# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1864_S373
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Theological Conflict Now Breaking In Upon the General Synod. 373

resulted in the founding of its oldest theological schools. The
struggle then moved between rationalism and formalism on the one side
and an evangelical, zealous Christianity on the other. The older
fighters for orthodoxy and piety were men like Dr. Lochman, Dr. J. G.
Schmucker, Dr. Dan. Kurtz, and Pastor Schober; the younger ones were the
pastors D. F. Schaeffer, B. Kurtz, S. S. Schmucker, C. P. Krauth, and A.
Reck. These men fought earnestly for truth and righteousness, and drove
rationalism, unbelief, and formalism completely from the field. But the
weapons of the victors were drawn chiefly from the heavenly armory, from
the Bible. To our confessions, or to the Lutheran system of theology in
its specific form, scarcely any reference was made.

From 1820 to 1850 the church made great progress. This was a period of
vigorous activity. With the increase in the number of Lutheran
preachers, and with progress in scholarship, the confessions of the
church and the works of Lutheran writers were studied more carefully.
This led not a few of them to take up a higher confessional standpoint.
They were no longer satisfied to be orthodox, as Lutherans, merely on
the general platform on which evangelical Christians of all
denominations can stand together; they wanted to be orthodox in the
strict Lutheran sense. So it came about that some of our pastors, by
extending the idea of a denominational orthodoxy beyond the bounds of
the confessional basis of the General Synod, claimed to be more
strictly Lutheran than their brethren. This is the origin of a party
that to this day has adopted no distinguishing name, and rejects the
titles given to it by others. It is therefore difficult to distinguish
these brethren from others who are equally sincere, pious, evangelical,
devoted, and loyal (sic!) to the church, even though they construe some
expressions of the confession differently, and are entirely satisfied
with the manner in which the General Synod subscribes to it.

To describe the present position of the two parties within our
English-speaking church, we need, on the one hand, only to point to the
large number of pastors and congregations who are found not only within
the General Synod, but who are also entirely satisfied with its
doctrinal basis. The Lutheran system of theology, as it is set forth in
the confessions and by the authoritative writers of the church, is
earnestly studied by them. They see and acknowledge the excellence of
our system of doctrine. They hold the Augsburg Confession to be a
correct statement of the fundamental doctrines of God's Word; they
reject the Roman doctrine of the real presence of the body and blood of
Christ in the Supper, or of transubstantiation (sic?), together with
the doctrine of consubstantiation, and the Roman Mass with all its
peculiar ceremonies; and they deny any power of the sacraments ex opere
operato, or that the blessings of baptism and the Supper could be
received without faith.