# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1863_S360
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

360 Report of the sixth ordinary synodical convention of the Norwegian Evang. Luth. Church.

its appearance, stripped the mask of orthodoxy from it: nonetheless, we ourselves, even were we a confirmed Reformed believer, would have to decline thanks for such a confession composed with diplomatic cunning. As Lutherans, however, on mentioning this document we think at the same time, with abhorrence, of the truly popish, heaven-crying persecutions against our faithful Lutheran fellow believers, particularly of the driving-out of hundreds of faithful Lutheran preachers, for which the publication and introduction of the new Catechismus Palatinus in the Palatinate gave the first signal — persecutions which are certainly a poor proof of the "irenic character" that Mr. K. ascribes to his Reformed church.*)

Herewith we would be at the end of our remarks. In closing them, we cannot suppress the additional remark that a weaker apology for the Reformed church has scarcely ever come before us than the one we have just glossed. But thanks be to God that all Reformed opponents of our church can bring forward no better grounds against it, even if others might be able to dress up these grounds better.

* * *

(Submitted by Prof. Crämer.)

Report of the Sixth Regular Synodical Assembly
of the Norwegian=Evangelical=Lutheran Church in America,
held in the church at Rock River, Wisc., from June 10 to 17, 1863.
(Concluded.)

The discussion now turned to the 2nd and 3rd theses, which read as follows: "For us Christians, therefore, 'holy day' in the 3rd Commandment means every day of our whole life, which is meant to be for us a spiritual day of rest in Christ."

"This spiritual day of rest, which is thus the Christian's whole life, we are to keep holy according to the 3rd Commandment, and this happens through the diligent and proper use of the Word of God. This is the moral element in the 3rd Commandment, which holds good for all times."

The notes on these theses were read aloud, and it was then pointed out how the explanation of the 3rd Commandment in the Small Catechism likewise shows that its moral element consists in the sanctifying of the whole life through God's Word. For there the Catechism says nothing about any particular day or any outward rest, but only of the use of the Word; and this must then be understood in such a way that the day of rest is the whole of life, that accordingly the 3rd Commandment commands us to sanctify the whole of life, and that everything indeed is sanctified through God's Word. With this agrees also this further—

*) Compare on this the documentary "Pfälzische Kirchenhistorie von B. S. Struve. Frankf. 1721." 4°.