How Did the General Synod Go Wrong? And Then Improve for the 1918 ULCA Merger

Samuel S. Schmucker, Princeton student, General Synod Leader, 1799 - 1873

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg came over from Halle after Count Zinzendorf tried to work in America under an assumed name. Muhlenberg belonged to the earlier generation, before the General Synod, and he was quite remarkable in his efforts to provide Lutheran pastors and congregations for America.

His work became organized as the Pennsylvania Ministerium.

1711 - 1787

With the Lutheran population growing, they organized the General Synod in 1820. Their college and seminary were in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which was the site of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. That is the only Seminary Hill where troops fought instead of the faculty.

Schmucker not only helped in founding Gettysburg - he also served there almost 40 years as a professor and chairman of the faculty.

This was a time when many Lutherans saw Calvinism as slightly different from their own confession of faith. That ignorance continues to this day. Schmucker was a Lutheran in name only, very much influenced by his time at Princeton, a Calvinist school. I visited there with plans to go to graduate school. They kept bragging about their Yale-educated faculty, and I went to Yale. The Princeton dean was required reading in church history, but his mentor was at Yale - Roland Bainton.

Two big movements were the union of Calvinism and Lutheranism - with Lutherans conceding everything - and revivalism. In revivalism, the congregation set up a Mourner's Bench. If a sermon was especially effective in getting people to cry, they would come forward and kneel on the bench, pledging to start a new life. The revivalists/unionists cared little for the Lutheran liturgy or Lutheran hymns (see WELS for a modern example). 

About half of the General Synod pulled away to form the General Council, which located their seminary in Philadelphia - Mt. Airy. (I was given an HEW interview there, which meant they already had their guy and needed to prove fairness. Nice trip, though.) The Philadelphia professors were Back to the Reformation Lutherans and gradually influenced the General Synod to abandon its anti-Lutheran ways. The two parts merged in 1918, but mergers always favor the weakest in doctrine, so the United Lutheran Church in America became a triumph for the unionist leaders. That devolved into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in communion with all denominations and all religions.

The best books of that old era came from the General Council -

1. Henry Eyster Jacobs
2. Charles Porterfield Krauth
3. Theodore Schmauk

Today, Gettysburg and Mt. Airy have merged into the so-called United Lutheran Seminary, whose first moves were 

• to hire a Presbyterian to serve as president and 
• to fire her.

Theresa Latini, formerly a Dean of Diversity, observed that she paid the price for the Gettysburg/Mt Airy split being united in name only.

About Theresa Latini

Our American Lutheran Heritage Goes Far Beyond the LCMS Bishop with Syphilis and His Crafty Stooge, CFW.

Did you know that the General Council and the General Synod in the late 1800’s included hymns in the back of their Small Catechisms?

Here’s one from the General Council Small Catechism from 1882.

Enjoy!

13) O How Shall I Receive Thee

Wie soll ich Dich empfangen. 7, 6.

| 1 O HOW shall I receive Thee,
| How greet Thee, Lord, aright?
| All nations long to see Thee,
| My hope, my heart’s delight!
| O kindle, Lord, most holy,
| Thy lamp within my breast,
| To do in spirit lowly
| All that may please Thee best.
|
| 2 Thy Zion palms is strewing,
| And branches fresh and fair;
| My heart, its powers renewing,
| An anthem shall prepare.
| My soul puts off her sadness
| Thy glories to proclaim;
| With all her strength and gladness
| She fain would serve Thy name.
|
| 3 Love caused Thy Incarnation,
| Love brought Thee down to me.
| Thy thirst for my salvation
| Procured my liberty.
| O Love beyond all telling,
| That led Thee to embrace,
| In love all love excelling,
| Our lost and fallen race!
|
| 4 Rejoice then, ye sad-hearted,
| Who sit in deepest gloom,
| Who mourn o’er joys departed,
| And tremble at your doom:
| He who alone can cheer you,
| Is standing at the door;
| He brings His pity near you,
| And bids you weep no more.

Paul Gerhardt. 1653.

And a youtube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC3dpZS62N8

Theodore Schmauk - Last of the Three Great General Council Leaders - Krauth, Jacobs, Schmauk

 

• Sandt, George W. Theodore Emanuel Schmauk, D.D., L.L.D. A Biographical Sketch (United Lutheran Publication House. 1921) - Note that the link takes you to Alec Satin's Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry for a free PDF download.

