# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1902_S24
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

24 Proceedings of the 25th General, or

...Eastern and in the Middle District. The Synod had made the arrangement
that I should keep only the instruction in dogmatics, while instruction in
pastoral theology should be transferred to another member of the faculty.
I made use of this arrangement in only one year, and for two years taught
both disciplines as before, because it turned out that the work of the
General Presidency falls for the most part in the vacations.

The principal matters that will come before the Reverend Synod for
deliberation have already been announced through the "Lutheraner" and are
available in print.

We are, thank God, united in the faith. We are also united in our
willingness to serve Christ in his kingdom through the spreading of the
Gospel. Our deliberations will chiefly concern the manner and method that
best serves the carrying out of our Christian calling. Let us, then, by
God's grace, take pains to arrive at the best arrangements — that is, the
arrangements that best serve the course of the Gospel. But should it turn
out that, even after thorough deliberation, we do not come to entirely the
same view regarding particular arrangements, then the minority will gladly
yield to the majority, since in matters indifferent [*Mitteldinge*, adiaphora]
a Christian gladly submits to his brother, and knows that the church does
not perish even under less good outward arrangements, so long as it
remains with God's Word. One thing is needful: may God, out of grace, for
Christ's sake, keep us with his Word, so that it may be the only lamp to
our feet and the only light upon our way. Amen.

The Essence of Christianity.

(Address delivered by Prof. F. Pieper.)

In almost the whole of outward Christendom, the past two years have seen
debate over the essence of Christianity. That is to say: debate over what
Christianity actually consists in, and by what it is distinguished from all
other religions. These debates were occasioned by the lectures of the
Berlin professor [Adolf von] Harnack on this subject. What Harnack said,
and soon afterward had printed, does not, however, deserve the general
attention it aroused. The Berlin professor merely repeated old, long-known
assertions. Harnack's teaching is, in short, this: Christ is not God, but a
uniquely wise and virtuous man. Christ has therefore also not, in the place
of mankind, kept the divine Law and borne the penalty for the
transgression of the Law.