Our Savior Lutheran Church

Minneapolis, Minnesota

June 4-11, 1890

Esteemed fathers and brothers in Christ Jesus! Grace, mercy and peace be with you in truth and in love from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father!

It is an extremely great grace which the Lord of the Church shows us, that not only are we permitted to gather for the general synod meeting, but to gather in unity of the Spirit on the ground of truth after so harsh a battle and such severe trials. When we were gathered with one another three years ago we were in the midst of an already disruptive doctrinal controversy. Darkness, threatening skies surrounded us, powerful streams of water tumbled down against our church’s house. Its fall was foreshadowed and the enemies rejoiced; but the Lord in his great mercy protected it and let it stand unshaken on the rocky ground of truth. Certainly we see with deep pain much destruction which the storm has caused. We are still feeling its aftershocks, but the darkest thunder clouds have passed. It is clearing up and the sun is beginning to shine on most places among us so that we can each do the work of our calling in greater peace and quiet, and here now counsel with one another about what can best serve the building up of our dear Lutheran Zion among us and encourage and strengthen one another to faithfulness in our work.

Is this not, dear brethren, a grace so great that we cannot fully thank and praise the Lord for it? Or, who are we that the Lord has done well toward us in this way? But then it also behooves us that we do not take the grace of God for granted, do not lay our hands in our lap in self-complacent repose, and boast of the truth preserved to us, but rightly use it diligently so that it can both set hearts free from everything there which wants to imprison them and hold them bound in ignominious slavery and through its life-giving power call forth a fresh, robust life in all aspects of the church’s life. Because the Lord who says that “whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has,” Mt. 13;12.

It is a great task which the Lord of the Church has given our synod in this country, a lofty goal to strive for: the founding, preservation and propagation of true Lutheranism among our countrymen here. More than anything else that happens through the synod being faithful in its confession and in the use of the Means of Grace through which the Lord works conversion and faith, and its not presuming to add anything to nor take anything from them. Surely a higher calling cannot be entrusted to our synod through which it can work for greater blessing for our people than through gathering them under the banner of true Lutheranism.

Very early the Lord himself led our young church body here into such associations, so that it became conscious of this lofty task and set it as the goal of its work. And it is by no means saying too much that it is attributed precisely to this circumstance that our synod’s development has been so full of controversy, and that, doctrinal controversies entirely. They have also essentially revolved around the chief points of the Gospel. They have been a defense of the two great principles which the Lutheran Church has always acknowledged as its own and with which it stands or falls, the so-called Scripture Principle that the Bible as the Word of God is the only source and rule for faith and life, and the second, that the sinner is justified by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ.

Certainly, the Lutheran Scriptural Principle has not been denied directly by our opponents here. Nor has it therefore been put up as a subject of discussion at the public meetings between our church bodies. However, since it has been denied many times in fact and trodden under foot at discussions about other questions of doctrine, there has been no lack of our bringing it forward and making it pertinent in the discussion. In the next place, it is surely only through the unshaken insistence on this principle, or on “what is written,” that by the grace of God our synod has succeeded in remaining with the old truth in the controverted points of doctrine. This insistence on the Scripture Principle must also be our watchword for the future, and that so much the more, since in the last year there has occurred an apostasy from the scriptural doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture not only within the Reformed church bodies but also within theological circles in the Lutheran Church.

These modish views which are certainly the next thing to a concession to science are in a deeper sense a fruit of a spreading doubt and unbelief, and will undermine the church and the faith which is committed to the saints. There is no doubt that they will rush like a tidal wave from Germany over Norway and also to our church in America, and that it therefore calls for us to be equipped against the assault.

In the meanwhile it seems as if for the present that the Lord will allow our synod a little more quiet time. This is not to be understood that there should be no further need of constant testimony and an undaunted fight to preserve unadulterated the precious truths on which the salvation of so many souls is dependent and on which the existence of the Lutheran Church among us is founded. Nor does it mean that for the sake of peace, in order to swear allegiance to fine-sounding unionistic plans which now are an unlutheran slogan of the spirit of the times, we should break from the truth or let the trumpet give uncertain sounds. No, we must preserve these truths of God’s Word for which we have until now suffered and which the Lord in his grace has preserved for us as precious jewels of our church, with the same firmness, if not even greater maturity which I hope we have gained. But it ought to happen through discussions in general meetings, and they can now be held more bona fide/in good faith in all peacefulness without disturbing secret thoughts, and therefore with more view to a blessed outcome.

That which interfered with the synod developing quietly and thriving, and the controversy which has split congregations is, however, for the most part at an end. A cleansing has taken place within the synod and much that has been alien has been laid aside. We have become fewer, but it is not the majority which did it.²⁸ We are united in the one true faith and faith is the victory which overcomes the world. May we also all be united in Christ Jesus by a vigorous faith! May God preserve among us unity of Spirit in the bond of peace so that it is not disturbed by any new controversy and disunity through which Satan seeks to separate hearts from one another and destroy God’s kingdom! Then shall we also all as one, with so much greater earnestness, zeal and sacrifice use the calm and peace which God has now given our church body to work for the solution of the problems and produce a church which also in practice better meets the requirements of a true Lutheran Church.

