# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1857_S341
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— Page 341 —

...chiliasts, and how it is usually grounded. The Synod's only concern
must be to know whether he, as a member of it, stands united with it
in the faith and teaching of those articles that belong to the simple
faith of a child. It had already stated earlier that it does not hold
the key to Revelation, and that therefore it could expose and remove
the error in his belief — grounded as it is on the connection between
prophecy and history — not by an irrefutably certain explanation of
the mysteries in Revelation, but rather through the demonstrated
contradiction with the analogy of faith; and since he gave no hearing
to that, such a communication could benefit neither him nor the
Synod — rather, it had to fear doing him harm by granting it, since
erring teachers, as is well known, are only further strengthened in
their error the longer they go on presenting it.

Seventh Session.

Pastor Schieferdecker's written reply to the question put to him
yesterday was handed in, read aloud, and reads as follows:

"To the question of whether I believe that the Lord Christ could come
even today, in his second coming, for the last general judgment, I
answer: although, from comparing and weighing those prophetic
passages that deal with the last things, I must conclude that not
everything Christ the Lord intends his Church to experience before
the end of his kingdom of grace has yet been fulfilled, I nevertheless
do not hold it impossible that the Lord could come at any moment,
since I do not consider myself infallible in my understanding of the
prophetic passages."

It was then remarked: the answer is not satisfactory, since he does
not give his joyful assent to an article of faith, but only concedes
that it is not impossible that it could be fulfilled; nevertheless,
the Synod has cause to rejoice. Yesterday we would not have received
this answer. It is, to be sure, not a proper confession, but it
contains an admission that he no longer holds his chiliasm to be part
of his faith. For if it were part of his faith, it would be absolutely
certain to him that the thousand-year kingdom must come first. For a
Christian who does not hold himself infallible in his articles of
faith is a pitiful thing, no Christian at all. He no longer wishes to
flatly contradict the faith of Scripture. There is hope that he may
yet come to agree with us in faith, and will. Love hopes all things.
On the strength of this answer, further negotiation with him must
continue — but a plain answer of Yes or No must nonetheless still be
insisted upon.

On the other side, given what had been seen and heard, this hope
could not be entertained. The answer, at bottom, was no different
from what had already been heard before; to every question of
whether he confessed the Christian faith along with the rest, he
would give such an answer as: I believe it, but since I am a weak
human being, I can also err; it could also be otherwise. A year and a
half earlier, at the convention in Altenburg, he had been negotiated
with for several days and had at the time yielded somewhat; but the
impression was soon erased. Then, because renewed unrest broke out
through the well-known sermon, Pastor Schaller and Professor Biewend
were sent to Altenburg to negotiate with him. Then the Präses of the
Synod traveled to him himself, brought him along to St. Louis, where
further negotiations were carried on for several days,