Thoughts on an Unconditional Confessional Subscription

(fourth part of several to follow)

I wrote:

What makes a subscription to the Book of Concord unconditional?

(4) When the great "we believe, teach, and confess" statements (regardless of an indicated sedes,) together with similar statements such as "our churches believe", etc., are considered the only portions of the Book of Concord which are to be upheld for the Evangelical Lutheran Church to believe, teach, and confess today - ?

From time to time, one hears (from respected persons who care deeply about the Confessions,) that pastors and congregations subscribe only to the "doctrinal articles" contained in the Book of Concord. I'm not speaking facetiously when I say that I'm not quite sure what exactly this means. What exactly is meant by a "doctrinal article"? As I suggest above, are "doctrinal articles" only those portions of the Book of Concord that are highlighted by a certain phrase, such as: "we believe, teach, and confess" or "our churches believe..." or "our ministers teach..."? Are the doctrinal articles only the positions which were stated on controverted teachings? Or is there another operative definition of a "doctrinal article"?

My question:

What is the point of having the Book of Concord at all - if outside of the doctrinal articles (however they are defined), nothing else contained therein should be considered a doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church? Is the ELCA's Church Council finally correct when they resolve the embarrassing problem of the Book of Concord by relegating it to the historical department, by implying that it is not necessary for the Lutheran Church today to hold to everything that is said in the Book of Concord, when they regret the beliefs of their sixteenth century namesake because those beliefs do not match what is believed, taught, and confessed by the "Lutheran Church" today?

If pastors and churches are not subscribing to everything - saying that they believe, teach, and confess whatever is contained in the Book of Concord (out of the conviction that it is, indeed, in agreement with the Sacred Scriptures) - then what is the point of subscribing to it at all? If it was never the intention of the Lutheran confessors that their children should subscribe to everything contained in the Book of Concord, then why did they never draft a concretely specific book of "the Accepted Doctrinal Articles Contained in the Book of Concord to which our Pastors and Churches Subscribe"?

My response:

I would maintain that the unconditional confessional subscription of a pastor and a congregation ought to be to the entire Book of Concord, to believe, teach, and confess not only the doctrinal articles but everything else that is in there, too.

(Perhaps those who are wiser or more knowledgeable than I would be willing to show where I have missed the mark?)