# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1899_S34
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

34 Proceedings of the 24th General, or

But may the church relax its hold on the word of God, when, in
human judgment, it looks as though the church would be harmed by
holding fast to the word? No! We may read through the whole of
Scripture — but we will not find a single passage where individual
Christians, or congregations, or the whole church, are permitted,
under certain circumstances, to deny divine truth wholly or in part.
On the contrary, in every relevant passage Christians are urged to
remain in the word, to hold to the word, not to relax even the least
commandment, etc. Here too it is a matter of rightly distinguishing
between state and church, and by no means carrying over into the
sphere of the church the compromises that are entirely in order in
the state. Even great men can succumb to this danger, and have
succumbed to it. Had things gone as Melanchthon wished — that is, as
the Melanchthon who, for a time after the presentation of the
Augsburg Confession, spoke and acted in the reconciliation
negotiations with the papists — the Lutheran church would have no
Augsburg Confession. From Augsburg, Melanchthon wrote letters to
Luther whose content may be briefly summarized thus: "The dangerous
times do not permit confessing the whole truth. To save the main
points, one must yield to the papists on some points." Luther's
answer to this can be briefly summarized: "Confess God's word, and
let him do the governing."

The danger of yielding from God's word through compromise confronts
the church in our time in many different forms. To be sure, the
papacy now threatens the church with armed force in only a few
places. But in our time a power has arisen that claims a dominion
just as unlimited as that of the papacy. That is so-called "science."
This so-called science claims to have the final say even over how
much of Holy Scripture and Christian doctrine is divine truth and is
to be accepted. And whoever does not submit to the verdict of science
is threatened; it shall go ill for him in the world — and for the
church of God as well. The church of God is threatened that it will
lose its influence on mankind and must eke out a despised and
miserable existence, unless it submits to so-called science as the
supreme authority and lets its doctrine be purged and stamped by
science. This threat has indeed had its effect. By this threat, the
whole of modern, so-called "believing" and "confessional" theology
has let itself be intimidated. It has entered into a compromise with
science. It wants to assert of Holy Scripture and Christian doctrine
only as much as can be justified before "science." In return, it
expects that "science" will not withhold its blessing — that is, its
scholarly "blessing" — from the church of God. In doing so, modern
theology has forgotten the divine