Von: cybermom@springnet1.com (Lila White)
  Datum: 01.10.98, 09:27:46
Betreff: Re: Meaning of Evangelische

Bob Behnen wrote:
>
> Frank and all:
>
> Evangelische simply means evangelical.  When Lutherisch is also present
> then it means evangelical Lutheran.  However, you should be careful because
> there are several types of Evangelical churches.  Indeed, I have found that
> when it just says Evangelische these ancestors came to America and belonged
> to churches which are now the United Church of Christ (UCC).  There were
> even different confessions of faith so to speak:  Heidelberg and Augsburg.
>
> There was also an "evangelisch reformierter" which was evangelical
> reformed.  So, many of these folks came to America and found a church that
> suited their beliefs or needs.  In the very old days, you were of a certain
> faith because the ruling royal family of their area chose for typically
> politcal reasons one faith over the other.

Bob,

I wholeheartedly agree!  The Evangelishe church of Germany is not
necessarily Lutheran.  As a result of the Prussian Union, the Lutheran
and Reformed/Calvinistic churches were forced to combine by Prussian
King, Frederick William III.

"Distinctively Lutheran services were now simply forbidden and
conscientious Lutherans, like Professor Dr. J. G. Scheibel of Breslau,
removed from office and persecuted in various incredibly ferocious ways
- despite Prussia's claims that it followed an enlightened policy of
religion!  Nobelmen and merchants were fined heavily for allowing
Lutheran services on their properties.  Lutherans had to meet secretly
in forests, cellars and barns.  Judas-money was paid for the betrayal of
faithful pastors.  Midwives had to report the birth of all Lutheran
children.  Lutheran baptisms were declared invalid, and babies were
sometimes forcibly rebaptized in the official union-church under police
compulsion.  Faithful pastors were imprisioned.  In one village the
faithful Lutherans were attacked on Christmas Eve by a military force of
five hundred men, who drove the weeping women away from the church with
swords and bayonets, forced open the church-doors, and "installed" the
union pastor with his union liturgy.  The army refused to end the
occupation till the protesting parishioners would start attending the
union services."

"The Confessional Awakening...finally led thousands of Lutherans, from
many walks of life, to emigrate to the New World, so that they and their
children might be free to confess and practice their Biblical,
Reformation faith without compromise."

"Only after the death of Frederick William III (1840) was the hitherto
underground Lutheran church allowed to exist in Prussia as an
independant body (1845)."

Kurt E. Marquart, Anatomy of an Explosion (Grand Rapids: Baker Book
House, 1978) pp. 20, 21.

Lila White