# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1908_S25
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1908. 25

and whoever holds with one who teaches otherwise separates himself thereby from the fellowship among brethren in the faith ordained by God. Even Christians, through weakness in the knowledge of this sin, make themselves partakers of it. 2 Sam. 15 reports how Absalom undertook a very wicked thing against his father David. Under the pretext that he wished to hold a service of worship at Hebron, he went from Jerusalem to Hebron in order to set up a rival government from there. What Absalom undertook and carried out was revolution, an openly godless deed. And yet, what do we read in 2 Sam. 15:11? "And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called; and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not any thing." They did not recognize the sinfulness of Absalom's deed. They took part in a revolution without recognizing the godlessness of their deed.

So it is also in the Christian Church. Men arise who undertake wicked things against Christ and His Church. They teach otherwise than Christ has commanded to teach. They teach, instead of Christ's Word, a word of their own. That means, however, to bring about revolution in the Christian Church. Christ wants only His Word preached in the Church. Through it He rules His Church and remains the one Lord in His Church. Whoever teaches a word of his own in the Church wants to thrust Christ from the throne. One should think that all Christians would turn away in horror from the people who put their own doctrine alongside Christ's Word. The whole Holy Scripture is in itself already a warning against false doctrine; and the Holy Spirit never tires of presenting it as something monstrous, as an abnormity, to carry on man's word alongside God's Word. To this end also go the admonitions of Christ and His Apostles. Christ Himself admonishes, Matt. 7:15: "Beware of false prophets," and Matt. 24:24: "There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders. . . . Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not." And how often and how clearly the Apostles of Christ admonish and warn! Paul says to the elders of Ephesus, Acts 20:30: "Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." The same Apostle admonishes in the Epistle to the Romans all Christians to mark those who cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine they have learned from the Apostles, and bids them turn away from those who teach otherwise.

In Jeremiah it says, chap. 23:28: "What is the chaff to the wheat" — that is, man's word and God's Word — "saith the Lord?" Such a mixture of chaff and wheat is not to be proclaimed in the Church of God. God therefore threatens the prophets who mix their own word into God's Word, Jer. 23:31, thus: "Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord,