President
Donald Kaiser, Secretary

2-82

To Affirm Adam and Eve as Historical
Beings

Wuereas, Among other expressions of Biblical truth the
method of Biblical studies employed by the majority of pro-
fessors at the St. Louis seminary questions the historicity of
Adam and Eve (Faithful To our Calling. Faithful To our
Lord, pp. 16, 17); and

Wuereas, The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament
affirm that Adam and Eve were in fact historical human
beings, the apostle Paul links Adam with Christ by saying,
“As in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made
alive,” 1 Cor. 15:22; therefore be it

Resolved, That Synod

a. again declare, as it has done frequently before, that
Adam and Eve were indeed historical beings, the father and
mother of the human race;

b. declare that it is un-Lutheran and unbiblical to allow
for the possibility that the nature of Biblical literature in
Genesis 2 and 3 permits one to hold otherwise;

c. insist that all those in positions of responsibility, par-
ticularly those responsible for the supervision of doctrine at
the St. Louis seminary, suspend from their teaching or ad-
ministrative positions all those who use that method of
Biblical studies which questions the historicity of Adam
and Eve.

Sr. Paut’s Evy. LUTHERAN CHURCH
Brookfield, Ill.
Warren E. Fletter, Secretary

2-83

To Define Doctrinal Status
of Genesis Accounts

Wuereas, The Constitution of the LCMS stipulates that
every member of the Synod “accepts without reservation...
all the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
as a true and unadulterated statement and exposition of the
Word of God” [Article II 2] and the Bylaws specifically re-
quire that especially pastors, professors, and teachers “shall
be solemnly pledged to... . the Symbolical Books of the

Lutheran church as a true exposition of the Scriptures”
[Bylaws 4.19-—4.25]; and

Wuereas, The Synod as recently as 1965 reaffirmed ‘the
Synod’s insistence on a quia (“because”) subscription to the
Confessions of the Lutheran church” (Detroit convention,
1965, Proceedings, p. 98, Res. 2-21, 2-23); and

Wuereas, However, certain items which have always been
regarded as belonging to the doctrinal content of the Sym-
bols (e.g., man’s creation in the “image of God”) have re-
cently been referred to us as mere “theological construc-
tions” to which Lutherans are not bound by the quia sub-
scription; but

Wuereas, A recent study of the CTCR titled “Creation in
Biblical Perspective,” which “works” through all of Holy
Scripture for the purpose of discovering what it says on the
subject of God’s creation (p.3) and was written “to ex-
hibit the way in which the Scriptures themselves under-
stand” the Fall (p.5). makes it evident that what the Sym-
bols teach about Creation and the Fall is firmly and well
founded in the Word of God, even calling “the special crea-
tion of man in the image of God” an article of faith which
the church has drawn from the early chapters of Genesis
(p.12, par. 16); therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod declare that it understands
everything the Symbols teach about Creation and the Fall
to belong to the doctrinal content of the Confessions drawn
from Scripture: and be it further

Resolved. That the Synod declare that among us a quia
subscription be understood to constitute unqualified ac-
ceptance of everything the Symbols believe, teach, and con-
fess on the basis of Scripture, including the confessional un-
derstanding of the creation and fall of the first human pair.

Horr LUTHERAN CHURCH

St. Ann, Mo.

John E. Greenwald, President
Karl Weeke, Secretary

Robert Baum, Pastor

2-84A

To Declare Synod’s Understanding
of a Scriptural Approach to Genesis 1—3

Wuereas, The brethren of the Lutheran Church in Aus~
tralia in their convention in October 1972 adopted theses re-
garding methods of Scriptural interpretation; and

Wuereas, These theses speak to issues before the LCMS
today: and

Wuereas, These theses are Scriptural and Lutheran;
therefore be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
adopt as its own understanding of a truly Scriptural ap-
proach to the interpretation of Genesis 1—3 the following
theses from the Australian statement:

Basic Perspective

The Christian approach to Genesis is and must be deter-
mined by obedient and joyful confidence in Christ as God and
Creator (John 1:1-4; Col. 1:15-20) and in Scripture as His
truthful Word.

Consequently we reject from the outset all approaches not
based on this faith. We therefore find ourselves opposed to
many assumptions of “higher” criticism, assumptions which
have increasingly shaped the methods and conclusions of Bib-
lical scholarship in the last two hundred years. Some of these
aysumptions are:

ta) That the Biblical documents must be treated in prin-
ciple like all other historical documents, without regard
to their claim to inspiration and authority;

tb) That science, history. and other disciplines are valid and
legitimate norms and standards by which the truth-
fulness and reliability of Biblical statements can and
must be judged:

(ce) That the miraculous aspects of the witness of the Bib-
lical writers may be discounted as an element of primi-
tive culture:

(d) That the Aposties’ and even our Blessed Lord's own un-
derstanding and interpretation of particular texts of
Scripture may in principle be regarded as defective or
questionable, and as subject to progressive correction by
subsequent Biblical scholarship.

Such assumptions as these constitute an attack not only on the