Volume II Part 8 (1/2)
The members of the Georgia Synod are for the greater part descendants of the Salzburgers, who, in 1734, founded Ebenezer, twenty-five miles from Savannah. 6. The Mississippi Synod, organized in 1860. 7. The Tennessee Synod, founded 1820. 8. The Holston Synod, which branched off from the Tennessee Synod in 1860.--These synods are almost entirely English. Very few of its congregations have regular German services beside the English. The synodical Publis.h.i.+ng House and Theological Seminary are located in Columbia, S.C. Other schools are: Newberry College in Newberry, S.C.; Roanoke College in Salem, Va.; Lenoir College in Hickory, N.C. The official paper of the United Synod, the _Lutheran Church Visitor_, has appeared for fourteen years with the motto, ”G.o.d's Word, Our Rule; Christ, Our Pattern; A Pure Faith, Our Watchword.” Dr.
W.H. Greever, editor of the _Visitor_ from 1904 to 1914, now edits the _American Lutheran Survey_. In addition to several benevolent inst.i.tutions, the Southern Synods support a heathen mission in j.a.pan since 1892. In 1886 the United Synod numbered 32,000 communicants, 14,000 belonging to the Tennessee and Holston Synods. The figures prior to the Merger in 1918 show 257 pastors, 484 congregations, 53,226 communicant, and 73,510 baptized members.
143. Origin of General Body South.--In 1863 the North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Southwest Virginia Synods withdrew from the General Synod because of the Civil War and offensive resolutions adopted by the General Synod with respect to Southern Lutherans and their att.i.tude toward the war. In the same year the four synods, uniting with the Georgia Synod, organized the ”General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Confederate States of America.” After the war (1866) this name was changed to ”Evangelical Lutheran General Synod in North America,” and subsequently to ”General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South.” In the interest of union, the Tennessee Synod, which occupied a truly Lutheran position and stood for an unqualified adoption of the Lutheran symbols, sent a delegate to the General Synod South in 1867. Seventeen years later, 1884, at Salisbury, N.C., a doctrinal basis was adopted, which in 1886 resulted in the organization of the United Synod in the South, now merged into the United Lutheran Church in America.
DOCTRINAL BASIS.
144. From Laxism to Confessionalism.--The secession of the four Southern synods in 1863 was not caused by any doctrinal differences or dissatisfaction with, and opposition to, the un-Lutheran confessional basis and unionistic practise of the General Synod. Nor was it of any immediate consequence as to the doctrinal and confessional att.i.tude of the General Synod South, organized in the same year. Moreover, at its first convention in 1863, the General Synod in the Confederate States, the liberal-minded Bachman presiding, after animated discussions, declared in favor of a qualified subscription to the Augsburg Confession. Unanimously and solemnly the following doctrinal basis was adopted: 1. That the Holy Scriptures are the sole infallible rule of faith and practise; 2. that the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Augustana ”contain the fundamental doctrines of the Holy Scriptures”; 3. that, whereas different views concerning some doctrines of the Augustana have ever obtained and still obtain among the members, Synod permits ”the full and free exercise of personal judgment with reference to these articles.” (_Dist. Doctr._, 1893, 171.) Doctrines in question were those of the Lord's Supper, absolution, baptismal regeneration, Sunday, etc., as set forth by Schmucker and Kurtz.
However, already in the revised const.i.tution, printed in the _Book of Wors.h.i.+p_, 1864, the third, the most offensive point of this basis, was omitted. And soon after contact with the Tennessee Synod and the desire to draw her into the union of the general body, led to a movement in the confessional direction. In 1867 the General Synod South resolved to deny approval to publications supporting principles in conflict with the Augustana, and to refuse appointment of theological professors holding doctrines in conflict with this Confession. According to the _Book of Wors.h.i.+p_ of 1868 the candidates for ordination were required to take an oath of fidelity to the Word of G.o.d and the Lutheran Confessions based thereon. The Form of Confirmation contained a pledge of lifelong fidelity to the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In 1872 Synod adopted an essay of Dr. Dorsch, in which he declares that the General Synod South unequivocally confesses the Augsburg Confession in its true, real, and original sense. According to the Const.i.tution of the Theological Seminary (1873) the professors acknowledged, and subscribed to, ”the Augsburg Confession, as in all its parts in harmony with the Rule of Faith and a correct exhibition of the doctrines of the Word of G.o.d.” In 1880 the General Synod South informed the Tennessee and Holston Synods that she adopts the secondary Lutheran symbols ”as in accord with, and an unfolding of, the teaching of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession.” In 1882 the General Synod declared itself ready to enter into organic union with other Lutheran bodies ”on an unequivocal Lutheran basis.” Several years later, as stated, the union was effected.
