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Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther the 16th century German fria
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 1517. The Lutheran Churches adhere to the Bible and the Ecumenical Creeds, with Lutheran doctrine being explicated in the Book of Concord. Lutherans hold themselves to be in continuity with the apostolic church and affirm the writings of the Church Fathers and the first four ecumenical councils.
The schism between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism, which was formalized in the Edict of Worms of 1521, centered around two points: the proper source of authority in the church, often called the formal principle of the Reformation, and the doctrine of justification, the material principle of Lutheran theology. Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification "by Grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone", the doctrine that scripture is the final authority on all matters of faith. This contrasts with the belief of the Roman Catholic Church, defined at the Council of Trent, which contends that final authority comes from both Scripture and tradition. In Lutheranism, tradition is subordinate to Scripture and is cherished for its role in the proclamation of the Gospel.
The Lutheran Churches retain many of the liturgical practices and sacramental teachings of the pre-Reformation Western Church, with a particular emphasis on the Eucharist, or Lord's Supper, although Eastern Lutheranism uses the Byzantine Rite. Though Lutherans are not dogmatic about the number of sacraments, three Lutheran sacraments are generally recognized including baptism, confession and the eucharist. The Lutheran Churches teach baptismal regeneration, that humans "are cleansed of our sins and born again and renewed in Holy Baptism by the Holy Ghost". Lutheranism teaches that sanctification commences at the time of justification and that Christians, as a result of their living faith, ought to do good works, which are rewarded by God. The act of mortal sin forfeits salvation, unless individuals turn back to God through faith. In the Lutheran Churches, the Office of the Keys is the "authority which Christ has given to His Church on earth: to forgive the sins of the penitent sinners, but to retain the sins of the impenitent as long as they do not repent." The doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist via a sacramental union is central to the Lutheran faith, with the Mass (also known as the Divine Service) being celebrated regularly, especially on the Lord's Day.
Lutheranism became the state church of many parts of Northern Europe, starting with Prussia in 1525. In Scandinavia, the Roman Catholic bishops largely accepted the Lutheran reforms and the Church there became Lutheran in belief; the threefold ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons was continued. Lutheran divines who contributed to the development of Lutheran theology include Martin Luther, Martin Chemnitz, Philip Melanchthon, Joachim Westphal, Laurentius Petri, Olaus Petri, and Laurentius Andreae.
Lutheranism has contributed to Christian hymnody and the arts, as well as the development of education.Christian missions have been established by Lutherans in various regions. Lutheran Churches operate a number of Lutheran schools, colleges and universities around the world, in addition to hospitals and orphanages. A number of Lutheran religious orders, as well as monasteries and convents, live in community to pray and work. Lutherans are found across all continents of the globe, numbering 90 million.
Lutheran theology differs from Reformed theology in Christology, divine grace, the purpose of God's Law, the concept of perseverance of the saints, and predestination, among other matters.
Etymology
The name Lutheran originated as a derogatory term used against Luther by German Scholastic theologian Johann Maier von Eck during the Leipzig Debate in July 1519. Eck and other Roman Catholics followed the traditional practice of naming a heresy after its leader, thus labeling all who identified with the theology of Martin Luther as Lutherans.
Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran, preferring the term evangelical, which was derived from εὐαγγέλιον euangelion, a Greek word meaning "good news", i.e. "Gospel". The followers of John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and other theologians linked to the Reformed tradition also used that term. To distinguish the two evangelical groups, others began to refer to the two groups as Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed. As time passed by, the word Evangelical was not always used. Lutherans themselves began to use the term Lutheran in the middle of the 16th century, in order to distinguish themselves from other groups such as the Anabaptists and Calvinists. That being said, many personal opinions of Martin Luther were not adopted by the Lutheran Churches in the Augsburg Confession (the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church), and because Lutheranism retained much of the pre-Reformation liturgical and devotional practices, the Lutheran Reformation is generally considered to be the most conservative among the Protestant traditions.
In 1597, theologians in Wittenberg defined the title Lutheran as referring to the true church.
History
Lutheranism has its roots in the work of Martin Luther, who sought to reform the Western Church to what he considered a more biblical foundation. The reaction of the government and church authorities to the international spread of his writings, beginning with the Ninety-five Theses, divided Western Christianity. During the Reformation, Lutheranism became the state religion of numerous states of northern Europe, especially in northern Germany, Scandinavia, and the then-Livonian Order. Lutheran clergy became civil servants and the Lutheran churches became part of the state.
