Produced by one of Myra Eve Bodling's grandfathers. Readers
should note that, despite remarks in the Preface, the
planned vols. 3 and 4 never appeared in print. Volume 1
is Project Gutenberg EBook #20941.
American Lutheranism
VOLUME II
The United Lutheran Church
(General Synod, General Council, United Synod in the South)
By
F. BENTE
St. Louis, Mo.
CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE
1919
PREFACE.
American Lutheranism will appear in four volumes, this present second
volume to be followed by the first, dealing with the early history of
Lutheranism in America.
The third volume will present the history of the Ohio, Iowa, Buffalo,
and the Scandinavian synods.
The fourth volume will contain the history and doctrinal position of the
Missouri, Wisconsin, and other synods connected with the Synodical
Conference.
As appears from this second volume, our chief object is to record the
facts as to the theological attitude of the various Lutheran bodies in
America, with such comment only as we deemed necessary.
As to the quotations from the _Lutheran Observer_ and other English
periodicals, we frequently had to content ourselves with retranslations
from the German in _Lehre und Wehre_, _Lutheraner_, etc.
Brackets found in passages cited contain additions, comments,
corrections, etc., of our own, not of the respective periodicals quoted.
If errors, no matter of whatever nature they may be, should have crept
in anywhere, we here express our gratitude for corrections made.
Further prefatory and introductory remarks will accompany Vol. I, which,
_ Deo volente_, will go to the printers forthwith.
F. Bente, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo.
May 28, 1919.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
THE UNITED LUTHYERAN CHURCH.................1-11
Merger.........................................1
Constitution...................................5
Character......................................9
THE GENERAL SYNOD.........................12-175
Organization..................................12
Character.....................................19
Constitution..................................22
Evaluation....................................25
Doctrinal Basis...............................32
Basis Interpreted.............................40
Unionism......................................48
Union Letter of 1845..........................58
Christian Union...............................63
Theology Reformed.............................68
Revivalism....................................76
"American Lutheranism"........................89
Definite Platform Controversy................101
Position of District Synods toward Platform..111
General Synod's Attitude toward Platform.....117
York Convention..............................123
Secessions and Separations...................130
Influential Theologians......................136
Missouri's Influence.........................153
Explanatory Statements of Doctrinal Basis....158
Restatement of Basis.........................161
Actual Conditions............................166
Un-Lutheran Practise.........................170
THE GENERAL COUNCIL......................176-227
Synods Composing the Council.................176
Charles Porterfield Krauth...................181
Other Representative Theologians.............187
Constitution.................................190
Subtile Unionism.............................195
The Four Points..............................198
Akron-Galesburg Rule.........................202
Interdenominational Fellowship...............204
Attitude toward Lodges.......................207
Chiliasm.....................................210
Other Aberrations............................212
Romanism.....................................214
Synergism....................................217
Liberalistic Trends..........................220
Equivocal Doctrinal Attitude.................224
THE UNITED SYNOD SOUTH...................228-243
Organization.................................228
Doctrinal Basis..............................229
Indifferentism...............................232
Un-Lutheran Practise.........................234
Tennessee and Holston Synods.................236
Common Service...............................241
The United Lutheran Church.
MERGER.
1. Origin of the New Body.--On April 18, 1917, at Philadelphia, the
Joint Quadricentennial Committee, appointed by the General Synod, the
General Council, and the United Synod in the South to arrange for a
union celebration of the Reformation, decided that the merging of the
three affiliated general bodies would be "the fittest commemoration and
noblest memorial of the four-hundredth Reformation Jubilee." Accordingly,
the presidents of these bodies, being present, were requested to form a
joint committee, which should prepare a constitution for a united Church
and present the same to the three general bodies for their consideration,
and, if approved, for submission to the District Synods. The
constitution, framed by the committee, was in the same year adopted by
all of the three general bodies, the General Synod, which, in 1820, had
been founded for the express purpose of uniting all Lutheran synods in
America, being the first to assent to the Merger during its session at
Chicago, June 20 to 27, 1917. The various District Synods also having
approved of the union and having ratified the constitution, the Merger
was consummated at New York City, November 15, 1918. Dr. F. H. Knubel, a
member of the General Synod, was elected President of the new body--
"The United Lutheran Church in America." Of the total number of
Lutherans in America (63 synods, 15,243 congregations, 9,790 pastors,
2,450,000 confirmed and 3,780,000 baptized members) the United Church
embraces 45 synods, 10 theological seminaries with 46 professors and 267
students, 17 colleges, 6 academies, 3,747 congregations and
mission-posts, 2,754 pastors, almost 1,000,000 baptized members, and
758,000 confirmed members, the General Synod contributing 364,000, the
General Council 340,000, and the United Synod in the South 53,000. The
United Church is the second largest Lutheran body in America, the
Synodical Conference outnumbering it by only about 50,000 confirmed
members. The merged bodies will continue to exist legally until no
property rights are imperiled. In 1919 it was decided to consolidate the
_ Lutheran_, the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_, and the _Lutheran
Church Visitor_. The new church-paper will be _The Lutheran_, with Dr.
