# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S47
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 47 —

To this most weighty subject the Synod devoted five morning sessions. We now give here, in sequence, the discussions that took place on it.

Discussion of the theses.*)

The above theses were first read through in their entirety by their author, Pastor Th. Brohm, and then, on I, "What is this blessing? 1. That, in a time of almost universal falling-away from the Lutheran faith and the greatest fragmentation of the Lutheran Church, unity in pure Lutheran doctrine exists among us, free from any tendency toward Romanizing [*papistizirend*] or unionistic direction," the following remarks were first offered by way of explanation by the aforementioned: "I have placed this first because unity in the faith is indeed the greatest blessing, and at the same time the condition under which everything else becomes a blessing — for without it, everything else would amount to nothing. As to what pure Lutheran doctrine is, there can be no difference of opinion among us. It is the sum of the doctrine contained in the Book of Concord [*Concordienbuch*]. The whole of this doctrine is what is meant by it. By 'Romanizing direction' I mean the false teachings, currently in vogue, concerning the Church, the spiritual priesthood, the preaching office [*Predigtamt*], ordination, and the like — teachings that are, however, put forward by those who hold them precisely under the pretense that their doctrine is the correct one. By 'unionistic direction' I understand not so much the Union [movement] itself as it is generally known today, but rather that unionistic tendency within the Lutheran Church which wants revealed doctrines recognized as open questions and wishes to maintain pulpit and altar fellowship [*Kanzel- und Altargemeinschaft*] with non-Lutherans. Our Synod has, to be sure, been assailed from outside by both of these tendencies at various times, but by God's grace it has to this day been preserved from this ruin. This blessing will appear all the greater to us the greater the fragmentation that prevailed in the so-called Lutheran Church at the time our Synod was founded. We would not have withstood this current had not the gracious and merciful God preserved us from it, without any merit or worthiness of our own."

From other members of the Synod the following further remarks were then made: It is indeed certain, and God has proven it by his deeds, that he stands by us — that is why we were able to celebrate so joyful and blessed a jubilee; and it is indeed certain, as the thesis here states, that God has richly blessed us out of great mercy at a time of the greatest fragmentation of the Lutheran Church. But it might be worth pointing out in particular how the Lord has sealed his promises to our Synod precisely on this point. From of old it was the cry of the false

*) Here begins the minutes [*Protokoll*] composed by Pastor P. Beyer.