In 1521, the split between the Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church was made public and clear with the Edict of Worms, in which the Diet condemned Luther and officially banned subjects of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating Luther's ideas, facing advocates of Lutheranism with forfeiture of all property. Half of it would be then forfeited to the imperial government and the remaining half to the accusing party. In Scandinavia, the Roman Catholic bishops largely accepted the Lutheran reforms and the Church there became Lutheran in belief; the threefold ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons was continued.
Spread to Northern Europe
Lutheranism spread through all of Scandinavia during the 16th century as the monarchs of Denmark–Norway and Sweden adopted the faith. Through Baltic-German and Swedish rule, Lutheranism also spread into Estonia and Latvia. It also began spreading into Lithuania Proper with practically all members of the Lithuanian nobility converting to Lutheranism or Calvinism, but at the end of the 17th century Protestantism at large began losing support due to the Counter-Reformation and religious persecutions. In German-ruled Lithuania Minor, however, Lutheranism remained the dominant branch of Christianity. Lutheranism played a crucial role in preserving the Lithuanian language.
Since 1520, regular Lutheran services have been held in Copenhagen. Under the reign of Frederick I (1523–1533), Denmark–Norway remained officially Catholic. Although Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he soon adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers, the most significant of which was Hans Tausen.
During Frederick's reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads in Denmark. At an open meeting in Copenhagen attended by King Christian III in 1536, the people shouted, "We will stand by the holy Gospel, and do not want such bishops anymore". Frederick's son was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his father's death in 1533. However, following his victory in the civil war that followed, in 1536 he became Christian III and advanced the Reformation in Denmark–Norway.
The constitution upon which the Danish Norwegian Church, according to the Church Ordinance, should rest was "The pure word of God, which is the Law and the Gospel". It does not mention the Augsburg Confession. The priests had to understand the Holy Scripture well enough to preach and explain the Gospel and the Epistles to their congregations.
The youths were taught from Luther's Small Catechism, available in Danish since 1532. They were taught to expect at the end of life: "forgiving of their sins", "to be counted as just", and "the eternal life". Instruction is still similar.
The first complete Bible in Danish was based on Martin Luther's translation into German. It was published in 1550 with 3,000 copies printed in the first edition; a second edition was published in 1589. Unlike Catholicism, Lutheranism rejects the view that only the communion of the Bishop of Rome has been entrusted to interpret the "Word of God".
The Reformation in Sweden began with Olaus and Laurentius Petri, brothers who took the Reformation to Sweden after studying in Germany. They led Gustav Vasa, elected king in 1523, to Lutheranism. The pope's refusal to allow the replacement of an archbishop who had supported the invading forces opposing Gustav Vasa during the Stockholm Bloodbath led to the severing of any official connection between Sweden and the papacy in 1523.
Four years later, at the Diet of Västerås, the king succeeded in forcing the diet to accept his dominion over the national church. The king was given possession of all church properties, as well as the church appointments and approval of the clergy. While this effectively granted official sanction to Lutheran ideas, Lutheranism did not become official until 1593. At that time the Uppsala Synod declared Holy Scripture the sole guideline for faith, with four documents accepted as faithful and authoritative explanations of it: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the unaltered Augsburg Confession of 1530.Mikael Agricola's translation of the first Finnish New Testament was published in 1548.
Counter-Reformation and controversies
After the death of Martin Luther in 1546, the Schmalkaldic War started out as a conflict between two German Lutheran rulers in 1547. Soon, Holy Roman Imperial forces joined the battle and conquered the members of the Schmalkaldic League, oppressing and exiling many German Lutherans as they enforced the terms of the Augsburg Interim. Religious freedom in some areas was secured for Lutherans through the Peace of Passau in 1552, and under the legal principle of Cuius regio, eius religio (the religion of the ruler was to dictate the religion of those ruled) and the Declaratio Ferdinandei (limited religious tolerance) clauses of the Peace of Augsburg in 1555.
