# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S14
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

14 Proceedings of the 26th General or

After the Synod had been organized, the Right Reverend General President, Mr. Dr. F. Pieper, read the following *Synodalrede* [synodical address], together with his *Präsidialbericht* [president's report].

Synodical Address.

Reverend Fathers and Brothers!

The 58 years of our Synod's existence have been years of joyful growth and flourishing, but also years of continual struggle. From its very beginning the Synod has had to defend itself against the fiercest attacks from outside. And over time this hostility has not lessened but rather increased. We have many friends even within church bodies that, as bodies, stand against us. But the spokesmen for a large part of Protestant Christendom, and also of that Christendom which calls itself Lutheran, ceaselessly attack the Missouri Synod and the synods that share our doctrinal position.

Are we attacked with justice? No! The truth, the divine truth, is on our side. To do us any harm, to gain any semblance of right against us, one must resort to untruth, to a false representation of our doctrine and practice.

I will now demonstrate this with examples, on a few main points.

Just as we teach that all who believe in Christ as their Savior — and they alone — are the Christian church, so we also teach that all spiritual goods and rights are given to them originally and directly. "All things are yours," the apostle teaches believers in 1 Corinthians 3:21. Faith has everything, through the forgiveness of sins; unbelief has nothing but the guilt of sin and damnation. Believers, or Christians, therefore also have both the right and the duty to appoint the preaching office and likewise to judge doctrine — not according to their own heads, but according to God's Word. To score a point against us, we are accused of introducing an American-democratic spirit into the church, of setting up mob rule in the church, and of turning pastors into slaves of men.

We teach that Christians are obligated to form local congregations and to establish among themselves the preaching office instituted by Christ — specifically the preaching office through which the Gospel is taught in its purity and the sacraments are administered according to Christ's institution. Church fellowship with false teachers we call the