Volume II Part 6 (2/2)
117. Conforming to Decisions a Moral Obligation.--In 1866 Dr. Krauth, defending the polity of the General Council, wrote in the _Lutheran and Missionary_: ”We entirely agree with our friend in the _Lutheraner_ that the strength of the Church does not depend upon a '_strong government,_'
but on the unity of faith, doctrine, and confession. But 'strong' and 'weak' are relative terms. We want a _real_ government; something which shall hold in a genuine outward bond, however mild, the true confessors of our Church's faith, and enable them to work in harmony, and if we understand the principles which control the government of the Synod of Missouri, we are sure that we desire nothing stronger nor better in the government of our whole Church in this country than these principles would give us. We only ask a church government which shall bind us by the gentle laws of love and peace, which shall take offenses out of the way, which shall be an aid in causing all things to be done decently and in order in the Church--which shall be a safeguard to conscience, and shall not lay, nor attempt to lay, burdens on it. The decisions of a synod which shall be such a government representatively will indeed be merely human, as the decisions of all earthly governments are merely human--nay, often manifestly wrong; nevertheless, we hold that the generic governmental principles and the right of representation are as really of G.o.d in the Church as in the State. The obligation to conform to the decisions of such a [representative] synod is the obligation of peace, love, and order; and where violation of them (except on the ground of conscience) creates scandal and offense, there is a moral obligation to conform to them.” (Spaeth, 2, 172 f.) However, the const.i.tution of the General Council does not contain the limitation: ”where violation creates scandal and offense”; and Missouri holds that a congregation may ignore a resolution of synod, not only on the ground of conscience, but also whenever it finds a resolution unsuitable for her conditions.
SUBTILE UNIONISM.
118. Missouri's Att.i.tude toward the General Council.--Originally Dr.
Walther and Dr. Sihler were optimistic with respect to the movements which resulted in the organization of the new general body. Walther wrote: ”Scarcely any event within the bounds of the Lutheran Church of North America has ever afforded us greater joy than the withdrawal of the Synod of Pennsylvania from the unionistic so-called General Synod.
This is a step which will undoubtedly lead to consequences of the utmost importance and of the most salutary character. The plan to give prominence and supremacy in this land, by means of the 'General Synod,'
to a so-called American Lutheranism which ignores the distinctive doctrines of the Lutheran Church, and to compel the truly Lutheran synods to occupy a separatistic, isolated, and powerless position, is completely frustrated by this step.” (Spaeth, 2, 162.) But the hopes of Walther and his friends were doomed to disappointment, at least in part.
In spite of its irreproachable confessional basis the General Council was imbued with a spirit of indifferentism and unionism, though of a finer grade and quality than that prevailing in the General Synod. In accordance with its principle that fraternal cooperation and union of necessity presupposes unity in doctrine and practise, Missouri, instead of partic.i.p.ating in the hasty organization of the General Council, insisted on Free Conferences in order first to bring about real doctrinal agreement, the prerequisite of every G.o.d-pleasing external union. In Reading, 1866, however, this request was disregarded, union being the paramount, true and real unity a secondary consideration. Nor was there a change effected in this att.i.tude by the subsequent correspondence between the General Council and the Missouri Synod. At Reading the delegates pa.s.sed the resolution: ”That the synods represented in this convention which prefer a Free Conference to an immediate organization be and hereby are invited to send representatives to the next meeting, with the understanding that they have in it all the privileges of debate and a fraternal comparison of views.” To this Missouri responded at its convention in Chicago, in May, 1867: ”In view of the relations we sustain toward different members of the Church Council, in reference to doctrine and churchly practise, we must be apprehensive that the consideration and discussion of differences still existing in the convention of the Church Council might give rise to the reflection that we intended to interrupt the bringing about of a unity, and are therefore fearful lest our partic.i.p.ation, instead of leading to an agreement, might be productive of greater alienation. Even at the risk of appearing capricious in the eyes of the