The Lord asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” When Peter answers each time that the Lord knows that he loves him, the Lord says to him, “Feed my lambs! Feed my sheep! Feed my sheep!” John 21:15-17. After we have been especially taken up for a while with watching the flock, the Lord is now crying to the congregations and pastors, “’feed my lambs! feed my sheep!’ Now show that you really love me by taking proper care of the flock and carefully tending it, the old as well as the young.” And how much is there not for each of us to do!

If we become more closely acquainted with conditions in each of our congregations then we can do nothing else than become aware of how much apathy and indifference for one’s own and others’ salvation, for God’s Word and God’s work prevails in many places, how many shortcomings and weaknesses are showing, yes, public sins prevailing to the offence of God’s children and of them who are on the outside, and that, without trying to counteract the sin properly and removing the offense through Christian church discipline. Misuse, we find, has crept in and good church ordinances such as (private) confession and meetings of the congregation have gone out of use or are very much neglected. A worldly mind is taking the upper hand, a love of the world and covetousness among the older people, vanity and self-conceit among the younger generation. What the district presidents call attention to in this regard in their reports is primarily neglect of the Lord’s Supper and the precarious condition of the congregations’ schools.

However, these dark sides of the picture should not make us despondent and disheartened, and that so much more as bright sides of the picture also reveal themselves. Thus, in individual places in the Minnesota District a greater zeal and sacrifice for congregational schools is appearing. It must also be acknowledged that through the controversy which was so sad in many respects, many members of congregations have been brought not only to a more diligent and thorough consideration of the Word of God but also to greater earnestness and zeal in their Christianity. Church attendance therefore is reported in several places as better, and taken on the whole, as very good. There are naturally also individual congregations where we must thank God that the situation taken as a whole is decent. Likewise it has certainly pleasantly surprised many of us to see the self-sacrifice through which the synod’s joint institutions and large building projects have been supported in the last year. Perhaps the motives for those contributions have not always been pure, but many people have, however, given their contributions out of love for Christ and his church with liberal hands and willing hearts. The many Lutheran academies which are built in various places within our church body dare bear witness to that.

At the same time as these brighter sides of church life among us must gladden our hearts and fill them with thanks and praise of the Lord from whom the blessings upon our feeble work have come, so must they be to us a powerful stimulus and appeal to feeding the Lord’s flock with proper fearlessness and renewed zeal and love, and each in our situation working to the building of the kingdom of God among us.

The discussion of the topic which the Church Council has proposed to the synod at this meeting, namely, “The Dangers for True Christianity Which Accompany the Spirit of the Times,” will give us abundant opportunity to ponder more exactly both the shortcomings which are to be found in the synod and the damage from which it suffers, as also the means and the ways by which they can be remedied. If there was anything which I should hold forth in particular as of importance for our synod’s sound growth, then it is that we work with all our might to adequate service of the congregations, so that it is possible for the pastors to exercise the necessary care of souls besides the other duties which are incumbent upon them. To this belongs in part a dividing up of the many altogether-too-large pastoral calls and in part the training for the holy ministry of suitable, God-fearing young men who are willing to give themselves up to the Lord’s service and to endure hardship for his sake, who has loved them unto death. We have unfortunately had to have the experience that those are rare exceptions among our youth. The greater share of them choose another career instead. Whether it is fear of the cross and love for the world which prompts them to this, I do not know. But I do know that if they were properly animated by faith and the fear of God, then the love of Christ would also compel them to present themselves to the Lord for service in the Gospel during the present need.

Next, that we provide for the establishment of Christian schools for the children where it can be done with good conscience, which are either used alongside of the English district-school, or also take its place. Only in this way are we complying with the Lord’s command, “Feed my lambs!” The fact that it has not happened so far, in most places has its reason in covetousness and lack of recognition from the congregations’ side, and in negligence and weakness from our, the pastors’, side. The Lord has blessed our people in temporal things just as richly as other nations among whom such congregational schools flourish. There is presently going through the American people an effort for not only anglicizing the immigrants of foreign tongues but also grafting into them the “American spirit” as it is called. If they succeed through legislation in using the public/common school for this objective in this way, as they wish, then it will be even more difficult for our congregations to maintain their modest religious schools, and then how are we going to counteract the “American spirit” which is destructive of true and sound Christianity? The instinct for self preservation bids us as Christian congregations also here to stand watch against encroachment on the part of the state.

Finally, I want to hold forth the importance of frequent meetings of the congregations being held for discussion not merely of the congregations’ temporal affairs, but chiefly of the spiritual, and of the Word of God. The members of our congregations here are to grow up to him who is the Head and become men in Christ, rich in knowledge and understanding. They are not merely to manage their own house and care for their own and their neighbor’s salvation, but as a royal people they are also to take part in the government of the church in the congregation.

In these ways we will better carry out the Lord’s command when he cries to us, “Feed my sheep!”

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28 Fifty-thousand souls, 200 congregations and 55 pastors left the synod as a result of the Election Controversy (Built on the Rock, p. 31).