# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1892_S15
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1892. 15

and of the testimony of conscience sharpened by it, even if it remains inexplicable to human understanding. For the doctrine of original sin too is an article of faith. To deny the undeniable fact on account of its incomprehensibility, either directly or indirectly by reinterpretation, means nothing other than to pay homage to the principle of rationalism and fall prey to it, either in a conscious and consistent or in an unconscious and inconsistent way," etc.

To this must be added, as the same author well remarks on p. 33, the following: "Although we have no right to accuse divine righteousness if it hands us over to judgment on account of the sin of nature, any appearance of this right has vanished if we are finally lost not on account of the sin of the species but on account of our own personal sin, through rejection of redemption in Christ." —

All human beings, then, have already on account of original sin fallen under damnation, and so also those who are lost. This was the second assertion to be proved that was set down in the thesis. The third point, the proof of which still remains, is: That human beings remain in this damnation on account of original sin has its sole ground in their unbelief.

III.

All human beings are already, on account of original sin, children of wrath, fallen under the sentence of death and damnation, and all would now also have had to taste God's wrath beyond rescue, and suffer death and damnation eternally, had God not had mercy on them, not sent them Jesus Christ, his Son, as Savior, not laid upon him their original and actual sin, their guilt and punishment, not let him bear his wrath for them, suffer death and damnation, and through the same obtain for them grace, life and salvation, which he offers freely and without cost in his Word for believing acceptance. — Now not all are lost; many escape the wrath of God, the sentence of condemnation is not carried out on them, they are absolved of it, they receive grace, are saved. — Many other children of wrath, on the contrary, even heap up wrath for themselves against the day of wrath and of the righteous judgment of God, die in their sins, and the sentence of condemnation will be carried out on them; they are lost. — Who are those? Who are these? Those are the believers, who believe in Jesus Christ as their Redeemer and Savior. For so Scripture testifies: Believers are righteous. Rom. 3:28. Believers have forgiveness of sins. Acts 26:18. Believers have eternal life. John 6:47. Believers are not lost. John 3:16. Believers are not judged. John 3:18. Believers are saved. Acts 16:31. — Yet the faith by which a person is saved is not to be regarded as a meritorious virtue, but as an organ through which