1924
Dear fathers and brothers in the Lord!
With thankful remembrance of God’s rich blessings upon the annual meetings thus far, we meet again with bright expectations for our seventh synod meeting. God has allowed us to succeed beyond all expectations in continuing our work as a church body on the foundation of his holy Word in conformity with the Confessions of our Lutheran Church. He has given us grace to work on this foundation with a good conscience and a holy courage.
We surely all agree that our purpose with this meeting, as with all our meetings, ought to be to discuss our mutual affairs in the spirit which finds its expression in the apostle Paul’s words in Ephesians 3:20.21: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Surely the deeper our comprehension is, the clearer it will be for us at this meeting, as ever before, that our highest goal ought to be to give glory to God who is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask and understand. “To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end!” says the apostle Paul. As Bible-Christians and true Lutherans we will agree with the apostle’s singing of praise, and cry and sing anew the old watchword: Glory to God alone for everything!
All glory is owed to God because He is the true God of heaven and earth. Him, the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and Him alone we ought to laud and praise from generation to generation, yes, forever and ever. The children of God on earth and in heaven have no higher calling than to give the one true God adoration and glory forever and ever. God alone is due all glory and adoration because of His perfection, His eternal, divine majesty, His omnipotence, His omnipresence, omniscience, holiness, righteousness, grace, love and mercy, etc.
He ought always be praised and glorified for His blessings in creation, redemption and sanctification.
What is there in God which ought to be lauded, praised and glorified by all creation? Everything which He is and which He determines, remains unchanged. As the Most High, as the Creator of all things, as the real source of all good, truly, God commands all the allegiance and glory of all creatures.
That He demands this, we see from His holy Word.
Both in the Old and in the New Testament innumerable passages are to be found in which He makes this demand.
In Deuteronomy 32:3.4 Moses sings: “Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”
And after he had brought the ark of the covenant up to Zion and set it in its place, King David, led by Asaph and his brothers, sings praise to the Lord in this way: “Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people! Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD,” (1 Chronicles 16:8–10).
Furthermore David sings in the 72nd Psalm, 18th and 19th verses: “Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen,” and in Psalm 96:7: “Give unto the LORD, O kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.”
No less does a host of appeals to give glory to God and His holy name meet us in the New Testament.
In the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer we of course pray: “Hallowed be Thy name.” In these words our Lord Jesus has taught us to regard it as our highest goal as Christians to hallow His name, therefore to give glory to Him as the true God, and we are to pray the entire Lord’s Prayer with the certainty that He whom we invoke in this prayer has the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever.
In the 11th chapter of Romans the apostle Paul cries out in holy adoration: “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever! Amen,” (verse 36). And in 1 Timothy 1:17: “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever! Amen.”
In 1 Peter 5:10.11 we read: “But the God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you! To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever! Amen.”
We remember also the angels’ song of praise. When they saw the miracle of God’s love in the fact that He gave His only-begotten Son as the Savior and Redeemer of sinful mankind, they sang: “Glory to God in the highest!” (Luke 2:14). And the apostle John was permitted to look into heaven and to hear the angels’ song of praise. He writes: “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing,”(Revelation 5:11.12).
From this we see how the Word of God exhorts all people to give God alone all glory and praise. Yes, irrational creatures also give glory to the Creator. Thus it is said in the 19th Psalm that “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork” (Vs. 1). In Psalm 148 all creatures are called upon to praise the Lord so that namely through His being, His goodness, beauty, and through His wise providence, they should in all respects give voice to the Creator’s praise.
But how is it now with the rational creatures on the earth, with us men? The creatures who among all creatures on earth should honor God the most, honor Him the least, yes, for the most part hardly honor Him at all.
Since the indescribable and horrible occurrence of the fall into sin which brought disaster and distress and death upon mankind, mankind has been God’s enemy; by nature it refuses to give only God the glory. It wants to possess the glory itself or at least share the glory with God.
Yes, unfortunately, this so condemnable inclination clings to us all so that we do not give only God the glory but rather want to have glory and praise ourselves.
