# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1902_S7
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1902. 7

[to call attention] to the fact that several years ago (1898) a quite good book was published in our own Concordia Publishing House too, written by Pastor Weseloh in Cleveland: "Das Buch des HErrn und ſeine Feinde" [The Book of the LORD and Its Enemies]. In this book such reproaches as those I named just now, namely that Scripture is supposed to contradict history, the natural sciences, etc., are refuted and rejected thoroughly, concisely, and in a manner that every Christian can understand. I cannot recommend strongly enough that anyone who does not yet know this book should read it, especially pastors, who often meet, in town and country, people against whom they ought to be able to take Holy Scripture under their protection against such reproaches, "to convict the gainsayers."

But necessary as it nevertheless is, as has been said, to be able to meet such objections, on account of the evil and wicked flesh that clings also to Christians, it must also be emphasized, on the other hand, that, according to the new man, a Christian firmly rooted and grounded in faith is little troubled by such charges. Suppose a scholar even throws him a morsel which he cannot deal with at once, he still quickly recovers himself and says to himself: What? Holy Scripture is supposed to contain what is incorrect, untrue, unhistorical? That it is God's Word I know, and its power I experience in myself. That men can lie, however, and often also want to lie, and further that men, even with the best will to write only the truth and nothing but the truth, can nevertheless err and have erred, that I also know. Set before me on the table the many-volumed historical work of the most exact historian on the first two thousand years of the world, and lay beside it the first book of Moses, and the first book of Moses is a hundred times dearer to me than that; for without the first book of Moses I know nothing certain about the first two thousand years of the world, but hear and read only a heap of sagas and myths, opinions and conjectures, and unattested stories; in the first book of Moses, however, I learn a sure foundation of how the world came into being and was populated, how the nations were divided after the great flood, and a thousand other things of which otherwise no man can know anything certain.

What? asks a Christian, Holy Scripture is supposed to contradict the natural sciences? Astronomy? And if it does, who is right then? God, who himself created sun, moon and all the stars, assigned them their place in the sky and their purpose of shining and giving light on earth, and that they should give signs, seasons, days and years, is he supposed to be unable to speak in his Word any better and more reliably about the course and path of these heavenly bodies than these men, not one of whom has ever come near even one of these bodies? I do not believe that, not by a long way.

Is Scripture supposed to be in conflict with geology? With the science of the earth's interior? How far have men already cut through this apple of the globe,