# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1886_S16
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

16 Proceedings of the eleventh convention

all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Now the apostles did not preach the Gospel orally to every creature, but through their writings they still preach to us today. Therefore it is quite the same what the prophets and apostles spoke and what they wrote. And finally John writes in his 1st Epistle 1:4: "And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." Before this he had listed everything he had taught, and the same he now wrote down also. Hence it counts for nothing when the more recent theologians say: One knows, after all, why the apostles wrote letters; in Corinth much had occurred that needed to be cleared up, therefore Paul wrote to them; and with the Roman Christians also he wished to put himself in touch. Yes, if there were no God, that would make sense. It seems indeed as if in the writing of the holy books everything happened by chance and occasion. But God the LORD held all these occasions in his hand. The apostles may often have written without knowing everything about why they were driven to write just what they wrote. But God willed that they should leave to the Church of all times a source, rule, and norm of faith.

If the Dorpat men, after having expressed themselves so openly in their most recent writings, were to read this our first thesis, they would say: To prove this (namely that the foundation of the Christian faith is given up if one surrenders the doctrine of the divinity of Holy Scripture) is a futile effort. For Professors Volck and Harnack say: The Bible is not at all the foundation of faith. Volck says: "We are Christians not because we believe in the Bible, but because we believe in Christ." (Die Bibel als Kanon [The Bible as Canon], p. 53.)

On page 47 Volck mocks the people who base their Christianity not on Christ but on a book. For he writes: "The facts which he (Prof. F. Mühlau) presented may be very awkward for those who base their Christianity not on Christ but on a book in which every letter is supposed to possess an unalterable, infallible authority." (Loc. cit. p. 47.)

As for Prof. Th. Harnack, he writes: "Not it (Holy Scripture) is the foundation itself (namely of faith), which is Christ, the eternal Word made flesh (John 1:14), and besides and beside which no one can lay another foundation (1 Cor. 3:11), if we wish to remain 'a habitation of God in the Spirit' (Eph. 2:20 ff.)." (Ueber den Kanon und die Inspiration [On the Canon and Inspiration], p. 9.)

Further Harnack writes: "We do not believe in a book, but in Jesus Christ, our LORD and Savior. He alone is the foundation and cornerstone of the Church and the rock on which she and the individual believer is built and builds himself up." (Loc. cit. p. 6.)

These theologians are like the enthusiasts who cry: The