such only as are necessary to make a man a true child of God.
. . . Who can be a Christian and deny the essence and existence of God,
Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the atonement, the doctrines of repentance
and faith in Christ, the necessity of justification before God and of
sanctification of the heart, or the moral law as the rule of life, the
doctrine of immortality and our future destination? These doctrines,
which are essential to faith and Christian life, are fundamental and
ought to be received by the heart and practised, while all other
doctrines may be necessary more or less in order to perfect the
Christian character and render it more symmetrical, but do not strike
the heart of true religion." (_L. u. W._, 1864, 154.) _Observer,_ March
12 and 19, 1869: "The doctrinal basis of the General Synod demands
adoption of the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God as taught in
the Augsburg Confession, but she has never determined which doctrines
she regards as fundamental and which not. Formerly she was satisfied
with the general judgment of the Protestant world with respect to the
fundamental articles of Christianity . . ., but during the last decade
the question was extensively discussed: What is fundamental? We see no
reason why the General Synod could not and should not supplement her
basis by a definition and enumeration of the fundamental doctrines. . .
. According to the universal judgment of the Church the doctrinal
opinions in which the orthodox Protestant Churches differ are not
fundamental, but non-fundamental doctrines. Whether God's decree of
election is absolute or conditional; whether the corruption of the
fallen nature of Adam was propagated or only the guilt of his sin was
imputed to his descendants; whether the atonement is universal or
limited to the elect; whether justification occurs by the imputation of
the righteousness of Christ to believers or by the imputation of faith;
whether the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is bodily or
spiritual; whether the receiving of body and blood is by faith or by the
mouth, is limited to believers or extends also to unbelievers; whether
the church government is participated in by laymen or limited to the
ministers; whether the Scriptural principles on this matter establish an
hierarchy or democracy--these and many other questions are differently
answered by different Protestant denominations, but without objectively
destroying the ground of faith or subj