# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1855_S337
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The So-Called American Revision of the Augsburg Confession. 337

which neither of the two ever saw, of the Formula of Concord, were bound upon the consciences of ministers and churches not by the free choice of the church itself, but by the secular authorities of certain kingdoms and principalities. The majority of the Lutheran kingdoms, however, rejected one or more of these writings, and only the Augsburg Confession has been acknowledged by the whole Lutheran church."—

"Since the whole Lutheran church of Germany has rejected the Symbolical Books in their entirety and has also given up some doctrines of the Augsburg Confession — among others, by far the greater part of it has given up the doctrine of the bodily presence of the Savior in the Lord's Supper — and since our fathers, too, in this land, more than half a century ago, ceased to require subscription to any of these books, while yet believing the great fundamental doctrines contained in them and confessing them in various ways, etc." *)

II. The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of East Pennsylvania

at its convention at Lebanon in Pennsylvania on September 25 adopted the following resolution, moved by Pastor J. A. Brown of Reading:

"Whereas an anonymous pamphlet, entitled Definite Synodical Platform, has been widely circulated in the church and sent out generally to the members of this synod, and whereas this writing unavoidably tends to produce in the church unrest, strife, and division by introducing changes of the most serious kind in the confessional standing and in the ecclesiastical and fraternal relations of the various parts of the Lutheran church to one another, and whereas this synod most earnestly disavows such strivings, which stir up discord, and shrinks with anxiety and abhorrence especially from the intolerant and hateful principles which are here made known and proposed for adoption into the fundamental order of our church, in that we are urged to accept such a confession of faith and to force it upon our neighbors, with the threat that all those who do not approve the proposed manner of doctrine shall be excluded from the fellowship of our church,"

"Therefore we resolve that we hereby declare our most unqualified disapproval of this most dangerous attempt to change the doctrinal basis and to revolutionize the existing character of the churches now united with the General Synod; and that we hereby most earnestly warn our sister synods against this dangerous proposal, and express our most heartfelt hope that none of them will either enter into such an endeavor themselves or in any way favor it, but will rather be all the more diligent to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace with their brethren in all parts of the Lutheran church who hold the great Evangelical doctrines

*) What follows further was already communicated in the previous issue, pages 318–320, to which we refer the honored reader back. L. u. W.