# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1908_S20
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

20 Proceedings of the twenty-second convention

co-religionists have nothing to say about subjects of other lordships, but only about their own. . . . It is written in Gal. 6:16: As many as walk according to this rule, etc., by which saying no one is excluded. Accordingly, all who believe and live according to the doctrine of the Confession and Apology are, according to such faith and doctrine, our brethren, and their danger concerns us as much as our own. We cannot forsake them, as members of the true Church, they may join us whenever they wish, they may do it quietly or publicly, may live among us or abroad. This we say and confess. Thirdly, if Christ in John 17 prays for all who would believe on the Apostles' doctrine, why should we then forsake and not heed those for whom Christ has prayed? Fourthly, since the Lord says: The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church, and yet such gates do not rest, it follows necessarily that the doctrine is bound to no certain time, place or person, but will always endure and remain for all who either already believe or will yet believe in the future." (St. L. XVI, 1537 ff.)

From the Discussions.

The inner unity of the Church is an article of faith. The Church is invisible, since each individual knows only of himself that he is joined to God by faith, and God alone knows all His own. Outward unity, on the other hand, rests on the confession.

Although faith in Christ, the Savior, is enough for the inner unity of the Church, the mere confession of Christ nevertheless does not suffice for outward union, because Scripture demands that we abide in the whole word of Jesus and proclaim the whole counsel of God. If, then, someone out of weakness does not confess everything, we do not on that account deny him faith; but this weakness must not be made the rule, just as a crippled man is still a man, yet cannot as a cripple supply the marks for a proper definition of the normal man. The rule is to add nothing to God's Word, but also to take nothing from it. No doctrine is, so to speak, declared outlawed.

It has something captivating about it when one says: Given the varied endowment of men, every church fellowship has in its peculiar doctrinal position a special calling. But no one has to determine the doctrinal position of the Church except God in His Word. God, however, has determined that His Church is to teach and confess only His Word. Therefore only such church fellowships as preach God's Word purely have, as church fellowships, a right to exist. False-believing churches, on the other hand, unite precisely for the purpose of promoting their false doctrine; therefore, as false-believing churches they are existences forbidden by God. Also Luke 9:49, where Jesus, to the man who cast out devils in His name without being with the