American Lutheranism vindicated

by S. S. Schmucker

5. The best plan by far in our judgment is to retain the great body of the Confession unaltered, and simply to omit the few sentences inculcating the disputed or erroneous topics. The remainder is believed by all, and can be subscribed by all, whether they believe the omitted topics or not.

This is precisely the thing done by the American Recension of the Augsburg Confession. It's [sic] principle is to omit the disputed points and, retain unaltered the remainder, on which we all agree. On the three disputed points which alone are believed by any amongst us, namely, baptismal regeneration, the real presence of the Saviour in the eucharist, and the denial of the divine appointment of the Christian Sabbath, entire freedom is allowed. As to the others, private confession and absolution, the ceremonies of the mass, and exorcism, which was taught not in the Augsburg Confession, but in the Appendix to Luther's Smaller Catechism,—they are not received by any one within the pale of the General Synod, and are so distinctly semi-Romish that they are prohibited by the Platform. The adoption of the name, American Recension, always notifies th reader of some revision, and precluded the charge of an attempt to pass it off for the unaltered Confession of the sixteenth century.

The Synodical Disclaimer or List of these rejected errors, which is annexed to the Platform, can be dropped as soon as the churches are fully informed of the ground of our not receiving the other symbolical books, or if this be deemed unnecessary, it may be dropped at once. By the adoption of either of the latter two methods, and especially of the last, by the individual District Synods, they would present to the world a clear profession of their faith, have a sufficient test for the admission of members, and the rejection of heretics, and could harmoniously labor together for the furtherance of the gospel. We have thus in the fear of God and in the spirit of Christian love; but uninfluenced by the fear or favor of man, presented our deliberate convictions on the subjects now agitating the church, after six and thirty years of study of the Bible, and experience in the ministry of our divine Master. And we close with the earnest prayer, that the Great Head of the Church, may employ these pages for the advancement of his glory, that he may conduct his beloved Zion onward in her march of development and progress, until she has attained her millennial features, and her world-wide extension, and until "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever."

APPENDIX. DEFINITE PLATFORM; BEING THE DOCTRINAL BASIS OR CREED, CONTAINED IN PART I. OF THE DEFINITE SYNODICAL PLATFORM, REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING WORK, AND CONSTRUCTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE GENERAL SYNOD.

PREFACE. As the American Recension, contained in this Platform, adds not a single sentence to the Augsburg Confession, nor omits anything that has the least pretension to be considered "a fundamental doctrine of Scripture," it is perfectly consistent with the doctrinal test of the General Synod, as contained in her Formula of Government and Discipline, Chap. XVIII., § 5, and XIX., § 2. The Apostles' and Nicene Creeds are also universally received by our churches. Hence any District Synod, connected with the General Synod, may, with perfect consistency, adopt this Platform.

DOCTRINAL BASIS OR CREED.

Whereas it is the duty of the followers of Christ to profess his [sic] religion before the world (Matt. x. 32), not only by their holy walk and conversation, but also by "walking in the apostles' doctrines" (1 Cor. xiv. 32), and bearing testimony "to the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3), Christians have, from the earlier ages, avowed some brief summary of their doctrines or a Confession of their faith. Such confessions, also called symbols, were the so-called Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, &c., of the first four centuries after Christ.

Thus also did the Lutheran Reformers of the sixteenth century, when cited by the Emperor to appear before the Diet at Augsburg, present the Confession, bearing the name of that city, as an expose of their principal doctrines; in which they also professedly reject only the greater part of the errors that had crept into the Romish Church. (See conclusion of the Abuses Corrected.)

Again, a quarter of a century after Luther's death, this and other writings of Luther and Melancthon, together with another work which neither of them ever saw, the Form of Concord, were made binding on ministers and churches, not by the church herself, acting of her own free choice, but by the civil authorities of certain kingdoms and principalities, in consultation with some prominent theologians. The majority of Lutheran kingdoms, however, rejected one or more of them, and the Augsburg Confession alone has been acknowledged by the entire Lutheran Church. (Hutterus Red. p. 116, § 50.)

Whereas the entire Lutheran Church of Germany has rejected the binding authority of the symbolical books as a whole, and also abandoned some of the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, and our fathers in this country more, [sic] than half century ago, ceased to require a pledge to any of these books, whilst they still believed and in various ways avowed the great fundamental doctrines contained in them: