# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1928_S26
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

26 Proceedings of the thirty-first convention

but by me"; and again: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth
on him." Yes, he is the one, that is, the only, High Priest, the only Reconciler
that we have.

This doctrine, that reconciliation with God is to be found only in Jesus, is
very offensive and hateful to our sinful reason. The unbelieving world,
theological and non-theological, therefore foams and rages against it and will
not admit this doctrine. Everyone is the architect of his own fortune, one
hears these people say. "Practice ever faithfulness and honesty to your cool
grave," that is in their opinion the way to reconciliation with God. By good
works one must earn heaven for oneself, is their view, which is also often
stated bluntly and flatly. It is thought that everyone must in the end be his
own High Priest and reconcile God with himself. That this is simply blind
heathenism is not noticed, or if it is noticed, no weight is laid upon it.
To be sure, Scripture condemns this proud, self-righteous, puffed-up nature in
earnest words. But the believers in reason do not want to be guided by
Scripture. And their conscience, which holds their sins before them and torments
them with the thought of the eternal punishments they have deserved, they try
to stupefy with reflections of the intellect, which often succeeds for a time,
until finally in the hour of death, in many of them, the voice within awakes and
with words of thunder shows them the untenability of their whole position. One
often meets the assertion that not only Jesus but also Socrates, Buddha,
Confucius and Mohammed were high priests of mankind. It is one of the greatest
depths of blasphemy that we can imagine, but an ungodliness that has
unfortunately already become fashionable in many circles. In the lodge religion
we find precisely the fundamentally destructive error that we are here
opposing. In this religion, namely, the view prevails that Frederick the Great
of Prussia expressed thus: "In my country everyone can be saved after his own
fashion." One may choose the High Priest that pleases one, or even appoint
oneself to the office. We merely set beside it the words of Jesus: "That all men
should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the
Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him," John 5:23.

Among those who do not let Jesus be their only High Priest belong not merely
all those who expressly renounce him as their Savior, but also all who still
place their trust in part in their own works, especially the Romanists, who
reject the truth that man is justified by faith alone. The Pope and his Church
claim, to be sure, that they give Jesus all the honor that is due him according
to Scripture. But in that they teach that man himself must contribute by his
works to obtaining the forgiveness of sins, they rob Jesus of the honor that
God gave him when he said to him: Thou art a priest for ever after the order of
Melchizedek. According to Scripture Christ bore all sins, and they say he
atoned only for original sin; for actual sins man must make satisfaction
himself. Thus they let the work of reconciliation be divided between Christ and
man. That this is directly contrary to the doctrine of Scripture is obvious.

Our thesis, however, stresses not only that Jesus is our only, but also that he
is our eternal High Priest. With that