Religious disputes among the Crypto-Calvinists, Philippists, Sacramentarians, Ubiquitarians, and Gnesio-Lutherans raged within Lutheranism during the middle of the 16th century. These finally ended with the resolution of the issues in the Formula of Concord. Large numbers of politically and religiously influential leaders met together, debated, and resolved these topics on the basis of Scripture, resulting in the Formula, which over 8,000 leaders signed. The Book of Concord replaced earlier, incomplete collections of doctrine, unifying all German Lutherans with identical doctrine and beginning the period of Lutheran Orthodoxy.
In lands where Catholicism was the state religion, Lutheranism was officially illegal, although enforcement varied. Until the end of the Counter-Reformation, some Lutherans worshipped secretly, such as at the Hundskirke (which translates as dog church or dog altar), a triangle-shaped Communion rock in a ditch between crosses in Paternion, Austria. The crowned serpent is possibly an allusion to Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, while the dog possibly refers to Peter Canisius. Another figure interpreted as a snail carrying a church tower is possibly a metaphor for the Protestant church. Also on the rock is the number 1599 and a phrase translating as "thus gets in the world".
Lutheran orthodoxy
The historical period of Lutheran Orthodoxy is divided into three sections: Early Orthodoxy (1580–1600), High Orthodoxy (1600–1685), and Late Orthodoxy (1685–1730). Lutheran scholasticism developed gradually, especially for the purpose of arguing with the Jesuits, and it was finally established by Johann Gerhard. Abraham Calovius represents the climax of the scholastic paradigm in orthodox Lutheranism. Other orthodox Lutheran theologians include Martin Chemnitz, Aegidius Hunnius, Leonhard Hutter, Nicolaus Hunnius, Jesper Rasmussen Brochmand, Salomo Glassius, Johann Hülsemann, Johann Conrad Dannhauer, Johannes Andreas Quenstedt, Johann Friedrich König, and Johann Wilhelm Baier.
Near the end of the Thirty Years' War, the compromising spirit seen in Philip Melanchthon rose up again in the Helmstedt School and especially in theology of Georgius Calixtus, causing the syncretistic controversy. Another theological issue that arose was the Crypto-Kenotic controversy.
Late orthodoxy was torn by influences from rationalism, philosophy based on reason, and Pietism, a revival movement in Lutheranism. After a century of vitality, the Pietist theologians Philipp Jakob Spener and August Hermann Francke warned that orthodoxy had degenerated into meaningless intellectualism and formalism, while orthodox theologians found the emotional and subjective focuses of Pietism to be vulnerable to Rationalist propaganda.
The last famous orthodox Lutheran theologian before the rationalist Aufklärung, or Enlightenment, was David Hollatz. Late orthodox theologian Valentin Ernst Löscher took part in the controversy against Pietistic Lutheranism. Medieval mystical traditions continued in the works of Martin Moller, Johann Arndt, and Joachim Lütkemann. Pietism became a rival of orthodoxy but adopted some devotional literature by orthodox theologians, including Arndt, Christian Scriver, and Stephan Prätorius.
Rationalism
Rationalist philosophers from France and England had an enormous impact during the 18th century, along with the German Rationalists Christian Wolff, Gottfried Leibniz, and Immanuel Kant. Their work led to an increase in rationalist beliefs, "at the expense of faith in God and agreement with the Bible".
In 1709, Valentin Ernst Löscher warned that this new Rationalist view of the world fundamentally changed society by drawing into question every aspect of theology. Instead of considering the authority of divine revelation, he explained, Rationalists relied solely on their personal understanding when searching for truth.
Johann Melchior Goeze (1717–1786), pastor of St. Catherine's Church in Hamburg, wrote apologetical works against Rationalists, including a theological and historical defence against the historical criticism of the Bible.
Dissenting Lutheran pastors were often reprimanded by the government bureaucracy overseeing them, for example, when they tried to correct Rationalist influences in the parish school. As a result of the impact of a local form of rationalism, termed Neology, by the latter half of the 18th century, genuine piety was found almost solely in small Pietist conventicles. However, some of the laity preserved Lutheran orthodoxy from both Pietism and rationalism by reusing old catechisms, hymnbooks, postils, and devotional writings, including those written by Johann Gerhard, Heinrich Müller and Christian Scriver.
Revivals
Luther scholar Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788), a layman, became famous for countering Rationalism and striving to advance a revival known as the Erweckung, or Awakening. In 1806, Napoleon's invasion of Germany promoted Rationalism and angered German Lutherans, stirring up a desire among the people to preserve Luther's theology from the Rationalist threat. Those associated with this Awakening held that reason was insufficient and pointed out the importance of emotional religious experiences.
