# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1879_S10
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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discipline on the false-believing members of their communion, then these exercise it on the orthodox, to the opposite purpose.

The way such church communions act, which exercise no doctrinal discipline and yet want to keep the name "Lutheran," was further illustrated by the following example: A business company sets out, in the midst of a dishonest and deceitful time, to conduct honest business. It writes above its firm name the Seventh Commandment: "Thou shalt not steal," and acts firmly in accordance with it and thereby wins trust everywhere. In time other businessmen take their place, who, however, in spite of the commandment displayed above them, deal dishonestly with their customers and are accused of this by their own conscience. But instead of taking down their sign, they leave it quietly hanging, in order thereby to make people feel secure and to preserve the name. Everyone sees the double sin of such conduct. But are not all church communions guilty of the same sin that exercise no doctrinal discipline and yet let stand the name "Lutheran," which includes and demands this? They not only permit what is evil, but they themselves also do something evil.

Our thesis, then, in the light of what has gone before, wants to say: If no doctrinal discipline is exercised, it is not only in vain that one says one has the Confession, but it is also a lie that one wants to be Lutheran.

At this point the following citation from Luther was read: "The holy Christian Church . . . is not a reed nor a counter. No, it does not waver and does not yield, like the devil's whore, the papal church . . . , but it is, says Paul in 2 Tim. 3:15, a pillar and ground of the truth. It stands firm, he says, is a firm foundation and solid ground, moreover not a false or lying ground, but a ground of truth, does not lie or deceive, does not deal in lies. But what wavers or doubts cannot be truth. And to what purpose would a Church of God be useful or needed in the world, if it wished to waver and be uncertain in its words, or every day set up something new, now give this, now take that away! Indeed, of what use would such a God be, who wished to teach us thus to waver and doubt? Just as the theology of the papists teaches that one must doubt of grace; enough has otherwise been written about that. For where otherwise the papists would have won in all matters, they have nevertheless lost in this chief article, in that they teach that one must doubt of God's grace. . . . The doctrine . . . does not belong in the Lord's Prayer, where we say: Forgive us our trespasses! for it is not ours to do, but God's own Word, who can neither sin nor do wrong. For a preacher must not pray the Lord's Prayer nor seek forgiveness of sins when he has preached