# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1858_S271
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

From the General Synod. 271

incorporated, it reads: "One holy, Christian church, communion of the
saints, etc."

According to a wording prescribed by an ordinance of May 7, 1783, it reads:
"I believe in the Holy Ghost (I believe) that there is a holy Christian
church, which is the communion of holy men, etc."

The question now is not only the historical one, which of these wordings
corresponds to the original text, but also the practical one, which is to be
used at baptism. The Grundtvigian-minded clergy (Wexels foremost among
them) are decidedly for the first wording, naturally, since they stand not
on the principle of Scripture but on the principle of the Church, and they
in particular decidedly dispute that the words "communion of the saints"
are to be regarded as an exegetical addition, but rather view them as a
distinct clause with its own content — which, however, departs from the
view of the Reformers expressed in Article 7 of the Augsburg Confession.
Lammers (who takes Grundtvigianism seriously!) stepped into the lists for
the fourth. The majority of the laity, given the prevailing subjective
tendency, likewise favor the fourth formula, since to them any appearance
of believing "in" the Church must be repugnant; and at the lay assembly at
Hamar a voice declared how much confusion and offense it causes that some
clergy baptize according to the first formula. Indeed, he even wished
Luther's "Christian" Church retained, even though "universal" was the
original word. It is clear what collisions must arise between clergy and
congregations given such divergent views, and the dispute will not soon be
settled in the present temper. Wexels, who counsels yielding in practice,
nevertheless has no scruple in declaring that a clergyman who is refused by
the state-church government the use of Formula 1, where no objection shows
itself, has no other choice than to lay down his office in the state church,
to withdraw along with any like-minded associates, and to form a
free-Christian congregation on an apostolic-churchly foundation. (Ev. K.-Z.)

(Submitted.)
From the General Synod.

The July number of the Evangelical Review contains the following leading
article, which we, with the exception of a few sentences at the beginning,
communicate to our readers in a precise translation. Since it is, by its
whole tenor, evidently written by a prominent and influential member of the
General Synod — in our opinion in any case by Dr. Reynolds — and stands in
a widely circulated and respected theological journal of that body, we may
with right