# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1886_S68
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

68 Proceedings of the eleventh convention

the LORD Christ sets Scripture against Satan, Satan knows
nothing in reply except that he again cites words of Scripture.

We recognize the same authority of Scripture from Abraham's reply to
the rich man in hell. Abraham refers him to nothing
higher than the Old Testament. Luke 16:29: "They have Moses
and the prophets: let them hear them." By this he says:
Holy Scripture is the source from which your brothers are to learn
who they are and who God the LORD is; from it alone are they to draw right
knowledge of their sin and their salvation. What a
terrible reference this would have been if Moses and the prophets were human
books or if even the slightest error could occur in these books!
Then these five brothers could have appeared on the last day
and said: We could not believe Moses and the prophets;
for in them we heard a word that in this and this point
is not right, and from then on our confidence and
faith in such a word was gone; Moses and the prophets are to blame that we
are lost. But thank God, it is not so with the Bible. God
himself points them to this Word. Therefore a man, if indeed
God wills that all be helped, must be able through this Word to become divinely
certain of his faith and of the grace of God.

So Paul also refers Timothy to the high authority of
Scripture, 2 Tim. 3:15-17: "From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith
in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." How
highly Paul here praises Holy Scripture to Timothy! It alone
can make wise unto salvation; it alone is the divine source of
knowledge; it alone can make any man of God perfect.
What human book, even the most precious, could make such a
claim, that it contains everything that can make a man eternally happy and
blessed, gives the right true comfort in every temptation, in every need, and in which for every man's heart the right note is struck?

Holy Scripture says further of itself that it is also a source of
knowledge of such things of which out of himself no one knows
anything. 1 Cor. 2:9: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him; but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." So
the holy men of God have spoken, moved by the Holy
Spirit, and have given us a source of knowledge such as only
God can give.

Therefore it is also, secondly, the only rule and norm by which
all doctrines are judged and all teachers declared reprehensible,