e Reformed. From
1820 down to 1918 the General Synod, in its periodicals and by its
representative men, and in part also as such and officially, defended
and supported indifferentism, unionism, synergism, chiliasm, abstinence,
the divine obligation of the Sabbath, and other un-Lutheran and
distinctively Reformed doctrines. (_L. u. W._ 1917, 471; 1918, 43.)
Doctrinal discipline never has had as much as a shadow of an existence
within the General Synod. Nor did the Atchison Amendments effect any
apparent and marked change in the spirit and attitude of doctrinal
indifferentism. Reformed errorists were tolerated after as well as
before 1913. In its issue of September 12, 1918, the _Lutheran Church
Work and Observer_ declared: "Our body breathes the free atmosphere of
America, and is not so legalistic and Puritanical as to think that every
person who offends must be brought before the judgment-bar of the church
for discipline." After as well as before 1913 some of the General
Synodists continued to indulge in dreams of a millennium and union of
all Evangelical denominations in America. (_L. u. W._ 1918, 87; _Luth.
Wit._ 1918, 373.) The Sabbath-day was declared to be "of perpetual
authority," and its observance as "binding on all by divine
requirement." In 1918 the _Lutheran Church Work_ asked for state
legislation to enforce the Sabbath, because the "Almighty Jehovah is
'the Lord of the Sabbath,' and has given us an indication of the
importance which He places on His holy day by having put it even before
the commandment in the Decalog which says: 'Honor thy father and thy
mother.'" (_L. u. W._ 1918, 336; cf. 1915, 397; 1911, 510.) The same old
Puritanical attitude was maintained by the General Synod also with
respect to the prohibition movement. (_Proceedings_ 1917, 140 ff.)

98. Tolerating Modern Liberalism.--The General Synod never did, nor
intended to, exercise church-discipline with respect to Reformed
aberrations. Nor is there a single case of church-discipline against any
form of liberalism recorded. Yet practically from its very beginning the
General Synod declared herself against Socinianism. And in 1909 the
_Lutheran Quarterly_ stated that the General Synod, though not
exercising church-discipline with respect to Reformed errors, does
exclude Unitarians, Universalists, and Christian Scientists. (15.) In
1917 the _Lutheran_ asserted: The Lutheran Church in America "stands as
a unit in protest against the creed of Rea