Small groups sprang up, often in universities, which devoted themselves to Bible study, reading devotional writings, and revival meetings. Although the beginning of this Awakening tended heavily toward Romanticism, patriotism, and experience, the emphasis of the Awakening shifted around 1830 to restoring the traditional liturgy, doctrine, and confessions of Lutheranism in the Neo-Lutheran movement.
This Awakening swept through all of Scandinavia except Iceland. It developed from both German Neo-Lutheranism and Pietism. Danish pastor and philosopher N. F. S. Grundtvig reshaped church life throughout Denmark through a reform movement beginning in 1830. He also wrote about 1,500 hymns, including God's Word Is Our Great Heritage.
In Norway, Hans Nielsen Hauge, a lay street preacher, emphasized spiritual discipline and sparked the Haugean movement, which was followed by the Johnsonian Awakening within the state-church as spearheaded by its namesake, dogmatician and Pietist Gisle Johnson. The Awakening drove the growth of foreign missions in Norway to non-Christians to a new height, which has never been reached since. In Sweden, Lars Levi Læstadius began the Laestadian movement that emphasized moral reform. In Finland, a farmer, Paavo Ruotsalainen, began the Finnish Awakening when he took to preaching about repentance and prayer.
In 1817, Frederick William III of Prussia ordered the Lutheran and Reformed churches in his territory to unite, forming the Prussian Union of Churches. The unification of the two branches of German Protestantism sparked the Schism of the Old Lutherans. Many Lutherans, called "Old Lutherans", chose to leave the state churches despite imprisonment and military force. Some formed independent church bodies, or "free churches", at home while others left for the United States, Canada and Australia. A similar legislated merger in Silesia prompted thousands to join the Old Lutheran movement. The dispute over ecumenism overshadowed other controversies within German Lutheranism.
Despite political meddling in church life, local and national leaders sought to restore and renew Christianity. Neo-Lutheran Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe and Old Lutheran free church leader Friedrich August Brünn both sent young men overseas to serve as pastors to German Americans, while the Inner Mission focused on renewing the situation home.Johann Gottfried Herder, superintendent at Weimar and part of the Inner Mission movement, joined with the Romantic movement with his quest to preserve human emotion and experience from Rationalism.
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, though raised Reformed, became convinced of the truth of historic Lutheranism as a young man. He led the Neo-Lutheran Repristination School of theology, which advocated a return to the orthodox theologians of the 17th century and opposed modern Bible scholarship.[better source needed] As editor of the periodical , he developed it into a major support of Neo-Lutheran revival and used it to attack all forms of theological liberalism and rationalism. Although he received a large amount of slander and ridicule during his forty years at the head of revival, he never gave up his positions.
The theological faculty at the University of Erlangen in Bavaria became another force for reform. There, professor Adolf von Harless, though previously an adherent of rationalism and German idealism, made Erlangen a magnet for revival oriented theologians. Termed the Erlangen School of theology, they developed a new version of the Incarnation, which they felt emphasized the humanity of Jesus better than the ecumenical creeds. As theologians, they used both modern historical critical and Hegelian philosophical methods instead of attempting to revive the orthodoxy of the 17th century.
Friedrich Julius Stahl led the High Church Lutherans. Though raised Jewish, he was baptized as a Christian at the age of 19 through the influence of the Lutheran school he attended. As the leader of a neofeudal Prussian political party, he campaigned for the divine right of kings, the power of the nobility, and episcopal polity for the church. Along with Theodor Kliefoth and August Friedrich Christian Vilmar, he promoted agreement with the Roman Catholic Church with regard to the authority of the institutional church, ex opere operato effectiveness of the sacraments, and the divine authority of clergy. Unlike Catholics, however, they also urged complete agreement with the Book of Concord.
The Neo-Lutheran movement managed to slow secularism and counter atheistic Marxism, but it did not fully succeed in Europe. It partly succeeded in continuing the Pietist movement's drive to right social wrongs and focus on individual conversion. The Neo-Lutheran call to renewal failed to achieve widespread popular acceptance because it both began and continued with a lofty, idealistic Romanticism that did not connect with an increasingly industrialized and secularized Europe. The work of local leaders resulted in specific areas of vibrant spiritual renewal, but people in Lutheran areas became increasingly distant from church life. Additionally, the revival movements were divided by philosophical traditions. The Repristination school and Old Lutherans tended towards Kantianism, while the Erlangen school promoted a conservative Hegelian perspective. By 1969, Manfried Kober complained that "unbelief is rampant" even within German Lutheran parishes.
