# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1886_S6
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

6 Proceedings of the eleventh convention

and prophets. What does he understand by this foundation? Does he mean to say that the apostles and prophets themselves are the foundation on which Christians are built? In earlier and later times it has often been interpreted so. To cite only one who counts himself among the Lutheran theologians, v. Hofmann writes:

v. Hofmann: "As Christ Jesus is personally the cornerstone, as the stones built up above the foundation are the Christians, so too, if the Apostle is to have remained within his image, the foundation must consist of persons." (Der Brief Pauli an die Epheser [Paul's Letter to the Ephesians], p. 101.)

But Paul does not say at all of himself that he is part of the foundation; rather, he helped to lay the foundation, and as a wise master builder he laid no human foundation but a foundation that remains forever. This interpretation of v. Hofmann's, moreover, does not hold for the further reason that even Christ is not the foundation of the Church by virtue of being a person, but insofar as he is the Savior of his believers. So too Christians are not built upon the foundation as living stones by being persons, but insofar as they are believers in Christ. Compare Gal. 3:26: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." 1 Pet. 2:7: "Unto you therefore which believe he is" (namely the cornerstone, Christ) "precious." Col. 2:7: "Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith," etc. Col. 1:23: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister." In this latter passage the Gospel which Paul preached, and which is to be preached to the end, is presented as the foundation on which Christians are grounded in faith and are to remain grounded in faith. The Gospel is thus the foundation on which the whole of Christendom rests. So, among others,

Balduin explains it when he writes: "The foundation of the house is the apostolic and prophetic doctrine, from which alone one can determine how one should believe rightly and live piously. . . From this foundation, therefore, the pious in the Church have the certainty of their faith and of their salvation, because their faith is drawn from the writings of the apostles and prophets and their salvation is likewise grounded there." (Comm. in omn. epp. Pauli p. 887.)

This is by no means in contradiction with 1 Cor. 3:11, where we read: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." For precisely in the preaching of the apostles and prophets Christ, the LORD, is the Alpha and the Omega. Acts 3:18: "But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled." Chap. 10,