Reverend Body, and less diligent in our efforts for churchly unity, we beg leave to declare it again as our conviction that Free Conferences, such as are separated from officially organized conventions of ecclesiastical bodies, on the basis of the symbols of our Church, as contained in the Book of Concord of 1580, are the only proper means for an exchange of such convictions as are still divergent, and which, by the grace of G.o.d, may lead to a unity on the basis of our beloved Confession.” At Fort Wayne, in November, 1867, the General Council renewed the resolution ”that we sincerely respect the honest preferences of our brethren [Missouri] in regard to the best means of uniting our Church, and that we are willing to set apart a time, during the future sessions of this body, when it will meet them simply as a Free Conference.” And, no answer having been received, the Council, at Pittsburgh, 1868, instructed its secretaries to bring the Fort Wayne action again to the attention of the Missouri Synod. In the following year Missouri answered that it was not its desire to deal with the General Council as such and during the sessions of the same; that by such a side-dealing justice could not be done the matter; that they desired and regarded Free Conferences as the proper means to reach the end contemplated. (Ochsenford, _Doc. History_, 152 ff.) Thus, from the very beginning, Missouri, in the interest of real unity as a prerequisite of union, urged free conferences and doctrinal discussions, while the General Council offered discussions ”in regard to the best means of uniting our Church,” at the same time insisting on a mode which involved a recognition of the unionistic procedure adopted in organizing the General Council. Considering the facts that some of the synods, uniting in 1866 and 1867 with the General Council, had several months before belonged to the General Synod; that ostensibly they had severed their connection on technical grounds; that all along they had been committed, more or less, not only to a false confessional basis, but also to Reformed doctrines and un-Lutheran practise, etc., the Missouri Synod, without sacrificing its anti-unionistic principles, could hardly have taken a different course of action than it did.
Moreover, the subsequent history of the General Council, down to the Merger in 1918, has proved conclusively that Missouri's original evaluation of the General Council's confessionalism was certainly not very far from the mark. It was, then, the persistent refusal, on the part of the General Council, of free conferences, such as Missouri could have attended without an _a priori_ violation of her convictions, that brought about and prolonged the deadlock obtaining between the two bodies. As late as 1904, at the time of the Inter-synodical Conferences, Dr. Jacobs declared that he would not meet Missouri in a free conference without a preceding joint service of prayer; and to this the _Lutheran_ a.s.sented. (_L. u. W._ 1904, 224. 370.)
119. The Primary Difference.--In 1885 Dr. Spaeth wrote: ”In no other Lutheran body of the Old or New World has the question on the great principles of true church unity received such attention and been treated in such a thorough and comprehensive manner as within the General Council.” There is certainly a good deal of truth in this a.s.sertion. For the General Council did make repeated efforts at grasping and applying the principles of true church unity. But it lacked consistency, and in formulating the rules and theories, their theologians were influenced by conditions inherited from the General Synod. They lacked the courage or ability of completely breaking with their unionistic past. This was essentially the charge of Missouri against the General Council--the correctness of which was vindicated also by the action taken by the representatives of the synods of Ohio and Iowa at the first convention of the General Council, 1867, at Fort Wayne. While Walther and the Missouri Synod demanded a real, material unity, unity as to the actual content, that is to say, the individual doctrines of the Lutheran symbols, the General Council was satisfied with a mere correct formal acknowledgment of the Confessions. It was the difference between the form and substance of unity. In the _Lutheran_ of August 22, 1907, Dr.
Krotel declared with respect to the doctrinal att.i.tude of the Council: It ”firmly refuses to occupy the unionistic position of doctrinal vacillation and tolerance. Contrary to the theological temper of the age, it maintains that there are articles of faith so definite and fixed and clear as to demand unqualified endors.e.m.e.nt and defense.”
(_Doc. Hist_., 138.) But Dr. Krotel's a.s.sertions are not supported by the facts. Judged by the real conditions, the General Council has always been a unionistic body.
THE FOUR POINTS.
