# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1930_S19
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1930. 19

We believe that the work of the conversion of man is wholly and exclusively God's work of grace, that man can in no way make himself worthy for it, prepare himself for it, or in any way so conduct himself that on account of this conduct of his God would have or could have his work in him; nor can man operate with bestowed powers of grace, as if a preceding grace were to be understood in the sense that man could, as it were, put himself into a preliminary stage of conversion toward grace. The natural man can indeed hear and read God's Word outwardly, but even so he can in no way contribute to his real conversion, to his awakening to spiritual life, but can, so far as lies with him, only hinder this work of God in himself.

We believe that the eternal decree of God, briefly designated *Gnadenwahl* [election of grace, predestination], was in no way made with a view to any conduct or doing of man, nor in view of the persevering faith of any man, as if God had made the choice on the basis of this remaining a believer, but that this decree of grace was made wholly alone for Christ's sake, on the basis of God's mercy and the most holy merit of Christ. As a consequence of this election the Holy Spirit brings the elect through the Word to faith, lets them, even in temporary unfaithfulness, die in faith and enter into the blessedness that God ordained for them before the foundation of the world. While the universal will of grace extends to all men, the election of grace carries out this will of grace actually upon the elect, whereas in those who are lost the will of grace of God is wrecked by their persistent, wilful resistance. Of an election of wrath by God, or of an election to eternal damnation, Scripture knows nothing.

We believe that the Church of Christ in the proper sense is the totality of true believers founded and built up by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, that is, of those who place their trust in the vicarious life, suffering and death of Jesus Christ and who are bound together by this very common faith. "And the same Church also has outward marks by which it is known; namely, where God's Word goes forth purely, where the Sacraments are administered in accordance with it, there is certainly the Church, there are Christians, and it alone is called in Scripture Christ's body." (Apology, *Conc. Trigl.*, 226.)

We believe that Christ has made all who believe in him kings and priests before God, his Father, in that he bestows on them all the goods which he has acquired through his atoning suffering and his atoning death, in the saving Gospel and in the Sacraments. This universal priesthood each Christian is to exercise, as God offers him opportunity, according to the measure of his knowledge and his powers and within the limits set by God, through his testimony for the saving truth.

We believe that, in distinction from the universal priesthood, the ministry of preaching in the narrower sense, or the pastoral office, consists in its nature and its task in this, that a person qualified for it and regularly called builds up, teaches, and governs a particular congregation in Christ's stead through God's Word and in its midst, on behalf of the community, administers the Sacraments. This office is of divine institution, and its functions just named are exactly determined in God's Word. The establishment of it is therefore