, which is supposed by many to inculcate Calvinism, together with
several others; and materially altered Articles I., II., VI., IX.,
XXVI., and XXXIV. If, then, it be competent for these several Synods,
or Conferences, to change the Westminster Confession and Thirty-nine
Articles, which were prepared far more deliberately, and with much less
restraint, and had become equally venerable by age, without any one
pretending to deny their authority, or to pronounce the measure
"presumptuous," why may not the Synod of Wittenberg, and other similar
bodies, correct the Augsburg Confession, by the omission of several
tenets, believed not only by her members, but by the great body of
American Lutherans, to be unscriptural? Now the Definite Platform was
prepared at the request of the leading members of those Western Synods,
according to a plan previously agreed on among them and others, for the
express purpose of being proposed for discussion, correction, and
_adoption by these Synods;_ and, until so acted on, was a mere
unofficial proposal, _such as any friends of the church have a right to
make_. And who can dispute their right, or the right of any Synod, to
adopt a Confession of Faith for herself, when the Constitution of the
General Synod originally conceded this power specifically to each
Synod, and still does so, in Article III., Section 3, by requiring them
only to adhere to the _fundamental_ doctrines of the Bible, as taught
by our church? Is not a Lutheran Synod possessed of as much power as an
Episcopal or Methodist convention? And although an individual
necessarily drew up the document, it was prepared according to the plan
decided on by about twenty brethren, and claimed no authority until
acted on by Synod.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48