# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1892_S10
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

10 Proceedings of the fourteenth convention

flowing fountain of countless sins is how the Lord describes original sin when he says: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man brings forth good out of the good treasure of his heart, and an evil man brings forth evil out of his evil treasure," Matt. 12:34, 35; and in another place: "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy," Matt. 15:19. And summing up both, complete inability for any good whatever and fruitfulness for all evil, Paul writes of those who are under sin: "There is none that is righteous, no, not one; there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God; they are all gone out of the way and together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they have deceived, the poison of asps is under their lips, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." But this only spells out further what is written in Gen. 8:21: "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." The doctrine of original sin is an article of faith and, as with other articles of faith, so with this one the point is to take reason captive under the obedience of faith. For although the reason of the natural man recognizes from his own and other people's experience that a constant bent and drive toward evil dwells in all human beings, as even heathen have said, it nevertheless knows nothing of the origin of this bent, nothing of its magnitude, nothing of its sinfulness, and assumes besides the evil some good in man. Where it can lead even with a Lutheran, if one gives reason free rein here, is to be seen in a Kahnis, who wrote in his *Dogmatik* II, 137: "The doctrine of Scripture that through Adam's fall sin has gained dominion in all human beings, Augustine exaggerates into a doctrine of the complete deadness of the natural man toward the good. . . . Scripture teaches and experience testifies that in the natural man there is a pull toward the true, the good, toward peace," etc.

In another respect also, reason must be forbidden to draw conclusions in this article. It seems to reason, namely, that only one thing is possible: either God is not the Creator of man afflicted with sin, or he is also the author of sin. Whereas according to the teaching of Scripture God is indeed the Creator of man but not the cause of his sinful corruption.

Our confession stands wholly on the ground of Scripture. It may be pointed out, so far as it belongs here. Article II of the Augsburg Confession reads: "Further, it is taught among us that after