# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S28
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

26 Proceedings of the tenth convention

little the true faith as he who goes on in knowing and wilful sins. Therefore what he calls faith cannot cover his error either. Therefore note the word of Luther: "Whoever followed them (the Fathers) followed to his ruin."

Note also, thirdly, what Luther says of the "Christian" error. The papists said: Well, if the Fathers erred, they erred in a Christian way; so I will also err in a Christian way. Luther says to that: That does not hold! A Christian error comes about through ignorance. If I am a Christian, I cannot possibly say: I will err. No, an upright Christian says: I do not want to err at all, but to build my faith on God's Word alone. But those who want to follow the Fathers into error are no Christians at all. Hence precisely Luther's terrible word: "They follow the Fathers" (namely in this life), "but they will not come to them" (namely into heaven). Yes, truly, it is a mere phantom of faith when someone says: the pious, wise, enlightened man believes this, therefore I believe it too, let him err all he likes, for he errs in a Christian way, I will do that too.

Finally it is important how Luther, according to our citation, thought of the old Church Fathers. He was firmly convinced that they were saved, that, namely, although they had many errors, when they came near to death they threw everything overboard and relied solely on the blood of Jesus Christ. Then the fire of the last mortal anguish burned up the wood, hay, straw and stubble; it helped them nothing, rather they let all this go, but they themselves remained standing on the golden, refined foundation of the dear pure Gospel. Luther even said of Zwingli: he hopes after all that he was saved in the end. Yes, even of Thomas Aquinas Luther believed this, of whom he nevertheless once wrote: It was as if in this man the devil had become man, because he was such a mighty champion and propagator of the papal errors. Luther believed, in charity, that he had after all held in the end to the Lord Jesus alone. So we too are far from wanting to condemn our opponents on account of their error. For we cannot see into their hearts. But their doctrine we must condemn, just as St. Paul does in Gal. 1:8.

It was now also reported how the Ohio Synod had limited its above declaration at its synod, namely, first, that it did not thereby profess every dogmatician, for there might be one who did not have the Intuitu fidei. And secondly, the words "on the whole and in the main" were explained to mean that this refers only to the doctrine of election. One is not to profess every single secondary doctrine of the dogmaticians, but on the whole and in the main this their doctrine of election of grace.