Is it our duty, is it the Master's will, that we should try to believe
those tenets of a creed which the Scriptures condemn? This would be
treason to the Master, and be hearkening to the teachings of man rather
than of God! Yet how many are there from whose lips the phrase
confessional fidelity (Bekenntnisstreue,) is heard far oftener than
fidelity to God's word (Bibeltreue)!
Is it our duty to renounce the Augsburg Confession altogether? This
would be the case, _if its errors were fundamental_. But as they are few
in number, and all relate to non-fundamental points, this does not
necessarily follow. As nineteen twentieths of the creed are sustained by
Scripture, and embody a rich and ample exhibition of divine truth, ten
times as extended as that which was invested with normative authority in
the golden age, the first three centuries of the Christian church, and
used as a term of Christian fellowship, we may well retain the creed,
after in some way disavowing its several errors. And the historical
importance of the document, as the type of a renovated Christianity,
authenticated by the blessing of Heaven, renders its retention
desirable, as far as it has approved itself to the conscience of the
church, after the increasing philological, exegetical, and historical
light of three progressive centuries.
The position of those who maintain that _genuine Lutheranism_ demands
perpetual adherence to everything contained in this Confession, yea, as
some affirm, to all the former symbolical books, is utterly untenable.
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