# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S20
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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cals. In this too the Lutheran Church of this country neglected much in earlier times, in that it did not provide books from which the young theologians of the American Lutheran church could be educated; as a result they had to learn their theology mostly from the writings of the Methodists and Presbyterians. Above all it is desirable that, before translations of older works are undertaken, the people be prepared by our own literature for understanding them, and that a taste for the old treasures of our church be first instilled. But to gain entry for our writings, preaching is again necessary first. Experience teaches that people, if before their awakening they come upon a writing of Luther or upon the confessions of the Lutheran Church, find absolutely no taste for them, whereas when they have first been won for Christ, they see with amazement what treasures of knowledge open up to them in these books.

After the theses had been discussed in order, they were finally approved unanimously by the Conference and adopted as an expression of its common conviction.

Another subject which occupied the Conference keenly were theses

On the Doctrine of Justification.

The Conference devoted seven of its sessions to this absolutely necessary article of doctrine, with special reference to a dispute that had broken out between the Norwegian Lutheran Synod and the Augustana Synod.

Thesis 1: "The doctrine of justification is the foremost chief article of the Christian faith, the right knowledge of which is of incomparable importance and absolute necessity for the salvation of the individual, and the pure proclamation of which for the welfare of the church as a whole."

Thesis 2: "The Reformation of the church through Dr. Luther had its starting point in a knowledge, renewed again by God's grace, of the pure evangelical doctrine of justification and in the correspondingly unadulterated proclamation of this article of faith."

Thesis 3: "In the pure doctrine of justification, as our Lutheran Church has set it forth again from God's Word and put on the lampstand, it is above all a matter of the three points: 1. The doctrine of the universal, complete redemption of the world through Christ; 2. The doctrine of the power and efficacy of the means of grace, and 3. The doctrine of faith."

These three theses are chiefly of an introductory character, and it is emphasized here that the article of justification is the core and