# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1904_S20
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

20 Proceedings of the twentieth convention

sinner not be allowed to come to the Sacrament or other fellowship of the churches until they amend and avoid the sin. And the preachers shall not mingle worldly punishment into this spiritual punishment or ban." (Müller, p. 323.)

Likewise the Augsburg Confession says (Art. XXVIII: De potestate ecclesiastica [On ecclesiastical power]): "Therefore the episcopal office is by divine right: to preach the Gospel, forgive sins, judge doctrine and reject doctrine that is contrary to the Gospel, and exclude from the Christian congregation the godless whose godless life is manifest, without human power, but solely by God's Word."

The reason, then, on account of which someone cannot be admitted to Holy Communion does not lie in his sin, not in the kind of sin, the greatness of the sin, the multitude of sins — for this meal is an eating and drinking for the forgiveness of sins — but it lies in the position that the person concerned takes toward the sin. No sin nor host of sins is so grave and great that it would have to exclude a sinner from the enjoyment of Holy Communion; and conversely, no sin is so slight that it could not exclude the sinner from the Sacrament. Impenitence alone makes unworthy, because it does not have the merit of Christ, in which alone worthiness lies. If impenitence makes unworthy, then manifest impenitence requires refusal of the Sacrament by the steward of the divine mysteries. It is to be noted besides that penitence not yet manifest may under circumstances make a postponement of the going to Communion necessary.

"Therefore," it says in the Large Catechism, "one should distinguish among the people. For those who are bold and wild, one should tell them to stay away; for they are not fit to receive forgiveness of sin, since they do not desire it and would unwillingly be godly. But the others, who are not such rude and loose people and would gladly be godly, should not separate themselves from it, even though they are otherwise weak and frail, as St. Hilarius also said: 'If a sin is not so committed that one can justly put someone out of the congregation and hold him for an unchristian, one should not stay away from the Sacrament, lest one deprive oneself of life.' For no one will come so far that he does not retain much daily frailty in flesh and blood."

The Synodical Conference [*Synodalconferenz*] resolved to declare its adherence to the statements of the essayist on the first thesis.

II.

The Lodge System According to Its Own Utterances.

It is our concern to see clearly what it means to be a member of a lodge, what is involved in lodge fellowship. For this one must get to know the lodge system.