# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1916_S51
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1916. 51

successor of Peter, the vicar of Christ on earth, the head of the whole of Christendom, its infallible teacher, without whose power and keys no man can be saved. He has life and salvation in Christ. So we conduct our struggle against the Pope by preaching the Gospel, by bringing people through this Gospel to Christ into his kingdom, into the kingdom of grace, and preserving them in it. Thus they are lost to the devil and to the Pope, and their kingdom is diminished and destroyed. If we succeeded in winning the great masses of the people for the Gospel, for which, however, unfortunately there is no prospect, then it would be over in our country with the Pope's power and influence, his power would be broken. — In this way the Church also helps the state best in the struggle against the Pope, by taking care that among its citizens there be found as many true Christians as possible, Christians who have recognized the abomination of the papacy in its innermost essence and abhor it, who have become inwardly free of the papacy and its work-righteousness. Such citizens will find the ways and means of how they ought and can oppose the political encroachments of the Roman Church in the political field.

The Gospel is the weapon that God has put in the hand of his Church. With this weapon she fights all her battles. With the Gospel she accomplishes everything. What she cannot accomplish with the Gospel she confidently leaves undone and commits to the Lord of the Church. If we want to fight rightly against the papacy, then two things chiefly matter: first, that we hold fast to the Gospel, that we do not let this weapon be torn from our hands; and then, that we use this weapon rightly and abundantly.

This is the first: If we want to wage the struggle commanded us rightly, we must hold fast our weapon, and must not let it be taken from us. This is quite self-evident, but a reminder of it is truly not superfluous. We stand in great danger of losing this weapon. The devil, who is concerned to maintain his kingdom, to protect his best ally, the Pope, tries with all cunning and might to tear this weapon, without which we cannot harm him, out of our hands. Danger threatens us here chiefly from three sides. There is first the proud human reason and wisdom, which in our days spreads itself especially in the form of a false scientific spirit. Our time likes to call itself the scientific age. People boast of accepting nothing any more on authority; everything must be proved scientifically. Modern science, modern exact natural science, modern exact historical research, evolution, and whatever high-sounding names one may give the thing, that has become the idol of our time, before