# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1916_S5
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1916. 5

Doctrinal Proceedings.

Our Struggle against Rome.
(Essayist: Prof. G. Mezger.)

Our Lutheran Church is preparing for a festival that it intends to celebrate next year with rejoicing and thanksgiving. It is the centennial celebration of the work of the Reformation, that work by which God in his grace has redeemed his Church from the bonds, from the tyranny over consciences, of the Antichrist, the Roman papacy. It is the fourth festival of this kind that our Church is permitted to celebrate. Four hundred years will have passed next year since that memorable 31 October 1517, when Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg, and God thereby began this great work. Four hundred years are a long span of time for us human beings. When we survey this span of time, we see on the one side much human sin and weakness, and therefore also much distress, misery and wretchedness in the Church; but on the other side the truth of that word also shows itself: "Great is our Lord, and of great power, and it is beyond understanding how he governs." (Ps. 147:5.) "The Lord is gracious, and his mercy endures for ever, and his truth from generation to generation." (Ps. 100:5.)

The work of the Reformation had begun most gloriously and had taken a joyful course. The light of the Gospel shone brightly into the lands, and many hearts rejoiced at it. The angel sent by God flew with the eternal Gospel in his hand through the heaven of the Church, and it seemed as if nothing could halt his flight, as if the old evil Foe were to be laid wholly low. But soon it turned out otherwise. After Luther's death the sad doctrinal controversies began in the Lutheran Church, which shook it deeply, and at once the so-called Roman "Counter-Reformation" set in, under the leadership of the Jesuits. Satan did not want to give up his dominion without a struggle. In many countries the light of the Gospel was, as far as men can see, wholly extinguished again, and its faithful confessors were destroyed with fire and sword. In other countries the Lutheran Church was forced far into the background. The Church of the pure Word was in a sorry state, and that it was so was human sin and human guilt. But the Lord helped again in his grace. Through the work of the Formula of Concord the unity of the Church was restored, and although the Lutherans had suffered some losses, many a loss to the Roman Church and to the Calvinist sects, yet everything that called itself Lutheran again stood firm by God's pure Word. Even though only a few years earlier, in the year 1613, the Elector of Brandenburg, Johann Sigismund,