120. Altar- and Pulpit-Fellows.h.i.+p, Lodges and Chiliasm.--Immediately at its first convention at Fort Wayne, 1867, it became apparent that the General Council was unwilling to take an unequivocal and decided stand with respect to Lutheran doctrine and practise. At Fort Wayne the Joint Synod of Ohio, through its delegates (G. Cronenwett, F.A. Herzberger, G. Baughman), after stating that, despite the reception of the Doctrinal Basis, ”un-Lutheran doctrine and practise” were still found in some of the synods connected with the Council, requested an answer to the following questions: ”1. What relation will this venerable body in future sustain to Chiliasm? 2. Mixed communions? 3. The exchanging of pulpits with sectarians? 4. Secret or unchurchly societies?”
”Especially,” they declared, ”would we earnestly desire a decided answer with regard to the last item, inasmuch as the Joint Synod, for years already, in view of certain relations in one of its district synods, has had difficulties in consequence of four pastors belonging to secret societies, and would not, therefore, again burden its conscience.” The answer was: ”That this Council is aware of nothing in its 'Fundamental Principles of Faith and Church Polity' and Const.i.tution, nor in the relation it sustains in the four questions raised, which justifies a doubt whether its decision on them all, when they are brought up in the manner prescribed in the Const.i.tution, will be in harmony with Holy Scripture and the Confession of the Church. That so soon as official evidence shall be presented to this body, in the manner prescribed by the const.i.tution, that un-Lutheran doctrines or practises are authorized by the action of any of its synods, or by their refusal to act, it will weigh that evidence, and, if it finds they exist, use all its const.i.tutional power to convince the minds of men in regard to them, and as speedily as possible to remove them.” (_Doc. Hist_., 156.) In other words: Unite with us, and then we shall see what can be done, according to the ”educational methods,” with reference to the Four Points. A similar evasive answer was given to the following pet.i.tion of the Iowa Synod: ”In order to effect a union of the Church, and that we may all truly agree in the principles of practise as well as of faith, without conditions, the delegates [G. Grossman, S. and G. Fritschel] of the Synod of Iowa propose, in accordance with the instructions of their Synod, that the General Council shall expressly acknowledge what, according to the understanding of the delegates of said Synod, is virtually acknowledged in the 'Fundamental Principles of Faith and Church Polity' adopted by this body, _viz._: 1. that according to the Confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church there must be, and is, condemned all church-fellows.h.i.+p with such as are not Lutherans; for example, ministers serving congregations such as are mixed and not purely Lutheran, receiving such congregations and their pastors into synodical connection, the admittance of those of a different faith to the privilege of Communion, the permission of those not Lutheran to occupy our pulpits, etc.; 2. according to the Word of G.o.d, church-discipline be exercised, especially at the celebration of the Holy Communion, and be likewise exercised towards those who are members of secret societies.” The answer was: ”That the General Council is not prepared to endorse the declaration of the Synod of Iowa as a correct logical deduction and application of the negative part of our Confessional Books, and that we refer the matter to the District Synods, until such time as, by the blessings of G.o.d's Holy Spirit and the leadings of His Providence, we shall be enabled throughout the whole General Council and all its churches to see eye to eye in all the details of practise and usage, towards the consummation of which we will direct our unceasing prayers.” (161.) In other words: Unite with us, and we shall see what can be done in the future, and whether your position really is in harmony with the Lutheran Confessions. Hereupon the Iowa men declared that their Synod could not unite with the Council, because ”in accordance with our deep and sincere conviction, which is at the same time that of the Synod we represent, we must declare it to be a necessary precedent condition of an official ecclesiastical connection between synodical bodies that there should be a complete and hearty agreement not only in the principles of faith and confession, but also in an ecclesiastical practise accordant with such faith and confession, as set forth especially in the first of the propositions presented by us.” (162.) Among the pastors who, at Fort Wayne, also declared their dissent with respect to the dubious att.i.tude of the Council regarding the Four Points were the Revs. J. Bading, A. Hoenecke, A. Martin, C.F.
Welden, and C. F. Heyer. (155 ff.)
