# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1886_S10
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

10 Proceedings of the eleventh convention

deposit until that day." Chap. 4:8: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the LORD, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." Rom. 8:38–39: "For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our LORD." So the saints of the Old Covenant already based their confidence on the word of God. Ps. 119:49–50: "Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me." Verses 92, 93, 95: "Unless thy law had been my comfort, I should then have perished in mine affliction. I will never forget thy commandments: for with them thou hast quickened me. The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies." Jer. 15:16: "Meanwhile thy word sustains us, when we are hard pressed; and the same thy word is the joy and comfort of our heart." And David asks God that this may remain so in the future also, Ps. 119:133: "Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me." That was also the way of the first Christians. So we read in Acts 17:11: "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." The Bereans were thus divinely convinced; they had no more doubt about it that God had caused his gracious will to be proclaimed to them through Paul. And Irenaeus writes of the Christians of his time: "We know the plan of our salvation only through those who brought the Gospel to us. They first proclaimed it orally; but later, according to the will of God, they left it to us in writings, so that after them these same writings might be the pillars of faith."

As we now draw our knowledge from the Scripture and ground our confidence on the Scripture, so we also judge all doctrine by the Scripture. That Christians, and teachers especially, are to do this is shown by Titus 1:9, where St. Paul exhorts Titus, in the choice of a bishop, to see to it that he "hold fast the faithful word, and be able to teach, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." Of Apollos we are told how he used the Scripture to distinguish between truth and error, Acts 18:28: "For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ." The first Christians used the Scripture against their opponents to such a degree that even the false teachers, in order to gain a hearing among the people and to win a good