G. W. Sandt as editor-in-chief.
2. Refusing to Enter the Merger.--The United Lutheran Church,
according to the _ Lutheran_, "has inaugurated a new era of progress for
our beloved Lutheran Church. . . . Three names have gone down, but a new
and greater name has arisen from their ashes." This, however, was not
the view of the Iowa and Augustana synods, though both indirectly,
through their connection with the General Council, had for years been in
church-fellowship also with the General Synod, hence, consistently might
have entertained scruples to join the Merger no more than the Council.
When, at Philadelphia, October 25, 1917, the General Council passed on
the Merger, Dr. M. Reu, the representative of the Iowa Synod, was the
only delegate (advisory) who voted against it. Pointing especially to
the fact that the General Synod, at its last convention in Chicago, had
elected as president a man [Dr. Geo. Tressler] who was publicly known to
be a Mason of a high degree, Dr. Reu warned against the union, as it
would practically mean the abandonment of the Council's position on
pulpit- and altar-fellowship, as well as on the lodge-question. The
_Kirchenblatt_ of the Iowa Synod: "It is apparent that the influence of
the General Synod on the General Council has paralyzed the practical
principles of the fathers, and that the contemplated Merger is
tantamount to an anulment of these principles, as far as the official
practise of this new church-body will come into question. And yet, just
this life, the ecclesiastical life and practise of the ministers and
congregations, is the mirror in which the real confessional attitude may
be seen. We [Iowa] owe much to the General Council, and will always
remember this gratefully, but now our roads separate and we must part.
American [?] Lutheranism [?], [tr. note: sic] which the General Synod
has always stood for, and which has had its adherents also in the
General Council, especially among its nativistic representatives, will
control also the new church-body. This, according to our understanding,
means that a far-reaching influence of a Reformed nature will manifest
itself, especially with respect to church-practise and the attitude
toward all manner of societies and antichristian lodges." (_Lehre und
Wehre_, 1917, 521. 572.)
3. Withdrawal of the Augustana Synod.--For more than a decade prior to
the Merger the current within the Swedish Augustana Synod had been
running against the General Council. Accordingly, to the Augustana Synod
the contemplated union was an occasion rather than a cause for refusing
to join the movement and for severing her connection also with the
Council. Indeed, at the convention of the General Council at
Philadelphia, October 25, 1917, all of the Augustana representatives had
cast their votes for the new organization. At her last convention, June
8, 1918, however, the Synod, in spite of the most strenuous efforts on
the part of the delegates of the General Council to draw her into the
union, passed the resolution: "_Resolved_, That the Augustana Synod does
not at this time see its way clear to enter the proposed merger of the
United Lutheran Church in America, but declares itself in favor of a
federation of Lutheran church-bodies in North America." A subsequent
resolution severed her connection with the Council. The reasons advanced
by the Augustana Synod for her action were not of a doctrinal or
confessional nature, but rather pertained to the interest of her
peculiar work among the Swedish population of our country. Yet the
course chosen by the Augustana Synod was, at least part, the result also
of the secret fear that the new body would rapidly sink to the level of
the doctrinal and practical laxism of the General Synod. Warning against
the Merger, the _Lutheran Companion_, of the Augustana Synod, wrote: "We
must hold ourselves aloof from spiritual fellowship with such churches
or denominations, some of whose factors advocate and defend lodgism,
dancing as a pastime for the young people under the auspices and
sanction of the church, etc." (_L. u. W._, 1917, 522.) Disappointed on
account of the withdrawal of the Augustana Synod, the _Lutheran_, of the
General Council, commented: "The Augustana Synod has subordinated unity
of faith to unity of race. This is as un-American as it is un-Lutheran,
and the day of its real Lutheran union is thereby indefinitely postponed.
. . . We are persuaded that this separation was willed by man and not by
God, though we also believe that He will, in the end, overrule it for
good. . . . The Augustana Synod has missed its opportunity; it has
limited the sphere of its influence; it has placed synodical and social
interests as a clog in the wheel of the Lutheran Church's progress as a
whole, and set the Church back a generation or more to start afresh on
the pathway to its ultimate goal. . . . Lutherans are now to be fenced
off into social groups to be known as the Swedish, the Norwegian, the
German, and the English divisions of the Lutheran forces in this
country." (_L. u. W._, 1917, 522; 1918, 329 ff.)
