# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1860_S379
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Preliminary Report on the General Synod of the Prussian Lutheran Church. 379

...too legalistic, going too much into particulars, a formal legal code, a "territorial law" of the church, and the like. That these synodical resolutions, however, have taken firm root in our congregations, we could see from the fact that those attacks by Diedrich provoked general indignation, that scarcely a single congregation spoke in his sense, and that by far the majority of the synod's members declared themselves against Diedrich. As a result, seven pastors declared at the synod on October 1st that they by no means wished to sever the bond with the Lutheran Church in Prussia, and that they did not wish to separate themselves from the venerable Supreme Church Council either, but that they reserved for themselves this freer position: that they could not recognize in the church order (the synodical resolutions) a divinely given ordinance which one might not transgress without sin. For the rest, they wished to conduct their office as before according to the Word of God, the symbolical books, and the custom in their congregations. These seven pastors are: Gummlich, Diedrich, Räthjen, Wolf, Crome, Lohmann, and Ebert in Danzig. — The synod thereupon declared, after a commission of five (Nagel, Ehlers, Eichhorn, Frommüller, Flügge) had deliberated on the matter and made conciliatory proposals, that it could bear with these brothers, because it hoped that the other view would likewise be borne by them and not be regarded as unevangelical. Thus the threatening breach was happily averted, and from this session onward mutual rapprochement and, with it, trust visibly grew; the Lord had helped, after we had been humbled and had humbled ourselves. — The synod, moreover, further resolved that the venerable Supreme Church Council should be authorized, before the next General Synod in the year 1864, to charge a freely chosen commission with the preparations for drawing up a new church order. It was also expressly declared that the expression "ecclesiastical authority," which occurs once in the synodical resolutions, and the standing of the latter itself in its character as a church order, must in no way infringe upon Article 28 of the Augsburg Confession.

A further important piece of work for the synod was doctrinal questions, especially chiliasm, or the doctrine of the thousand-year kingdom — namely, that Christ will come before His return to judgment to found a kingdom of glory in which mere saints will reign with Him on this earth. After lengthy deliberations, the proposals to draw up a new confessional act, or a supplement to Article XVII of the Augsburg Confession, were not adopted; instead, however, it was resolved that an instructive and admonishing letter should be addressed to our congregations, which should, among other things, also reassure them that the rumor which had arisen — that the whole constitution of the Prussian Lutheran Church had grown out of chiliasm — could with great certainty be regarded as baseless.

Many, many petitions, complaints, appeals, and inquiries