121. Side-lights on ”Four Points” Difficulties.--Dr. S.E. Ochsenford explains in _Doc.u.mentary History of the General Council_: ”The difficulty lay in the fact that some synods demanded that that should be done at once[?], regardless of consequences, which others felt could be done with much better results by following an educational method, leading in the process of time all the synods and congregations, among many of which in certain portions of the Church there existed peculiar difficulties, to the same lofty eminence of purity in doctrine and in practise, and so true unity in both. The older synods had difficulties in this respect, of which the more recently formed synods had no true conception. These difficulties could not be eradicated at once and by the fiat of any organization; but as they had grown up gradually, so they must be removed by a process of education.” (164.) Dr. Spaeth gives the following explanation of the situation, and apology for the att.i.tude of the General Council at Fort Wayne: ”There appeared at this point a wide difference, especially between the Eastern and Western synods, which was in the first place the natural result of the historical development, through which those various sections of the Church had pa.s.sed which now endeavored to form an organic union. The Lutheran Church in the Eastern part of our country, having been founded about one hundred and fifty years ago, had pa.s.sed through all the different stages of church-life, suffering, and death, by which the history of the Church and theology of the German Fatherland was characterized in that period.
We need not be surprised to find that during this time many things crept in which were in conflict with the spirit and Confession of our Church.
Over against those things the renewed appreciation of the Lutheran Confession and the honest return to the same was of comparatively recent date. It was therefore not to be expected that there should have been on all sides at the very outset a thorough insight into all the consequences and obligations of a decided and consistent adoption of the Lutheran Confession. On the other hand, most of the Lutheran synods of the West had been founded at a much more favorable season. Out of the very fulness and freshness of the revived Confession, partly even in the martyr-spirit of a persecuted Church, have their foundations been laid and their structures raised. Accordingly, their whole congregational life could much more easily and more consistently be organized on the principles established in the Confession, and many evils could be excluded which in other places had taken root and had been growing for nearly a century.” (164.) However, both Spaeth and Ochsenford fail to see the real issue; for the grievance at Fort Wayne was not the inability to abolish immediately all abuses referred to in the Four Points, but rather the persistent refusal on the part of the General Council to take, as such, a definite and unequivocal Lutheran att.i.tude with respect to these questions. Nor was the charge, at least on the part of Missouri, with respect to the ”educational method,” as advocated and applied from 1867 to 1918 by the Council, directed against this method as such, but against the mutilation of this method by practically eliminating its eventual natural termination, expulsion according to Matt. 18, and against the apparent insincerity in the advocacy, and the lack of seriousness in the application of this method. Indeed, the real grievance was not that weak members of the General Council were lagging behind in Lutheran doctrine and practise, but that many of her prominent leaders and her periodicals occupied an un-Lutheran position and championed un-Lutheran doctrine and practise.
AKRON-GALESBURG RULE.
122. Non-Lutherans Admitted Exceptionally.--Regarding the Four Points, especially the question of altar- and pulpit-fellows.h.i.+p, the General Council during its subsequent history never really rose above the Fort Wayne level. In 1868, at Pittsburgh, the Council declared ”that no man shall be admitted to our pulpits, whether of the Lutheran name or any other, of whom there is just reason to doubt whether he will preach the pure truth of G.o.d's Word as taught in the Confessions of our Church.”
(208.) As though a sectarian minister could preach in accordance with the Lutheran symbols; or offense and unionism were fully eliminated when the sectarian minister, preaching in a Lutheran pulpit, proclaims none of his errors! The same convention held: ”Lutheran ministers may properly preach wherever there is an opening in the pulpit of other churches, unless the circ.u.mstances imply, or seem to imply, a fellows.h.i.+p with error or schism, or a restriction on the unreserved expression of the whole counsel of G.o.d.” (209.) But, apart from other considerations, the fact is that, as a rule, these conditions were not and could not be complied with. Furthermore, the same convention declared: ”Heretics and fundamentally false teachers are to be excluded from the Lord's Table.”
