# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1959_S17
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

DOCTRINAL ESSAY 17

and said: “God hath said: Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye
touch it, lest ye die” (Gen. 3:3), the Tempter said: “Ye shall not
surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil” (Gen. 3:4,5). In the moment Eve yielded to that temp-
tation, pernicious error, false doctrine, the “great lie” (“The devil
is the murderer since the beginning [the first one] and did not
abide in the truth. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to
his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of it” [John
8:44]) was introduced into the world. Since that time it is strictly
a case of God’s doctrine versus Satan’s doctrine, God’s saving truth
versus Satan’s damning lie.

As we read the Old Testament Scriptures, we soon learn that
all true doctrine comes from God and that God is deeply concerned
about His truth. He wants that truth or doctrine to prevail. He is
opposed to all false doctrine and lies. God’s doctrine is spoken of
in the Old Testament under various terms, such as “judgments”
(Deut. 4:1); “statutes” (Deut. 4:4); “God’s ways” (Ps. 25:4);
“God’s truth” (Ps. 25:5); “good judgment and knowledge” (Ps.
119:66); “testimonies” (Ps. 132: 12); “God’s will” (Ps. 143: 10);
“God’s law” (Ps. 94:12); “God’s Commandments” (Ex. 24:12);
“the way of God’s statutes” (Ps. 119:33). But God’s doctrine in the
Old Testament included not only laws and statutes and command-
ments and testimonies; it included also promises to His people in
the covenants He made with Noah, Abraham, and Israel. The most
significant promise in His doctrine was that He would in course of
time send His people a Messiah, a Savior, from the house of David,

to be born in Bethlehem, who would rule over His kingdom for-
ever and ever, into whose kingdom also Gentiles from all parts
of the world would be invited and into which they would be wel-
comed.

God was most jealous of His doctrine. Over and over again
He spoke out through His chosen prophets against false prophets,
false dreamers and their false prophecies and dreams, and He
threatened these false prophets and false dreamers and their fol-
lowers with fearful punishment (Deut. 18:22). We cite only two
passages:

If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams

and giveth thee a sign or a wonder ... thou shalt not hearken

unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams...

and that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to
death. (Deut. 13:1-5)

And the Lord says: Because they have forsaken My Law
which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice or
walked in accord with it, but have stubbornly followed their
own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers