I am convinced that it was the same confused conception of the gospel which led the opponents to direct their attacks on the Norwegian Synod in the controversy of Election. They began by attacking the Missourian presentation of this doctrine, when this synod in accordance with Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions taught that God from eternity not only has determined through His Son to prepare salvation for all sinners, but that He also has determined to call, justify and glorify those who are finally saved. As God by grace alone prepared salvation for all, so He likewise. by grace alone makes us partakers of this salvation.
The opponents would not accept this presentation. They wanted to make room for man's faith also in the doctrine of Election, so as to he able to explain why some have been chosen in preference to others. They contended for this definition of Election, to-wit: That God from eternity has chosen those unto salvation of whom he foreknew that they would believe and remain faithful unto the end. Our faith, then, accounts for the fact that some have been chosen in preference to others.
While they would not admit that they considered man's faith as the cause of Election, yet, when, as a natural sequence, the doctrine of Conversion became involved in the controversy, it was evident that such importance was attached to faith, or as they chose to call it, ``man's good conduct.''
In the controversies regarding Absolution, The Gospel, Justification, and Election the fathers of the Norwegian Synod considered it a matter of paramount importance to testify with clearness to the second great principle of the Reformation, Justification by faith alone. The confused conception of this fundamental Christian doctrine, which was so prevalent among the Norwegian immigrants, goes to prove that this was not useless strife and a mere conflict of words. It was an important testimony, sorely needed, in order to establish an orthodox Lutheran church among our countrymen.
But our sainted fathers also testified with clearness and force to the first fundamental principle of the Reformation, or that the Bible is the only sure and perfect rule of our faith and life. In addition to the testimony to this important truth, continually borne in the course of the controversies hitherto reviewed, there were especially two questions at issue in the early history of our church in which our fathers stressed the authority of Scripture in opposition to human doctrines that had become quite generally accepted in the church. The first was the so-called Sunday question.