# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1924_S30
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

30 Proceedings of the twenty-ninth convention

no place for a warning against false prophets, no place for Paul, who pronounces the curse on everyone who brings "another gospel," no place for John, who condemns the spirit of error. It sets the deceiver, the hireling, on the throne, the man who preaches to the people what their ears itch for, who proclaims his own dreams and prophecies, while he who exclusively preaches God's pure Word faithfully, clearly and positively is censured and put to shame. Woe to the Church when the traitor is flattered but the faithful and fearless witness is slandered, persecuted and thrown into prison! My dear Christian, flee this pestilence, which under the cloak of love delivers the flock of Christ not only to one wolf but to thousands of wolves! God give us open eyes!

God has not commanded us to live at peace or make peace with all men under all circumstances. He says rather: "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!" Luke 6:26.

As a faithful Christian should be diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace with Christ, the Head of the Church, and with the Church, His body, and should also endeavor to make this unity manifest where it is possible, so he is also not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, but to go out from them and separate himself from the unclean workers of unrighteousness. If this leads to a division, the fault lies not with the faithful people who teach the truth and thus obey their Lord and Bishop, Jesus Christ, but solely with the disobedient who either teach and foster error or tolerate it in silence. Let us take to heart the words of Dr. Walther, who said in a sermon at the Synodical Conference in the year 1875:

"The second, and indeed the most important use which we have to make of the truth that God alone builds and preserves His Church is that we beware of wanting to build and preserve the Church by our cleverness and according to our good opinion, but that we let God alone rule. It may therefore seem to our reason as if the Church would spread faster and farther if we kept silent about this or that truth, or if we tolerated this or that error, or if we yielded in this or that point, or if we came to terms with the opponents of a divine truth and with the defenders of an error opposed to it, made peace with them and united with them into one great, closed army against the Antichrist and the scoffers of our day; it may seem to our reason, especially now, in this time of false liberty, as if it would greatly further the cause of the Church if we used some other power than the power of the Word, restricted Christian liberty by human laws and introduced an iron church discipline and subjected our congregations, also in the things which God has neither commanded nor ordained, to the ministry or at least to the synod: all this is nothing but foolish thoughts of reason. Without doubt the building of the Church has been hindered more by those who with good intentions wanted to help it by their human cleverness than by those who have fought and persecuted it with hostility." (Lutheraner 1911, 133.)

Our conviction is also fully and accurately rendered in the Formula of Concord (Triglotta, 1094): "From which of our ex-