# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1860_S93
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary Notes.    93

of the opponents in vain. The matter is settled with them, for nothing else underlies it but, in a word: independence, consistency, and self-respect. They do not wish, over against other denominations, to be held responsible for doctrines and practices which they do not accept. "We do not believe," it says literally, "in the bodily presence, in regeneration through baptism, in the ceremonies of the Mass, and similar nonsense." Yet they wish to be recognized as united, within the General Synod, with those who hold to the Symbols; for it would be hypocritical, unhistorical, and ridiculous to say that the Augsburg Confession is the bond of church union in the General Synod. Nothing but the General Synod itself is the bond of church union among them. — Should this so-called Lutheran General Synod ever have to confess its faith in corpore — what a confused din of variously pitched voices would then break forth from the one sheepfold! Compare with this the apostolic description of the flock of Christ, valid for all time: one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

The Ohio Synod. From the proceedings of the extra assembly of the General Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio and the adjacent states, held from Nov. 9 to 15, 1859, we take the following: "The Position of the General Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio and Other States with regard to Other Lutheran Synods. In attempting to define the position of the General Synod with regard to other Lutheran synods, your Committee finds itself compelled, with deep regret — both for the sake of the truth itself and for the good of our synod, and out of the respect we owe our confessional writings — to warn against those whom, under other circumstances, we would gladly regard as brothers. Such your Committee believes it must find in synods that are connected with the so-called General Synod. To be sure, some confess with us the truth as it is contained in our symbolical books, but they have not yet, up to now, learned to recognize the inconsistency of such a confession together with their remaining in the above-mentioned connection. — Further, your Committee regrets that between synods which are not connected with the General Synod, but stand with us on the same ground of confession, great bitterness and mutual hostility take place, which have their origin in the controversy over church and ministry and in questions connected with it, and which exercise a directly harmful influence on our relationship to the synods concerned.

Your Committee now considers it an indispensable duty, incumbent upon our synod and owed by it to other synods, to give expression to its views on these points, so that everyone may know our position and render us the respect due us as a synod. Your Committee, in view of these circumstances, now respectfully proposes the following declarations of this synod:

First, this synod regards connection with the General Synod as a contradiction of the confessions of our church, and advises all who stand within it, and who truly acknowledge the Symbols of the Lutheran church as the norm of doctrine and practice, above all to work toward bringing the General Synod to a decided Lutheran standpoint, and, if this fails, to break, ruthlessly and unconditionally, all connection with so unlutheran a body.

Second, although your Committee regards the question "concerning church and ministry" as an open one, and is convinced that the differing parties carry on the dispute with full attachment to the Symbols, and while acknowledging the importance of this question — it cannot, nevertheless, refrain from expressing the following as its conviction with regard to it:

a. The church, according to its individual members, is invisible; but it is also present in the visible congregation, in which the Word is preached purely and clearly and the sacraments are administered according to Christ's institution.

b. The preaching office is a special, divinely ordained, continuing office in the church; it exists prior to the congregation, and therefore cannot arise out of it.

c. The call into the holy office comes from the church according to its ministerial and