# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S46
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 46 —

sins of the whole world and that God the Father raised Christ from the dead, they too cannot deny; so they must hang on to a few expressions that are perhaps somewhat inconvenient. It thereby very much gains the appearance that they apply all their zeal only in order to turn the attention of the Church away from their own damages and in the meantime to occupy people with the supposed damages of other bodies. It is, for example, thoroughly Pelagian when they assert that the final decision in conversion is the man's own affair. And even in this controversy, although they wish to give themselves the appearance of orthodoxy, they do not quite succeed; for when G. Fritschel asserts: "In the Gospel God shows the sinner a way out, which can redeem him from death and damnation and bring about the forgiveness of his sins," he thereby denies that justification through Christ has already been accomplished and that the righteousness valid before God is therefore already at hand. But thus teach, as does Scripture, also the Confessions of our Church, as in the 6th article of the Augsburg Confession, where it reads in the Latin: "forgiveness of sins and justification is grasped by faith" (Müller p. 40) and "grace, forgiveness of sins and justification is grasped by faith." (p. 45.) So also the Apology: "Faith accepts the forgiveness of sins." (p. 98.) Further: "justification is a thing promised freely, for the sake of Christ alone, therefore it is always accepted before God by faith alone." (p. 123.) These passages indeed show clearly that there must first be a justification at hand which faith can accept, that faith does not first have to bring it about, but grasps it as already at hand. If, however, anyone should say: the forgiveness of sins is indeed already there, but not the justification, he would again have to be ignorant of our Confessions, which expressly teach that justification and forgiveness of sins are the same. "We believe, teach and confess that, according to the manner of Holy Scripture, the word 'justify' in this article means 'absolve,' that is, to pronounce free from sins." (Formula of Concord. Art. 3. p. 528.) Let no one think that this matter is a quarrel about words. No, here the most weighty matter is to be held fast against attacks and error. In particular, in this land of sects and enthusiasm we must earnestly urge the doctrine of universal justification, for they still teach, to be sure, that man is justified by faith, but then speak of faith in such a way that one soon notices they again make faith the effecting cause of justification, whereby they rob the LORD Christ of His honor. For what else does he do who says that faith therefore justifies because it gives strength for good works, for prayer and wrestling, but push Christ's merit aside? Also the testimony of a Scandinavian, the Swede Andreas Rohr-