# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1924_S19
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1924. 19

reported to us in Acts 15:37-39. "And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus." In such cases, where the Lord has given no definite command, he who, when a division arises over differences of opinion, out of disobedience to God's command stubbornly insists on his opinion as if it were God's will, is the one who causes the division. "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another," Rom. 12:10. But where Christ has given us His Word, those cause discord and division who do not obey Him but hold fast to other opinions and conduct teachings against God's Word. When such people seek outward union with us and want to put the blame for the separation on us because we refuse to unite with them, that is only a further proof of their godlessness, since they forget what the Lord says through His Apostle, Titus 1:10, 11 and 3:10: "A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject" (paraitou = to refuse fellowship). And Rom. 16:17: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them."

Do we reject every person as a godless man, as a heretic, as an unbeliever, who in any doctrine holds a different opinion from ours within the true Church? No. In obedience to God we make this distinction: Those who reject essential and fundamental doctrines of Scripture we regard as enemies of God, as children of Satan, and we withdraw from them. It is impossible that such people, who with regard to the most important doctrines of Christ preach the grossest false doctrines, can be Christians. Christ commands that everyone who wants to be a member of His Church be baptized into the name of the triune God. Whoever therefore refuses to accept this one true, triune God is surely a heathen and has no part in Christ. If anyone denies the deity of Christ or will not worship Him as God, he is certainly an idolater and stands altogether outside the Christian Church; indeed he is damned, for the Lord tells us: "He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him," John 5:23. Such a one is an idolater. And the Holy Spirit says: "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maharam Motha," 1 Cor. 16:22, that is, he is delivered over as one accursed to the judgment of God. Such so-called religious fellowships ought not to be called church, for they are synagogues of Satan, Rev. 2:9.

This has been the teaching of our Church from the beginning; for we read in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession: "The adversaries approve the first article of our confession, in which it is stated how we believe and teach that there is one eternal, single, undivided divine essence and yet three distinct persons in one divine essence, equally mighty, equally eternal: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. This article we have always so purely taught and defended, and we also hold and are certain that it has so strong, good, sure ground in the