# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1908_S13
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1908. 13

Gal. 3:10. — The Reformed sects are partly Calvinistic, that is, they deny the universal grace of God in Christ extending to all men, and partly Arminian, that is, they still ascribe to man power and efficacy toward obtaining salvation. Both kinds of errors are such that they do not let faith in Christ come about, where they rule the heart. — And when the synergistic Lutherans teach that in those who are converted and saved a lesser guilt, a lesser resistance must be found, by which they distinguish themselves from those who are lost, then faith in Christ is impossible also under this doctrine. Faith in Christ cannot arise where the heart is still ruled by the thought: I am still better than many others. Faith in Christ can arise only where a man pronounces himself simply guilty of damnation.

But alongside the official false doctrine, the divine truth is also still heard in the erring communions, the Gospel of Christ the Crucified, that He is the Savior of all sinners. By the working of the Holy Spirit, crushed souls hold to the Gospel of Christ and not to the false doctrine that is set forth. Thus Luther reports that in the papacy simple souls attend the Mass and even call it a sacrifice, but do not trust in it for their own person, and rely for their own person on Christ's merit alone. We have the same experience in dealing with individual Catholics who, for example, are received in our hospitals. In conversation they declare that the doctrine of works is for other, better people; but they themselves are such sinners that they must rely on God's mercy in Christ alone. They thus let the doctrine of works stand in theory — for others; in practice — they for their own person — comfort themselves with God's grace in Christ.

So Luther in his writing against Erasmus points out that there are teachers who in theory defend the free will, but in practice, when they stand before God's face, forget free will and all their works and merits. — Among the enthusiasts [Schwärmer], who reject trust in the outward Word and the Sacraments as mere outward Christianity and a remnant of the papacy, it happens continually that the crushed souls among them nevertheless cling to the comfort that is spoken in the outward Word of the Gospel. With the Sacraments, which in consequence of the enthusiast false doctrine they regard as mere outward ceremonies, they as a rule know not what to do. But they hold fast in faith to the promise of the Gospel, which they hear in preaching and read in the Bible. Thus, through the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit, there are people who believe in Christ in the erring communions.

Through this faith they are joined with Christ and are members of His spiritual body. They stand in the inner, invisible