145. Sound Lutheran Basis.--The confessional basis agreed upon 1884 and adopted at the organization in 1886 embraces the following articles: ”1.
The Holy Scriptures, the inspired writings of the Old and New Testaments, the only standard of doctrine and church discipline. 2. As a true and faithful exhibition of the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures in regard to matters of faith and practise, the three ancient symbols, the Apostolic, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds, and the Unaltered Augsburg Confession of Faith. Also the other Symbolical Books of the Ev.
Lutheran Church, _viz.:_ the Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the Smaller and Larger Catechisms of Luther, and the Formula of Concord, as true and Scriptural developments of the doctrines taught in the Augsburg Confession, and in the perfect harmony of one and the same faith.”
Substantially this was the basis of the Tennessee Synod; its adoption at Salisbury must be regarded as a triumph of the confessional fidelity of this body. ”The strength of the Tennessee Synod,” says Dr. E.T. Horn, ”was given to the maintenance of orthodoxy; nor are we able to deny that their champions.h.i.+p was needed and has been effectual.” Among the other factors contributing to this result the testimony of Walther and the Missouri Synod must not be overlooked and underrated. Dr. A.G. Voigt, professor in the Seminary at Columbia, S.C., admits: ”Lutherans in the South could not remain untouched by the influences that were at work in other parts of the country. The increasing appreciation of confessional Lutheranism which in the middle half of the nineteenth century pa.s.sed over from Germany into and through this country also gradually permeated the South. It served to deepen the devotion of the Tennessee Synod to the historic Lutheran Confessions, and to awaken in the other synods a growing esteem and affection for the same Confessions.” (_Dist. Doctr._, 1914, 181.)
INDIFFERENTISM
146. Actual Conditions.--All sectarian churches formally acknowledge the Bible, yet they reject many of its doctrines. So a Lutheran synod may, in a formal and official way, accept the Lutheran symbols, and at the same time ignore or reject its material content. Witness the Lutheran state churches in Europe and the General Synod in America. In a measure, the actual conditions also within the congregations and district synods of the United Synod in the South have always been in conflict with their truly Lutheran basis. False doctrines, especially pertaining to the Puritanic observance of the Sabbath, were held and taught within the Synod. Without a word of criticism, for example, the _Lutheran Church Visitor_, July 13, 1911, published the following from the _Sunday-school Times_: ”Don't use a public vehicle on Sunday unless you are prayerfully convinced that it would be sinning against G.o.d and man not to do so. Is not that a reasonable and safe principle? Is any other principle a safe one? A very limited amount of Sunday travel seems to be necessary.
Probably more than ninety-nine one-hundredths of it is unnecessary and therefore wrong. To use a trolley car or train to go to church on Sunday may or may not be right; it is simply a question of G.o.d's expressed will for the individual at that particular time. To walk, or to attend another church would sometimes be the solution. To make a mere convenience of Sunday travel, under any circ.u.mstances, would seem to be a violation of the spirit of the day. But G.o.d will make each case clear to each surrendered seeker after the light of G.o.d's will, if the doing of G.o.d's will and the avoiding of sin by the widest possible margin are the only impelling motives.”
147. Ignoring Intersynodical Differences.--With respect to the doctrines controverted within the Lutheran Church of America the United Synod has always maintained a neutral and indifferentistic att.i.tude. Dr. Horn writes: ”It can be said of the doctrinal basis of the Southern Synods that it is the sincere and intelligent confession of the churches. By this I do not mean that the Lutheran churches in the South have pondered all the controversies in which the symbols originated, and to which they gave the answer; nor that they have accepted all the inferences which sincere Lutherans now draw from the Confessions, and even may be justified in urging.” (_Dist. Doctr._, 1893, 183.) Dr. Voigt: ”The United Synod has no distinctive doctrines apart from the distinctive doctrines of common confessional Lutheranism.” (_Dist. Doctr._, 1914, 179.) In other words, the United Synod accepts only those doctrines in which all agree who claim to be confessional Lutherans. The _Lutheran Church Visitor_, March 15, 1917, wrote: ”The United Synod has the fundamental doctrines, rests on them, and is satisfied with them. Not, perhaps, the doctrines fundamental to Missouri, but fundamental to Christian faith and life.” Ridiculing the doctrines of conversion and election as taught by the Missouri Synod, the _Visitor_ continues: ”These doctrines are the simon-pure, unadulterated, unalloyed Lutheran doctrines! Missourianism and Lutheranism are convertible terms!”-- Regarding the fact that the United Synod has refused to take a definite stand with respect to the doctrinal differences within the Lutheran Church, the _Visitor_, March 15, 1917, remarked: ”Still, husband and wife may live together in peace and happiness although they do not agree on every point. It may even be understood that some subjects are altogether taboo.” This, evidently, is the spirit of indifferentism, inherited from the General Synod, with whom, in accordance with the law of spiritual affinity, the United Synod exchanged fraternal delegates, and is now organically united in the United Lutheran Church in America.