And as long as a person is not regenerated by God to a new spiritual life, all divine worship becomes mere hypocrisy and basically a worship of self, because a person is not worshipping the true God but is making idols for himself according to his own thoughts and false imaginations. And the entire divine worship becomes then a denial of the true God and an expression of unwillingness to give the Triune God glory.
But if we have become children of God — true Christians, then nothing becomes more important for us than to give our great and gracious God all glory and praise. Just as the magnetic needle of the compass always turns quivering toward its pole, so does the believing heart turn in holy adoration toward the Triune God, and such a heart — in vigorous certainty of God’s wonderful grace in creation, redemption and sanctification — will fall easily into giving God the glory for everything. Such a soul finds no difficulty in giving God glory, for His being, His redeeming, His sanctifying, yes, also His election unto salvation. Therefore a true Christian will also always let it be his highest goal to give God the glory for everything. He will pray about it, he will work for it with strength and zeal. O, that that could truthfully be said about us all!
Our hope is surely to attain salvation in heaven, there to praise God eternally with all the angels and all the elect. That’s why we should begin already here to praise Him and to make a beginning and rejoice that by the grace of God we can grow daily in this art of the Christian. To this we are called. God has given us an excellent education in this through pious pastors and teachers of the past. We are certainly not saying anything new. It peeled like a keynote in all the proclamations and in all the instruction and all the speaking of our fathers who founded the Norwegian Synod. Not as an empty slogan but as the expression of true apostolic Christianity, yes, as a fruit of true Lutheran theology. We pray God to preserve this in our hearts still as the watch-word of our Lutheran Church and to give us grace to continue to be fully convinced of this truth from generation to generation.
The Word of God and all true biblical theology teach that everything which is taught and done in the church which does not give God alone the glory, is bungling work and fraud. Yes, worse, it is the devil’s delusion, however beautifully it can be portrayed for the eye of man.
You see, therefore, that it becomes so important for us to be able to answer the question correctly: How can we by the grace of God give God all glory?
Luther has again given the answer of God’s Word to this question, briefly, in his excellent explanation of the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: God’s name is hallowed among us “when His Word is taught in its truth and purity, and we as the children of God live holy lives according to it. This grant us, dear Father in heaven!”
When the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity and we live holy lives according to it, then God is given all glory — then His name is hallowed among us.
What is teaching the Word of God in its truth and purity, other than laud, glory and praise of God? And what is the fruit of teaching His doctrine other than the praising of God? asks a brother in the faith from the past.
The proper proclamation of the Law honors God’s holiness and righteousness, and the full and clear proclamation of the Gospel praises His love, grace and mercy.
Luther says: “We cannot laud God or praise and honor Him more highly than when we confess that out of sheer grace and mercy He takes sin, death and hell from us, and that He has given us His only-begotten Son, and with Him, everything that is good. Such acknowledgement must give Him all glory.”
When we accept and truly believe God’s Word, then we give God the soul’s inner homage and glory. And when we proclaim the Word of God in its purity in word and deed, then we show God the proper glory and praise before men.
In both these ways — with the heart’s faith in God’s Word and with the confession of the mouth before our fellowmen — we shall always give glory to the true God. It is to be our goal — the longing and sincere intention of our hearts. And we are always to do this with joy and never become weary. We are to do this, let it cost what it will of cross and pain. And it is our sacred duty to regulate our life in this way so that we do not deny in our outward actions and associations what we confess with the mouth.
It is for this reason, you see, that we are a synod which today is attacked and ridiculed as a fanatical church body which has no right to exist. It has always been so that the church body which exalted this truth and wanted to be consistent in externals, in word and deed, has had to bear the cross. We could have avoided the ridicule which is now being poured upon us in a patronizing way by former brethren in the faith, had we been willing, with many of them, to confess with the mouth that God alone is to have the glory for everything — and yet in our deeds, like them, gone along into the external merger and thus made ourselves partaker in the sins of others. That would have been a denial in our life of what we confessed with our mouth. We could not do it, according to the Word of God, with good conscience.
