# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1899_S35
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Ninth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1899. 35

lost the divine truth. It has abandoned as infallible truth the Holy
Scripture of which Christ himself says that it cannot be broken, and
it has falsified every main article of Christian doctrine at its
innermost core. How do matters stand with us on this point? From
this quarter, if I judge the situation correctly, no immediate danger
threatens our Synod. While a large part of the American sects, and
also a part of the church calling itself Lutheran, have sacrificed
the authority of God's word to the claims of so-called science, it
stands with us, by God's grace, that we hold fast to the divine
authority of God's word — and not merely because we have recognized
the claims of science as ridiculous and absurd even before human
reason, but because we are convinced, from the outset (a priori) and
by God's Spirit, of the sole authority of Holy Scripture. We want a
church built on no other foundation than that of the apostles and
prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the cornerstone; we do not
want a church that is searching, on the sandy ground of human
opinions, for some kind of existence, with whichever representatives
of science happen to be current setting themselves up as
cornerstones. So from this quarter no immediate danger threatens us
of falling away from God's word through compromises.

Further: we would fall away from God's word if we were willing to
maintain church fellowship with those who teach otherwise than Holy
Scripture teaches. Indifference regarding doctrine, and unionism, are
indeed the hallmark of the sects of our country, and also of a part
of the church that calls itself Lutheran. The so-called "Missourians"
have again and again been blamed for their "exclusive" ecclesiastical
stance, and people do not tire of prophesying our downfall if we hold
fast to the "exclusivity" of "the old ones" and do not make room for
"American ideas." But let us not be led astray. We must measure our
ecclesiastical position not by "American" or other ideas, but solely
by God's word. But God's word demands of the church ecclesiastical
separation from all who teach otherwise than the word of God teaches.
God's word stands there too clearly and too forcefully to be evaded.
God's word teaches and commands: "Watch out for those who cause
divisions and put obstacles in your way, contrary to the doctrine you
have been taught; avoid them" (Romans 16:17). And if we continue to
let this word determine our ecclesiastical position, and hold fast to
the "exclusivity" of our forebears, we shall not perish by it, any
more than our fathers perished by it. On the contrary: God would then
abandon us as a church body, and throw us out like salt that has
become tasteless, if we — to whom he has given the knowledge of what
church and church fellowship really are — were willing to deny the
truth of his word through unionism.