American Lutheranism, Volume 2 / The United Lutheran Church (General Synod, General Council, United Synod in the South)

by F. Bente

CHRISTIAN UNION.

37. "Father" of Evangelical Alliance.—At Chambersburg, Pa., 1839, the General Synod passed the resolution "that the thanks of this Synod be presented to the American Society for the Promotion of Christian Union for this acceptable present." The present received by the members of Synod was Schmucker's "Appeal to the American Churches" or "New Plan of Apostolic Protestant Union." The purpose of this book was to promote union among the Protestant denominations on the basis of the ecumenical confessions. It proved to be a powerful factor in the movement which resulted in the organization of the Evangelical Alliance. Schmucker himself, together with Kurtz and Morris, attended the "World's Convention" at London in 1846, where they united with 800 ministers of 50 different denominations in founding the Alliance, which assumed the motto: "Unum corpus sumus in Christo," Schmucker, in particular being feted as the "Father" of this union. Naturally enough also the General Synod took a lively interest in the Alliance, though it was not a union of churches or of representatives of churches, but of individual Christians who were in sympathy with its aims. In 1869, for example, the General Synod "resolved that the delegates to the World's Evangelical Alliance, appointed at Harrisburg, be continued with the addition of Rev. S. Sprecher, D. D., and Rev. S. S. Schmucker, D. D." (64.) At the international conferences of the Alliance the General Synod was regularly represented, also at its last convention in 1914 at Basel. On a local meeting of the Alliance in 1902, at Easton, Pa., the Lutherische Kirchenblatt (General Council) reported, in substance, as follows: "More than 60 delegates were present: Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists, Evangelicals, Free Baptists, Lutherans (General Synod and General Council), Mennonites, Moravians, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Reformed, Reformed Presbyterians, and United Evangelicals. Resolutions formulated by a committee, of which Dr. Alleman of the General Synod was a member, were unanimously adopted according to which members of one congregation may be received by another in a manner 'that no question of church-polity or doctrine need ever arise.' It was furthermore resolved that in smaller cities and country congregations union services be held throughout the state." (Observer, Dec. 26, 1903.) The following nine articles, which Schmucker viewed as a sufficient basis for every kind of Christian union and cooperation, were adopted by the Alliance at London: "1. The divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures. 2. The right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the Holy Scripture. 3. The unity of the Godhead and the trinity of Persons therein. 4. The utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the fall. 5. The incarnation of the Son of God, His work of atonement for sinners of mankind, and His mediatorial intercession and reign. 6. The justification of the sinner by faith alone. 7. The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and sanctification of the sinner. 8. The immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the judgment of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous and the eternal punishment of the wicked. 9. The divine institution of Christian ministry, and the obligation and perpetuity of the ordinance of Baptism and the Lord's Supper."

38. "Apostolic Protestant Union."—The plan of Christian Union hatched by Schmucker and recommended by the General Synod is delineated in a report presented 1848, at New York, by the Committee of Conference on Christian Union appointed at the previous session of the General Synod, as follows: "The kind of union to which this body was disposed to invite the several evangelical denominations, and in which she felt it a duty and a pleasure to lead the way in hope of virtually healing the 'Great Schism' of Protestantism, is also definitely delineated by the following portraiture: 'The design to be aimed at shall be not to amalgamate the several denominations into one church, nor to impair in any degree the independent control of each denomination over its own affairs and interests, but to present to the world a more formal profession and practical proof of our mutual recognition of each other as integral parts of the visible Church of Christ on earth, as well as our fundamental unity of faith and readiness to cooperate harmoniously in the advancement of objects of common interest." (11.) "An article was prepared in which, after a glance at the solemn injunction of the Savior and His apostles to preserve unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, the nature and extent of the union prevailing in the primitive churches was delineated as consisting of the following features: a. unity of name; b. unity in fundamental doctrines, whilst diversity in nonessentials was concealed; c. mutual acknowledgment of each other's acts of discipline; d. sacramental and ministerial intercommunion; e. convention of the different churches of the land in synod or council for mutual consultation or ecclesiastical regulation." (12.) "In contrast with this picture of primitive union, the present deplorable divided and conflicting state of the Church was delineated…. In hope of removing the principal evils of these denominational divisions, your committee projected a scheme of Christian union based (in the following four preliminary principles for the guarantee of the rights of individual conscience and denominational religious liberty: 1. This plan must require of no one the renunciation of any doctrine or opinion believed by him to be true, nor the profession of anything he regards as erroneous; nor does the accession of any denomination to this union imply any sanction of the peculiarities of any other. 2. It must concede to every denomination the right to retain its own organization for government, discipline, and worship. 3. It must not prevent the discussion of the points of difference between the several associated denominations, but only require that it be done in the spirit of love. 4. It must either in all or at least some of its features be applicable to all evangelical, fundamentally orthodox [non-Unitarian] churches, and each denomination may at option adopt any or all of its features." (12.) The plan of union offered in accordance with these principles by Schmucker and the committee embraces the following features: 1. Adoption of the nine doctrinal articles of the Evangelical Alliance. 2. Regular interchange of delegates between the supreme judicatories of the several denominations. 3. Cooperation of the different associated churches in voluntary societies, notably such as Bible, Tract, Sabbath-school and Foreign Mission Societies. 4. The more extensive use of the Bible as a textbook in theological, congregational, and Sunday-school institutions. 5. Occasional free sacramental communion by all whose views of duty allow it. 6. A general, stated anniversary celebration and smaller state celebrations, also representation at the ecumenical conventions of the Evangelical Alliance. (12.) The report concludes: "This plan was sent by your committee in the form of a proof-sheet to about fifty of the most distinguished and influential divines of ten different denominations, and these not only returned letters expressing their substantial approbation of the plan, but nearly all of them united with your committee in sending it out over their own signatures as an overture of Christian union, submitted for the consideration of the Evangelical denominations in the United States." (13.)