In the 21st century, Lutheranism has experienced growth, especially in Africa and Asia, as well as among young adults in the West.
Doctrine
Bible
Traditionally, Lutherans hold the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the only divinely inspired books, the only presently available sources of divinely revealed knowledge, and the only infallible source of Christian doctrine. The Luther Bible placed the Apocrypha in a section in between the Old Testament and New Testament, being books that were useful for edification and instruction in moral matters, though noncanonical.Scripture alone is the formal principle of the faith, the final authority for all matters of faith and morals because of its inspiration, authority, clarity, efficacy, and sufficiency.
The authority of the Scriptures has been challenged during the history of Lutheranism. Martin Luther taught that the Bible was the written Word of God, and the only infallible guide for faith and practice. He held that every passage of Scripture has one straightforward meaning, the literal sense as interpreted by other Scripture. These teachings were accepted during the orthodox Lutheranism of the 17th century. During the 18th century, Rationalism advocated reason rather than the authority of the Bible as the final source of knowledge, but most of the laity did not accept this Rationalist position. In the 19th century, a confessional revival re-emphasized the authority of the Scriptures and agreement with the Lutheran Confessions.
Today, Lutherans disagree about the inspiration and authority of the Bible. Theological conservatives use the historical-grammatical method of Biblical interpretation, while theological liberals use the higher critical method.
Inspiration
Although many Lutherans today hold less specific views of inspiration, historically, Lutherans affirm that the Bible does not merely contain the Word of God, but every word of it is, because of plenary, verbal inspiration, the direct, immediate word of God. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession identifies Holy Scripture with the Word of God and calls the Holy Spirit the author of the Bible. Because of this, Lutherans confess in the Formula of Concord, "we receive and embrace with our whole heart the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the pure, clear fountain of Israel". The prophetic and apostolic Scriptures are confessed as authentic and written by the prophets and apostles. A correct translation of their writings is seen as God's Word because it has the same meaning as the original Hebrew and Greek. A mistranslation is not God's word, and no human authority can invest it with divine authority.
Clarity
Historically, Lutherans understand the Bible to present all doctrines and commands of the Christian faith clearly. In addition, Lutherans believe that God's Word is freely accessible to every reader or hearer of ordinary intelligence, without requiring any special education. A Lutheran must understand the language that scriptures are presented in, and should not be so preoccupied by error so as to prevent understanding. As a result of this, Lutherans do not believe there is a need to wait for any clergy, pope, scholar, or ecumenical council to explain the real meaning of any part of the Bible.
Efficacy
Lutherans confess that Scripture is united with the power of the Holy Spirit and with it, not only demands, but also creates the acceptance of its teaching. This teaching produces faith and obedience. Holy Scripture is not a dead letter, but rather, the power of the Holy Spirit is inherent in it. Scripture does not compel a mere intellectual assent to its doctrine, resting on logical argumentation, but rather it creates the living agreement of faith. As the Smalcald Articles affirm, "in those things which concern the spoken, outward Word, we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one, except through or with the preceding outward Word".
Sufficiency
Lutherans are confident that the Bible contains everything that one needs to know in order to obtain salvation and to live a Christian life. There are no deficiencies in Scripture that need to be filled with by tradition, pronouncements of the Pope, new revelations, or present-day development of doctrine.
Role of Tradition
The Lutheran divines held that "Scripture was still to be read within a living ecclesial Tradition, and especially though the writings of the Church Fathers". Furthermore, the Lutheran Churches teach "Scripture as ‘the norm which norms (but which is not itself normed)’ (norma normans or norma normans non normata) and Tradition, especially the ecumenical creeds, as ‘the norms which are normed’ (norma normata)." As such, Lutherans hold that "Although Scripture cannot be normed by Tradition (norma normans non normata), it can be, and is, interpreted through Tradition. Tradition is still a norm (norma normata)."
