# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1886_S69
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1886. 69

shall be, who do not teach in agreement with Scripture, as it
is written in Jer. 8:9: "Therefore such teachers shall be put to shame, dismayed
and taken; for what good can they teach, seeing they have
rejected the word of the LORD?" and Jer. 23:16: "Thus saith the LORD
of hosts: Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you.
They deceive you; for they speak a vision of their own heart, and not
out of the mouth of the LORD."

On the other hand, Scripture commands in 2 Thess. 2:15: "Therefore, brethren,
stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by
our word or epistle." Since Christians are here called upon to give heed
to what Scripture says and to remain by it, there can never
arise a case that they find anything from which they should
desist, but they are to remain by everything in life and in death.
Paul testifies the same when he writes in Rom. 15:4: "For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." Here Paul refers to
the Old Testament and says thereby that the authority of the Old
Testament has not ceased with the fullness of time, but it is also
written for us who live in the New Covenant, for our learning, that we
may have a hope which makes not ashamed, which rests on a divine
foundation. If Scripture is to give this, it must in all respects
be a divine foundation; nowhere may sandy ground or the mud
of human opinion be found in it.

That already the believers in the Old Covenant had such a rule
in Scripture we see from Isa. 8:19-20: "But when they say to you:
Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto wizards that peep and
mutter, then say: Should not a people seek unto their God? for the living should they seek
unto the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word,
it is because there is no light in them [German: they shall not have the morning dawn]."
If, then, it was a matter in those days of judging what was preached, no appeal to anything
else had validity, not an appeal to the spirit of the soothsayers or
to commerce with the dead, but here the law and the testimony alone held,
that is, the Bible. So also in the New Testament already in the time of the
apostles all those who spoke out of God's Spirit had to let all their speeches be
judged by Scripture, as we read in 1 Cor. 14:37: "If any man
think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge
that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the LORD." And when Christ
demands of his disciples that they should believe all that the prophets
have spoken, without first considering whether they could accept it or not,
it follows undeniably and certainly that when a prophet speaks,
God himself is heard; for such an authority no man, but only
God can rightly claim. Therefore a terrible