# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1857_S350
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— Page 350 —

...deputies from the four district synods, who are to bring proposals
to the Synod concerning the final course of action to be taken with
Pastor Schieferdecker.

Eighteenth Session.

The proposal submitted by the committee concerning the final course
of action to be taken against Pastor Schieferdecker was read aloud;
it reads as follows:

"Whereas Pastor Schieferdecker has revealed, in the present
proceedings, that he equates his own chiliastic interpretation of
certain prophetic passages of Scripture with the sure and clear Word
of God itself, and has misused that interpretation and the
conjectures drawn from it so as to cast doubt on several articles of
the holy Christian faith — namely, on the kingdom of Christ on earth,
on Christ's return for the Last Judgment, and on the Last Day — and
to flatly deny one of them, namely the general resurrection of the
dead on the Last Day; and whereas all repeated attempts to bring the
aforesaid back from his error have proven vain: the Synod therefore
recognizes that Pastor Schieferdecker no longer stands with it on one
and the same ground of faith, and accordingly finds itself compelled
to withdraw further synodical fellowship from him."

After brief discussion the committee's report was adopted, and it was

Resolved: The Synod has recognized that Pastor Schieferdecker no
longer stands with it on one and the same ground of faith, and it is
therefore compelled to withdraw synodical fellowship from him.

The Präses then turned to Pastor Schieferdecker in a serious and
heartfelt address and, testifying to what a sad and painful duty it
was for him, as chair of the assembly, to announce this synodical
resolution to him, at the same time expressed his heartfelt wish that
this grave step — one the Synod had to take for the sake of Christ and
his Word — might, by God's grace, make such an impression on his heart
that he would once more, anew, consider where he had ended up. For it
is surely a dreadful thing that a Christian, and a minister of the
Gospel, who had labored so long, so faithfully, and formerly with so
much blessing in the Lord's vineyard, should now have come to the
point where he could no longer agree with the simple articles of
faith that God has laid down in his Word for the unlearned within the
Christian Church. — The Synod, too, should humbly recognize, in this
sad and dreadful case, what a wretched creature we are, and what a
swift and destructive spirit Satan is. May the gracious and merciful
God, for Christ's sake, grant us all the more the spirit of grace and
of prayer, that we might cry out to him with heartfelt watchfulness
that he not lead us into temptation, nor let us perish in it. May the
Lord let this serve especially us preachers as a warning, and also
work true earnestness in the congregations, so that we, moved by this
lamentable example, call upon God to let this one heavy chastisement
be enough, and to keep us firm in his Word and faith. May the gracious
and merciful Lord of the Church preserve us, for all time to come,
from such misery as we have had to experience in this synodical
session, etc.