4. Attitude of the Ohio Synod.--Though representatives also of the
Ohio Synod served on the Joint Quadricentennial Committee in order to
arrange for a union celebration of the Reformation together with the
representatives of the General Synod, the Council and the United Synod
South, the official organs of the Ohio Synod were severe in condemning
the Merger. The _Lutheran Standard_, August 4, 1917: "There are chiefly
two practical differences that keep us apart, namely, that concerning
altar- and pulpit-fellowship and that concerning the lodge. Concerning
the first point the constitution [of the Merger] has nothing to say
whatever. Relative to lodge-membership, the general body will have only
advisory power." The _Kirchenzeitung_, of the Ohio Synod, May 12, 1917:
"The great and glorious work of Dr. Krauth in the Council has been
nullified. The General Synod's practise of fraternizing with the sects
will prevail. What is sound and good in the Council will crumble; the
proposed union is a great victory for the lax portion of the General
Synod and a pitiable defeat for the Council. Indeed, we shall be told
about the 'salt' that the Council may be in the new body, but that is an
old, old game, which cannot fool people any more. And this to celebrate
the Reformation Jubilee! Would that Luther could return and with the
thunder of his scorn shatter this celebration of his work! Where
unionism has its jubilee, all true Lutherans turn away in sorrow and
anger." (_Luth. Witness_, 1918, 406.) However, considering that pulpit-
and altar-fellowship, where-ever justified, clears the way for all other
external unions, and that Ohio representatives served on the
Quadricentennial Committee for a union celebration of the Reformation,
the above criticism, warranted though it be, will hardly be viewed as
consistent.
CONSTITUTION.
5. Doctrinal Basis.--The Constitution of the United Lutheran Church
provides: "Article II: Doctrinal Basis. Section 1. The United Lutheran
Church in America receives and holds the canonical Scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and as the only
infallible rule and standard of faith and practise, according to which
all doctrines and teachers are to be judged.--Section 2. The United
Lutheran Church in America accepts the three ecumenical creeds; namely,
the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian, as important testimonies
drawn from the Holy Scriptures, and rejects all errors which they
condemn.--Section 3. The United Lutheran Church in America receives
and holds the Unaltered Augsburg Confession as a correct exhibition of
the faith and doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, founded upon
the Word of God; and acknowledges all churches that sincerely hold and
faithfully confess the doctrines of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession to
be entitled to the name of Evangelical Lutheran.--Section 4. The
United Lutheran Church in America recognizes the Apology of the Augsburg
Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Large and Small Catechisms of
Luther, and the Formula of Concord as in the harmony of one and the same
pure Scriptural faith."--"Article IV. Section 2. Any Evangelical
Lutheran synod applying for admission which has accepted the
Constitution with its Doctrinal Basis, as set forth in Article II, and
whose constitution has been approved by the Executive Board, may be
received into membership by a majority vote at any regular convention."
6. Further Confessional Statements.--Among the other sections of the
Constitution expressing directly or indirectly the confessional and
doctrinal attitude of the new body are the following: "Article VI:
Objects. The objects of the United Lutheran Church in America are: . . .
Section 1. To preserve and extend the pure teaching of the Gospel and
the right administration of the Sacraments. (Eph. 4, 5, 6; the Augsburg
Confession, Art. VII.) Section 2. To conserve the unity of the true
faith (Eph.4, 3-16; 1 Cor. 1, 10), to guard against any departure
therefrom (Rom. 16, 17), and to strengthen the Church in faith and
confession. Section 3. To express outwardly the spiritual unity of the
Lutheran congregations and synods, to cultivate cooperation among all
Lutherans in the promotion of the general interests of the Church, to
seek the unification of all Lutherans in one orthodox faith, and thus to
develop and unfold the specific Lutheran principle and practise, and
make their strength effective."--"Article VIII: Powers. . . . Section
6: As to the Maintenance of Principle and Practise. The United Lutheran
Church in America shall protect and enforce its Doctrinal Basis, secure
pure preaching of the Word of God and the right administration of the
Sacraments in all its synods and congregations. It shall also have the
right, where it deems that loyalty to the Word of God requires it, to
advise and admonish concerning association and affiliation with
non-ecclesiastical and other organizations whose principles or practises
appear to be inconsistent with full loyalty to the Christian Church"
[weak and misleading, if Freemasons and similar lodges are meant; the
more so, as quite a number of the clergymen in the Merger are lodgemen];
"but the synods alone shall have the power of discipline" [conflicts
with principle of unity in doctrine and practise].--"Article III.