# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1886_S55
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1886. 55

speaks there, nothing excepted; no word is from Paul himself, but
from Christ through Paul. Hence Peter also places all the writings
of Paul on one line with the other writings of the New Testament.
2 Pet. 3:15 f.: "As also our beloved brother Paul, according to the
wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you. As also in all
his epistles he speaketh of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood,
which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the
other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." So there is not
a divine and a human side to be distinguished, but what Paul writes is
only divine. Indeed, Paul rejects the human side
outright in Gal. 1:11: "I certify you, brethren, that
the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man."
In no respect, neither wholly nor in part, is his writing human.
He teaches the same in 1 Thess. 2:13: "When ye received from us the
word of the preaching of God, ye received it, not as the word of men,
but (as it is in truth) as the Word of God." The Thessalonians
thus received Paul's word not merely not as human teaching or
human preaching, but not even as a human word.
Insofar as Paul's preaching is word, it is not human.

Hence it stands certain and beyond doubt for us, what is written in Ps. 119:160:
"Thy word is nothing but truth." Compare
John 17:17: "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth."
Prov. 8:8: "All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is
nothing froward or perverse in them." That can be said with
right and truth only if Holy Scripture is God's Word
from beginning to end. To be sure, we preachers can and also should
say, when we preach, that we preach only the truth. We should
not step down from the pulpit with the sigh: God, forgive me what
false thing I have said; or even, as many sectarian preachers of our day
are accustomed to do, include such a sigh in the pulpit prayer, but
of this we should be certain: I have spoken the truth, and now,
thou my God, bless thy Word upon my hearers. But why can
we say this? Only because we preach Holy Scripture. If that
were not the case, it would be presumption to say of a pastor:
What he preaches is true, you must accept it, as if you had
heard God himself.

The second part of our thesis now asserts that according to the teaching
of Scripture everything that is written in it is, not only
as to content but also as to expression, a work of the Holy
Spirit. This point has indeed been touched on before;
but here is the place where we must go into it especially.
1 Cor. 2:10-13 St. Paul writes: "But God hath revealed them unto us
by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, even the