# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1930_S20
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

20 Proceedings of the thirty-second convention

the right and duty of every Christian congregation and takes place through its call; it is an exercise of the universal priesthood. The call is a right of that congregation in which the preacher is to administer the pastoral office; and through such a call Christ gives his servants to the congregation. Ordination is not a divine but an ecclesiastical ordinance for the public, solemn confirmation of the call.

We believe that, although there are many false teachers or antichrists, the Pope at Rome is nevertheless the real, true Antichrist or Antichrist in the full sense of the word and must therefore, as the arch-enemy of the Church, be combated with all earnestness.

We believe that every doctrine of a so-called Millennium [lit. thousand-year kingdom] that makes the kingdom of our Savior Jesus Christ an outward, earthly and worldly kingdom of glory, or in any way denies the abiding cross-character of the Church on earth, is to be rejected as a doctrine standing in contradiction to clear statements of Scripture. This includes the rejection of the view that still expects a spiritual flowering for the Christian Church, or a general conversion of the Jews, or a resurrection of the martyrs before the Last Day, and the like.

We believe that our Savior Jesus Christ was born into the world of the Virgin Mary as a true, natural man, that therefore from the first moment of his conception by the Holy Spirit the divine and the human nature were united in his person, and that this union continues also after his exaltation, although he has now, also according to his human nature, entered into the full, uninterrupted use of the divine attributes communicated to the human nature already at his incarnation.

All this is clear Scripture doctrine, and the points named are mentioned because in the last decades they have been objects of special interest, in part of controversy. Wherever Christians, confessors of Scripture, accept these Scripture doctrines, as they are also set forth especially in our Confessions, this acceptance, according to our thesis, is also to include the recognition of all those who, with us as confessors of the truth, stand on the same scriptural ground. This may and should take place not only through exchange of friendly greetings, but also through common cooperation in conferences and synods, through pulpit exchange and altar fellowship. Just as it is not absolutely necessary that all congregations be organically joined to one synod, so it is still less necessary or required that all congregations form only one single great body. Since the formation of great church bodies is indeed indicated in God's Word, but the question lies otherwise wholly in the realm of things indifferent [*Mitteldinge*, adiaphora], congregations may unite into state or district synods, into German or English church bodies, synods or districts, so long as the unity in the Spirit comes to expression in the right way and everyone can recognize that the Christians concerned, also as congregations, stand on the same scriptural ground. In any case, however, the unity in the Spirit actually present is to exercise itself.

We conclude this part of our treatise with the words of our Confession (Apology, Art. III; *Conc. Trigl.*, 184): "Therefore, when he [Paul] writes and teaches in all other places that in this life there is no perfection in our works, it is not to be