(209.) But the convention at Chicago, in 1870, explained: ”Although the General Council holds the distinctive doctrines of our Evangelical Lutheran Church as in such sense fundamental that those who err in them err in fundamental doctrines, nevertheless, in employing the terms '_fundamental errorists_,' in the declaration made at Pittsburgh, it understands not those who are the victims of involuntary mistake, but those who wilfully, wickedly, and persistently desert, in whole or in part, the Christian faith, especially as embodied in the Confessions of the Church Catholic, in the purest form in which it now exists on earth, to wit, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and thus overturn or destroy the _foundation_ in them confessed; and who hold, defend, and extend these errors in the face of the admonitions of the Church, and to the leading away of men from the path of life.” (215 f.) Accordingly, the fact that a Christian held the Reformed view on the Lord's Supper did not _per se_ exclude him from the altars of the General Council.
123. ”The Rule Is.”--At Akron, O., 1872, in answer to a question of the Iowa Synod referring to the declaration of 1870, Dr. Krauth, then President of the General Council, submitted the following: ”1. The rule is: Lutheran pulpits are for Lutheran ministers only. Lutheran altars are for Lutheran communicants only. 2. The exceptions to the rule belong to the sphere of privilege, not of right. 3. The determination of the exceptions is to be made in consonance with these principles, by the conscientious judgment of pastors, as the cases arise.” (216.) At Galesburg, 1875, the General Council declared: ”The rule which accords with the Word of G.o.d and with the Confessions of our Church is: 'Lutheran pulpits for Lutheran ministers only--Lutheran altars for Lutheran communicants only.'” (217.) However, this declaration, which, for the time being, satisfied the Iowa Synod, admits of the interpretation: The exceptions are: Lutheran pulpits for non-Lutheran ministers, and Lutheran altars for non-Lutheran communicants, as was virtually admitted also by the General Council in her answer of 1877 to an appeal from the Ministerium of New York against violation of the Galesburg Rule. (217.) Returning--if indeed a return was required--to the Akron Declaration, the General Council, in 1889, stated ”that at the time of the pa.s.sage of the Galesburg Rule, by the General Council, the distinct statement was made that all preceding action of the General Council on pulpit- and altar-fellows.h.i.+p was unchanged.... Inasmuch as the General Council has never annulled, rescinded, or reconsidered the declarations made at Akron, 0., in the year 1872, they still remain, in all their parts and provisions, the action and rule of the General Council. All subsequent action of the General Council is to be understood and interpreted according to the principles there determined and settled.... The present position of the General Council is to be understood and interpreted in such manner that neither the amendment and further explanation at Galesburg nor the original action at Akron be overlooked or ignored, both of which remain in full force and mutually interpret and supplement one another.” (219.) Exceptionally, non-Lutherans may be admitted to Lutheran pulpits and altars--such, then, was the final official decision of the General Council as to the question of pulpit- and altar-fellows.h.i.+p. In the _Lutheran_ of May 3, 1917, Rev. J.E. Whitteker, president of the General Council Home Mission Board, said that it was his custom not to refuse the Lord's Supper to non-Lutherans. (_L. u. W._ 1917, 463.) Dr. J. Fry, _The Pastor's Guide_, says: ”It is not considered proper to give a general invitation to persons belonging to other congregations to partic.i.p.ate in the Communion at the time when it is administered. If any public invitation is given, it should be at the time when the Communion and preparatory services are announced, and such persons be requested to make personal application to the pastor, so he may know who they are, and judge of their fitness to join in the Communion. The door should not be opened wider to strangers than to children of the household.” (54.) In 1904 Dr. Deindoerfer of the Iowa Synod declared: ”We do not see that in the circles of the General Council, as a whole, the churchly practise has improved and become less offensive, and that earnest proceedings are inst.i.tuted against members who are guilty of offensive practise--a state of affairs which our Synod never can and will sanction.” (_L. u. W._ 1904, 516.)
INTERDENOMINATIONAL FELLOWs.h.i.+P.
