# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1916_S41
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1916. 41

works. And he is rightly called an 'abomination of desolation,' that is, one who only destroys and lays waste everything. For, as said, Christ and my work cannot remain together; if one stands, the other must fall and be destroyed. Therefore the Pope has laid Christ's kingdom quite waste, as far as his diocese extends, and those who are under him have all denied Christ. . . . But understanding and sharp sight are needed to recognize the abomination rightly. It cannot be seen better than when one holds it against Christ; who teaches, as said above, that we are reconciled with God through his blood and are saved, but the Pope gives such power to our works. So you see that it is contradictory to be saved by works and not by works, and to believe in Christ as our righteousness before God. If you want to stay with Christ, you must flee the Pope and let him go." (XI, 1877 f.)

This knowledge God has given our Church through the Gospel and thereby has made her fit and called her to fight in the front ranks against the papacy, against the Antichrist. We recognize that in this struggle it is not a matter of temporal and earthly goods, however valuable they might be, but in this struggle it is a matter of eternal goods, of the crown of life, of salvation or damnation, of heaven or hell. "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown!" so the Lord calls to us. The Pope wants to rob us of our crown, the crown of eternal life, and that is surely worth an earnest, tireless struggle. God has given us, precisely us, before many others, the knowledge of how dangerous this enemy is; therefore he also wants us in particular to make ourselves an iron wall against the advancing ranks of this enemy, behind whom stands in the end the old, evil Foe, the devil, whose creature the papacy is.

We have yet another reason why we say that God has also made the Lutheran Church fit and called her to the struggle against the papacy. God has given our Church the rich inheritance of the Reformation in full measure and preserved it for us down to this day. We have the Gospel of the grace of God, of the forgiveness of sins without our merit, solely through the redemption accomplished through Christ, through faith in him. And thereby God has given us the right weapon against this enemy, the only weapon with which he can truly be overcome, the only means by which hearts and consciences are set free from the presumptions of the Pope. Because our Lutheran Church before others has this means, this weapon, therefore she is especially fit and thus also, according to God's will, called to this earnest struggle. But this leads us to the third thesis.