June 1, 2011
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Official statements, historical and contemporary references on animals
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A frog makes a human connection. The HSUS
The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) describes itself as “a mission-oriented, Bible-based, confessional Christian denomination” that is “founded on the teachings of Martin Luther.”
Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, had many statements regarding animals.
“God’s entire divine nature is wholly and entirely in all creatures, more deeply, more inwardly, more present than the creature is to itself.”
—from Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 37, ed. Helmut T. Lehmann (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1959), 60.
In modern times, The LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations released a report in 2010 called Together With All Creatures: Caring for God’s Living Earth. The report concluded that the Bible and the Lutheran faith call upon “us to care for [God’s] earth as creatures among fellow creatures in anticipation of its renewal in Christ and completion by the Holy Spirit.”
“God created us within a larger community of creatures with whom we share one basic fact: we are fellow creatures! ... There is no great chain of being in the sense that one creature is more real or more divine than another creature ... We are all in this together. God does not deal with humans in isolation from His nonhuman creatures. He considers all of His creatures to be part of a single creation."
—from LCMS, Together With All Creatures, 35, 65.
Read more about The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, including links to articles and sources on our PDF.