"the first two morning
sessions after the opening of the convention shall be devoted to the
discussion of doctrinal points and important practical questions."

115. Articles on Church Polity.--According to the second of the eleven
articles of Ecclesiastical Power and Church Government, the church "has
no power to bind the conscience, except as she truly teaches what her
Lord teaches, and faithfully commands what He has charged her to
command." The third reads: "The absolute directory of the will of Christ
is the Word of God, the canonical Scriptures, interpreted in accordance
with the 'mind of the Spirit,' by which Scriptures the Church is to be
guided in every decision. She may set forth no article of faith which is
not taught by the very letter of God's Word, or derived by just and
necessary inference from it, and her liberty concerns those things only
which are left free by the letter and spirit of God's Word." The fourth
continues: "The primary bodies through which the power is normally
exercised, which Christ commits derivatively and ministerially to His
Church on earth, are the congregations. The congregation, in the normal
state, is neither the pastor without the people, nor the people without
the pastor." This paragraph permits of an interpretation that opens a
loophole for Romanism. According to the sixth article "a free,
Scriptural General Council, or Synod, chosen by the Church, is, within
the metes and bounds fixed by the Church which chooses it,
representatively that Church itself; and in this case is applicable the
language of the Appendix to the Smalcald Articles: 'The judgments of
synods are the judgments of the Church.'" This seems to imply that the
judgments of synods are as such correct and binding. The tenth article
reads: "In the formation of a General Body the synods may know, and deal
with, each other only as synods. In such case the official record is to
be accepted as evidence of the doctrinal position of each synod, and of
the principles for which alone the other synods become responsible by
connection with it." This paragraph, which was embodied also in the
constitution of the United Lutheran Church, opened the door to
indifferentism inasmuch as it made the General Council responsible, not
for the actual conditions within, but only for the official attitude and
deliverances of its district synods.

116. A Legislative Body.--The seventh article of "Ecclesiastical Power
and Church Government"