# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1864_S123
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History. 123

—synod, imputes no small share in the misfortune that has occurred to us German Lutherans, that is, Lutherans, and which we therefore believe we must communicate to our readers. It reads as follows: "For years I have observed the course of events in our Lutheran Zion. There was a time when our church had comparative peace. From 1830 to 1840 it enjoyed a general peace and great flourishing, and this flourishing condition extended well into the next decade. In those days, and somewhat earlier already, the transition from German into English caused some friction, but nevertheless it was a time of revivals and great bloom. The number of our churches increased. Our seminary at Gettysburg was filled with students. The generosity of our people was stirred; their contributions to charitable purposes increased. The Germans immigrating from Europe mingled, with few exceptions, with the American Lutherans and became members of the very same congregations. This connection put them in a position to absorb the spirit of American Christianity; they gradually lost their transatlantic views and became very useful members of the church. Between 1845 and 1850 a change came over part of our church. A little cloud like a man's hand appeared in the West. The Germans came in greater numbers and faster, one after another. They no longer joined the American Lutheran congregations generally. An Old Lutheran in Bavaria (Löhe) turned his attention to this country and sent over colonies of hyper-Lutherans. These were opposed to the revivals. Some of them were pious people, but their religious type was different from the American one. They were surrounded by many influences that hindered them from blending with the American Christians. They had been taught a distrust of the General Synod." (This should, to be sure, according to historical truth, read: the General Synod itself, by false doctrine and false practice, made itself suspect to them.) "Their system was one that did not encourage spiritual life and progress. That was the first great hindrance that stood in the way of the General Synod in its glorious undertaking of transforming the church of this country into a spiritual, holy, progressive church. It sowed the seed of discord. These children of a foreign soil had been sent over with a bitter prejudice against the liberal-minded Lutheranism of America. In the year 1845 there were probably not more than one or two dozen Old Lutheran congregations in this country. Now there are perhaps not fewer than 700 symbol-Lutheran congregations of the old school in the land, whose ministers — nearly 500 in number — are all Symbolist and Hyper-Lutherans, who confess to believe that the real body and blood of Christ is orally received in the Supper, and that the unbelieving communicant receives the true body and blood of the Savior just as well as the believing one" (how dreadful!). "They also believe in regeneration through baptism, and some of them also in private confession, in exorcism, in the adorning of churches with images and crucifixes; some even light wax candles in broad daylight at communion. They also hold that all Lutherans must believe and practice exactly as they do. I have been in some of their churches. I have seen their images, crucifixes, and wax candles. I have talked with some of their most discerning ministers, have disputed with them for hours. I do not misrepresent their views. I understand their system perfectly." (Great, but vain, self-confidence!) "They are as zealous as the Jesuits in spreading the weak points and errors of their system. This German, anti-biblical, anti-American element could have been curbed and absorbed by the American church, had not another element been added. But unfortunately, in the upsurge of the great revivals of the fourth decade of this century, there arose within our own church a class of people who are far more dangerous, and more capable of doing harm, than the European ministers. These American ministers became disloyal to the basis of the General Synod and began to raise a banner against the revivals (?) and against a liberal-minded, spiritual (?) Lutheranism. Personal ambition and malicious, vindictive feelings (?) against those whom they believed to have been the instruments—