# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1857_S344
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— Page 344 —

Since Pastor Schieferdecker had, in the course of the proceedings,
repeatedly acknowledged that the Lord could come at any moment, and
that to say the opposite would be presumption, yet had also again
acknowledged that he found his view of a still-impending thousand-year
kingdom grounded in Scripture, the Präses once more put to him the
question of Christ's return for the final judgment. His answer was:
I say, He can come any day for the last judgment; that I must teach,
because I cannot prove with absolute certainty that these prophetic
passages are to be understood as I and others have understood them.

Question: Can you prove with absolute certainty from Scripture — and
do you wish to and must you — that the Lord Jesus Christ could come at
any moment for the final judgment? For we can and should teach only
what we know and can prove from Scripture with absolute certainty.

Answer: Yes, I can; on the basis of the passages that depict the Last
Day and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ for the final judgment as
sudden and unexpected.

Upon this the following statement followed: since he had conceded
that only what can be shown clearly and irrefutably from God's Word
may be believed and taught, and had also granted that he wished to,
could, and must prove the doctrine of Christ's return for the final
judgment — as one to be expected at any time — clearly from God's
Word, he must therefore also reject the doctrine of the thousand-year
kingdom.

Pastor Schieferdecker answered to this: I am not able to give up this
hope entirely. My conscience is still held captive. I am not able to
answer in such a way that the Synod would be satisfied. The Synod
demands of me something I am not able to deliver. — —

The Synod resolved: so that nothing be done in haste, to suspend the
public proceedings with Pastor Schieferdecker for a time, giving him
time to reflect and to confer, outside the sessions, with a committee
that he himself might assemble as he saw fit. Pastor Schieferdecker
declared that he gladly agreed to this resolution of the Synod.

Pastor Gruber's letter was then read to its end, and after some
remarks it was resolved that, under the direction of the minutes
committee, a reply to Pastor Gruber be drafted in the Synod's name.
(cf. Appendix C.)

Fourteenth and Fifteenth Sessions.

The Synod was informed that Pastor Schieferdecker had submitted his
answer to the question put to him in writing. It was read aloud and
reads as follows:

"Esteemed and beloved brothers!

Since I have been called upon by you to give today my final
declaration regarding my position on the eschatological doctrine in
question, I comply with this request as follows: I confess the
fundamental articles of the Christian faith concerning the return of
the Lord Jesus Christ for the last general judgment of the world, and
the general resurrection of the dead bound up with it, as they are in the