# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1912_S16
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

16 Proceedings of the twenty-fourth convention

and of the Lutheran Church concerning the election of the children of God to salvation, they regard it as unnecessary for church unity to set up new and further doctrinal statements on this article of faith.
"3) However, since in the doctrine of the election of grace, as is well known, two forms of doctrine have been used, both of which have found room and recognition in the orthodox Lutheran Church, in that some, with the Formula of Concord, let the doctrine of the election of grace embrace the entire salvation of the elect from the calling to the glorification (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Art. 11, §§ 10-20) and teach an election "to salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" while others, like Pontoppidan, just as Gerhard, Scriver and other recognized teachers of the Church, define election first of all as a decree concerning the final glorification, with the faith and perseverance wrought by the Holy Spirit as its necessary presupposition, and teach that 'God has predestined to eternal life all those of whom He foresaw from eternity that they would accept the grace offered, believe in Christ and remain steadfast in this faith to the end,' and since neither of these two forms of doctrine, so presented, contradicts the doctrine revealed in God's Word, but both allow the order of salvation, as it is otherwise presented in God's Word and in the Confession of the Church, to come into its full right, we find that this must not be church-dividing and must not disturb the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace which by God's will is to prevail among us.
"4) Since further, during the church strife among us, expressions and words have occurred (attributed rightly or wrongly to the parties concerned) which seem to the other party as if they were a denial of the Confession or as if they at least led to it, we have agreed to reject all errors which try to explain the mystery of the election of grace further (Formula of Concord, Art. 11, §§ 39-44), whether in the synergistic or the Calvinistic manner, in that they either (on the one side) rob God of His honor as the only Savior, or (on the other side) seek to weaken man's sense of responsibility regarding the acceptance or rejection of grace.
"5) On the one side we reject:
"a) the doctrine that not God's mercy and Christ's most holy merit alone are the causes of our election, but that there is also in us a cause for it, by which God was moved to elect us to eternal life;
"b) the doctrine that God in election was determined by, or took into consideration, or directed Himself according to man's good conduct or anything that man is, does or omits 'of himself or from his own natural powers';