# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1898_S29
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1898. 29

as belonging to the church of the perfected, if we do not know that he died as an orthodox Lutheran Christian. Of a person of erroneous belief we do not know whether he went to his death on his error, if he lived in a false-believing church, or on the Gospel that is still there. The great statesman and war hero Cromwell was surely a man who displayed a serious, strict Christian life, who had his New Testament in his hands daily, and with his soldiers insisted not only on discipline but also on piety. This man asked his pastor on his deathbed: "How is it, really? Can someone who once stood in grace fall away again and be lost?" To this his Calvinist confessor replied: "No; once in grace, always in grace; whoever once stood in grace remains in it." "Well," declared Cromwell, "then I am at peace; for I know that I once stood in grace; whether I stand in grace now, I do not dare to say." If Cromwell died on this comfort, he went to hell. So only those who have departed this life as united with us in faith are we to regard as belonging to us, and those too with certainty, and indeed irrespective of whether they belonged to our local congregation or to a sister congregation. How, then, if a Lutheran pastor helps to bury all sorts of people in a churchly manner? In that case he again breaks through this principle of church solidarity, that only those who confess together to God and his Word in all points should belong together and acknowledge one another. One must not say here: We are not dealing with the dead but with the living. We are indeed dealing with the dead. Whom else do we bury but the dead? The whole proceeding takes place for the dead person's sake, and the people themselves view it so, that a certain stamp is thereby preserved for the dead person. When the pastor is present, it looks as though the deceased had also been a Christian, whereas, if one carries him out without prayer and blessing and buries him, people might think: He was an unbeliever. It matters much to them to secure for the dead person precisely a churchly recognition. If one wants to and can deal only with the living, then let one also really deal only with the living. Where in such cases the pastor attends to his pastoral office toward the mourners, this must in every case be done in such a way that even the appearance of officiating at the funeral on his part is avoided.

Only a pastor who in these matters practices conscientiously according to the norm of the divine Word can, without slapping himself in the face, also hold his congregation members to respecting the divine limits of church fellowship conscientiously. Yes, the congregation members too are to do this. Christian congregations and their members, as members of One Body, are with and among one another to maintain Christian fellowship, church-