Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

Do you not with me feel a certain thrill, tempered with awe,
at standing on Wisconsin soil this day? It was Wisconsin
soil that bore the great oak under which the first missionary
to our pioneer fathers preached. It was Wisconsin’s
generous forests which gave logs to their cabins and
churches. And in her bosom their bodies found rest when
their life-work was done.
Conflicts and pitched battles between truth and error,
between the conclusions of man and the declarations of
God, have been waged on Wisconsin soil. Who can forget
the all but bloody conflict at Norway Grove, the
reverberations of which were felt strongly in this city?
To us who are worshipping here today and to the Synod we
represent, the enemy is routed to this date. By the grace of
God “Gegraptai,” “It is written,” “Thus saith the Lord,” is
still floated from our mast head, while many who are
sailing under the banner “det gode forhold” “Intuitu fidei,”
which spells synergism. The knowledge of this muffles the
exuberance of our joy, but it must not be permitted to
reduce the wholeheartedness of our gratitude for the
unmerited grace of God through Christ Jesus vouchsafed to
us. 112
Among the Norwegian Lutherans of this country, they, and they alone, now
walked the same ground as their predecessors. It was vital to the confessional
consciousness of the young synod to recognize that they were being faithful to the Word
of God in their lonely stand and, therefore, had not disgraced the wonderful gifts that the
Lord had given them through the founding troika. Even to this day, the ELS celebrate two
birthdays: 1853 and 1918, and is quick to point out that 1918 is the date of reorganization,
not the creation of a new synod. Perhaps a passage from Wilhelm Loehe’s
Three Books about the Church best captures the spirit of the Norwegian Hermeneutic,
If the Lutheran Church has the pure Word and sacrament in
a pure confession, it obviously has the highest treasure of
112 H.M. Tjernagel, “On Historic Soil – A Revery” (Presidential address to the 19 th regular convention of
the Norwegian Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church, Madison, Wisconsin, June, 1937.),
36-37.
64