# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1847_S10
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 10 —

finally, that individual pastors, while belonging to no synodical
association, had conferred ordination on other lawfully called servants of
the church, prompted the synod to charge the secretary, in consultation
with Pastor A. Ernst, to answer him by letter in the synod's name; the
secretary was, however, later relieved of this task — given to him in his
absence — at his own request, and its execution was transferred to Pastor
Fürbringer.

Finally the synod expressed its joy over the keen interest that Pastor
Leonhardt had taken in the synod's affairs, as his valuable submission
testified.

The committee to which Pastor J. E. Schneider's letter had been
referred now gave its report, as a result of which Pastor G. H. Löber was
charged with writing to him and giving him advice, and also with urging
him to take the appropriate steps to obtain ecclesiastical ordination.

The committee charged with examining Pastor Geyer's proposal and
conferring with him and his companion Mr. Hökendorf also now
discharged its assignment. From this committee's report the following
results emerged:

a.) Pastor Geyer declared the expression used in the introduction to the
synodical constitution — "a sound constitution, not contrary to
Scripture, also contributes its part to the church's welfare" — to be
unbiblical, and in the essay he submitted against the constitution he
advanced the claims: 1) that congregations with their ministers did not
have the liberty to enter into a synodical association by means of annual
gatherings and the like, since there was lacking for this an explicit
command of God and a promise of God bound up with it; 2) that,
contrary to what our constitution, Chapter I, Section 1, claims, we did
not have in the passage Acts 15 a model from apostolic times for our
constitution.

b.) On the first claim, under 1, the committee pointed out that,
according to the doctrine of Christian liberty, what God has neither
commanded nor forbidden cannot be made into sin; that external
arrangements therefore lie within the power both of an individual
congregation and of a body of congregations together; and that a
general command of God, on which our synodical order in fact rests,
lies in the apostolic words: "Be diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit!"
— "Let all things be done decently and in order!" On the second claim it
was answered that that passage does contain a model for us insofar as it
shows how the congregations at Antioch and Jerusalem entered into
church fellowship by free choice, and that, if those congregations had
the liberty to hold a council together to deliberate on doctrine and
ceremonies, it must likewise be open to us to assemble for similar
purposes, if possible annually.

c.) Although Pastor Geyer could offer no reply to any of this from
God's Word, he nevertheless persisted in his claim, while his delegate,
Mr. Hökendorf, allowed the committee's grounds to stand to such a
degree that he withdrew the objection made under 1 against the
constitution. Since this first objection was the main ground on which the
rest rested, the committee, faced with Pastor Geyer's firm persistence in
the pronouncement he had once made, could do nothing further than
finally urge him to examine the whole matter once more, earnestly,
before God.