If we hallow the name of God by proclaiming the pure and correct doctrine of His Word with our mouth, then we must show in our life and in our associations that we believe this doctrine and are willing to bear the cross which this confession carries with it, as our faithful fathers did previously.
There was a time right after Luther’s death when all his co-workers in Wittenberg, with Phillip Melanchthon in the lead, fell from the pure and correct doctrine. Luther foresaw this falling away, and with sharp words he warned his brethren in the ministry against this great danger, which, he observed, would lead to such a falling away.
I wish to beg permission to quote from the “Concordia Triglotta,” page 94:
Shortly before his last journey to Eisleben, he invited them (Melanchthon, Cruciger, Eben and Major) to his house, where he addressed to them the following solemn words of warning: They should remain steadfast in the Gospel; “For I see that after my death the most prominent brethren will fall away. I am not afraid of the papists,” he added, “for most of them are coarse, unlearned asses and Epicureans; but our brethren will inflict the damage on the Gospel; for “they went out from us, but they were not of us, 1 John 2:19; they will give the Gospel a harder blow than did the papists.”
When Luther declared, “Our professors are to be examined on the Lord’s Supper,” Major inquired what these words signified. Luther answered: “The meaning of these words is precisely what you read and what they say; and when you and I shall have returned, an examination will have to be held, to which you as well as others will be cited.” Major protested that he was not addicted to any false doctrine. Luther answered: “It is by your silence and your cloaking that you cast suspicion upon yourself. If you believe as you declare in my presence, then speak so also in the church, in public lectures, in sermons and in private conversations, and strengthen your brethren and lead the erring back to the right path, and contradict the contumacious spirits. Otherwise your confession is sham pure and simple, and worth nothing. Whoever really regards his doctrine, faith and confession as true, right and certain cannot remain in the same stall with such as teach, or adhere to false doctrine; nor can he keep on giving friendly words to Satan and his minions. A teacher who remains silent when errors are taught, and, nevertheless, pretends to be a true teacher, is worse than an open fanatic, and by his hypocrisy does greater damage than a heretic. Nor can he be trusted. He is a wolf and a fox, an hireling and a servant of his belly, and ready to despise and to sacrifice doctrine, Word, faith, Sacrament, churches and schools. He is either a secret bedfellow of the enemies, or a skeptic and a weather vane, waiting to see whether Christ or the devil prove victorious; or he has no convictions of his own whatever, and is not worthy to be called a pupil, let alone a teacher; nor does he want to offend anybody, or say a word in favor of Christ, or hurt the devil and the world.
This is how Luther speaks about “yes and no theology” and about “mutual brotherly respect” where there is no unity in doctrine.
Now what became of Luther’s prediction of a falling away? The same year Luther died the emperor began the Smalcald War. It ended with many of the German cities and territories being subject to the emperor. Many faithful Lutheran pastors were deposed, exiled, or thrown into prison. John Agricola wrote the infamous comprise document known by the name Augsburg Interim in which he even agreed with papal church in the doc-trine concerning a sinner‘s justification. He omitted in the doctrine the words “by faith alone” and he accepted that justification also includes renewal and sanctification. Catholic ceremonies were to be reintroduced, the pope’s supremacy was to be acknowledged. He asserted that the pope was now converted and the emperor had become a Lutheran.
In the beginning Melanchthon thoroughly disagreed with this compromise. Everyone looked to him as the logical champion of the truth of God’s Word, but what happened? Melanchthon kept silent, he was afraid of attacking that infamous document publicly. Aquia wrote to him, imploring:
Thou holy man, answer and come to our assistance, defend the word and name of Christ and his honor (which is the highest good on earth) against that virulent sycophant Agricola who is an impostor. [Triglotta, p. 98.]
