Chapter 14

67. Admitting Melanchthon Synod.--In 1857, on the principle of "elective affinity," and for the purpose of resisting the confessional trend in the General Synod, and encouraging and strengthening the Platform men, the Melanchthon Synod was organized in the territory of the Maryland Synod, under the leadership of B. Kurtz. In its "Declaration of Faith" this Synod stated: "II. We believe that the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God are taught in a manner substantially correct in the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession: 1. The divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures. 2. The unity of the Godhead and the trinity of Persons therein. 3. The deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. 4. The utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the Fall. 5. The incarnation of the Son of God and His work of atonement for sinners of mankind. 6. The necessity of repentance and faith. 7. The justification of a sinner by faith alone. 8. The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and sanctification of the sinner. 9. The right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. 10. The immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the judgment of the world by Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous and the eternal punishment of the wicked. 11. The divine institution and perpetuity of the Christian ministry, and the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. But while we thus publicly avow and declare our convictions in the substantial correctness of the fundamental doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, we owe it to ourselves and to the cause of evangelical truth to disavow and repudiate certain errors which are said by some to be contained in said Confession: 1. The approval of the ceremonies of the mass; 2. private confession and absolution; 3. denial of the divine obligation of the Christian Sabbath; 4. baptismal regeneration; and 5. the real presence of the body and blood of the Savior in the Eucharist. With these exceptions, whether found in the Confession or not, we believe and retain the entire Augsburg Confession, with all the great doctrines of the Reformation." (_L. u. W._ 1858, 28.) In spite of this attitude toward the Augustana the General Synod, in 1859, on motion of Krauth, Jr., passed the resolution: "Resolved, That we cordially admit the Melanchthon Synod, and ... we would fraternally solicit them to consider whether a change, in their doctrinal basis, of the paragraph in regard to certain alleged errors would not tend to the promotion of mutual love, and the furtherance of the great objects for which we are laboring together." (_Proceedings_ 1859, 11.) The vote for the admission of the un-Lutheran Synod, registering the victory of the liberals and the defeat of the conservatives, stood 98 to 26, the entire delegation of the Pennsylvania Ministerium and the three Scandinavian delegates being recorded in the negative. Without further protest on the part of the conservatives "the credentials of the [Melanchthon Synod] delegates were then presented and their names entered upon the roll of Synod." (12.) Confirming their doctrinal position, the Melanchthon Synod, in 1860, by formal resolution, approved of a sermon delivered by B. Kurtz in which he denounced baptismal regeneration as "a part of papistical superstition" and the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in, with, and under the bread and wine as "consubstantiation," and "just as untenable and absurd as transubstantiation." (_L. u. W._ 1860, 384.) Considering the Constitution of the General Synod together with the fact that the Platform synods had not been molested, the admission of the Melanchthon Synod, advocated by Krauth, cannot be construed as inconsistent. It must, however, be regarded as an indirect approval, on the part of the General Synod, of the Platform theology. Dr. Mann remarked, "he doubted not that there was much good in the constitution of the Melanchthon Synod; but he would not eat poisoned bread, though there was much good flour in it." (_L. u. W._ 1859, 196.)

