# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1877_S31
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 31 —

or indirectly, through certain inferences. Non-fundamental convictions are therefore those that do not concern the foundation of faith, that have no influence on the certain confidence of my heart that I have a gracious God and can die in a state of blessedness.

Examples of this include, among others:

a. If someone thinks that the thousand years prophesied in the Revelation of St. John begin with Constantine the Great, and another has them begin with Luther at the point from which the Gospel was preached in all the world. That does not touch the foundation of faith. But as soon as anyone today places these thousand years still in the future and in consequence teaches: "The Last Day is still a long way off; a resurrection of the dead must first take place," etc., etc. — as soon as this is taught, the foundation of faith is shaken.

b. Further, the theologians have thought much about what the heavenly good [*himmliſches Gut*] in holy baptism actually is. Since in the Holy Supper both a good of grace [*Gnadengut*], namely the forgiveness of sins, and a heavenly good, namely Christ's body and blood, are present (which must be well distinguished), people have also asked what, besides the good of grace of holy baptism, namely the forgiveness of sins, the heavenly good in baptism is. Now one may well grant that there is a heavenly good in baptism too; but since Holy Scripture gives no clear word about it, one will not start a church-dividing quarrel with one who is of another opinion. How various are the opinions about the heavenly good supposedly found in baptism! Some, relying on John 3:5, take the Holy Spirit to be the heavenly good. But who is to decide whether the Holy Spirit is in baptism in the same way as the body and blood of Christ in the Holy Supper? Others give as the heavenly good in baptism the name of God, which is certainly something peculiar; still others the word of institution used at baptism, and finally also the Holy Trinity itself. All this, however, does not concern the foundation of faith.

c. There is also a difference of opinion among theologians over whether the world at the Last Day will pass away entirely or only be changed into a new, fairer earth, that is, be transfigured.

d. What great variety one finds in the interpretation of the penny in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard of the LORD! So long as no one says that the penny is eternal life, it does not touch the foundation of faith. But that interpretation is plainly against the foundation of faith. For if the penny is eternal life, it follows that I can earn eternal life for myself.

e. Here belongs also, as a non-fundamental conviction, whether John the Baptist doubted or did not doubt when he sent his disciples