Facts About LutheranismWhat is a Lutheran? The first fact about Lutheranism is that many people have little or no idea what it is all about. In many parts of the world, Lutheranism seems to be one ofthe best kept secrets. What follows are a few facts about Lutheranism that may help you tobetter understand us.DemographicsThose calling themselves Lutherans are numerous to say the least. There are over 70 million professing Lutherans worldwide, 9 million of these living in North America. Lutherans can be found on all the major continents and scattered throughout many countries. Only the Roman Catholic and Orthodox church have more professing Christians in their ranks. The large number ofLutherans can partially be explained by the fact that in some European countries (such as Denmark), Lutheranism is the state religion. Lutheran Christians have been around for over 460 years.A Brief HistoryLutheranism, in one sense, was founded byMartin Luther (1483-1546). Luther began as a very faithful son of the Roman Church. Precisely because of this, like so many others of his age, he was deeply concerned about his souls salvation. Also like many, Luther was terribly frightened that because of his sin the righteous and angry God wouldcast him into purgatory or hell. Unlike many, however, Martin Luther had an intensely sensitive nature that made him remarkably and painfully aware of his sinfulness. That, coupled with his incredible knowledge of Scripture, especially the thunderings of Gods law, led Luther to a growing awareness that he was condemned by Godslaw and in desperate need of help.Because of this crisis in his relationship withGod, Martin Luther, soon after beginning graduate studies as a law student, made the fateful decision to give up his legal career and become a monk in the Observant order of the Augustinian hermits. He took this dramatic step because the Church taught at that time, and Luther believed, that becominga monk was the surest road to forgiveness and entrance into heaven.However, he discovered that this way was sadly lacking. In fact, the more he searched the Scriptures and compared those Scriptures with the teachings of the Church of his day, the more he found important differences between the two.The biggest difference concerned the doctrine of justification or salvation, that is, how to find forgiveness with God and enter heaven. The Roman Church directed people to trust in their own love, holiness, and good works. In addition, they also directed the struggling sinner to trust in Mary and the saints. Luther discovered that this flatly contradicted the Gospel, the most important teaching of the Bible. The Gospel (meansgood news) directed struggling sinners to Jesus Christ alone. It joyfully declared that Jesus Christ has already paid for all our sins by His death on the cross. To all who put their trust in Him alone as Savior, God gives full forgiveness and heaven as a free gift.In the years that followed, Martin Luther became increasingly aware that many teachings of the Roman Church clashed withthis Biblical Gospel. With great alarm Luther saw that the authorities of the Roman Churchwere leading people away from God and into even greater darkness. So through his preaching, teaching, and writing, he began to protest the false teachings of Rome and to call for a Reformation of the Church. Luthers desire was never to start a new Church, but simply to restore the catholic Church to its original purity through his rediscovered Gospel. Luther contended that it was not he who had broken away from the Church. Rather, it was the Roman Church, who, by its false teaching and practice, had broken awayfrom the ancient Christian Church of the first centuries.As time past, thousands supported Luthers movement, not because they were supporting Luther the man, but because they agreed that what he taught was what the Bible taught. They were drawn to the truth by the Holy Spirit, just as Luther himself had been. Already during Luthers lifetime, those who had received the Biblical Gospel that Luther had rediscovered began calling themselves Lutheran. At first Luther had vigorously protested using his name for the movement. Later he consented to this since it was merely one way to identify those who believed the Gospel.What Lutherans BelieveThe answer to the question What is a Lutheran? can really only be answered by looking at the teachings of the Lutheran Church. Although the scope of this little tract does not allow a complete discussion of such teachings, a general idea can be given.Lutheran teaching can be summed up by what are called the Three Alones: (1) Grace Alone; (2) Faith Alone; (3) Scripture Alone.Grace AloneA Lutheran believes in Grace Alone. That is,a Lutheran believes that on the basis of Gods Holy Word that a person is forgiven and enters heaven by Gods grace alone. TheBiblical word grace refers to Gods attitude of undeserved kindness toward us. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.(Ephesians 2:8-9).It is not our conduct or performance that moves God to save us, it is his grace that moves God to save us. In fact, we cant do a thing to save ourselves. According to the Bible we are dead in sin (read Eph. 2:1; Romans 5:6). But God offers us full forgiveness and heaven as a free gift because Jesus lived and died to atone for our sin. Our salvation is not teamwork between us and God. It is not a matter of us doing our part and God doing His. We are notsaved by Gods grace plus our good works oranything we do. We are not saved by Gods grace plus anything. We are saved by Gods grace ALONE.We dont deserve this. What we do deserve iseternal punishment in hell for our sin. But God, because Jesus bore our punishment onthe cross, gives us what we dont deserve: eternal life. For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).Faith AloneA Lutheran also believes that we are forgivenand enter heaven by Faith Alone. For we maintain that a man is justified [declared innocent, righteous] by faith, apart from the works of the law (Romans 3:28). Throughout the history of the Church, Christians have been tempted to believe that faith in Jesus as Savior (or faith in the Gospel promise) is not enough. They have been tempted to believe that something WE do must be added to faith: our keeping of Gods Commandments, our love, our holiness, our victory over sin, or something else that we do. But the Scriptures consistently teach that we are saved throughfaith plus NOTHING. We are saved by faith ALONE.Since God truly promises heaven as a gift to the human race on account of Christ, then there is only one way to receive a promised gift: faith. The moment we think that our entrance into heaven is contingent upon our conduct in any way, at that moment heaven ceases to be a gift and begins to be something we have earned and deserve. For a gift to remain a gift it must simply be received. Faith in Jesus as Savior is the openhand that receives Gods gift of salvation.For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).Scripture AloneA Lutheran believes in Scripture Alone. That is, a Lutheran believes that all teaching that claims to be Christian is to be drawn from the Bible alone. The canonical books of the Bible are the only source, the only authority, and the only judge of Christian teaching. When the question is raised, is this teaching or practice Christian? the Holy Scriptures are the highest Court of Appeals and only they can decide the matter.The reason the Bible is such an authority for Lutherans is because we believe that Holy Scripture is not merely the word of man; it is also the inspired and inerrant Word of God himself. The human authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write down exactly what they did. Every word of the canonical Bible is the Word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16) andHoly men of God spoke as they we
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 12:07:03 +0000
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