# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1916_S27
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1916. 27

has had greater prestige and unfolded greater power than the dethroned poor prisoner in the Vatican who calls himself Leo XIII." (pp. 49, 50.) And all this outward civil, political power, as much of it as he can obtain, the Pope uses to reach his real goal: to rule, as the vicar of Christ, as spiritual head, over the consciences of Christians, and thereby to thrust the Lord of the Church from his throne and to destroy his Gospel and, as far as lies in him, to lead men to hell.

That is the enemy we have to fight, of whom we must say what Luther sings of its real instigator: "Great might and much craft are his cruel armor; on earth is not his equal." If we want to keep the blessings of the Reformation and hand them down unimpaired to our children, the pure Gospel, justification by grace alone, for Christ's sake, through faith, our freedom of conscience, indeed in the end life and salvation, it is truly necessary to recognize that the papacy at Rome, founded by the devil, is the chief enemy, the most dangerous enemy of the Gospel; it is necessary to be always on guard against this enemy, to wage tireless struggle against him. Only then shall we keep what we have.

Addendum to Thesis I.

In the discussions that followed the first thesis, Prof. Köhler in particular emphasized: If one wants to recognize rightly the dangerousness of Rome, it is necessary to reach clarity on the question in what it is actually grounded that the papacy exercises such great influence and has such power over the hearts of the people.

To be sure, Rome's highly developed organization impresses people; to be sure, Rome's interference in politics gives it great power; but whoever regards these things as the chief source of Rome's influence and chooses his weapons accordingly only shows thereby that he wholly misunderstands the papacy. Many conversions to Rome, too, must not be explained by the stupidity of the people or traced back merely to common motives.

It might seem that Rome's unflinching standing on the Tridentinum is a weakness, since it thereby gives an ordinary man of the world with some knowledge of history the impression of backwardness. But precisely in the Tridentinum the strength of Rome is rooted. Through the Tridentinum Rome placed itself in conscious opposition to the Gospel, rejected justification by grace alone through faith and documented itself as essentially pagan. Therein lies the strength of Rome, that in its basic features it is paganism and therefore finds in every man by nature a responding chord.