In the Lutheran Churches, tradition is revered in the sense of the "transmission of the Scriptures from one generation to the next", the Ecumenical Creeds, the Book of Concord, "the true exposition and understanding of Scripture received from the apostles and handed down to future generations", "Christian doctrines not explicity stated in Scripture but drawn from clear Scripture on the basis of sound reason", "the teachings of the early church fathers as they taught Scripture", "ceremonies as they serve the preaching of the gospel" such as "making the sign of the cross, turning to the east in prayer, [and] the renunciation of Satan in Baptism".
As Lutheranism emerged, it did reject what it see as Roman Catholic traditions that "have no foundation in Scripture, and are used as sources of doctrines—placed on the same level as the doctrines clearly taught in Scripture."
Law and Gospel
Lutherans understand the Bible as containing two distinct types of content, termed Law and Gospel (or Law and Promises). Properly distinguishing between Law and Gospel prevents the obscuring of the Gospel teaching of justification by grace through faith alone.
Lutheran confessions
The Book of Concord, published in 1580, contains 10 documents which many Lutherans believe are faithful and authoritative explanations of Holy Scripture. Besides the three Ecumenical Creeds, which date to Roman times, the Book of Concord contains seven credal documents articulating Lutheran theology in the Reformation era.
The doctrinal positions of Lutheran churches are not uniform because the Book of Concord does not hold the same position in all Lutheran churches. For example, the state churches in Scandinavia consider only the Augsburg Confession as a "summary of the faith" in addition to the three ecumenical creeds. Lutheran pastors, congregations, and church bodies in Germany and the Americas usually agree to teach in harmony with the entire Lutheran confessions. Some Lutheran church bodies require this pledge to be unconditional because they believe the confessions correctly state what the Bible teaches. Others allow their congregations to do so "insofar as" the confessions are in agreement with the Bible. In addition, Lutherans accept the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils of the Christian Church.
The Lutheran Church traditionally sees itself as the "main trunk of the historical Christian Tree" founded by Christ and the Apostles, holding that during the Reformation, the Church of Rome fell away. As such, the Augsburg Confession teaches that "the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church". When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, they explained "that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils".
Justification
The key doctrine, or material principle, of Lutheranism is the doctrine of justification. Lutherans believe that humans are saved from their sins by God's grace alone (Sola Gratia), through faith alone (Sola Fide), on the basis of Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura). Orthodox Lutheran theology holds that God made the world, including humanity, perfect, holy and sinless. However, Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, trusting in their own strength, knowledge, and wisdom. Consequently, people are saddled with original sin, born sinful and unable to avoid committing sinful acts. For many Lutherans, original sin is the "chief sin, a root and fountainhead of all actual sins".
Lutherans teach that sinners, while capable of doing works that are outwardly "good", are not capable of doing works that satisfy God's justice. Every human thought and deed is infected with sin and sinful motives. Because of this, all of humanity deserves eternal damnation in hell. God in eternity has turned His Fatherly heart to this world and planned for its redemption because he loves all people and does not want anyone to be eternally damned.
To this end, "God sent his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, into the world to redeem and deliver us from the power of the devil, and to bring us to Himself, and to govern us as a King of righteousness, life, and salvation against sin, death, and an evil conscience", as Luther's Large Catechism explains. Because of this, Lutherans teach that salvation is possible only because of the grace of God made manifest in the birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and continuing presence by the power of the Holy Spirit, of Jesus Christ. By God's grace, made known and effective in the person and work of Jesus Christ, a person is forgiven, adopted as a child and heir of God, and given eternal salvation. Christ, because he was entirely obedient to the law with respect to both his human and divine natures, "is a perfect satisfaction and reconciliation of the human race", as the Formula of Concord asserts, and proceeds to summarize:
[Christ] submitted to the law for us, bore our sin, and in going to his Father performed complete and perfect obedience for us poor sinners, from his holy birth to his death. Thereby he covered all our disobedience, which is embedded in our nature and in its thoughts, words, and deeds, so that this disobedience is not reckoned to us as condemnation but is pardoned and forgiven by sheer grace, because of Christ alone.
Lutherans believe that individuals receive this gift of salvation through faith alone. Saving faith is the knowledge of, acceptance of, and trust in the promise of the Gospel. Even faith itself is seen as a gift of God, created in the hearts of Christians by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word and Baptism. Faith receives the gift of salvation rather than causes salvation. Thus, Lutherans reject the "decision theology" which is common among modern evangelicals, including Baptists and Methodists.
