# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1886_S71
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1886. 71

had commanded with such words that a human book be read publicly in this way!
In 1 Thess. 5:27 he writes: "I charge you by the LORD
that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren." And Col. 4:16:
"And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the
church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea."

Note further: If Christ were not true God, he would be still
less a pious man, for he speaks of himself as only the
great God can speak of himself. The same holds true of
the Bible. If it were not God's Word, it would be still less a
good book. For it speaks of itself as only a book can speak of itself
which has God himself for its author. The Bible proves this, however,
also through the power of God that dwells in it and manifests itself in the hearts of its readers.
As one must say of every word of Jesus with Peter:
"LORD, thou hast the words of eternal life," the same we must also confess
of the words of the Bible, when we read them. Every true Christian
will remember times when doubts closed over his heart like the waves of the sea.
What helped him out? Not that he took up a
book containing a defense of Christianity, but
the Bible itself dispelled his doubts; often only a few sayings
of it let him feel at once how the cold heart became warm again,
so that he had to exclaim: No, my God, this book is indeed thy Word,
a word of life, of power, of comfort, a heavenly light that in no
darkness goes out, on which one can die confidently in faith even on the
scaffold. All martyrs have shed their blood with joy for the faith that the
Bible is God's Word. Woe to the age
in which this faith ceases! Then no martyr's blood flows any more.

All the theses were unanimously adopted by the Synodical Conference [Synodalconferenz].