The precipitous event which led to the reorganization of the Norwegian Synod as the ELS occurred in 1917 when a merger of Norwegian Lutheran church bodies occurred. The issue under discussion from 1912–17, as it was in the 1880’s, was the teaching that salvation is completely a gift of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. This is not a small matter or a fine point in doctrine but a question of the central Biblical teaching of justification by grace alone. The minority that later formed the ELS sought to uphold this teaching in the face of impending merger with those who taught differently.
