# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1886_S9
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1886. 9

of the doctrine in which thou hast been instructed." And John writes in his Gospel, chap. 20:31: "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." He composed his letters also for the same purpose, as we read in 1 John 5:13: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." Thus Christians who already stood in faith are to gain continuance of their faith through the writings which the Apostle sends to them.

Now faith first of all involves knowledge. Of ourselves we can have no knowledge of divine truths. For no man knoweth the things of God, but the Spirit of God. Without divine revelation there is sheer ignorance in us in divine matters, as it is written in 1 Tim. 6:3–5: "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our LORD Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness." Hence the Savior explains the ignorance of the unbelieving Jews and of all who remained blind to the saving truths of the Gospel by their not knowing the Scripture, saying in Matt. 22:29: "Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God." There is accordingly a connection between error, ignorance in divine matters, and ignorance of the Scripture; and that this connection is a causal one appears still more clearly from the parallel passage Mark 12:24, where it says: "And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?" On the other hand we see from 2 Tim. 3:15 how Paul refers his son Timothy, for the attainment of true spiritual wisdom, to the Scripture, in which Timothy had been instructed from his youth. Whoever takes the Scripture from us, therefore, takes from us the source of spiritual knowledge, without which we can know nothing in divine matters and must fall into sheer error.

To true faith belongs, further, confidence, according to Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." And in so far as faith is confidence, we ground it also on the word of Scripture. Only on the basis of Scripture do we say with 2 Tim. 1:12: "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed