# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1916_S4
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

4 Lehrbasis der Generalsynove seit 1913.

Die obigen Bestimmungen selber sind jedoch nicht der Konstitution
der Generalsynode einverleibt worden durch Annahme derselben seitens
ihrer Distriktssynoden. Statt dessen beschloß die Versammlung in Rich⸗

Terminus „fundamental'' betreffend, erklärte dieselbe Versammlung: „When
the General Synod says, in her formula of confessional subscription, that
she accepts the Augsburg Confession as a correct exhibition of the fun-
damental doctrines of the divine Word, and of the faith of our Church
founded upon that Word, she means precisely what she says, namely,
that the fundamental doctrines of God's Word are correctly set forth
in the Confession. She does not mean that some of the doctrines set forth
in the Confession are non-fundamental, and, therefore, may be accepted
or rejected; she means that they are all fundamental, and their exhibi-
tion in the Confession is to be accepted by those who subscribe to the Con-⸗
fession. Relative to this matter, the General Synod, at Des Moines, Iowa,
in 1901, declared that to make any distinction between fundamental and
so-called non-fundamental doctrines in the Augsburg Confeéssion is con-
trary to that basis' — the basis of the General Synod — as set forth in
our formula of confessional subscription.“ Likewise, at Hagerstown, Md.,
in 1895, the General Synod declared the Augsburg Confession to be through-
out in perfect consistence' with the Word of God. Those official declara-
tions, together with the well-known Vork Resolution, adopted in 1864,
bind the General Synod to the Augsburg Confession in its entirety. The
General Synod therefore asserts that the chief or foundation doctrines
0of God's Word are set forth in the Confession, and that they are correctly
set forth therein.“ (p. 57.) — Der 1909 in Richmond gefaßte Beschluß lautet:
„Resolved, That, inasmuch as the Augsburg Confession is the original,
generic confession of the Lutheran Church, aceepted by Luther and his
coadjutors, and subscribed to by all Lutheran bodies the world over, we
thereforeé déeem it an adequate and sufficient standard of Lutheran doc-
trine. In making this statement, however, the General Synod in no wise
means to imply that she ignorés, rejects, repudiates, or antagonizes the
Secondary Symbols of the Book of Concord, nor forbids any of her mem-
bers from accepting or teaching all of them, in striet accordance with
the Lutheran regulating prineiple of justifying faith. On the contrary,
she holds those Symbols in high esteem, regards them as aà most valuable
body of Lutheran belief, explaining and unfolding the doctrines of the
Augsburg Confession, and she hereby recommends that they be diligently
and faithfully studied by our ministers and laymen.“ (p. 60.) — Die in der
Form von 1864 enthaltene Phrase „the Word of God, as contained in the
canonieal Seriptures“ betreffend, wurde in Richmond 1909 folgender Beschluß
gefaßt: „Whereas the phrase, the Word of God, as contained in the ca⸗
nonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, oecurs in our for-
mula of confessional subscription; and, whereas, when our fathers framed
this language the theologieal distinetion between the two statements, The
Bible is the Word of God' and, The Bible contains the Word of God,“
had not yet been made, or, at least, was not yet in vogue, and therefore
there could have been no intention on their part of committing the Gen-
eral Synod to lax or heretical views of the inspiration of the Sacred