# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1856_S183
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The General Conference and the "Missionary." 183

...mons. What a theology! The theology of one's own pleasure, or of faith in one's own pleasure: rationalistically exalting "sound reason" (common sense) as judge in articles of faith; enthusiastically grounding faith on anything whatsoever, only not on Word and Sacrament; interpreting Scripture, in all this, not by Scripture but by "sound reason," and thereby robbing itself of the very means by which it might come to a knowledge of its own harm and to a blessed reformation of itself. Unnoticed, however — and all the more irresistible for being hidden — two tyrants, sprung from one and the same mother, the contempt of Word and Sacrament, two tyrants more cruel than Antiochus Epiphanes and Herod, are gradually dividing between themselves dominion over the United States: rationalism and Roman Catholicism. Is not their hour already at hand?

(Submitted.)
The General Conference and the "Missionary."

The Missionary, published in Pittsburgh and edited by the Reverend W. A. Passavant, declares itself, in the number of the 1st of this month, regarding the general conference proposed by "Lehre und Wehre" of all those who confess the unaltered Augsburg Confession, to the effect that the time for such a conference has probably not yet come, since very many of the English-speaking Lutherans could not take part in it, and that one should therefore perhaps first seek rather conferences in which it might be discussed whether, or how far, the Augsburg Confession is in accordance with Scripture. We believe that we are entirely at one with the esteemed editor of the Missionary as to the purpose; he seeks to procure for the worthy Augsburg Confession as general a recognition as possible, because it is a clear and pure presentation of the most precious Christian truths; and this we too seek. Only as to the means for attaining this end, which is certainly pleasing to God, does a difference of opinion exist, and we hope, precisely because we share one goal, that this too will yet be reconciled. The question, then, is: how do we procure for the Augsburg Confession, first of all within the Lutheran Church of this land, as general a recognition as possible? The Missionary answers the question thus: through conferences in which the scripturalness of the Augsburg Confession is the subject of discussion, and to which, therefore, everyone who takes an interest in it — at least every nominal Lutheran — has free admission. "Lehre und Wehre" answers the question thus: through conferences of those who acknowledge and confess the unaltered Augsburg Confession as the pure and faithful expression