# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1902_S20
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

20 Proceedings of the nineteenth convention

With full right, therefore, Althamer says in the preface to his previously mentioned work: "How many have I seen and heard who accuse Holy Scripture of contradictions. As if the Holy Spirit, the master of Scripture and master of truth, had put forward things that contradict one another, so that a pious reader would have to become confused about Scripture, uncertain and doubting, when two passages apparently contradict one another, as to which he may follow, which he may trust. If there were really a contradiction, how could a reader of Scripture come to a conviction as to what in it is firm and certain? Who could distinguish the certain from the doubtful, the sure from the unsure, good and evil, light and darkness? Far be such a thought from a Christian mind! Holy Scripture does not fight with itself. It has no conflict of opinions, but agrees in the best and most exact manner, if only a believing, attentive and understanding reader is there. It is not Scripture that fights with itself, but it is criticism that fights with Scripture, criticism which will not take its reason captive under the obedience of faith. Criticism has its spectacles; through them it sees everything red or black. Not the object but the spectacles are to blame that the critics do not recognize the right form of things. If you bring a clean glass with you, Scripture agrees. Conversely the word of Scripture is fulfilled: 'With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.' ... There are indeed some pious, honest people who from ignorance and simplicity hold Scripture to be self-contradictory. But if these read Holy Scripture with invocation of God, if Scripture is compared with Scripture, then without doubt they will soon see how Scripture is at one with itself. Hence practice in Scripture and in the reading of Scripture is just what is needed. This practice one needs in Scripture just as in other arts. This practice was lacking in the papacy. There are, you see, many pastors who devote no diligence to the study of the Bible, belly-servers, lazy folk who learned nothing in childhood and, instead of studying properly, set before their hearers only wretched legends. These nevertheless arrogate to themselves the cure of souls. When they once get into Scripture, it goes with them as with the cock that finds a precious stone on the dunghill and does not recognize its worth. If they read diligently in Holy Scripture, they would soon learn to recognize the worth of the one precious pearl and its use, and would soon also learn, when something apparently contradictory meets them, that the comparison of passages creates unity. ... Above all, however: In Scripture the truth itself speaks, the mouth of God speaks, who is the truth and who also brings forward nothing superfluous. God's mouth is not changeable and inconstant. With God there is no variation nor shifting."