Theodore Emanuel Schmauk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Theodore Emanuel Schmauk, D.D., LL.D. (May 30, 1860 - March 23, 1920) was an American Lutheran minister, educator, author and Church theologian.^[1]

Theodore Emanuel Schmauk was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of a Lutheran minister, Rev. Benjamin W. and Wilhelmina C. (Hingel) Schmauk. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, (class of 1883) being ordained by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania in that year. In 1897, he received the degree of D.D. from Muhlenberg College and in 1910, the degree of LL.D. from Augustana College.^[2]

He first went into church work as a Lutheran pastor at Lebanon, Pennsylvania (1883–1903). He became editor in chief of the Lutheran Church Review, which he had helped found and organize. (1889–1920). Between 1903 and 1920, Dr. Schmauk served in numerous capacities with the United Lutheran Church in America. Dr. Schmauk was President of the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North American(1903–20).^[3]

He was one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania Chautauqua (1892); one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania Dutch Society (1891); and one of the organizers of the Lebanon County Historical Society (1898). Dr. Schmauk was President of the Board of Directors of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, (1908–20) and in charge of the Department of Ethics, Apologetics and Pedagogy, (1911–20).^[4]

 Schmauk was close to dying many times, but his academic work, Sunday School work, and pipe organ research were remarkable.

Selected works[edit]

• Charms of Conversation (1889)
• The Voice in Speech and Song(1891)
• Catechetical Outlines (1892)
• The Fugitive Criticism of the Old Testament (1894)
• History of Old Salem in Lebanon (1898)
• Manual of Bible Geography (1901)
• The Early Churches of the Lebanon Valley (1902)
• History of the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania (1903)
• Bible Facts and Scenes (1905)
• The Christian Kindergarten (1906)
• The Confessional Principle and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church (1909)
• Account of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania (1910)
• Christianity and Christian Union (1913)
• How to Teach in Sunday School (1920)
• Annotated Bibliography of Religious Education and Child Psychology (1920)

The Importance of Henry Eyster Jacobs

CFW Walther had to be the big dog, the bishop of all Lutherans. It is easy for the bully to take over and imagine he is infallible. If one can start a small enough sect, anyone can be a bishop today, but that is not the Chief Article. Walther cleverly excommunicated the American Lutherans who came from the same Halle traditions as Pope Walther and Bishop Stephan.

Jacobs explored his options in Christian doctrine, because he came from the ecumenical General Synod, which sought to unify the Calvinists and Lutherans in a watered-down version of the Scriptures, where the Biblical doctrines of efficacy, the Means of Grace, baptismal regeneration, and the Real Presence were faded away.

Jacobs was no different from Walther in starting out in rationalism and ecumenism. But Jacobs saw the importance of Lutheran doctrine, which is actually just Biblical doctrine. We can see the difference in style. Walther taught:

1. The Glories of Walther.
2. The Glories of His Synod.

No one was more Calvinistic in expression than Walther. His puffed-up theses are full of Calvinistic pomp and puffery. He started the fissure in American Lutheranism with his Easter Absolution, but made a complete split with his patented election without faith, so Calvinistic that most people will not touch it. Notice that false teachers like Valleskey, Wayne Mueller, and Jay Webber carry on the same way.

Jacobs began at Gettysburg but ended up a leader at Philadelphia's seminary, sometimes called Mt. Airy. That history is lost to most Lutherans. But that came from the Book of Concord Lutherans breaking from the revivalistic Church Growth General Synod to form the General Council. They needed a seminary and built one in Philadelphia, where great professors taught and published. 

ELCA will not admit to that era; naturally the Walther-worshiping Synodical Conference also ignores the General Council. It was handy for Walther to stick with German-only churches and be treated as infallible in his own sect.

I published one account of Walther trying to push his view, being horribly offended, and withdrawing his opinion in a huff. That is how he related to the Ohio Synod.

1. Krauth was the early, central figure of the Philadelphia Seminary. 
2. Jacobs came later, and 
3. Schmuak last of all.

 WELS pastor - "First they took away the Small Catechism, and I said nothing. Then they took away the Augsburg Confession, and I said nothing. Then they pushed the NIV and took away the KJV, and there was no one to join my cries of despair."

No one needs to believe my account. One can chase rabbits down their hidey-holes all day long. Krauth supplied a Dutch Reformed Church for three months! Oh no!

Can anyone name the Four Open Questions? Not one of them is The Chief Article.

The Chief Article of the Christian Faith

But this issue remains, and it can be checked with a good translation of the Bible - which excludes the NIV, ESV. I suggest any Bible with KJV on its title page, like "after Luther" on a German page. Actually, that is almost the same.

In that research, find out which one is the Chief Article, regardless of what I write. 

1. Is it UOJ, world absolution and salvation without faith? - Zarling and Bivens, WELS genius professors. Sig Becker too.
2. Or is it Justification by Faith - Luther, Melanchthon, Chemnitz?