# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1928_S6
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

6 Proceedings of the thirty-first convention

Doctrinal Discussions.

Jesus Christ our one and eternal High Priest.

Essayist: Prof. W. Arndt.

This year, as announced, we wish to discuss together in our convention
the subject: Jesus Christ our one and eternal High Priest. It is not as
though a dispute over this had broken out within the circles of the
Synodical Conference [Synodalkonferenz] and it therefore seemed necessary
to treat this subject at length here for once. Thanks and praise be to God,
we stand here as one man and defend the great truth of Holy Scripture that
Jesus is our one and eternal High Priest. One may well go further and say:
not only within the circles of the Synodical Conference, but throughout
the Lutheran Church of America generally, the teaching of the divine Word
is held fast on this point. So far as I know, no contradiction of the great
doctrine of the high priesthood of Jesus has been raised in other synods.
While we have much to find fault with in the doctrinal position of the
synods that are not one with us in faith, while especially in the United
Lutheran Church in recent times the doctrine of the inerrancy of the whole
Holy Scripture has again been expressly called in question, and that in a
very prominent place, so that one must fear that the foundation of Christian
doctrine is being undermined in this Lutheran body, nevertheless these synods
generally hold fast to the chief truth of Christianity, that Christ bore our
sins; and that is just what we teach by our confession of Jesus as our High
Priest. It is therefore not a doctrinal controversy in the Lutheran Church of
America that has suggested our subject. But the situation in the Church in
general does make a discussion of this great subject appear timely. For in
Christendom today it is precisely the doctrine of Jesus' redemption and of
God's reconciliation through him that is more and more denied. This is
connected with the general falling away from revealed truth that we observe
all around us. Admittedly there have long been, in outward Christendom,
conscious deniers of the vicarious satisfaction of our Savior, and with it of
the chief matter in his high-priestly work. And every time a great wave of
rationalism, of faith in reason, threatened to swallow up the little ship of
God's Church, much hostility to this part of the divine revelation also
showed itself. The present outcry against the doctrine that Jesus as our High
Priest sacrificed himself and shed his blood for us is therefore nothing new
at all, and the opponents have no right to give the impression that they have
now, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, made a great discovery,
namely this, that the doctrine of Jesus as the High Priest is very absurd
and no longer suits our enlightened age.

"Been there long ago!" we call out to these people. The Church of Jesus has
for many centuries dealt with the arguments that these enemies of
Christianity put forward, and has refuted them. But one thing must be
admitted, and that is that the attack on the doctrine of Jesus' high-priestly
work in outward Christendom has now reached an extent such as perhaps never
before. Not only in theological journals but also in entertainment papers
people write against it. Books come onto the market that are written
precisely for