led by Ezra Keller and
S. Sprecher, professors of Wittenberg College), claiming to be "wholly
loyal to the doctrines and interests of the General Synod," adopted the
Platform in September, 1855, stating that the General Synod in the past
had given the Augustana only a limited recognition without specifying
the doctrines which were to be omitted, and that now the Platform, in
the interest of truth, had pointed out the five errors of the Augustana
which the great majority of the General Synod had long ago viewed as
unscriptural and Roman. Synod resolved not to receive any pastor who
would not accept the Platform as his own confession. (_L. u. W._ 1855,
319. 336.) In September, 1855, the Olive Branch Synod of Indiana adopted
the Platform unanimously, and, in October of the same year, the East
Ohio Synod, with but one dissenting vote. (350. 381.) In June, 1856, the
Miami Synod declared its allegiance to the Augustana, with the
limitation that they reject as errors contained in this Confession the
approval of certain ceremonies of the mass, private confession and
absolution, the denial of the divine obligation of the Sabbath, the
doctrines of baptismal regeneration and of the real presence in the
Eucharist. (1856, 349.) In September, 1856, the Wittenberg Synod
recommended the Platform for adoption to its congregations, and at the
same time expressed satisfaction and joy that the Platform had been
adopted by the English Synod of Ohio, the Olive Branch Synod of Indiana,
the Northern Synod of the same State, and by the Kentucky Synod; that
the Miami Synod had accepted the Augsburg Confession in the sense of the
Platform; and that the Pittsburgh Synod, through influence of the
Platform, was now immune against "symbolism." (1856, 380.) The Synod of
Southern Illinois (organized 1856, and in 1897 united with the Synod of
Central Illinois under the name of Synod of Central and Southern
Illinois), in October, 1857, unanimously approved of the Platform as a
measure against the insidious tendencies of symbolism. (1857,352.) It
was a sore disappointment to the Platform men when the Synod of East
Pennsylvania, in 1855, at the motion of J. A. Brown (who was in
essential agreement with Schmucker, doctrinally), unanimously condemned,
and "most solemnly warned" against, the Platform as a "most dangerous
attempt to change the doctrinal basis and revolutionize the existing
character of the Lutheran churches now united in the General Synod."
(18