But Melanchthon, intimidated by threats of the emperor and fearing for his safety, turned a deaf ear to these entreaties. While the captive elector (John Frederick) was determined to die rather than submit to the Interim, and while hundreds of Lutheran ministers were deposed, banished, imprisoned, and some of them even executed because of their devotion to the truth, Melanchthon was unwilling to expose himself to the anger of the emperor. And before long his fear of confessing and his refusal to give public testimony to the truth, was followed by open denial. [Trig. P. 98.] At the behest of Elector Maurice he consented to elaborate as a substitute for the Augsburg Interim, a compromise document — the so-called Leipzig Interim. [Ibid.]
Just one more quotation which shows the danger of silence and compromise in doctrinal matters for a temporal advantage.
The Leipzig Interim was a unionist document sacrificing Lutheranism doctrinally as well as practically. The obnoxious features of the Augsburg Interim had not been eliminated but merely toned down. Throughout the controverted doctrines were treated in ambiguity or false formulas. Tschakert is correct in maintaining that in the articles of justification and the church, “the fundamental thoughts of the Reformation were catholicized” by the Leipzig Interim. Even the Lutheran sole fide [by faith alone] is omitted in the article of justification. … Faith is co-ordinated with other virtues, and good works are declared to be necessary to salvation. “Justification by faith,” says Schmauk, “is there [in the Leipzig Interim] so changed as to mean that man is renewed by the Holy Spirit, and can fulfill righteousness with his works, and that God will, for His Son’s sake, accept in believers this weak beginning of obedience in this miserable frail nature. [Trig. P. 99.]
And how did the faithful Lutherans act over Melanchthon and the rest of his followers. That they were deeply saddened was of course obvious. It is touching to read in the history how they suffered during that falling away. But they did not keep silent. They separated themselves from the Wittenberg theologians and the Leipzig faculty, attacked them, testified candidly and honestly against them. The congregations which had been indoctrinated in the divine truths refused to go to the churches and hear the hirelings who were sent to them as pastors in place of faithful Lutheran pastors. One congregation sent a letter by courier on horseback in which it declared to its pastor who was present at the meeting in Leipzig, that if he signed those ungodly articles, then he was not to return to them any more.
Permit me to quote again from the history of the faithful Lutherans’ attack on the vacillating theologians in Wittenberg and Leipzig who de-fended “the Interim”:
Furthermore, when the Wittenberg and Leipzig theologians maintained that, in preferring the lesser evil [the Roman ceremonies] to the greater [the persecution], they had merely listened to and followed the voice of true wisdom, the Lutherans replied that moral evils must not be placed on a level with physical evils, nor guilt be incurred in order to avert dangers by sins, nor are they removed or diminished in this way, but rather superinduced and increased. It is better to take upon oneself punishments and great dangers than to offend God and to provoke his wrath by such offense. It is better and easier to bear many evils and to undergo many dangers than to be unfaithful in the least commandment of God, and burden oneself with the guilt of even a single sin. Our paramount duty is not to escape persecution, but to retain a good conscience, obey the Lord, and await his help! (Trig. p. 111).
But our Wittenberg school will be closed, our churches will be desolated, and our preachers will be banished, exclaimed the faint-hearted Wittenbergers. The Lutherans answered: It is our duty to confess the truth regardless of consequences, and, at the same time, to look to God for the protection of his church. [Trig. P. 111.]
As to the Wittenberg school, Flacius said: “It would certainly be better that the school were closed not one, but many years, than that we, by avoiding confession, extremely weaken our own religion as well as strengthen the one opposed to it.” [Trig. P. 111.]
Listen now to the confession of John Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, who was brought up in the lap of the Reformation. He lost his electorate by the perfidy of his nephew Moritz who secretly joined the emperor to assure his uncle’s office.
