# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1924_S8
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

8 Proceedings of the twenty-ninth convention

for the union of every Christian with Christ, the Head of the Church, indeed often destroying it — that is the separation which is caused by those Christians who, in the camp of the false teachers, fight against those who teach the truth, or are at least outwardly separated from them by errors in faith and doctrine. Of this we speak in the second thesis.

Thesis 2.

According to God's will this inner unity is now also to show itself outwardly through agreement of all members of the Church in doctrine under the one Lord, Jesus Christ.

When Christians assemble for common prayer, for worship, for the celebration of the Lord's Supper, or come together in other gatherings and then associate with one another in love, humility, meekness and patience, the unity that already existed among them before is thereby only made manifest. And it is God's will that Christians thus hold worship together and go to the Lord's Supper together, and that pastors thus work together in unity.

Dr. F. Pieper writes in the Proceedings [*Bericht*] of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of the year 1908, page 16, about this outward unity: "The union of the Christians of one place into local congregations and the establishment of the public ministry is not left to the free pleasure of Christians, but is commanded by God. That local congregations further unite into larger church fellowships, e.g. into synods, is not a divine but a human (churchly) ordinance. It need not be so. But that the Christians of one place form a congregation and set up and use the public ministry among themselves, that must be so; that is God's will and ordinance." And on page 18 he writes: "We do not allow the synodical connection to be made into a divine ordinance. But one thing is still divine ordinance beyond the connection in the local congregation: this, that we acknowledge and treat as brethren in the faith the Christians who confess the right faith in other places. The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy (2 Tim. 1:8): 'Be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, who am his prisoner.' According to this Timothy is also to acknowledge and treat as a brother in the faith Paul, who was locally separated from him and imprisoned in Rome, because Paul was a true preacher of the Gospel. Christ is here on earth acknowledged or denied in the confessors of His Word."

Since Christ is the Head of the Church, it is the duty of every member to live under the rule of Christ as the one Master. And since every Christian is a member of the common body, of which every other Christian is also a member, it is the duty of every one to live and work in harmony with the other members. Everything that disturbs the rule of Christ and the harmony among the members, and so the unity of the Church, is contrary to the will of God. St. Paul develops this further in 1 Cor. 12:

"Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed; and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God, who