# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1886_S39
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1886. 39

LORD, thy Word, the noble gift,
Preserve this treasure for me,
For I prize it above all possessions
And above the greatest riches.
If thy Word shall no longer count,
On what shall faith rest?
For me it is not about a thousand worlds,
But about thy Word it is.

To this consider that the very first Christians had the Old Testament. For when Paul says to Timothy: "Because from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures," and when Peter writes: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy," and when Christ himself calls to the Jews: "Search the scriptures!", then the Old Testament is meant first of all. But of course the newer men look upon the Old Testament like a book sealed with seven seals. If, however, the Christians had the Old Testament, they had with it the New at the same time. And besides, the New Testament teaching was given to them orally at once. For we do not at all assert that they had all the writings of the apostles at once. At that time there was no such fine postal service. The Bible was also not printed. Whoever wanted to have it had to copy it out. And the congregations did not let their writings out of their hands, so that these precious documents would not be soiled, or changes even made in them.

Volck argues also thus: Scripture cannot be the foundation of faith, because there was a church before all Scripture, already in the Old Testament. The first writer in the Old Testament, he says, was Moses. The whole time before, one had only the oral word. For he writes: "The opinion keeps coming up again that Holy Scripture is the foundation on which the Church rests as to its lasting existence. But this assertion is untenable in view of the historical fact that the Christian Church was already there before even a single writing of the New Testament was available, just as there was an Old Testament congregation of God long before an Old Testament canon existed." (Die Bibel als Kanon [The Bible as Canon]. p. 13.)

But here it must be said: The foundation of the Church here in time is God's revealed Word; in that life we shall see God face to face; but here we walk by faith. And to faith belongs a word, and indeed a divine word, on which it can rest. And such a divine word for the faith of the children of God has been there at all times. If there was as yet no written word, there was nevertheless present the Word of God spoken in Paradise and through the patriarchs. But as soon as God had his Word written, it was incumbent that faith accept this written Word of God and on it