# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1896_S39
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1896. 39

such free arrangements or measures as sinful and treats them so. Whoever makes sin of what God has left free sins just as much as he who makes it a duty of conscience; and whoever recognizes and lets stand the one or the other of these sins as justified, sins likewise.

What has been said here holds in a certain sense also of the so-called confessional ceremonies [Bekenntnißceremonien]. It does happen that a thing indifferent [Mittelding, adiaphoron] is withdrawn from free use by added circumstances, although it remains in itself a Mittelding and does not cease to be, in itself, a Mittelding. Circumstances simply arise such that we cannot, for conscience' sake, freely use a free Mittelding. The Confession says: "When such things are put forward under the title and appearance of external Mitteldinge which, even if another color were painted on them, are nevertheless in the ground contrary to God's Word, that the same are not to be held as free Mitteldinge but are to be avoided as things forbidden by God." These are things that are not Mitteldinge but are only given out as Mitteldinge. The Confession then continues: "Accordingly we believe, teach and confess that the Church of God in every place and at every time has, according to its circumstances, good right, authority and power to change the same without levity and offense, in an orderly and proper manner, to diminish and to increase, as is at any time regarded as most useful, most helpful and best for good order, Christian discipline and decency, evangelical well-being, and for the edification of the churches." Form. Conc. Sol. Decl. X, p. 698 f. But then the Confession speaks also of such Mitteldinge of which it says: Here it is no longer a question of external Mitteldinge, "which by their nature and essence are and remain free, and accordingly may suffer neither command nor prohibition, to use them or to omit them, but it is first of all a matter of the high article of our Christian faith, as the apostle testifies, that the truth of the Gospel may remain." Loc. cit. p. 700.

Circumcision had become a Mittelding; but a time had come when one had to look carefully how one used this Mittelding. Paul himself distinguished time and occasion when he circumcised Timothy and not Titus. So the Lutheran Church has recognized certain things as such with regard to which God in and of Himself has commanded or forbidden nothing. Christ in the words of institution of the Supper did not state how the bread is to be shaped that is distributed at the Sacrament, nor whether the wine that is given and drunk at the Supper is to be white or red. But when the Zwinglians, the enthusiasts [Schwarmgeister], out of what Christ left free made a commandment and said it must be so and so, that it belongs to the essence of the Sacrament — then the Lutheran fathers took a firm stand