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

by F. Bente

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.