Samuel Simon Schmucker, American Lutheran Sabbatarian? (D. G. Hart)

[Reformed Covenanter]

The dominant figure of nineteenth-century Lutheranism, Samuel Simon Schmucker (1799—1873), accelerated Lutheran assimilation of American ways. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton Theological Seminary, Schmucker was able to dispense with any charge of Lutheran provincialism. What is more, the aim of much of his work as a church leader and professor at Gettysburg Seminary was to move the Lutheran church into the mainstream of American Protestantism. To that end, in his 1855 book, The Definite Synodical Platform, Schmucker hoped to give American Lutheranism a theological foundation that would allow the church to adapt better to its cultural setting. He specifically called for revision of five areas of the Augsburg Confession, the theological standard for ministry and membership in the church. Schmucker’s Platform stripped Lutheran teaching on baptismal regeneration and the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper of their foreignness and moved it in the low church direction of the American Protestant mainstream. At the same time, he proposed that Lutherans act more like native Anglo-Americans by observing the Sabbath in a fashion comparable to Puritan practice.

D. G. Hart, The Lost Soul of American Protestantism (Kindle Locations 1378-1386). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Kindle Edition. (Emphasis added.)

 

[Sam Jer]

What happened with these efforts? It seems any lasting effects were minimal

 

[Charles Johnson]

What happened with these efforts? It seems any lasting effects were minimal

On the matter of the sabbath, perhaps not. Regard the Lord's Supper, I'd venture if you did a survey of American Lutherans, the majority would think the Lord's Supper is a bare sign or a metaphor.

 

[Theoretical]

What happened with these efforts? It seems any lasting effects were minimal

They were actually quite effective, but in the wrong directions. While his views may have been more in line with the Reformed, by trying to make Lutheranism Reformed-lite for cultural/assimilation reasons, and not doctrinal convictions, that is how you take 2nd order confessional issues (legitimately dividing Christians denominationally) to be no big deal in one generation to make the Apostles & Nicene Creed level issues no big deal in the next.

Those changes to Lutheranism are at least as violent, if not more so, than the PCUSA's confessional revisions of 1903. We're talking at the level of open Arminianism being acceptable in our circles among the clergy for a comparable level. Or a confessional Baptist church admitting to full membership infant baptized individuals. The resulting effect is a major loss of doctrinal vibrance, both on issues where we disagree and issues where we do agree. His trajectory is the ELCA, not the LCMS or other confessional bodies.

The Sabbath ironically is the one that probably could be most taken by Lutherans to some extent without major confessional revision (though I haven't studied the Book of Concord on it).

 

[Sam Jer]

It dosen't seem the LC-MS is Sabbatarian (or very biblical on Christian Liberty and the interpetation of Romans 14, but I digress)
Doctrinal Positions of the LCMS, "on Sunday", article 41 -

We teach that in the New Testament God has abrogated the Sabbath and all the holy days prescribed for the Church of the Old Covenant, so that neither "the keeping of the Sabbath nor any other day" nor the observance of at least one specific day of the seven days of the week is ordained or commanded by God, Col. 2:16; Rom. 14:5 (Augsburg Confession, Triglot, p. 91, Paragraphs 51-60; M., p. 66).

The observance of Sunday and other church festivals is an ordinance of the Church, made by virtue of Christian liberty. (Augsburg Confession, Triglot, p. 91, Paragraphs 51-53, 60; M., p. 66; Large Catechism, Triglot, p. 603, Paragraphs 83, 85, 89, M., p. 401.) Hence Christians should not regard such ordinances as ordained by God and binding upon the conscience, Col. 2:16; Gal. 4:10. However, for the sake of Christian love and peace they should willingly observe them, Rom. 14:13; 1 Cor. 14:40. (Augsburg Confession, Triglot, p. 91, Paragraphs 53-56; M., p. 67.)

On the matter of the sabbath, perhaps not. Regard the Lord's Supper, I'd venture if you did a survey of American Lutherans, the majority would think the Lord's Supper is a bare sign or a metaphor.

Would this be the case among those churches who still retain the first mark of the true church? Or just apostates from the mainline?
If the issue that prevented agreement at Marburg is really dropped by so many, why dosen't there seem to be a closer cooperation between Lutherans and Reformed? Has this become a source of inter-Lutheran division?