treitsynode"), where the majority of
the North Carolina Synod decided in favor of a union with the General
Synod, the minority, as related above, organized the Tennessee Synod.
(15.) In the minutes (Bericht) of 1820, the members of the new synod
justify their withdrawal and organization as a separate body by calling
attention especially to the following points: 1. The officers and some
of the members of the North Carolina Synod had proven by their words
and actions that they "could no longer be regarded as truly Evangelical
Lutheran pastors." (12. 15.) 2. The "Untimely Synod" had declared the
excommunication of a member of David Henkel's congregation to be
invalid, without investigating the matter in that congregation, thereby
infringing upon the rights of the congregation. (20.) 3. The same synod
had not rebuked its president, Rev. Stork, when he made the statement
that he could not believe the Lutheran doctrine that Christ as man was
in possession of all divine attributes, and that he would not believe it
if 500 Bibles should say so. 4. The Synod of 1820 had declared David
Henkel's ordination "under the oaks" invalid, and had published a sort
of letter of excommunication against him. (22.) 5. Synod had refused to
settle the mooted questions according to the Augsburg Confession and the
synodical constitution, but, instead, had demanded that the minority
should yield to the majority. "We, however, thought," says the Report,
"that the doctrine of the Augsburg Confession (concerning which we were
convinced that it could be proven by the doctrine of the Bible) should
have greater weight with us than the voice of a majority of men who are
opposed to the doctrine and ordinance of our Church." (23.) 6. Synod had
permitted the un-Lutheran remarks made at the convention and elsewhere
on Baptism, the Eucharist, Election, Conversion, and the certainty of
the state of grace, as well as on union with all religious parties, to
pass unreproved.--Stating the causes of the deplorable schism, David
Henkel wrote in 1827: "A most unhappy difference exists between this
body and the North Carolina Synod. Previous to the year 1820 some
members of the former and some of the latter constituted one Synod. In
this year the North Carolina Synod entered into the connection of a
General Synod with some other synods. This is a connection and
institution which heretofore did not exist in the Lutheran community,
and to which the Tennessee Synod object a