Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — Mai 1908, Seite 233

German transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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Kirchlich⸗Zeitgeschichtliches. 2233

not ready to sacrifice principle, or to give up either the General Synod's
autonomy or her confessional basis. In this case the issue is as clear-cut
as à diamond. However, we do not believe, we cannot believe, that this is
what the General Couneil means. In all the negotiations and conferences“
no proof of such propagandism has been visible. In the Luther League
conventions no such attempt has been made. Never once has a General
Council speaker given voice to such an idea. The Free Conferences were
notably free from any pronounced advocacy of the other Confessions, and
if they were mentioned at all, it was only ineidentally. If any such Propa-
gandist eflorts have been made in the meetings of joint committees, they
have never been given to the publice. So, until a clear and unambiguous
manifesto is made on the part of the General Couneil, we shall believe
that she simply meant a higher appreciation' of herself and her position,
just as the General Synod seeks higher appreciation' from the General
Council.“ „Wir erkennen uns gegenseitig an“, das war der Eindruck, den
auch die Besten in der Generalsynode von den Versammlungen mit den
Konziliten bekommen haben. Es ist dies die Folge davon, daß in diesen
Konferenzen absichtlich die Differenzen umgangen wurden. F. B.

D. Jacobs bekennt sich nicht zu allen Lehren der Symbole. Im Lu-
neran vom 5. März schreibt er: „Some of the difficulties that men whom
we esteem have urged against the acceptance of all our Confessions are
due to a misunderstanding of what is involved in a confessional sub-
Scription. They conceive of the Confessions as an external law that binds
the conscience to a mechanical acceptance of all that may be found in
these documents. What is properly confessional in these documents is
their answers to the questions that rendered the framing of à confessional
statement necessary. Ineidental allusions, quotations of authorities, even
the pertineney of arguments used, are subsidiary matters. Our confes-
sional subscription to the Augsburg Confession does not concern the ex-
travagant statement with which Melanchthon closes the first part of the
Confession, to the effect tliat there is substantial agreement between the
doctrine taught in the Lutheran churches and that which has heretofore
been taught by the writers of the Church of Rome. The graceful com-
pliment which Melanchthon pays to the Emperor, Charles V, when in the
Apology he interprets a passage from the Apocrypha as having clear ref-
erence to Charles, need not trouble us; nor the three sacraments which
the same book mentions; nor the Maria Semper Virgo' of the Latin of
the Smalcald Artieles. We must study our Confessions as an organism,
and appreciate the relation of each part to the other parts and to the
whole Confession. Where the heart of ench Confession and of each doc-
trine confessed lies, must be the object of our search. To tear passages
from their connection, or to represent isolated passages and simply inci-
dental statements as having confessional authority is as unfair to the
Confessions as it is to the Holy Seriptures.“ Daß die Verpflichtung der
Symbole sich nicht bezieht auf historische Angaben, Exegese, Art der Beweis⸗
führung und ähnliche Formalia, versteht sich von selbst. D. Jacobs schließt
aber in der obigen Stelle, wie Löhe und die Jowaer, vom verpflichtenden
Lehrgehalt der Symbole auch solche Lehraussagen aus, die nicht zu den
Fragen gehören, die ex professo entschieden werden. Er sagt: What is
Properly confessional in these documents is their answers to the questions

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