Thoughts on an Unconditional Confessional Subscription

(second part of several to follow)

I wrote:

What makes a subscription to the Book of Concord unconditional?

(2) When, like a certain nineteenth century theologian, one excises offensive portions from the confessions and heartily subscribes to whatever is left, as long as the remaining portions still fit the criteria of "agreeing with the Scriptures" - ?

I've already ranted elsewhere about Samuel Simon Schmucker and his General Synodical Platform. This sort of position is really an "I'll follow the Lutheran Confessions in so far as they agree with whatever criteria I wish to establish", that is, it is a very conditional subscription to the Book of Concord. Cyberbrethren has pointed out elsewhere that someone who wishes to maintain an "in so far as" subscription to the Lutheran Confessions might as well subscribe to the telephone directory or Webster's Dictionary (he may have said, "The Koran",) in so far as it agrees with the Scriptures. If a confessional subscription indicates just how much of the Lutheran Confessions you believe are in agreement with the Scriptures, then to subscribe only in so far as is to leave the field wide open, saying that some parts do and that other parts may not. Ultimately, this boils down to a conditional subscription.

Perhaps the only kind word that I have for Schmucker is that he at least had the honesty to clearly delineate which portions of the Augsburg Confession he found agreeable and to physically cut out those portions with which he disagreed. Schmucker at least defined his in so far as subscription in clearer terms, whereas others leave theirs clouded in ambiguity.

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Maybe what's missing in this whole discussion is a clear definition of what it means to "subscribe" to the Lutheran Confessions. Is it a token "pledge of allegiance" - something that we "keep on the books" so that we can maintain our 21st century ties to our long-dead 16th century forefathers, some formality that somehow permits us to retain the name "Lutheran"? Or is it (was it always intended) to be something more - to say that we also believe, teach, confess, and do what is written therein as it is in accord with the Scriptural faith?