124. Sound Principles.--The doctrinal basis of the General Council as well as a number also of its later declarations and resolutions as to church-fellows.h.i.+p and cooperation with non-Lutherans are sound. They breathe the Lutheran spirit revealed in the manly words of C.P. Krauth: ”The Lutheran Church can never have real moral dignity, real self-respect, a real claim on the reverence and loyalty of her children while she allows the fear of denominations around her, or the desire of their approval, in any respect to shape her principles or control her actions. It is a fatal thing to ask, not, What is right? What is consistent? but, What will be thought of us? How will our neighbors of the different communions regard this or that course? Better to die than to prolong a miserable life by such a compromise of all that gives life its value.” (_L. u. W._ 1917, 468.) In 1909 Dr. T.E. Schmauk, then president of the General Council, declared in regard to the World's Missionary Conference: ”We regret our inability, on account of our sound fundamental principle of unity as a prerequisite to cooperation, to enter in as one of the active elements in such a meeting.” The committee reported: ”We approve of the President's position as to the World Conference and the Federal Council.” In 1913 the General Council resolved with respect to partic.i.p.ation in ”The World Conference on Faith and Order”: ”While regretting that it is unable to unite with the Communion of the Episcopal Church in arranging for, and conducting, a Conference on Faith and Order, yet, nevertheless, it hereby resolves to appoint a Committee on the Unity of Faith, which shall be authorized, without partic.i.p.ating in organization or arrangement of any conference, to present and set forth the Lutheran faith touching particular doctrines, either independently, or when they are under discussion in any conference or gathering, without, however, granting the committee any power of a.s.sociation, arrangement, fellows.h.i.+p, or practical direction, but confining it to the one specific function of witness and testimony to the faith that is in us, and which we rejoice to confess, and to have tested, before all the world.” In 1915 the General Council made the statement: ”Regarding general movements in the Christian world which have arisen in the last few years looking to the drawing together of the whole Christian Church on earth, such as the movement of a free Protestantism toward a united foreign mission objective, the Federation of Churches, and other movements of a similar character, we recommend that, while we cannot at this time [sic!] organically partic.i.p.ate, it is well, nevertheless, to keep fully informed as to their trend, direction, and development.” (467.) In 1917 Schmauk said in the _Lutheran_: ”The Lutheran faith has suffered terribly in the past by attempts of union and cooperation with various Christian denominations and tendencies.
Usually they have penetrated insidiously into our spirit, and poisoned our own life-roots, and taken possession of our palaces. But these damages have been wrought through an attempted unity with men who are not at one with us in the profession of a _common faith_. As Luther said: 'They have a different spirit.'” (468.)
125. Facts Discounting Declarations.--Although the General Council as such has always confined its fraternal intercourse and cooperation to Lutheran synods (General Synod, United Synod South, etc.), its members and official boards have not. In 1916 several representatives of the General Council attended the Latin-America Missionary Conference, its Mission Board was connected with the ”Foreign Mission Conference,” a body composed of Adventists, Baptists, Quakers, Universalists, Reformed, etc. (461.) In his pamphlet, _Dangerous Alliances_, 1917, Rev. W.
Brenner, a member of the General Council, wrote: ”The _Woman's Mission Worker_, the _Foreign Missionary_, and the _Home Missionary_ [periodicals of the General Council] have published letters and articles defending Lutheran partic.i.p.ation in 'union movements.' In the _Lutheran_ of September 14, 1916, Rev. C.F. Fry lauds federation in 'mission-work'
and 'Reformation celebrations.' 'On Tuesday evening pastors of non-Lutheran churches presented their greetings,' so the _Lutheran_ of November 18, 1915, describes in part the 175th anniversary celebration of St. John's Ev. Lutheran Church at Easton, Pa. Rev. E.S. Bromer, D.D., of the Reformed Church, addressed the congregation of the First Lutheran Church of Greensburg, Pa., on the occasion of its hundredth anniversary.
(_Lutheran_, Nov. 18, 1915.) Emmanuel Lutheran Church of the Augustana Synod laid the corner-stone of a new church edifice, November 12, 1916, at b.u.t.te, Mont. 'Brief congratulatory speeches were made by Hon. C.H.
Lane, mayor of b.u.t.te, and the Rev. J.H. Mitch.e.l.l, chairman of b.u.t.te's Ministerial a.s.sociation.' (_Lutheran_, Nov. 30, 1916.) We have also read of Anti-Saloon League representatives, and Women's Christian Temperance lecturers, mal
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