The justification of a sinner by
faith alone. 8. The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and
sanctification of the sinner. 9. The right and duty of private judgment
in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. 10. The immortality of the
soul, the resurrection of the body, the judgment of the world by Jesus
Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous and the eternal
punishment of the wicked. 11. The divine institution and perpetuity of
the Christian ministry, and the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's
Supper. But while we thus publicly avow and declare our convictions in
the substantial correctness of the fundamental doctrines of the Augsburg
Confession, we owe it to ourselves and to the cause of evangelical truth
to disavow and repudiate certain errors which are said by some to be
contained in said Confession: 1. The approval of the ceremonies of the
mass; 2. private confession and absolution; 3. denial of the divine
obligation of the Christian Sabbath; 4. baptismal regeneration; and 5.
the real presence of the body and blood of the Savior in the Eucharist.
With these exceptions, whether found in the Confession or not, we
believe and retain the entire Augsburg Confession, with all the great
doctrines of the Reformation." (_L. u. W._ 1858, 28.) In spite of this
attitude toward the Augustana the General Synod, in 1859, on motion of
Krauth, Jr., passed the resolution: "Resolved, That we cordially admit
the Melanchthon Synod, and ... we would fraternally solicit them to
consider whether a change, in their doctrinal basis, of the paragraph in
regard to certain alleged errors would not tend to the promotion of
mutual love, and the furtherance of the great objects for which we are
laboring together." (_Proceedings_ 1859, 11.) The vote for the admission
of the un-Lutheran Synod, registering the victory of the liberals and
the defeat of the conservatives, stood 98 to 26, the entire delegation
of the Pennsylvania Ministerium and the three Scandinavian delegates
being recorded in the negative. Without further protest on the part of
the conservatives "the credentials of the [Melanchthon Synod] delegates
were then presented and their names entered upon the roll of Synod."
(12.) Confirming their doctrinal position, the Melanchthon Synod, in
1860, by formal resolution, approved of a sermon delivered by B. Kurtz
in which he denounced baptismal regeneration as "a part of papistical
superstition" and the real presence o