Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position
                     of the Missouri Synod. [Adopted 1932]
              (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, N.D.) Pt. 4

                               Of Man and of Sin

       6. We teach that the first man was not brutelike nor merely
       capable of intellectual development, but that God created man in
       His own image, Gen. 1:26, 27; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10, that is, in
       true knowledge of God and in true righteousness and holiness and
       endowed with a truly scientific knowledge of nature, Gen. 2:19-23.

       7. We furthermore teach that sin came into the world by the fall
       of the first man, as described [sic] Gen. 3. By this Fall not only
       he himself, but also his natural offspring have lost the original
       knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and thus all men are
       sinners already by birth, dead in sins, inclined to all evil, and
       subject to the wrath of God, Rom. 5:12, 18; Eph. 2:1-3. We teach
       also that men are unable, through any efforts of their own or by
       the aid of ``culture and science,'' to reconcile themselves to God
       and thus conquer death and damnation.

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                             Rev. Robert E. Smith
                                Walther Library
                        Concordia Theological Seminary
       
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