Down to the present day the _Formula of Concord_ has been assailed
particularly by unionistic and Reformed opponents of true Lutheranism.
Schaff criticizes: "Religion was confounded with theology, piety with
orthodoxy, and orthodoxy with an exclusive confessionalism." (1, 259.)
However, the subjects treated in the _Formula_ are the most vital
doctrines of the Christian religion: concerning sin and grace, the
person and work of Christ, justification and faith, the means of grace,
--truths without which neither Christian theology nor Christian religion
can remain; "Here, then," says Schmauk, "is the one symbol of the ages
which treats almost exclusively of Christ--of His work, His presence,
His person. Here is the Christ-symbol of the Lutheran Church. One might
almost say that the _Formula of Concord_ is a developed witness of
Luther's explanation of the Second and Third Articles of the Apostles'
Creed, meeting the modern errors of Protestantism, those cropping up
from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, in a really modern way."
(751.) Tschackert also designates the assertion that the authors of the
_Formula of Concord_ "abandoned Luther's idea of faith and established a
dead scholasticism" as an unjust charge. (478.) Indeed, it may be
questioned whether the doctrine of grace, the real heart of
Christianity, would have been saved to the Church without the _Formula_.
R. Seeberg speaks of the "ossification of Lutheran theology" caused by
the _Formula of Concord_, and Tschackert charges it with transforming
the Gospel into a "doctrine." (571.) But what else is the Gospel of
Christ than the divine doctrine or statement and proclamation of the
truth that we are saved, not by our own works, but by grace and faith
alone, for the sake of Christ and His merits? The _Formula of Concord_
truly says: "_The Gospel is properly a doctrine which teaches what man
should believe_, that he may obtain forgiveness of sins with God,
namely, that the Son of God, our Lord Christ, has taken upon Himself and
borne the curse of the Law, has expiated and paid for all our sins,
through whom alone we again enter into favor with God, obtain
forgiveness of sins by faith, are delivered from death and all the
punishments of sins, and eternally saved." (959, 20.) Says Schmauk: "The
_Formula of Concord_ was ... the very substance of the Gospel and of the
_Augsburg Confession_, kneaded through the experience of the first
generation of Protestantism, by incessant and agonizing conflict, and
coming forth from that experience as a true and tried teaching, a
standard recognized by many." (821.) The _Formula of Concord_ is truly
Scriptural, not only because all its doctrines are derived from the
Bible, but also because the burden of the Scriptures, the doctrine of
justification, is the burden also of all its expositions the living
breath, as it were, pervading all its articles.
Another modern objection to the _Formula_ is that it binds the future
generations to the _Book of Concord_. This charge is correct, for the
_Formula_ expressly states that its decisions are to be "a public,
definite testimony, not only for those now living, but also for our
posterity, what is and should remain (_sei und bleiben solle--esseque
perpetuo debeat_) the unanimous understanding and judgment of our
churches in reference to the articles in controversy." (857, 16.)
However, the criticism implied in the charge is unwarranted. For the
Lutheran Confessions, as promoters, authors, and signers of the
_Formula_ were fully persuaded, are in perfect agreement with the
eternal and unchangeable Word of God. As to their contents, therefore,
they must always remain the confession of every Church which really is
and would remain loyal to the Word of God.