# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1902_S48
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

48 Proceedings of the nineteenth convention

[Christ himself is not only one deceived, who has deceived himself, but] — what is dreadful for a Christian to hear — a swindler and deceiver; then every Sunday, which the New Testament Church celebrates as the day of the LORD who is risen from the dead, is a lie, for it celebrates a lie; indeed, then, as the apostle's preaching is, so also our preaching is in vain, idle, empty, without object. What a fool and fanatic the apostle would then have been, who suffered and endured so much for this faith and, in view of his near death, knew nothing better to call out to his Timothy than: "Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel."

The significance of the fact of the resurrection, of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, is so great that it must positively be said that since the first day of creation, since the light shines over this world, there has been no day again that was of greater significance than the day when Christ rose from death. If anyone sits down to compile, even on a single octavo page, the twenty most important dates of world history, then the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead cannot possibly be missing. This day is even more important than the day of his birth and the day of his death.

How does it stand, however, with the recognition of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as an accomplished fact? There is, for example, the well-known Becker's World History. To retell the life of Jesus after the evangelists, "who have presented it in inimitable simplicity and sublimity," it believes it can "fairly refrain," but it tells us that Jesus, accused of sedition and blasphemy, died on the cross under Pontius Pilate. Then it goes on: "After the departure of Jesus the apostles, called by him to spread his kingdom, felt themselves wonderfully seized by the Spirit promised to them" (note: Not: They were seized by the Holy Spirit, but: They felt themselves seized!) "and preached, with all fullness of power and inward conviction, the Gospel, that is, the glad tidings of the salvation that has come to men through the Crucified." Of the resurrection of Jesus Christ not a word in the work of twenty stout volumes! The admired, almost deified master and hero of the art of historical writing in the most recent time is Leopold von Ranke. What does he tell us in his World History? Does he venture to cite the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead as a fact? No! In the third volume of his World History (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1883) it says on p. 166: "No one may expect that we should weave the life and passion history of Jesus, as it is handed down in the holy Scriptures childlike and popular, profound and sublime, into world history." (Why should no one expect that, when he does weave in so much else that is neither profound nor sublime?) "The domains of religious faith