Re: [asa] LCMS YEC vs ID question/was Science as Christian vocation

Michael -

I won't presume to make any official statement about LCMS policy but I was a member for ~30 years & keep in touch somewhat. Traditionally of course Missouri was YEC & its 1932 "Brief Statement" affirmed that position. But note the following. The 1972 "Statement of Scriptural and Confessional Principles," while affirming the historicity of Adam & Eve & rejecting human evolution, says nothing about age. That statement, which is still official LCMS policy, was authored by LCMS president Jack Preus at the time of the big Seminex blow-up of the early 70s when Missouri, which had been moving toward greater acceptance of critical biblical study & more openness to other church bodies, was taking a hard turn back to "Old Missouri". At a district convention in the midst of the controversies I asked Dr. Preus privately about the issues of age & evolution. He replied that human evolution was out but he had no problem with the earth being millions of years old.

Of course that was an unofficial comment (& one made while he was attending district conventions trying to drum up support), but I think it's significant. The current LCMS president has said that he believes in 6 day creation but it's pretty clear that he's not going to go after anybody who doesn't accept that.

Shalom,
George
http://home.roadrunner.com/~scitheologyglm

---- Michael Roberts <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk> wrote:
> George LCMS!!!!!!!!!! I chuckle
>
> On LCMS and ID Angus Menuge has probably a part to play in the emphasis on
> ID with his various books. However I feel that he tries to discuss ID,
> divine agency without taking time into consideration. However a good LCMS
> person must be YEC.
>
> I have always considered time to be far more important than design, agency
> or anything else as if we ignore time and are thus YE be our silence
> anything goes. That to me is the weakness of much recent ID and particularly
> Angus's
>
> Michael
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wendee Holtcamp" <bohemian@wendeeholtcamp.com>
> To: <gmurphy10@neo.rr.com>; <asa@calvin.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 5:37 PM
> Subject: [asa] LCMS YEC vs ID question/was Science as Christian vocation
>
>
> George - are you Lutheran/Missouri Synod? Do you know at what time they
> changed their stance from purely YEC to what seems to be an embracing of ID
> in their latest online resources? I remember researching it years back and
> seeing only YEC info but now they've also added in ID verbiage. This is for
> my book that I'm writing, and I thought maybe someone who followed it a bit
> more closely over the past decade might know?
>
> Best,
> Wendee
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Wendee Holtcamp, M.S. Wildlife Ecology
> Freelance Writer * Photographer * Bohemian
> http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com
> http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com
> ~~6-wk Online Writing Course Starts Feb 21, 2009~~
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 'Better to light a candle than curse the darkness'
>
>
> Ted is right that Lutherans don't seem to have given a great deal of
> attention to science-theology issues in the perios in question. There were
> exceptions - Theodore Graebner of the Missouri Synod & Byron Nelson (I
> believe the current ID Paul Nelson's grandfather) of the old American
> Lutheran Church. Both were strongly anti-evolution. I don't know as much
> about the Pennsylvania variety of Lutherans at that period as I do of the
> more conservative midwestern ones. (Francis Pieper, the chief theologian of
> Missouri, argued for - though he didn't insist upon - geocentrism in his
> 1917 _Christliche Dogmatik_. He did insist upon 6 day creation.) I do have
> one book from the 1920s that deals mostly with cosmological questions by an
> eastern Lutheran but can't recall name or title now - I'll let you know when
> I'm home.
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Wed Feb 11 17:44:10 2009