# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1863_S367
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report of the Sixth Regular Synodical Convention of the Norwegian Evang.-Luth. Church. 367

to use a sharp tool on Sunday, and simply do not dare take an axe in hand on this day, or clean a floor.

From such superstition true doctrine sets them free, but in turn lays upon them the obligation not merely to use Sunday, chiefly for the sake of ecclesiastical order, to further their own sanctification, but to sanctify their whole life through diligent, daily use of the Word of God, and thereby also to become doers of it, so that the Word with which they occupy themselves shows its effect on their whole life, their life becomes a life in God, their works are God's works or done in God, as mentioned above. And as for Sunday in particular, it becomes, for those Christians who know themselves in conscience free of every yoke, only now doubly precious; while, on the other hand, someone who did indeed keep Sunday holy so long as he believed himself compelled to it by an express commandment of God, but who now, after hearing that this is not so, no longer wishes to do it, only proves thereby that he wanted to make a meritorious work out of the keeping holy of Sunday, and thus in fact reveals himself to be a despiser of the Word of God. For this reason the Augsb. Conf. also cites, as the chief cause of the false doctrine of Sunday, that people do not understand the righteousness of faith.

A member feared that, according to this doctrine, the preachers, if the authority should abolish the Sunday law, would find themselves preaching to empty churches. To this it was answered that, if it were only the authority's command that drove people to church, their churchgoing would be worth little; only one who does not know the power of God's Word can hold external compulsion to be necessary. Besides, we have indeed many holidays that the authority has not commanded, and our congregations nevertheless assemble on them. It was then asked whether one should obey the authority if it commanded working on Sunday, and thus, for instance, appoint Monday as the holiday instead. It was answered: Yes, one would nevertheless be thankful for it, because the authority would still be leaving us a day for rest and worship. If the authority will give me no day of rest, I must obey even so; only when it forbids me the use of God's Word, or when its command in some other way conflicts with God's commandment, must I refuse obedience. If the authority in fact appoints no day of rest, we come thereby only into the same position as the Christian church in the first three centuries; and yet the light of God's Word has perhaps never stood more brightly on the lampstand than it did then. Besides, one may believe that if the authority were now to abolish so old an ordinance as Sunday, God would punish it enough for that, as one may see an example of this in the French Revolution. But the best means of escaping this is that we make right use of Sunday; then God would surely prevent the authority from abolishing it.

After these deliberations the above propositions were adopted by the entire