# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1908_S33
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1908. 33

Such fellowship is something exceedingly glorious. What joy, when we find the same doctrine and the same faith among Germans, English, Negroes, Indians, Jews, etc.! What joy it gives us inwardly when we are permitted to confess ourselves to one another! And how we grieve the Holy Spirit in our heart when we deny and abandon one another! It is already ugly when one denies a personal friend; but the height of unworthy disposition is it when one denies a brother in the faith.

This brings us to the disturbances of fellowship among brethren in the faith in our own midst. The devil continually seeks to disturb fellowship among brethren in the faith, both in the congregation and beyond the congregations, between sister congregations, sister synods, etc. The disturbance takes place in many ways, but always only from fleshly motives. The Holy Spirit does not disturb the fellowship which He has created. That is done by the devil, by hiding himself behind the flesh: that is his ally, which indeed lies in chains among Christians but is not yet dead. In one way the disturbance takes place by one's keeping away from the public services or from the congregational meetings, or even separating entirely from the congregation, because one has something against the pastor of the congregation or a part of the congregation, or even the whole congregation, thus out of personal embitterment. One says so openly, and instead of bringing the matter to a settlement according to God's Word, one separates. In many cases, however, the devil starts the matter more cleverly and dangerously. Although fleshly motives, wounded pride and personal bitterness lie at the bottom, one does not want to admit this motive to himself and others, but seeks a ground in doctrine. One accuses, because that sounds better and more respectable, one's congregation or one's synod of false doctrine, and in order to gain a factual opposition, one himself sets up a false doctrine and seeks to win adherents. Thus most separations in the Church have arisen, from the apostolic age to our own days. The devil not only raises a stink in the Christian Church, but also seeks to create the appearance that he did this out of great conscientiousness, out of concern for the Church and the purity of doctrine; as can easily be shown in the Novatians, Arians, Nestorians, Papists, Reformed (Zwingli could not make himself count beside Luther), Ohioans, Iowans.

There is no noble ground for separation and for keeping oneself separated from the orthodox church. All grounds lie in the domain of the flesh. The noblest ground that Scripture gives is still ignorance. As the Apostle Paul says of himself: "I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (ἀγνοῶν ἐποίησα ἐν ἀπιστίᾳ), 1 Tim. 1:13. This ground