# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S16
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

16 Proceedings of the 26th General or

[we are accused of teaching] that God had simply determined a portion of mankind to damnation. — We deny that the faith of the elect precedes their eternal election; rather, we teach with Scripture and the Lutheran confession that the faith which the elect have in time is a fruit and consequence of their eternal election. To discredit us among the uninformed, we are said to exclude faith from eternal election, and indeed also from justification.

We teach that Holy Scripture alone has the right to establish articles of faith, and that no theologian, and no number of theologians, has the right to deny or reinterpret clear statements of Scripture on the pretext that those statements do not fit the "whole" or system that theologians wish to construct. To score a point against us, people permit themselves the untruth that we taught that passages of Scripture are to be understood apart from the context in which they stand in Scripture.

We teach that the purpose of the whole of Holy Scripture is to reveal Christ, the Savior of sinners, to mankind, just as Christ himself says of Scripture: "It is they which testify of me."*) At the same time, we of course hold firmly that Scripture, when it speaks incidentally of historical or scientific matters, is inviolable truth in these matters too, because all Scripture is given by inspiration of God**) and Christ says of the whole of Scripture that it cannot be broken.†) To score a point against us, it has been said, and is still said, that we turn Holy Scripture — given to mankind for the attaining of salvation — into a handbook of history and astronomy.

We permit no doctrine and no practice within the Synod that is contrary to Scripture. The congregations that make up the Synod watch over one another, so that God's Word retains its rule in doctrine and life. Where deviations occur, we hold it our duty, through teaching, admonition, and rebuke, to bring those in error away from their error. Where someone absolutely will not give ear to the Word of God, exclusion from the Synod does of course follow. To score a point against us, it is said: a "high-church tendency" and an "almost unbelievable tyranny of conscience" prevail in the Missouri Synod.

Although from the very beginning down to this day some have always withdrawn from our fellowship, the Synod has nevertheless, from the very beginning down to this day, enjoyed a great unity

*) John 5:39. **) 2 Timothy 3:16. †) John 10:35.