# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1873_S25
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 25 —

to put their name to any document. Consider this: in the time of the Apostles and for a long time afterward the congregations had no written constitutions at all, and were nevertheless true congregations. Now, especially in our country, such church constitutions may well be necessary, though not in such a way that exceptions could not be allowed, in favor of the weak just mentioned, regarding their signing. — Joining a congregation is of course not absolutely necessary for salvation. It belongs among the good works commanded by God and is required by love. Precisely for that reason, however, it is also not left to the Christian's discretion; indeed, willful neglect of it is as surely damnable as any willful transgression of the divine will and prohibition. It must also be emphasized earnestly how dangerous the neglect of this very work is in any case, namely because the administration of the means of grace through the public ministry is precisely the ordinary way in which poor sinners come to faith and are to be preserved and strengthened in it. The Christian, therefore, who keeps away from the Christian congregation runs in any case a great danger of losing the faith.

On Thesis III. The truth stated in this thesis is to be emphasized especially also on account of the Methodists and other enthusiasts [*Schwärmer*], who, falsely relying on the word "Go ye into all the world, etc.," claim the right to break into any strange congregation. When we condemn such intrusion into already existing congregations and designate those who commit it as emissaries of the devil, we do not wish to overlook that, just as one must distinguish between the general Christian calling to proclaim the Gospel and the pastoral office, the pastor as a Christian also has that general Christian calling, by virtue of which he can and should work beyond the limits of his congregation, provided only that he never and in no case intrudes into another's office.

On Thesis IV. The establishment of parishes is, as the second thesis already says, of divine right; the manner, however, in which such parishes are bounded is by contrast of human right. It does not contradict the latter, as it might seem to some, when the following, the fifth thesis, says that congregations should be geographically bounded "according to apostolic precedent." An apostolic precedent, an arrangement which the Apostles observed, is not yet without more ado of divine right and therefore does not yet strictly oblige to imitation, for which rather an express divine command is required. This must, however, be well noted, especially in view of the still often so disordered congregational conditions in this country.