| Summary: | GUDMUNDSON T. THINGVALLA LUTHERAN CHURCH 317 is simply an acceptance of the inspired word of God. The synod haa gone on record as believing the Bible as stated in its confession. In this country there are over twenty denominations or divisions of the Lutheran Church, calling themselves Lutheran, and they have taken the Augsburg Confession and the Bible as their foundation." About the Church of Iceland, the witness says : "The Seminingin, the synod organ, has charged the Bishop of Iceland with heresy, something to that effect. . . . The Church of Iceland is Lutheran in name at least, and is a state church. The Seminingin also took the position that the church organ of the Church of Iceland was an advocate of the new theology. That is the position of the Church of Iceland today. . . . The defendants in this case are undoubtedly in sympathy with many of the opinions of the Bishop of the Church of Iceland. I do not consider them good Lutherans. I would not consider the bishop a good Lutheran. The defendants with their views are not good Lutherans by any true Lutheran standard. They are as good Lutherans as the bishop of the church. The thing that marks the Lutheran Church as distinctly Lutheran is the confession of the church, and nowhere in the Augsburg Confession, or in any other confession of the Lutheran Church, is there a statement of any particular doctrine of inspiration. The whole Lutheran Confession is founded on that each Lutheran has the right to interpret the Bible as he chooses. . . . Luther's position was that he had the right, without the assistance of anyone else, to go to the Bible and interpret from it its doctrine, and he conceded that right to every individual. . . . The Church of Iceland and the synod have the same confession of faith, and the synod was organized originally for the sake of teaching on this continent the Lutheran doctrine according to the confession of the Church of Iceland. And the Church of Iceland, or at least a large number of the members of it, including the bishop, took the position that the religious con sciousness of the individual had something to do or something to say about the acceptatio'n and rejection of certain passages in the Bible. They take it that its confessions are merely what the framers of the confessions understood the Bible to teach, and state that the church, like any other organization, is bound to grow and develop, and if in the light of modern research the individual has come to the conclusion that some of the statements of the doctrine in the confession of faith con
|
|---|