# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1892_S18
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

18 Proceedings of the fourteenth convention

other causes possible. But now that he has accomplished everything, unbelief must remain the only cause.

From this it does not follow, however, that no other sin than unbelief is to be punished. No, all sins deserve damnation, on account of them the wrath of God comes upon the children of unbelief, and after the example of Christ and of the holy writers of the New Testament the whole law must be impressed by evangelical preachers. —

The first thesis was of an introductory nature; it establishes the fact that unbelief is the only cause why human beings are lost. Now we come to the real main matter, to the answering of the question: To whom is the unbelief of those who are lost to be traced back? Who is to blame for it? The answer is given in the second and third theses, negatively in the former, positively in the latter. The second says that God is in no way to blame for the unbelief of those who are lost. It reads:

Thesis 2.

That human beings remain in the unbelief in which they are by nature, and so fall prey to eternal damnation, is not to be traced back to God;

a. not to an unconditional decree of God (rejection of Calvinism);

b. not to an omission on God's part, as if God had not also in those who are lost earnestly willed to work faith. (Rejection of a false inference from the doctrine of election.)

Human beings are born as unbelievers. By nature they are not only morally disobedient toward God and suppress the truth in unrighteousness, but they are hostile to every revelation of God, especially to the Gospel. Hence the Augsburg Confession too says in the 2nd Article that as a consequence of original sin human beings "can have by nature no true fear of God, no true faith (*fiducia erga deum* [trust toward God])."

A distinction is made by many, especially more recent theologians, between unbelief toward God and his revelation in general and unbelief toward the Gospel in particular. In certain circumstances one might accept this distinction, but one must know that it is really one and the same unbelief. No essential difference exists between the two. Unbelief toward the Gospel flows from unbelief toward the revelation of God in