# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 01 24_S43
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

if we do not hold fast to it (Titus 1:9–11) and fight for it (Jude 3), to lose the treasure (2 John 8–9) and one day be rejected as unfaithful stewards. Therefore let us, who wish to be Lutherans not merely in name, but also to be and remain so in deed and truth, let us join together and rally once more around the banner of our church's old, unchanging doctrine; let us together plead that the Lord arise and provide help, that people may again teach with confidence; let us together faithfully confess the truth; let us together fight with the sword of the Spirit against all corruptions, and together bear the reproach with which the Lord is accustomed to mark his servants: even if we may not hope that the church will thereby be restored, in these last, terrible times, to a flourishing and glorious condition, yet we may not give up the hope that our testimony and our struggle will not be entirely in vain, but will prepare praise for the Lord and convert many a soul from the error of its way.

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The So-Called "Lutheran General Synod."

This ecclesiastical body has recently sent a printed report about its own condition to Germany. This report is a not unimportant document, in that it contains, so to speak, an official confession of the General Synod's apostasy from Lutheran doctrine and the Lutheran church. We hereby share the relevant passages with our readers, and will perhaps return to the subject again later. The report mentioned states, among other things, the following:

"A principal tenet of Lutheranism, of which we have often had occasion to avail ourselves, is the one which Mosheim places first in his description of the Lutheran church: that 'in the opinion of this church, all duties of life are drawn solely and alone from Holy Scripture,' and that the symbolical books must be subordinate to the divine Word.

Only essential agreement in doctrinal and life views was thus (?) required among us. According to the Formula, or church order, published by the General Synod, candidates at their licensure and pastors at their ordination, after acknowledging the Bible as the sole infallible divine norm of their faith and life, need only make the following promise: 'We believe that the fundamental truths of the Bible are set forth in a substantially correct manner in the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession.' Our principle is: In fundamentalibus Lutheranismi unitas, in non-fundamentalibus libertas, in omnibus charitas.*) And it is noteworthy that among all the preachers belonging to the various synods united with the General Synod, there is not, so far as is known to us, a single Neologian. The few Rationalists, already advanced in years, who existed in our church at the time of the General Synod's founding, opposed it, and have now mostly died. Essential orthodoxy is thus secured by our rule. Nor would strict uniformity be attainable here in any case. Our fathers came from all parts of the German fatherland, and who does not know that even among the orthodox there prevails a diversity of views which our fathers brought with them. Only through such an eclecticism, through such a free formation — which, looking beyond diversity in secondary matters, unites the essential elements of Lutheranism with true experiential Christianity and makes this the bond of unity — can our church in America maintain peace and be happily built up. This entirely free movement of the church may seem strange to our German brethren, but it flows from the free situation of the church, and prevails also in all the other religious constitutions of our country.

*) In the fundamental doctrines of Lutheranism, unity; in non-fundamental doctrines, freedom; in all things, love.

As for our doctrinal views, we openly confess — indeed we confess it loudly and plainly — that the great majority of us are not Old Lutheran in the sense of a small party that bears this name in Germany. We are convinced that if the great Luther were still living, he himself would not be one. We believe that the past three centuries have also produced men capable of thinking, investigating, and forming judgment, no less than the sixteenth. Indeed, however lowly we regard ourselves, we nevertheless make bold, driven by a sense of duty, to examine Scripture for ourselves and to draw our doctrinal views from this heavenly source. But nevertheless we are Evangelical Lutheran. Holding fast to Luther's chief principle, that God's Word alone is infallible, we have tested Luther's system of doctrine by this Word and found it substantially correct. Here, as generally in most of our churchly principles, we stand on common ground with the United Church of Germany. We regard the distinguishing views between the Old Lutheran and the Reformed church as not essential; and the direction of the so-called Old Lutheran party seems to us to be behind our age. The glorious Reformation of the sixteenth century was neither sudden nor complete. The great Luther made progress throughout his life, and at the end of his career regarded his work as unfinished. We follow his own counsel when we search for truth in God's Word more than in his writings, and thus seek to complete his work; and faithful to this his principle, we believe, as honest men, that we may still call ourselves Lutherans. On all the main points of the Christian system of doctrine we agree with Luther and the symbolical books of the Lutheran church. The dogmatic views of a Mosheim, of a Reinhard — excepting the latter's theory concerning the future punishments of hell — may in general be regarded as our own.

The doctrine of absolute election by grace is believed by none of our preachers. Luther's particular view concerning the bodily presence of the Lord in the Supper has long since been abandoned by the great majority of our preachers, although a few of the older German teachers and church members still retain it. Regarding the manner and meaning of the presence of the Lord in the Supper, freedom is allowed, as in the Evangelical Church of Germany.

The majority of our preachers believe in a special presence and a special blessing of the Lord, but only of a spiritual kind. Reconciliation, in our view, is intended for all mankind. The justification of the sinner takes place solely for the sake of the merit of Christ, laid hold of through faith. The grace of God is offered to all people — but is not irresistible. Baptism receives the subject into the visible church of God: it also assures the child of the forgiveness of sin, but assures the adult only when he is truly repentant and exercises living faith in Christ. Concerning the novissima, or last things, we are not aware that we have departed from the old doctrine in any point. We regard the doctrine of universal restoration as unbiblical, and the Universalism found here, which is almost always grounded in Socinianism, is rejected as most contrary to Scripture and dangerous to souls.

The Methodist Church has also done much good among the Germans, and has formed several congregations. But the views of this otherwise esteemed church concerning order in worship do not suit the Germans. — When preachers come over, they should join our synods, since the establishment here of a proper Evangelical (United) church, such as exists in the old fatherland, is not advisable. It would consist only of Europeans, and would form a new sect alongside those already existing. The Reformed here incline toward the doctrine of absolute election by grace, and are not willing to unite with the Lutheran church, but rather with the Dutch Reformed, which adheres strictly to the doctrinal system of Calvin. Nor should they come with the intention of wanting to remodel the American Lutheran church after the European standard. They will not succeed in this, and the attempt only causes strife and division.