148. Old Spirit of Indifferentism.--To what extent the leaven of indifferentism was active also within the United Synod in the South appears from the following utterances of a layman in the _Lutheran Church Visitor_: ”The spirit that developed this country, and that which has animated the clergy of the Lutheran Church, are antipodal. This unprogressive spirit, together with their aversion to innovations of all kinds, their refusal to deal with present-day problems, their mania for ramming doctrine wholesale down the throats of their communicants, their spirit of aloofness from ministers of other denominations, and their refusal to cooperate with them, has been the chief cause of this lack of progress in our Church. They have, in their strict and even painful adherence to dogma and form, taken the spirit and life out of the Church and its wors.h.i.+p. The enthusiasm and warmth of natural religion have given way to a religion of form and ceremony. They have taken the life and beauty out of the Bible, and made it a code of dry and inspired theology. Instead of preaching, they have almost invariably talked theology, and theology alone. Our Church has never been in need of would-be theologians, but we have been and are now sorely in need of pastors and preachers. They have discouraged honest investigation, if that investigation has the least taint of rationalism. In their supreme disgust for innovations they have made our Church as inflexible and unfit for the various conditions of modern life as the customs and practises of the Middle Ages would be out of place now. They have been completely oblivious of the fact that there are necessarily change and progress in theology and religion as well as in everything else. True, there are certain fundamentals that never grow old; equally true is it that there are some non-essentials that change with the varying hours.
The non-essential has been made essential, and so strongly insisted upon that it is almost a sacrilege even to insinuate against its authority.”
The _Visitor_, March 15, 1917, referring to this publication, remarks: ”Well, we admit the excerpt from the article is pretty raw. But the _Visitor_ believes in allowing some freedom even to the religious press.... Unanimity ere long becomes monotony. _Varietas sine unitate diversitas. Unitas sine varietate mors_.”
UNLUTHERAN PRACTISE.
149. Lodge-, Pulpit-, and Altar-Fellows.h.i.+p.--Forbearance with all manner of weakness in doctrine and practise does not _per se_ conflict with confessional Lutheranism. But a refusal on principle to take the correct position, also as to Lutheran practise, is indeed incompatible with true Lutheranism. The att.i.tude of the United Synod, however, toward lodge-, pulpit-, altar-, and church-fellows.h.i.+p has always been of a kind which practically amounted to a denial of its confessional basis. Dr. Voigt confesses: ”As a matter of fact and actual practise, Lutheran ministers in the United Synod do not invite others to occupy their pulpits indiscriminately; and although in some churches the custom of extending a general invitation at Communion still continues from earlier times, the practise is diminis.h.i.+ng, and in most churches has pa.s.sed away with the introduction of the Common Service. As to secret societies, there is not much agitation against them except in the Tennessee Synod, and a number of United Synod ministers are known to be members of such orders; but the sentiment of most ministers is unfavorable to them.” (_Dist.
Doctr._, 1914, 188.) ”Discussions in regard to stricter or more lax practises have never led to divisions nor issued in official p.r.o.nouncements of distinctive developments of confessional position.”
”Firm as they are in their convictions, Southern Lutherans are generally adverse to controversy. This is probably the true explanation of the conservative att.i.tude of the United Synod towards the questions connected with pulpit- and altar-fellows.h.i.+p and secret societies. There are differences of view on these questions existing in the United Synod.
But the disposition has always been not to fight the differences out, but to wait for time to bring about unanimity in regard to them. In the formation of the United Synod peculiar circ.u.mstances thrust these questions upon the notice of the body; but it declined to legislate in regard to them because it was unwilling to go through the throes of controversy which a decision upon them involved. Combined with this aversion to controversy, there exists an evangelical [?] impatience of legal constraint, which impels men to act upon principle rather than by rule.” ”It has already been stated that the Tennessee Synod is unique among the synods const.i.tuting the United Synod in having rules against pulpit- and altar-fellows.h.i.+p and secret societies; and the United Synod has pledged itself not to employ in its general work, in its theological seminary, in its mission operations, in the editing of its official organ, any person who would foster secretism or unionistic fellows.h.i.+p.”