68. Synod's Position Explained.--In 1859 the General Synod resolved that S. W. Harkey publish, in German as well as in English, the sermon delivered by him as President of Synod at the opening of the convention. (_Proceedings_, 48.) Harkey was an opponent of the Platform on the order of Brown and Conrad. In 1852, in his inaugural address as professor of theology at the Illinois State University in Springfield, he had declared that we must take a firm foothold in the Augsburg Confession as a whole without binding the consciences of men to its unessential individual determinations; and that the doctrine of the symbols on the Sacraments belongs to the points concerning which they had agreed to differ. (_Lutheraner_ 9, 99.) Reaffirming this position in the sermon, endorsed by the General Synod in 1859, Harkey said: "We want love as much as orthodoxy, yes, a thousand times more than what some men call orthodoxy." (6.) "The General Synod cannot and does not require perfect unity or uniformity in all points of doctrine." (10.) "The General Synod adopted it [Augustana] as to fundamentals, and to these she requires unqualified subscription." (12.) "Objections have been urged against the expression 'fundamental doctrines,' as meaning one thing in the mouth of one man and a different thing in that of another--that to some everything is fundamental and to others only a few points. Now I cannot reply to this at length, at present, but have only to say in few words that there are fundamental doctrines in Christianity, and everybody not spoiled by his theory or philosophy knows what they are [the doctrines held in common by all evangelical denominations]. Indeed, I feel like sternly rebuking the infidelity which lies concealed beneath this objection, as if Christians had not been able to determine, in eighteen hundred years, what are the fundamental, chief, or great doctrines of their holy religion. Down on all such quibbling! Others have objected to the words 'substantially correct,' as meaning anything or nothing, at pleasure. This, like the other objection, is a quibble. None can err here, unless it be wilfully.... The amount of the whole is, '_In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas_.' This is as far as the General Synod has gone or could go; but it does not interfere with the liberty of the District Synods. Any District Synod may go beyond this, and adopt the Augsburg Confession in an unqualified manner; or it may state the points in which it dissents from it, and if not 'fundamental,' no objection can be made to its admission into the General Synod; but no body adopting a different Confession, or the Augsburg Confession less fully than as containing 'the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God in a manner substantially correct,' could be admitted into the union of the General Synod." (13.) "Does any one say doctrinal 'tares' are found in it, growing among the pure wheat of God's truth, and that he is anxious only 'to pluck up the tares'? I answer, 'Nay; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them.' Let the venerable Confession stand just as it is, especially since you are bound only to receive it as containing the fundamental truths of God's Word." (14.) "Cease, O! cease from your controversies and disputes about non-essential points of doctrine and practise, and labor with all your might for the conversion and salvation of immortal souls!" (27.) In agreement with Harkey, Dr. Reynolds had declared in the _Evangelical Review_, July, 1858, that within the General Synod every one was privileged either to reject or to accept the doctrines enumerated as errors by the Platform. (_L. u. W._ 1858, 274.) And prior to, and in agreement with, both, Krauth, Jr., had maintained in the _Missionary_, April 30, 1857, that such men as Schmucker and Kurtz formed a legitimate variety in the General Synod. (Spaeth, 1, 397.) "The Church in the United States," said Krauth, "wants neither Symbololatry nor Schism, neither a German Lutheranism, in an exclusive sense, nor an American Lutheranism, in a separatistic one, but an Evangelical Lutheranism broad enough to embrace both, and to make each vitalize and bless the other, and supply the mutual defects of each. She will abide by the essentials of her Scripture-doctrine and of her Christian life, but she will use her liberty to adapt herself to her new position on this continent. She will neither be juggled out of her faith by one set of operators, nor out of her freedom by another. She will hold fast that which she has, and those who strive to take her crown from her will be remembered only by their utter and ignominious failure. The General Synod cannot take a higher position as to doctrine than her present one; she cannot take a lower one; therefore she must remain where she is." (401.) "That Church, then, is not Evangelical Lutheran which officially rejects the Augsburg Confession, or officially rejects, or requires, directly or indirectly, on the part of its members, a rejection of the Augsburg Confession, or a connivance at such official rejection." (407.) Doctrinally, then, the General Synod, as such, had not advanced beyond the union letter of November, 1845. The scheme and dream of the New School men, however, of officially substituting a new confession for the Augustana was doomed to oblivion.

YORK CONVENTION.

69. Radical Franckean Synod Admitted.--The Franckean Synod was organized 1837 by four members who had withdrawn from the Hartwick Synod for these reasons: "1. To license pious, intelligent men, sound in faith, although they may not be classically educated, or have pursued a regular theological course; 2. to license or admit none to the ministry who are unacquainted with experimental religion." The synod pressed "new measures" and advocated abstinence. In a civil suit, in 1844, Vice-Chancellor Sandford decided that the Franckean Synod was not Lutheran, and awarded the property involved in the suit to the two congregations in Schoharie County, which had refused to follow their pastor in joining the new synod. ( _L. u. W._ 1864, 187. 283.) The Franckeans had abandoned the Augsburg Confession and adopted a "Declaration of Faith," of which Sandford says: "1. It does not maintain and declare the doctrine of the Trinity, or that the three Persons constituting the Godhead are equal in power and glory; or even that there are three Persons constituting the Deity. 2. It does not declare or admit the divinity of Jesus Christ, or His equality with God the Father. 3. It does not teach or declare that man will be condemned to punishment in a future state because of original or inherited sin, unless it be repented of; or that it condemneth all who are not born again of water and the Holy Ghost." (Jacobs, 385.) The paragraph of the "Declaration" on Baptism and the Lord's Supper reads: "9. That Christ has instituted the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper for the perpetual observance and edification of the Church. Baptism is the initiatory ordinance, and signifies the necessity of holiness of heart; and the Lord's Supper is frequently to be celebrated as a token of faith in the atonement of Christ and of brotherly love." In 1839, at Chambersburg, the General Synod had censured both the Franckean and Tennessee Synods as the two extremes "causing disturbances and divisions in our churches," and standing in the way of the union advocated by the General Synod. (_Proceedings_, 17.) In 1857, however, in order to pave the way for a union with the Franckean Synod, Synod rescinded its action of 1839 as "not in accordance with the spirit of our constitution, and not the sentiment of this convention," thus indirectly declaring its willingness to receive both, the most radical and the most orthodox of Lutheran synods. (25.) And in 1864, at York, after protracted debates and subsequent to the declaration on the part of the Franckean delegates that they fully understood that in adopting the constitution of the General Synod they were adopting its doctrinal position, _viz._, "that the fundamental truths of the Word of God are taught in a manner substantially correct in the Augsburg Confession," the following resolution was carried, with 97 against 40 votes: "Resolved, That the Franckean Synod is hereby received into connection with the General Synod, with the understanding that said Synod, at its next meeting, declare, in an official manner, its adoption of the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession as a substantially correct exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God." The credentials of the delegates were then presented and their names entered upon the roll of Synod. (12. 17. 18. 19. 23. 41.) Abolition of the "Declaration" was not demanded. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 283.) Majority men argued: Recognition of the Augsburg Confession was not required in order to unite with the General Synod; the principle excluding the Franckean Synod necessitated the expulsion also of the Platform synods; it was destructive of the General Synod itself, because its original constitution did not refer to the Augsburg Confession. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 187.) The minority, among whom the delegates of the Pennsylvania Synod were prominent, protested against the admission of the Franckean Synod, declaring "that by this action of the General Synod its constitution has been sadly, lamentably violated." And when Synod refused to reconsider her action, the Pennsylvania delegates, appealing to the conditions upon which they had reentered the General Synod in 1853, publicly declared their withdrawal. At Fort Wayne, 1866, the General Synod "resolved, That, inasmuch as the Franckean Synod has complied with the condition of admission laid down by the last General Synod, its delegation be received." (17.) In the same year, however, the Western Conference of the Franckean Synod had organized as "Mission Synod of the West" in order to "Americanize" Lutherans in Iowa, Minnesota, etc. Rev. Fair, a member of this synod, wrote: For what is it (the Augsburg Confession) but a bit of paper and ink, containing, indeed, some good truths, but likewise also virulent errors; therefore let it go where finally all error must go--to hell. (_L. u. W._ 1866, 380f.) The fifth article of the Incorporation Charter of the "Mission Synod of the West" provided that, since the Augsburg Confession taught regeneration by Baptism, the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, private confession and absolution, and rejected the divine institution and obligation of the Christian Sabbath, ministers who were in favor of subscribing to the Augustana as a test of membership, etc., should not be received into Synod, nor employed as teachers in its colleges or as ministers in its congregations. As its doctrinal basis the Mission Synod adopted the "Declaration of Faith" of the Franckean Synod as containing all fundamental doctrines of the Word of God, all that is truly evangelical in the Augsburg Confession. This radical attitude was criticized by the _Observer_, not, however, as false, but as too open, unguarded, and unwise. (_L. u. W._ 1866, 199f.) At Fort Wayne, 1866, the General Synod advised the Franckean Synod "to dissolve the distant Mission Synod of the West, and direct the ministers now composing it to apply for admission to those synods within whose bounds they may reside"; its radical confessional attitude, however, was not criticized. (35.) As late as 1899 A.S. Hardy wrote concerning the Franckean Synod: "Both her 'Declaration of Faith' and practise [revivalism] discloses naught but a firm Lutheran position, though of Pietistic type." (_Luth. Cycl._, 480.) Self-evidently, the admission of the Franckean Synod was generally regarded as a further victory of the liberal element of the General Synod over the conservatives.

