# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1896_S12
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

12 Proceedings of the sixteenth convention

[even though] he did not fire it; nevertheless the murder is his work, a sinful deed. Thus in this sense the word "functions" is used here: everything that the Church puts into effect in church affairs, whether by doing or by leaving undone, is its church practice.

The first thesis was then adopted.

Thesis II.

Church practice is partly governed by God's Word, partly left to the free discretion of the Christian congregation.

We read Gal. 2:11–14: "But when Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to his face; for complaint had come about him. For before certain men came from James, he ate with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those of the circumcision." Here it has been wrongly said: "Here, then, we have an apostle who also fell into error." Yes, the erring Peter at Antioch is gladly brought into the field as proof of the fallibility of Holy Scripture, although Paul goes on to say: "He ate with the Gentiles." As long as eating is not the same as teaching, we have here not Peter erring in doctrine but Peter erring through his eating. "And the other Jews dissembled with him, so that even Barnabas was led away, to dissemble with them. But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter before them all openly: If you, being a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, why do you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?" Here again it is not said that Peter led the other Jews into a false doctrine, but into a piece of ungodly living, into dissembling. And Barnabas, too, was not led into an error of doctrine, but "to dissemble with them." So it was a matter here of a piece of life, not of a piece of doctrine. Peter knew the doctrine well enough; indeed, through the Holy Spirit he was an infallible teacher of Christendom. But in life he failed here. And indeed it is a matter here of a piece of church life, a piece of life which was also of great importance for the whole Church, especially in those days. It was a matter of the right conduct, the right doing and leaving undone, of the Christians and Christian congregations of that time with regard to certain matters, of which not all the members of the Christian congregations of that time yet had the same knowledge; with regard to which, indeed, everyone could have the right knowledge, but many were still weak. Now if Peter and Barnabas alone had failed in this matter, one could call their perverse