Week 19 · AD 1801–1900
Confession Crosses the Ocean
Lutherans in Prussia and North America, and the church bodies they built
This week
Lutherans confess Christ across an ocean
- Saxon and Prussian Lutherans sail to North America
- Prussia calls for a union church, and Schmucker rewrites the Augsburg Confession
- Walther and the predestination dispute divide Lutheran synods
- Vatican I issues Pastor Aeternus, teaching papal primacy and infallibility
- Lutheran bodies form in North America, ending with the Synodical Conference in 1872
The Annunciation
Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898, Paris. Mary sits in a plain room, and light stands in for the angel.
Church life
How Confessional Lutherans kept their faith and built congregations
Church life
Lutherans sail to America
- About 700 Saxons sail from Bremen in five ships, in 1838–39
- The rest reach New Orleans and settle in St. Louis and Perry County, Missouri
- Their goal: to teach God’s Word and Sacraments free from state pressure
- Prussian pastor Johann Grabau is jailed twice, then reaches Buffalo in 1839
Christ and the sacraments
Word and Sacrament make a church
- In 1839 the Saxons remove Pastor Stephan for sexual misconduct and money abuse
- They ask whether they are still a church
- In April 1841, at the Altenburg Debate, C. F. W. Walther answers
- A church remains a church wherever God’s Word and the Sacraments are present
Controversy
Doctrines that divided Prussian and American Lutherans
Christ and the sacraments
Union and a rewritten Confession
- 27 September 1817: Prussia’s king calls for one union church of Lutherans and Reformed
- Pastors who refuse the shared worship book are fined or jailed
- 1855: Samuel Schmucker publishes the Definite Synodical Platform, a rewrite of the Augsburg Confession
- The Platform changes teaching on Baptism and on Christ’s true presence in the Supper
- Few Lutherans adopt the Platform
Controversy
Predestination: God’s choice in Christ
- From 1877 Walther teaches that God chose his people in Christ by grace alone
- Matthias Loy and F. A. Schmidt teach that God chose those whose faith he foresaw
- Schmidt accuses Walther of Calvinism
- Koren’s An Accounting (1884) rejects both views, and about one third of the Norwegian Synod leaves
Councils and events
Vatican I and a papal definition of 1854
Councils and events
Vatican I and papal claims
- Vatican I opens on 8 December 1869 and adjourns on 20 October 1870
- Pastor Aeternus, issued 18 July 1870, teaches papal primacy and infallibility
- Lutheran classification: Spurious
- In 1854 Pius IX defines Mary’s Immaculate Conception, her freedom from original sin
- The Confessions teach that all people carry original sin, but Christ alone is sinless
Major people
Leaders who shaped Lutheran churches in Europe and America
Major people
Leaders on two continents
- Martin Stephan (1777–1846), Dresden pastor who led the Saxon emigration
- Wilhelm Löhe (1808–1872), Bavarian pastor who sent men to serve North American settlers
- Johann Grabau (1804–1879), led Prussian Old Lutherans to Buffalo
- C. F. W. Walther, first president of the Missouri Synod in 1847
- Samuel Schmucker (1799–1873), taught at Gettysburg and wrote the Platform
- Charles Porterfield Krauth (1823–1883), led the General Council
- Ulrik Vilhelm Koren, wrote An Accounting (1884)
- Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey, British revival campaigns from 1873
Wider world
Events beyond the church, from the Louisiana Purchase to the telephone
Wider world
Changes beyond the church
- 30 April 1803: the United States buys about 828,000 square miles from France for $15 million
- 24 November 1859: Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, sparking debate about science and Scripture
- 1 January 1863: Lincoln’s proclamation frees enslaved people in areas still in rebellion
- 9 April 1865: Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox
- 7 March 1876: Alexander Graham Bell receives U.S. patent 174,465 for the telephone
Lutheran developments
Church bodies in North America, 1820 to 1872
Lutheran developments
Eight church bodies, 1820–1872
- General Synod, 1820
- Buffalo Synod, 1845
- Missouri Synod, 1847
- Wisconsin Synod, 1850
- Norwegian Synod, 1853
- Iowa Synod, 1854
- General Council, 1867
- Synodical Conference, 1872
Christ and the sacraments
Missouri binds itself to the Confessions
- Missouri’s constitution is signed in Chicago on 26 April 1847
- Its founders bind themselves to the Book of Concord, the Lutheran Confessions
- The Confessions teach that Christ’s body and blood are truly present in the Supper
- Missouri and Wisconsin reach doctrinal agreement in 1868, then join the Synodical Conference in 1872
Confessional Lutheran connection
Christ, Baptism and the Supper
Christ and the sacraments
Baptism and the Supper
- Baptism offers God’s grace, and the Supper gives Christ’s true body and blood
- Baptist pastor Charles Spurgeon preaches against baptismal regeneration (the teaching that Baptism gives new birth)
- Compare his sermon with Mark 16:16 and the Small Catechism on Baptism
- The curriculum judges revival preaching and parish customs by these teachings
Confessional Lutheran connection
Christ, the ministry, and election
- The Son of God became true man and died for human sins, as the Confessions teach
- Christ gives the office of preaching the Gospel and giving the Sacraments
- Christians are free to arrange the outward form of that office
- Election is God’s gracious choice in Christ, made known through the Gospel
For discussion
Why does a view of the Lord’s Supper depend on who Christ is?