# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1924_S15
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1924. 15

obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ is the true cause of the separation. Ask millions of sincere Christians why they do not, for example, unite with the great, influential and powerful Roman Catholic Church, which after all claims to be the true Church of Christ; they will answer what Dr. H. Mott, a member of the Church of the Holy Communion, answered to such a question: "In answer to the question whether I or my communion would accept the Roman Catholic teachings as they are, I must say quite definitely no. The 'Renaissance,' for which Martin Luther on the Continent and the English Reformers stood, has established for all time the fact that the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, taken as a whole, are not the teachings of Christ and of the first Christian Church." (New York Herald, 19 May 1895.) Of Dr. Thomas Gallaudet of St. Ann's Church in New York it is reported that he wrote in the same newspaper: "The Roman Catholic Church cannot, in my judgment, unite the various Christian church fellowships. It has added too much to the faith as it was once delivered to the saints." Shall I name some false doctrines by which the papacy has separated itself from the Church of Christ? Our Lord Jesus Christ said, "Drink ye all of it," when He gave His disciples the cup in the Lord's Supper. The Pope says: "No, by no means, but the officiating priest alone shall drink of it." How can there be unity where men are so disobedient and so scornfully disregard God's Word? Christ, our Lord, says: "One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren," Matt. 23:8. The Pope on the other hand says: I am the infallible head of the Christian Church. Believe what I teach, no matter what it may be, or I will cut you off as a dead branch which has separated itself from my Church." How can there be unity where the Pope forces his adherents to renounce obedience to Christ and to separate from those who adhere faithfully to God's Word? This disobedience of the Pope is the cause of the great separation and division that arose when his sect tore itself away from the faithful and believing disciples of Jesus Christ.

What has caused the discord among the Protestant churches, and why does this discord still exist today? Answer: disobedience to the Lord Christ. Jesus clearly taught that in giving us the bread in the sacrament He at the same time gives us His true body, when He says: "Take, eat; this is my body," Matt. 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24. What could be clearer than these words, spoken by the wise, almighty God on that solemn night before He entered upon His suffering and death? Who dares to doubt or to alter these words of His last testament? Who? Thousands who claim to be obedient servants of Christ, while by their terrible, wicked disobedience they have caused a division between themselves and the faithful servants of the Lord, who neither themselves want to change these words nor allow that one or a whole number of people change their clear sense. Disobedience is the cause of the division between the Church, which has declared its obedience to its Master in the Augsburg Confession, and those who did not agree with it and refused to hear and believe when the Lord spoke. What separates the Baptists and Campbellites from the faithful, obedient Christians? It is their disobedience to the plain words of Christ, when He to the adults