Walther on Unconditional Subscription
Affirming the doctrinal purity of the Lutheran Confessions
C.F.W. Walther (1811-1887) is the Missouri Synod’s founding father and chief theologian. His numerous writings and sermons preserved the orthodox teachings of the Lutheran tradition and affirmed the Book of Concord as the true and correct exposition of Christian faith. He is known for his series of lectures that were eventually compiled into “The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel,” as well as his many written works, including “Pastoral Ministry” and “Gospel Sermons.”
Walther is also responsible for a lesser-known essay titled “Why Should Our Pastors, Teachers and Professors Subscribe Unconditionally to the Symbolical Writings of Our Church.” Indeed, the essay has a lengthy title, yet its contents are incredibly valuable. It was first delivered at the Western District Convention in 1858, and was republished in April 1947 in the Volume XVIII of Concordia Theological Monthly.
The question at hand is why Synodical leaders, including pastors, teachers, and professors, ought to unconditionally subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions and the doctrinal statements contained therein. Is it enough that one subscribes only to portions of the Book of Concord? What if the Book of Concord teaches heresy, even if it is unintended? How should churches and Synodical institutions handle men whose supposed subscription to the Lutheran Confessions is halfhearted or conditional. All of these questions Walther seeks to answer with this essay.
He first distinguishes between unconditional subscription and conditional subscription. He states, “By a conditional subscription to the Symbols the subscriber does not pledge himself to accept every doctrine contained in the Symbols as in full agreement with Scripture and reserves the right to distinguish between the doctrines presented.”
Hence, a conditional subscription is one that broadly accepts the teachings of Scriptures but does not conform to an explicit set of doctrinal teachings that correctly expound on the truths of Scripture. This sort of subscription is therefore unclear and often disingenuous.
Walther goes on to say, “Since all divisions within Christendom appeal to Scripture, the mere confession that one believes what is in Scripture is not a confession that clearly distinguishes the confessor from the false believer [..] Therefore an unconditional subscription is indispensable.” Again, the simple declaration that one believes the teaching of Scripture does not say much about the confessor’s true beliefs. Several erroneous and misguided views and beliefs with regard to Scripture abound. Thus, a clear confession and decisive declaration of doctrinal and theological positions is warranted.
In Walther’s estimation, because the purpose of the Confessions (which Walther refers to as the Church’s “Symbols”) is to clearly and expressly confess and affirm Scripture and its teaching, the Church cannot desire or accept a mere conditional acceptance of its Symbols because “it virtually retracts the faith and the doctrine which it had set forth in the Symbols.”
Subscription to the Lutheran Confessions satisfies the two following purposes: a) to ensure that teachers of the faith possess and affirm the true orthodox teachings of the Christian faith, and b) that the Church may bind its teachers to this pledge to prevent a disturbance in or alteration of the Church's teachings.
To this end, Walther argues, “This twofold purpose is completely nullified if the servants of the Church are permitted to accept the Symbols of the Church on a conditional basis. For when the Church is satisfied with a conditional subscription, it openly admits to its teachers that its Symbols may contain doctrines which are contrary to Scripture.”
The Lutheran Church has prized unconditional subscription to its Confession since the Reformation. This idea is found throughout the Book of Concord, and Walther references several quotations from the Book of Concord to this effect, including Triglotta pages 95, 847, 23, and 855. Walther then says, “All these quotations clearly show that our Symbols themselves demand an unconditional subscription, and he who wants to subscribe conditionally denies what the Symbols themselves demand.”
Walther thus reminds the 1858 Convention that “Our Church never was satisfied with a mere conditional subscription to its Symbols on the part of its teachers; it always demanded a definite, positive, and unequivocal subscription as an indispensable condition for teaching in our Church.” Indeed, just two years after the Augsburg Confessions was originally presented, Luther and fellow reformers Justus Jonas and Johannes Bugenhagen established the regulation that all men seeking clerical office in the Church must unconditionally subscribe to the Confessions.
Yet did men not write, compile, and publish the Book of Concord? Couldn’t the Lutheran Confessions teach heresies? “Yes,” Walther claims, “but the possibility does not establish reality.”
We should not forget that the purpose of a subscription is such that an unconditional subscription is necessary for the subscription itself to have any meaning at all. What good is a subscription to a systemic set of substance propositions if it is fundamentally based on skepticism regarding the essence of the subscription? A sure and confident subscription is by nature unconditional. A confessor must steadfastly uphold the premises, arguments, and statements to which his subscription binds him if his subscription is genuine.
What is more, the greater context of the Lutheran Confessions is based on clarity with regard to Church teaching. For centuries the Roman Catholic Church promulgated false teaching and dogmas contrary to Scripture. It confused the laity and blurred the otherwise clearly-defined lines of Scripture. The Reformers saw through these erroneous lies and the deceitful propaganda of Rome and complied the Lutheran Confessions as a means to clarify the unchanging, orthodox faith of the one true Christian and apostolic Church.
It is in the Reformer’s bold confession of faith, which was eventually formalized into the Book of Concord, that unconditional subscription to the Confessions is not only warranted by the nature of subscription but by the authority of Scripture, which itself is the foundation and source of the Confessions.
Walther, in true theological fashion, ends his essay with the following declaration:
If our Church, which is now [1858] lying in the dust shall rise again and not gradually degenerate into a body which is Lutheran in name only, without any characteristics of the Church of the Reformation, then all the fine words about ecclesiastical propriety, about the re-introduction of ancient rites and ceremonies, all attempts to invest the office of the ministry with special glory and authority, all this will be utterly in vain. The only help for resurrecting our Church lies in a renewed acceptance of its old orthodox confessions and in a renewed unconditional subscription to its Symbols.
May this serve as a reminder for the Church now [2024] that our Church must now and always affirm the orthodox, unchanging, eternal truths of the Christian faith as they are established, marked, and promulgated by Holy Scripture.