# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1856_S95
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Miscellaneous Church News. 95

Confession, transubstantiation is taught. Against them Dr. Rey-
nolds, in the "Lutheran Observer," among other things points to the Torgau Articles, which
are well known to form the first basis of the Augustana. There it says, however, in the tenth
article: "That the Eucharist, or the Sacrament of the Altar, likewise consists of two parts,
namely, that there be truly present in the bread and in the wine the true body and the blood
of Christ, according to the words: This is my body, this is my blood, and that it be not bread
and wine alone, as the adversary now pretends. These words demand and also bring faith,
and also exercise the same in all those who desire this sacrament and do not act contrary to
it. Just as baptism also brings and gives faith to him who desires it." (See the excellent little
work on the Augsburg Confession: Exegesis A. Confessionis, cujus articuli 21 explicantur et
subjecta antithesi heterodoxorum illustrantur, autore Balth. Menzero. Marpurgi 1615. p.
441. 442.) From this it is sufficiently clear what the words of the Augsburg Confession mean
to say: "Under the form of bread and wine."

On the history of the Platform. (Later developments.) Since the setting forth
of this new basis for the Lutheran Church here, and the charge raised in it that the Augsburg
Confession is full of the most pernicious errors, has produced exactly the opposite of what
was intended by it, those very people who at first gave the new measure the most fervent
panegyric are gradually beginning now to speak a different language. One is reminded here
of Luther, who in his time surmised of the sacramentarians that they would be glad "were
the beer only back in the barrel!" To this class also belongs Dr. Benj. Kurtz. He proposes, in
his "Luth. Observer" of Feb. 15th, to settle the dispute by a compromise. He writes: "It is
denied that the errors which the friends of the Platform impute to the Augsburg Confession
are contained in it, and it is said that a fair interpretation removes them. If that is so, then a
compromise might easily be brought about, one that leaves the Confession untouched and at
the same time satisfies the friends of the Platform, and thus restores peace and harmony of
action within the whole Church. May some of our district synods, then, unite to pass similar
resolutions, along with introductory remarks, as follows: Whereas the Augsburg Confession,
accepted by the Ev. Luth. Church as a statement of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible, is
accused of teaching the following errors: * * * * * Therefore be it resolved, 1. That these
errors are not taught in the Augsburg Confession, and that in our judgment a fair and correct
interpretation of the Confession wholly excludes them; 2. Resolved: That, whatever opinions
anyone may hold on the points named, our ministers and our people have, and by right must
have, the fullest freedom to believe, with regard to them, what in their judgment the inspired
Word of God teaches, and that neither church nor synod has a right to disturb them in this
belief." — It may be that such a compromise would formerly have been accepted by many
who otherwise regard the Augsburg Confession as a thoroughly pure confession; but after
what has recently come to light, it is probably now "too late" to heal the gaping wound of
the church again with so wretched a patch, and to wish to conjure the old churchyard-peace
back into the church. Hardly will many now-awakened opponents of the Platform be found
who are willing to concede and sign that everyone has a right to believe whatever may ever
seem to him to be scriptural in the most important articles of faith, and thus also what is in
fact unbiblical. For indeed all men have a human right to believe what they will, and no one
has a right to rule over their conscience and to force upon them any belief, even the right
one; but before God every human being has only one right, and at the same time the sacred
duty, to believe what is really according to Scripture