John Frederick was thrown into prison and condemned to be beheaded. Special efforts were made to induce him to sign the Augsburg Interim. He answered: “I will rather lose my head and permit Wittenberg to be battered down than submit to a demand that violates my conscience.” In a written answer to the emperor the ex-Elector declared, boldly confessing his faith:
I cannot refrain from informing Your Majesty that since the days of my youth I have been instructed and taught by the servants of God’s Word, and by diligently searching the prophetic and apostolic scriptures I have also learned to know, and [this I testify in the sight of God] unswervingly to adhere in my conscience to this, that the articles composing the Augsburg Confession and whatever is connected therewith, are the correct, true, Christian pure doc-trine, confirmed by, and founded in the writings of the holy prophets and apostles, and of the teachers who follow in their foot-steps, in such manner that no substantial objection can be raised against it. … Since now in my conscience I am firmly persuaded of this, I owe this gratefulness and obedience to God, who has shown me such unspeakable grace, that, as I desire to obtain eternal salvation and escape eternal damnation, I do not fall away from the truth of His almighty will which His Word has revealed to me, and which I know to be the truth. For such is the comforting and also the terrible word of God: ’Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.’ If I should acknowledge and adopt the Interim as Christian and godly, I would have to condemn and deny against my own conscience, knowingly and maliciously, the Augsburg Confession, and whatever I have heretofore held and believed concerning the Gospel of Christ, and approve with my mouth what I regard in my heart and conscious altogether contrary to the holy and divine Scriptures.
This, O my God in heaven, would indeed by misusing and cruelly blaspheming Thy holy name, … for which I would have to pay all too dearly with my soul. For this is truly the sin against the Holy Ghost concerning which Christ says that it shall never be forgiven, neither in this nor in the world to come, in eternity. [Trig. P. 97.]
The cowardly emperor deprived him of the Bible and Luther’s books, but he said, “he cannot take their contents from my heart.”
I have cited these historic facts because they show how easy it is even for great men to dishonor the name of God by departures in doctrine and also to demonstrate how their hearts, who are seized by the truth of God’s Word, will not go in on false or ambiguous presentations of doc-trine for anything in the world, but will rather lose everything in life, yes, life itself, than be conscious of denying the teaching of God’s Word. Because thereby the name of God is hallowed among us.
False doctrine can win favor and honor for us among blinded men but it never brings glory to God.
But does God want us to be so stubborn and obstinate where the correct doctrine of His Word is concerned? He has commanded that we are to keep His Word. He has said that “if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31.32). In the book of Isaiah the Lord says: “This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise” (43:21). The pure and correct doctrine gives God alone all glory. Therefore we are to flee all false and ambiguous teaching and apply ourselves to always being strengthened in the truth of God’s Word so that we speak as the oracle of God and confess in our life and work the saving, correct doctrine of the Gospel. Then we have the promise of God concerning blessing.
But can it do any good to continue with our testimony? Did it do any good that the faithful Lutheran fathers testified against Melanchthon and the Wittenberg theologians when they departed from the correct teaching of the Word of God in the adiaphoristic and synergistic controversies?
To be sure, thanks be to God, their testimony became the greatest of all possible blessings. It appeared as though it did not do any good at the time; because in Saxony and in other places in southern Germany the synergists and the syncretists completely prevailed, so that everyone who opposed them was silenced and many orthodox pastors were banished from the church and those lands. But in that way the deception of the synergists and syncretists was revealed. The Electoral Prince, August, who wanted to be a champion of true Lutheranism, but who was induced to depose many of the most faithful Lutheran pastors through the influence of false advisors, had his eyes opened so that he saw the falsehood in the doctrine and practice of the synergists and syncretists. He regret-ted bitterly what he had done and from that time on he accepted as his advisors such men as Andreae, Chemnitz, and Selneccer. From now on he became the enthusiastic, self-sacrificing and loyal leader in the more widespread movement for attaining true unity of faith within the Lutheran Church. This movement ended with the adoption of the Formula of Concord through which all papists, Calvinists and synergistic systems were rejected and the true biblical Lutheran doctrine prescribed and proclaimed to the glory of God’s great name.
