# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1888_S25
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1888. 25

think they really have what is right. But will Paul on that account extend the hand of brotherhood to them? No; much as he loves them and fervently as he prays for them, he nevertheless declares in chap. 11: "As concerning the gospel, they are enemies." —

Under Thesis III some objections of the opponents of true unity are still to be examined.

The unionists say that love, too, must be allowed to assert itself. That, however, could happen only if one does not hold so hard to all articles of doctrine. We say: A strange love, which puts us in such glaring contradiction with God's Word! God wills that we believe and accept all that is written and not dissolve even the least commandment. That "love," however, which is demanded of us, that is to let up from God's Word, is therefore bound up with contempt for the divine majesty. It is a caricature of love. The loving unionists love, at bottom, neither God nor men. They do not love God, for the Lord says, John 14:23: "If a man love me, he will keep my word." They do not love their neighbor, for error in faith, departure from God's Word, is never a matter of indifference but always perilous to souls. Especially perilous, however, is the unionistic way of saying: "This or that is indeed taught in Scripture, but it is not necessary to hold so hard about it," it makes the whole Word of God waver.

Appeal is also made to 1 Cor. 3:12–15: "Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it. For it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." Here the Apostle says, to be sure, that in the church some build upon the right foundation also wood, hay and stubble of erring human opinions, and that those who build so can still be saved. But he does not thereby say that wood, hay and stubble are permitted in the church or even willed by God. Rather the opposite stands here, namely that wood, hay and stubble have no permanence but are consumed by the fire. Only this much can be proved from this text, that someone can still be saved in spite of erroneous opinions, if he, namely, still holds to the foundation, Christ, in the process and lets his own worthless work go in the fire of tribulation.

The passages that admonish us to bear with the weak are held up against us, e.g., Rom. 15:1: "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak." It is indeed God's will that the weak