s. It leaves the question whether all of those
twenty-one articles of the Augsburg Confession are to be regarded as
"fundamental doctrines of the Bible" undecided. It adopts the articles
of the Augsburg Confession regarded as fundamental, not simply and
absolutely, but merely as substantially correct." On the question of the
ordination form of 1829 Krauth, Jr., commented in 1857 as follows:
"What, then, is that question? We reply, in general: First, that the
subject of her general affirmation is not the Book of Concord as a
whole, but simply and purely the Augsburg Confession. Secondly, that not
the entire Confession, but only the twenty-one articles of it which
treat of doctrine, are specified in the affirmation. Thirdly, that only
so far as these articles embrace _fundamental_ doctrines does she make
an affirmation. Fourthly, that of these she affirms that they teach the
doctrines in a correct manner, and defines the correctness as a
_substantial_ one." (Spaeth, 1, 386.) J. L. Neve explains: "They
[General Synod] considered what the Lutheran Church has in common with
the other churches, and looked upon this as the fundamentals of
Christianity, while the characteristic peculiarity of the Church of
Luther, her special inheritance, was set aside as non-fundamental and
unessential." (_Geschichte_, 90.) Accordingly, the General Synod, prior
to 1864, did not subscribe to the distinctive doctrines of the Lutheran
Church, but only to the doctrines held in common by the evangelical
churches of Protestantism. Charles Philip Krauth, who was styled a
Symbolist and Old Lutheran by the latitudinarians, declared in 1850, in
his address before the General Synod at Charleston: "The terms of the
subscription [to the Augustana] are such as to admit of the rejection
of any doctrine or doctrines which the subscriber may not receive. It
is subscribed or assented to as containing the doctrines of the Word of
God substantially; they are set forth in substance; the understanding
is that there are some doctrines in it not contained in the Word of
God, but there is no specification concerning them. Every one could
omit from his assent whatever he did not believe. The subscription did
not preclude this. It is at once evident that a creed thus presented is
no creed; that it is anything or nothing; that its subscription is a
solemn farce." (Spaeth, 1, 370.)

BASIS INTERPRETED.

26. Authentic Explanation of Doctrinal Basis.--In his _Popular
The