# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1886_S33
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1886. 33

human activity is not absolutely exalted. Whoever denies this knows the Old and New Testament historical books only superficially, and whoever takes offense at it sins against the Holy Spirit, whose wholly non-docetic, loving condescension into humanity he should rather admire and praise." (System der bibl. Psychol. [System of Biblical Psychology]. Leipzig. 1855. p. 319 sq.) (The Holy Spirit, who is a Spirit of truth [John 16:13], is then so humble that for the salvation of the world he wraps himself also in lie and error!)

Kurtz: "We assert boldly and with the sure confidence of not in the least infringing on the divine character of Holy Scripture and history, that the holy men of God in the Old and New Covenant, whom the Spirit of God impelled to divine works or words, could quite well, as regards scientific knowledge, have been caught up in the errors generally prevailing in their time. . . So Moses too could have had many a physically mistaken view about the nature of the starry heaven or of the interior of the earth, when he grasped in the prophetic spirit the history of the creation of heaven and earth, without these errors having had to be taken from him thereby; for the Mosaic history of creation has no physical but merely religious instruction as its purpose." (Bibel und Astronomie [Bible and Astronomy]. Berlin 1858. p. 8 f.) (Contrary to its religious purpose, then, Scripture unfortunately teaches all sorts of errors in other fields!)

As for Philippi, finally, he does write: "With this one-sidedly separating mode of view the assertion also hangs together that in Holy Scripture really only the matters, but not the words, are inspired. But in the first place the distortion and loss of the God-revealed substance of truth itself would not be prevented if the designation of it were left to men, because the false, skewed or inappropriate expression always changes the content at the same time; but then, for man in general matters exist only in thoughts and thoughts only in words, and this tearing apart of the inner and necessary connection of matter, thought and word is as arbitrary as it is impracticable. The effect of the marriage of the divine and human spirit in theopneusty, whether for the reception or for the production of the divine revelation, is precisely the divine word, not only the divine thought as distinct from the word, but the divine word as bearer, expression and form of the divine thought. With right, therefore, the ancients asserted not only a real but also a verbal inspiration. The apostles and prophets, wholly immersed, living and moving in the element of the divine Spirit, could also speak only wholly spirit-permeated words." (Kirchl. Glaubenslehre [Church Doctrine of Faith]. 3rd ed. I, p. 250 f.)