# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1858_S341
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

From the General Synod. 341

...in the first sentence, is either an oversight or a printer's error.*) But there is a yet more serious error, when on page 276 he says of my colleague that he grants to those who depart from the Augsburg Confession full liberty to express their views in opposition to it, while its faithful adherents are required to keep silence and say nothing in defense of their views. No such thought is put forward anywhere in the article, nor can it be inferred from it by any honest reasoning. On the contrary, it is there taken for granted that both parties have a perfect right to set forth and defend their teachings, and that all that is asked of them is that they should "bear with one another," that is, exercise mutual love, forbearance, and moderation.

"Your contributor also seems to misunderstand the expression 'platform of the General Synod,' which my colleague uses, perhaps confusing it with the so-called 'Definite Platform,' with which the General Synod has nothing whatever to do. By 'platform of the General Synod' my colleague means, I take it, the constitution and practice of this body, or, if I may use the expression, its letter and spirit. On this point he and I are, I suppose, of somewhat different opinion, but I have grossly misunderstood him if he regards the General Synod, as your correspondent does, when the latter says that "this Synod stands altogether on the ground of union, and is essentially unionistic." The General Synod is, by its constitution, a union of purely Lutheran bodies (Art. I and II), and it is expressly forbidden to alter the faith of the Church (Art. III, sec. II. 2), and it acknowledges the Augsburg Confession and Luther's Catechism as the banners of the Church, planted on good ground. So long as the General Synod stands on this foundation (or platform), I do not think that the conscience of any thoughtful Lutheran need be uneasy as to whether it is proper to remain in connection with it.

"I do not overlook the fact, nor do I wish to conceal it, that the conduct of the General Synod has not always been in agreement with its constitution — its practice with its theory. But this only proves that the General Synod is not infallible, that it consists of men with the ordinary imperfections of our fallen nature. In this category I place the letter of 1845, to which your correspondent refers. But with regard to this letter, it is perhaps not known to him that it was never submitted to the General Synod for approval or judgment, so that it can hardly be said that the Synod endorsed it. Moreover, the state of things at the present time, both in the General Synod and in Germany, is quite different, so that I, as it seems to me, can say with certainty that no such letter could now be sent out by the General Synod as an expression of its views.

*) See the list of errata, October number, last page.