LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 118

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118 SEMINARY ISSUES

evidences being incorporated and documented in the report
of the Fact Finding Committee to the Board of Control and
to the President of Synod; therefore be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
in convention in New Orleans, July 6—13, 1973, empower
and order the President of Synod to deal directly with and
discipline those professors and instructors who ignore the
clear testimony of Scripture that “All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God,” consequently denying the inspiration and
inerrancy of the Bible and, as a result of such denial doubt
the Scriptural account of creation, the historicity of Adam
and Eve and the Fall into sin, the facticity of miracles, the
immortality of man’s soul, the physical resurrection of
Christ, Christ as the only way to heaven, etc.; and be it
further

Resolved, That those professors and instructors who will
not teach according to the historic Lutheran position be re-
lieved of their duties,

TRIUMPHANT KiInG LUTHERAN CHURCH
Lake Oswego, Oreg.

Paul Meranda, Chairman

Marvin Wagner, Secretary

3-13

To Reject St. Louis Faculty Statements
and Gospel-Reductionism

Wuereas, The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod in re-
cent years has adopted Scriptural resolutions affirming:

1. Christ is the only way to heaven, and those who die
without faith in Christ are eternally damned (Proceedings,
1965, Detroit convention, p. 99);

2. Old Testament prophecies of the Savior find their di-
rect fulfillment in Jesus Christ (Proceedings, 1965, Detroit
convention, p. 100);

3. The historicity of Jonah (Proceedings, 1965, Detroit
convention, p. 100);

4. The Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch (Proceedings,
1965, Detroit convention, p. 103; 1969 Denver convention,
p. 84);

5. The unity of Isaiah (Proceedings, 1965, Detroit conven-
tion, p. 103; 1969 Denver convention, p. 84);

6. The historicity of the New Testament (Proceedings,
1969, Denver convention, pp. 87, 88);

7. The verbal inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible
(Proceedings, 1969, Denver convention, pp. 85, 93; 1967 New
York convention, p. 95):

8. The vicarious satisfaction of Christ (Proceedings, 1967,
New York convention, p. 95);

9. The immortality of the soul (Proceedings, 1967, New
York convention. p. 95);

10. The resurrection of the flesh (Proceedings, 1967, New
York convention, p. 95);

11. The historicity of the Genesis account of creation and
man’s fall into sin (Proceedings, 1967, New York convention,
p. 95); and

WuerEas, The President and professors at Concordia
Seminary, St. Louis, have declared in public statements their
beliefs concerning doctrines covered in these resolutions
which are clearly contrary or at variance to the resolutions
and their intent.

No one comes to the Father but through Jesus Christ. At the
same time, however. one should not condemn all teachings and
practices of other religions. etc. [Faithful To Our Calling, Faith-
ful To Our Lord, Part JI. 1973, pp. 81, 82]

I believe that differences of opinion over the mode of crea-
tion, the length of the creation days. whether Moses wrote the
Pentateuch or not, whether there is more than one Isaiah,
whether Jonah is a real history or a parable are useless logom-
achies [word games] in a world where men are erying out
for a word of comfort that the Gospel offers to confused and
alienated sinners. [Faithful To Our Calling, 1973, Part II, p. 34]

For example, the story of Jonah. ... But if a fellow Lu-
theran sincerely believes this Old Testament Book is a parable,
given to teach God's people of the Old Testament, I would not
deny that individual fellowship, ... [Faithful To Our Calling,
Part II, p. 64]

There can be differences in interpretation of scripture. as for
instance in the opening chapters of Genesis. even as there are
different understandings of the type of literature and the un-
derstanding of history found there ... [Faithful To Our Calling,
Part II, p. 71]

The Scriptures express what God wants them to say and

accomplish what God wants them to do. In this sense and in
the fulfillment of this function they are inerrant. infallible, and
wholly reliable. [Faithful To Our Calling, Part II, p. 31, p. 55;
“A Statement on the Form and Function of the Holy Scriptures.”
Faculty, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 1960]

I do not think the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions are
trying to define the resurrected body of Christ. The Holy
Scriptures and Lutheran Confessions are concerned about the
affirmations of the reality of Christ's resurrection. I do not
think it is important for us to define what this physical resur-
rection is... [Faithful To Our Calling, Part II, p. 82)

and

Wuereas, The St.Louis seminary president and faculty
are promoting Gospel-reductionism.

In other matters such as how to interpret specific Biblical
texts, questions about authorship of Biblical books or the form
of particular writings, hypotheses about sources or dating of
Biblical materials, there can be legitimate differences of opinion,
so long as the position does not contradict the doctrine of the
Gospel. [P. 6]

Scripture is rule and norm because its content is the Gospel.
{P. 7. Faithful To Our Calling, Part II]

I believe that The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod has
and can live under diversity where the Gospel has not de-
manded uniformity. [Faithful To Our Calling, Part II, p. 35}

and

Wuereas, The President of the St. Louis seminary has re-
leased publications publicly which condemn and criticize un-
warrantedly, contrary to the Eighth Commandment, the in-
vestigation of the seminary by a committee selected by the
President of Synod to look into these matters; and

Wuereas, The faculty of the St. Louis seminary on April
4, 1972, released a Response to President Preus’ A Statement
of Scriptural and Confessional Principles, which was subse-
quently endorsed by Synod’s Commission on Theology and
Church Relations, and this Response found fault with A
Statement theologically and having a spirit alien to Lutheran
confessional theology; therefore be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
at its 1973 convention in New Orleans reaffirm the doctrinal
resolutions adopted at the 1965, 1967, and 1969 convention
referred to above; and be it further

Resolved, That the following statements issued by the
President of the St.Louis seminary and its faculty be re-
jected as being fault-finding, divisive, and foreign to Mis-
souri Synod Lutheran theology.

1. “Fact Finding or Fault Finding — An Analysis of Presi-
dent J. A. O. Preus’ Investigation of Concordia Seminary”
(by John H. Tietjen, President, Concordia Seminary, Saint
Louis. Mo., dated Sept. 8, 1972);

2. “Response of the Faculty of Concordia Seminary, Saint
Louis, April 4, 1972”;

3. Faithful To Our Calling, Faithful To Our Lord, Parts
I and II— An Affirmation in Two Parts by the Faculty of
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 1973; and be it further

Resolved, That the evidence of Gospel-reductionism in
the writings and teachings of the St. Louis seminary be dealt
with by the convention in assembly at New Orleans.

MEssiaH LUTHERAN CHURCH
Kenosha, Wis.

G. Buchholz, Pastor

Harold Pape, President
Francis Boness, Secretary

3-14A

To Declare St. Louis Seminary Document
Misrepresentative and Inadequate

Wuereas, The document published by the faculty of Con-
cordia Seminary, St. Louis, titled “A Witness to Our Faith,”
grossly misrepresents the issues presently in controversy in
our Synod by saying: “At the heart of the discussions in
our Synod is the question of whether the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ is the sole source of our personal faith and the
center of our public teaching” (p.3) when in fact the ques-
tion at the bottom of our problems is rather: “Are the pro-
phetic and apostolic Scriptures in their entirety as they have
come to us in the text of the Old and New Testaments the
inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God which are,
when understood in the native sense of their words and in-
terpreted from their center (Christ), the absolute norm for
all that the church teaches and does in God's name?”; and