# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1912_S17
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1912. 17

"c) the doctrine that the faith in Christ inseparably bound up with election is wholly or partly produced by, or rests on, man's own decision, power or ability (cf. Formula of Concord, Art. 2, § 35. 44);
"d) or that this faith is the result of an ability or power, imparted through the call of grace and therefore dwelling in or belonging to the unregenerate man, to decide for grace.
"6) On the other side we reject:
"a) the doctrine that God in the election of grace acts arbitrarily or without motive, in that He designates and counts out a certain, arbitrary number of individuals of whatever kind and determines them for conversion and salvation, passing over all others;
"b) the doctrine that there are two different gracious wills in God, one that is revealed in Scripture in the general order of salvation, and one that is different from it and unknown to us, which concerns only the elect and brings to them a more intimate love and a more powerful calling from God and a greater grace than to him who remains in his unbelief and perdition;
"c) the doctrine that, if the resistance which God removes in conversion from those who are saved is not removed from the others who are finally lost, this different result has its ground in God and in a different will of salvation in His election;
"d) the doctrine that the believer can and should have an absolute certainty of his election and salvation, instead of a certainty of faith drawn from God's promise, joined with fear and trembling and with the possibility of apostasy, of which he nevertheless believes through God's grace that it will not become a reality in his case;
"e) in sum, all views and teachings on election which come into conflict directly or indirectly with the order of salvation and do not wish to give to all a full and indeed equally great opportunity of salvation, or in any way restrict the word of God which says that 'God will have all men to be helped and to come to the knowledge of the truth,' in which gracious and merciful will in God all election to eternal life has its origin.
"On the basis of the foregoing conclusion the union committees move to their respective synods the adoption of the following

"2) Proposal:

"Since our Confessions declare that it is enough for the sound unity of the Church that there be agreement in the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments, and
"since our former committees, by God's grace, taken as a whole, have reached unity in the doctrines of the calling, conversion