# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S8
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

6 OPENING ADDRESS

They never have, and they never will. Throughout the decades
these enemies have resorted to all manner of tactics to disrupt our
Church. One of the great temptations of our day lies in the direc-
tion of trusting in our numbers, our strength, our strong financial
position, our progress in education, the weight of our influence.
Nothing would wreck our Church faster than if Satan could suc-
ceed to make us proud of ourselves and our achievements and -
thus lead us away from the grace of God and the precious purity
of doctrine, the only solid foundation and the only thing which
has made our Church great. Dangerous cliffs threatening our
Church just at this time are the jagged rocks of unionism and
separatism. Recognizing all these dangers, let us pray fervently:
“Tead us not into temptation.”

“But deliver us from evil.” — This was the prayer of our
fathers. It has been the constant prayer throughout the century.
God’s people have pleaded that the Lord should deliver them from
every evil of body and soul, property and honor. The heavenly
Father graciously heard the cry of His people and led them safely
and securely through every evil day. We are now living in an
evil day, seemingly in the throes of a mighty world revolution.
Mighty nations were crushed during the recent global war, others
rose to enormous power. Though the war ended two years ago,
the earth’s most prominent statesmen have not been able to reach
agreement upon fundamental principles of a peace treaty. Some
predict the rise of mighty anti-Christian powers. Some see fore-
bodings of another and a far more terrible global conflict than
the world has ever witnessed. Some anticipate a day of bitter
bloody persecution for the Church. Everyone realizes that the
days are evil. Hence with our fathers we fervently plead that
our heavenly Father might give us grace to recognize that for
just such a day as this we have the Gospel which a dying and
despairing world needs so sorely, that He might turn intended evil
into good and that He might hasten the day of final deliverance.

Dare we at the turn of the century come with all these weighty

' petitions. Are we justified in believing that our prayers will be

heard? Remember, our prayers are directed unto our heavenly
Father. For Christ’s sake we are His children. We have the con-
fidence and the assurance which children enjoy. But more than
this. With our fathers we burst forth into that mighty doxology:
“Bor Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.” The
kingdom into which He has brought us, the kingdom in which we
serve Him is the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, the kingdom
in which He is vitally interested, the kingdom which He will guard
and protect as the apple of His eye. He has the power, infinite
power, eternal power. Jesus, who taught us to pray this prayer,