We and many other Lutherans with us were struck with terror when we saw that in Opgjør a doctrine of election which is not the teaching of the Word of God and which is not the teaching of our Lutheran Confess-ions was openly acknowledged in Opgjør alongside the biblical and Lutheran doctrine set forth in the 11th Article of the Formula of Concord. No less were we astounded when we saw that in order to achieve the merger of the three Norwegian Lutheran church bodies it was necessary to omit ten paragraphs of the 11th Article of the Formula of Concord so that the teaching which was to be equal with the teaching of the Confessions could receive a more prominent place alongside the biblical teaching.
Our people were, however, to believe that this came from the Lord and that it was presented to our people as if unity in doctrine was now achieved which would justify a merger. There is deceit in the composition of the compromise and deceit was used in forcing the union of the three church bodies through. It will be evident from other reports at this meeting.
We would be unfaithful to our calling as Lutheran Christians and un-faithful to God whose glory is furthered only through the pure doctrine of His Word if we remain silent to such things. Unfaithful toward our former brethren, if we did not seek with our testimony to awaken their conscience over toward the holy duty not to tolerate any addition to the pure doctrine of the Word of God. Nor to tolerate the crass unionism which has received prescriptive right both in the resolutions in the Norwegian Lutheran Church and in its association with the “National Lutheran Council,” as well as participation in public services with Reformed sects, lodges and others who believe differently than we do. The association which now seems to be brought about with the church of Norway in the exchange of emissaries which is taking place, does not serve to the glory of God’s name and the establishment of the Lutheran Church in the doctrine of the Word of God, as long as the church in Norway stands on its present doctrinal basis.
We must testify against all this in the hope and prayer that God in grace will awaken in both lay and learned in the merged church body, love for sound Lutheran doctrine, which at length will lead our Norwegian Lutherans back to pledging themselves openly to the Confessions of the Lutheran Church.
When the president of the Norwegian Lutheran Church* says about us in his address to his church body in 1923: “Our hearts can be touched when we think of the fact that those with whom we want so much to be brethren can be captivated with a position which can only be designated as an expression of fanaticism,” then we are reminded by it of the Philippists’ crass attack against and judgment upon the orthodox Lutherans who testified against them.
Such talk only shows how completely he has been able to forget, in the intoxication for union, what he once stood for, namely, inviolable faithfulness to the teaching of God’s Words and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church.
And when we consider with what crushing coolness he could be along in cutting off the fraternal hand which was clasped in heartfelt unity of faith between fathers and brethren in the old Norwegian Synod and brethren in the Synodical Conference, then such talk loses its weight and meaning. If the president had worked as zealously for getting the church body he now represents to understand and to continue standing on the old Lutheran ground in common with the Synodical Conference, as he has worked for establishing the association with the most liberal Lutheran church body in this country and in all the world, he would have made himself deserving as a Lutheran theologian in a completely different way.
In the position we take as those who want to give glory to God alone for everything in the matter of our salvation, and only confess the saving doctrine of the Word of God as rule and guide for faith, doctrine and life, we do not expect to gain honor or recognition from lukewarm unionists and indifferent Lutherans. But we do expect that those among our people who share with us the proper love, shall summon up the man within themselves and testify with us to the glory of Christ’s name. Yes, that they shall arrange their lives and their associations in the church in such a way that they do not contradict in their lives what they confess with their mouth. Especially, that their consciences shall rebuke them for their silence at this time.
We ask God to give us all grace to prize the fact that our church body is grounded in the pure and correct doctrine of God’s Word, so that we guard against such associations which lead to denial of Christ’s saving Gospel. In particular we must guard against associations in worldly associations and lodges where the spirit of the world rules and where Christ’s name is denied. Through such associations the name of God is dishonored, the church — the kingdom of God — corrupted, and redeemed souls are led astray and lost.
May God in grace give us wisdom and courage always to hallow His name through correct teaching and Christian conduct, for the sake of Jesus Christ! Amen.
George Albert Gullixson
Translated by J. Herbert Larson, 2004
* The reference is to Hans Gerhard Stub, president of the Norwegian Synod from Dr. U.V. Koren’s death in 1910 to the 1917 merger referred to here as the Norwegian Lutheran Church. —Tr.
