# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1908_S17
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1908. 17

must be so; that is God's will and order. The Christian local congregation is the Christian fellowship established by God, in which every Christian of the place is to let himself be found. Therefore we also find in Scripture the admonition (Heb. 10:25): "Let us not forsake our assembling, as the manner of some is."

And the local congregations into which Christians join together must have a definite character as regards confession. They must be orthodox, that is, right-believing, congregations, or, as our Confession puts it, congregations "in which the Gospel is purely preached and the Sacraments are administered according to the Gospel." The Christian Church has indeed no word of its own to teach and to confess. God's Word, as it is entrusted to her in Holy Scripture, is her doctrine and her confession, and she may add nothing to it nor take anything from it. Christ says to those who believe in Him: "If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed," John 8:31. Preachers and hearers have in this point a clear command. The preachers among Christians are to preach only God's Word; 1 Pet. 4:11: "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." And the hearers are to keep only to such preachers as present God's Word purely. Those who teach otherwise they are to isolate and to turn away from; Rom. 16:17: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them" (ἐκκλίνετε ἀπ’ αὐτῶν). Erring communions, that is, communions in which man's word is mixed with God's Word, are communions forbidden by God and exist only by God's permission, not according to God's will and order. Orthodoxy, that is, remaining with Christ's Word without adding to Christ's Word or taking from it, is the outward form of the outward fellowship of the Church willed and ordained by God. To let oneself be found only in this outward fellowship is Christ's will and command to all His Christians. That Christians also attach themselves to Romanists, to Reformed sects, to Ohioans and Iowans happens against Christ's will and order, inasmuch as these do not teach God's Word purely and clearly. Only membership in orthodox local congregations corresponds to Christ's will and order. All Christians should seek this membership, or hold fast to it. That is what it means to cultivate the outward fellowship among brethren in the faith that is commanded by God.

But Christians have, with regard to cultivating fellowship among brethren in the faith, duties beyond the local congregation. It is, as already mentioned, not a divine order that local congregations unite with other local congregations into larger church bodies such as our synods are. These unions are a matter of Christian liberty. The local congregation is the one