# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1892_S8
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

8 Proceedings of the fourteenth convention

Thesis 1.

Unbelief is the only reason why human beings remain in the damnation that came upon them already on account of original sin.

Three points are stated in this thesis. First: Those who are lost are afflicted with original sin; second: On account of original sin they have fallen under damnation; third: That they remain in damnation has its sole ground in their unbelief.

I.

That all human beings are afflicted with original sin is the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. Moreover, it is a doctrine of the very greatest importance, the denial or obscuring of which is accompanied by the most far-reaching and harmful consequences. Whoever denies or obscures this doctrine must of necessity also teach falsely about the causes both of the salvation and of the damnation of human beings; he will ascribe salvation not to God alone and damnation not to human beings alone, and will necessarily become a Pelagian, a Semi-Pelagian and Synergist, or a Calvinist.

"There is no difference, for they are all sinners and lack the glory they should have before God." Rom. 3:23. This passage alone already testifies to the sinfulness of all human beings. All are sinners: the grown and the not yet grown, the old and the children, the very aged and the newly born. This passage also shows with fair clarity that all human beings are sinners from birth and through birth, afflicted with original sin; as the passage Gen. 5:21 [as printed; the words quoted are Gen. 8:21]: "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" likewise indicates. But people have tried to weaken the force of these sayings by saying that man is born good and became evil only later, perhaps immediately after birth; that the sins clinging to him have no ground in his descent, and so there can be no talk of original sin. This possibility, however, is excluded by John 3:5, 6: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh." The word "flesh" has various meanings in Scripture. Sometimes it denotes the substance of the human body, sometimes the weak creature as opposed to the almighty Creator, sometimes it has moral content and denotes the opposite of God, the holy God, of his good Spirit. So it is used here; according to the context it must denote something that does not let one into the kingdom of God, that excludes from salvation; but that is sin. We have here therefore