70. York Amendment.--After the General Synod, at York, had passed the resolution to receive the Franckean Synod, 28 delegates entered a protest against this action as being in violation of the constitution, and the delegates of the Pennsylvania Synod declared their withdrawal. Yet the admission of the Franckean Synod was not reconsidered. But in order to satisfy the conservatives, and to obviate further disintegration, the victorious liberals, realizing the seriousness of the crisis, consented to amend the constitution and to adopt the Pittsburgh resolution of 1856 on the alleged errors in the Augustana. Accordingly, Art. III, Sec. 3, adopted 1835, was amended as follows: "All regularly constituted Lutheran synods not now in connection with the General Synod, receiving and holding, with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of our fathers, the Word of God, as contained in the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as the only infallible rule of faith and practise, and the Augsburg Confession as a correct exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the Divine Word and of the faith of our Church, founded upon that Word, may at any time become associated with the General Synod by complying with the requisitions of this constitution and sending delegates to its convention according to the ratio specified in Article II." (_Proceedings_ 1864, 39.) This amendment, constitutionally adopted 1869 in Washington, D. C., remained the confessional formula till 1913, when, at Atchison, Kans., it was supplanted by the present doctrinal basis. Inasmuch as it canceled both the former limitation to the twenty-one doctrinal articles and the phrase "in a manner substantially correct," the York Amendment was an improvement on the General Synod's basis. Yet the formula was left ambiguous, because the question was not decided whether all of the articles of the Augsburg Confession were to be regarded as fundamental doctrines of the Bible. The facts are: 1. While, indeed, all doctrines of the Augsburg Confession are Scriptural, not all of them, _e.g._, the doctrine of the Sunday, are fundamental doctrines of the Bible. 2. The leading men of the General Synod, after as well as before 1864, declined to accept even all of the twenty-one doctrinal articles as Scriptural and fundamental. 3. After as well as before 1864 they justified their deviations by referring to, and interpreting, the phrase "fundamental doctrines" as a limitation of their subscription to the Augsburg Confession. Dr. Spaeth: "Again and again it was openly declared that a strict and faithful adherence to the Confession, as fundamental in all its doctrinal statements, was 'irrational, unscriptural, and un-Lutheran.' (_Luth. Observer_, Nov. 17, 1865.) The demand was made that Lutherans should no longer insist upon such points as fundamental 'about which the ablest theologians and most devout Christians have not been entirely agreed.... Sooner than yield on this point we would see the Church perish.' (_Lutheran Observer_, Dec. 1, 1865.)" (2, 113.)