39. Endorsed by the General Synod.—"According to the conception of prominent leaders," says Dr. Jacobs, "the General Synod was nothing more than the realization of Zinzendorf's dream of 1742, which the coming of Muhlenberg had so quickly dissipated." (History, 304.) But judged by its minutes, what Jacobs limits to its "prominent leaders" is true of the General Synod as such. Synod certainly did not discourage Schmucker in his union schemes. In 1839, at Chambersburg, the General Synod was immediately interested in his "Plan of Apostolic Protestant Union." The committee appointed in the matter recommended "that Synod approve of the several features of the union plan, and submit it for serious consideration to its District Synods." (19.) A following convention appointed Schmucker, Krauth, and Miller as a Committee of Conference on Christian Union to confer with similar committees and prominent individuals of different denominations "on the great subject of Christian Union." At New York, 1848, Synod resolved that the report on Christian Union be adopted, and the Committee on Christian Union be continued." (15.) At Charleston, 1850, the Committee of Conference remarked in its report: "As the general principles of the Apostolic Christian Union, adopted by this body, were fully detailed in our last report, it is deemed unnecessary to enlarge on them in this place." (21.) Schmucker continued his efforts till the year of his death, 1873, when again he made an appeal to the General Synod "for an advisory union among all Evangelical denominations" as an "additional aid to the promotion of the designs of the World's Evangelical Alliance." (53.) The committee to whom Schmucker's letter and his printed appeal was referred, recommended the resolution: "Resolved, That while this General Synod approves of the ends contemplated by the appeal, and commends the fraternal spirit of its author, yet it does not deem it necessary for the present to take any further action towards Christian union than that which is already upon record." (53.) Schmucker's ideas concerning Christian union, however, were not abandoned by the General Synod. Moreover, in a way, his plans materialized in the Federal Council, consisting of about 30 Protestant bodies, at the organization of which, in 1905, the General Synod was represented by Wenner, Remensnyder, Grosscup, and Bauslin. (L. u. W. 1906, 33.) Theologically the Federal Council does not even measure up to the ideals of Schmucker, inasmuch as it reduced the nine points of the Evangelical Alliance, which Schmucker viewed as essential, to the meager confession of "Jesus Christ as their divine Lord and Savior," which even Unitarians will not hesitate to subscribe to. Besides, Seventh-day Adventists, Christians, Friends, and other bodies tainted with Unitarianism are even now connected with the Federal Council. In 1909 the General Synod "heartily endorsed the work of the Federal Council." (115.) In 1917 Synod adopted the report of its delegates to the Council which said, in part: "It was a great privilege to have participated in this historic council. As the federation idea originated in the United States in the mind and heart of a learned and devout Lutheran, Dr. Samuel S. Schmucker, it was a great joy and satisfaction to see and participate in this consummation of Dr. Schmucker's hope of all Protestant bodies in council and cooperation in the one common task of propagating the kingdom of God in society and throughout the world." (27.) The ultimate aim of the Federal Council evidently is an amalgamation of all Protestant Churches. And there are, even now, General Synodists who are ready to countenance this eventuality. In the Christian Herald, December 12, 1917, Dr. J. B. Remensnyder spoke of the essential unity of Protestantism separated only by minor differences, and of "the practical possibility of a larger union,—one world-wide Protestant Church of Christ," to be brought about by mutual surrender of secondary differences. "It will not come about," says Remensnyder, "by one denomination insisting absolutely on its doctrinal type." In the Lutheran Church Work and Observer, May 23, 1918, p. 7 f., a General Synod pastor wrote: "With forms of religion and denominational differences we have nothing to do…. Let each one have his own faith, his own light and hope." "There come moments when we forget our differences and our various labels, when we arise above the partial, the individual, and sectarian, when a common impulse drives us headlong into the arms of trust and general comradeship…."