# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1924_S23
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1924. 23

sacrificed than Christ, who died for them. If we follow the clearly revealed Word of the Lord and deal with false believers as He has commanded us, we follow the voice of Him who is love itself. We repeat: It is not the faithful teachers who, led by the Chief Shepherd, reject and combat error that are the cause of the division in the Church, but the disobedience of those who preach their own dreams.

Thesis 4.

The Holy Spirit is the efficient cause of all true inner and outward unity of the Church.

The attempt has often been made to heal the outward disruption of the Church. For example, this plan has been proposed: Put one man at the head whom all acknowledge as head and whom all must obey, who must have the right to decide all differences, and who, if necessary, enforces obedience to his decisions by force and so compels an outward unity. Now what is to be said against this plan? This: it is the devil's plan, and like all plans of the evil Enemy, this one also promises much, achieves nothing good and produces countless evils. This plan, which pleases so many foolish people, is a trick of the infernal juggler, by which he wants to depose Christ as head of the Church and — without people noticing it — put the Antichrist in His place. To the advocates of this plan we say: There is already One at the head of the Church whom all are to obey; it is He to whom the Father has given a name which is above every name; it is He whom the Father has exalted and who now sits at the right hand of God. The Father has "put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all," Eph. 1:22, 23. Whoever wishes to take the place which the Father has given to His Son, Jesus Christ, shows thereby that he is not yet even a member of the body of Christ, but a rebel, seduced and incited to it by Satan, the spirit of rebellion; for "one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren," Matt. 23:8.

It is Satan's way to hold out the prospect of improving God's plan. God gave men Paradise; Satan promised Adam and Eve something better than Paradise. God gave men marriage; in celibacy Satan has promised them something better. God gave the Church Christ as the Head; Satan promises us more success with the Pope as head. And as long as so many people, like Eve, are blinded by the god of this world, so long many will be bewitched by Satan, so that he can delude them with the Antichrist as the Vicar of Christ. What unity, peace, harmony, agreement is promised to those who accept the Pope as the head of the Church! The former so-called Apostolic Delegate of the Pope at Washington, Cardinal Satolli, wrote at one time as follows: "The Roman Catholic Church is not only not averse to, but exceedingly anxious to bring about this unity, and the Pope, its head, continually invites the Christians who have separated themselves to return to the unity which existed from the beginning." (New York Herald, 10 May 1895.)

Let us examine their claims and see what fruits the Pope's plan of union has produced. First, they claim