The term "grace" has been defined differently by other Christian church bodies. Lutheranism defines grace as entirely limited to God's gifts to us, which is bestowed as pure gift, not something we merit by behavior or acts. To Lutherans, grace is not about our response to God's gifts, but only His gifts.
Sanctification
At the time of the justification of an individual, Lutherans teach that the process of sanctification commences, which is defined as "the Holy Spirit’s work which follows justification through faith and consists of renewing the believer and bringing forth in him works of renewal." In Lutheranism, sanctification has two components, including: "1.) The inner renewal of the Holy Spirit in the Christian, and 2.) the living out of that inner renewal in the Christian’s new life of good works." The Lutheran Confessions hold that it is "necessary to exhort people to Christian discipline and good works, and to remind them how necessary it is that they exercise themselves in good words as an evidence of their faith and their gratitude toward God". For Christians, "good works are necessary fruits of faith in the life of a Christian and that they proceed from a renewed heart that is thankful to God for His mercy and love". These good works done by Christians are rewarded by God. Those individuals who commit mortal sin "render themselves subject to divine wrath and eternal death unless, turned again, they are reconciled to God through faith." The Formula of Concord summarizes salvation in Lutheran Christianity:
First the Holy Spirit kindles faith in us in conversion through the hearing of the Gospel. Faith apprehends the grace of God in Christ whereby the person is justified. After the person is justified, the Holy Spirit next renews and sanctifies him, and from this renewal and sanctification the fruits of good works will follow.” (FC, Solid Declaration, Article III, Righteousness, 40,41 [Tappert])
The Lutheran Confessions state:
“After a person has been justified by faith, a true living faith becomes ‘active through love’ (Gal. 5:6). Thus good works always follow justifying faith and are certainly to be found with it, since such faith is never alone but is always accompanied by love and hope.” (FC, Epitome, Article III. Righteousness. Tappert p. 474)
We also reject and condemn the teaching that faith and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are not lost through malicious sin, but that the holy ones and the elect retain the Holy Spirit even though they fall into adultery and other sins and persist in them. (FC, Article IV, Good Works)
Good works
Lutherans believe that Augsburg Confession's "Article XX: Of Good Works" are the fruit of faith, always and in every instance. Good works have their origin in God, not in the fallen human heart or in human striving; their absence would demonstrate that faith, too, is absent. Lutherans do not believe that good works are a factor in obtaining salvation; they believe that we are saved by the grace of God—based on the merit of Christ in his suffering and death—and faith in the Triune God. Good works are the natural result of faith, not the cause of salvation. Lutheran theology holds that Christians freely and willingly serve God and their neighbors.
The Lutheran Churches teach that God rewards good works done by Christians, with "each one receiving his/her own reward according to his/her labour"; the Apology of the Augsburg Confession teaches: "We also affirm what we have often said, that although justification and eternal life go along with faith, nevertheless, good works merit other bodily and spiritual rewards and degrees of reward. According to 1 Corinthians 3:8, ‘Each will receive his wages according to his labor.’"
Trinity
Lutherans believe in the Trinity, rejecting the idea that the Father and God the Son are merely faces of the same person, stating that both the Old Testament and the New Testament show them to be two distinct persons. Lutherans believe the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. In the words of the Athanasian Creed: "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal."
Two natures of Christ
Lutherans believe Jesus is the Christ, the savior promised in the Old Testament. They believe he is both by nature God and by nature man in one person, as they confess in Luther's Small Catechism that he is "true God begotten of the Father from eternity and also true man born of the Virgin Mary".
The Augsburg Confession explains:
[T]he Son of God, did assume the human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, so that there are two natures, the divine and the human, inseparably enjoined in one Person, one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, that He might reconcile the Father unto us, and be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men.
Mariology
With regard to Mary, the Lutheran Churches universally teach the Marian doctrines of the Virgin Birth and the Theotokos.
The doctrines of the perpetual virginity of Mary and Sinlessness of Mary are maintained as pious opinions by many Lutherans, both being held by Martin Luther himself.
Sacraments
Lutherans hold that sacraments are sacred acts of divine institution. Whenever they are properly administered by the use of the physical component commanded by God along with the divine words of institution, God is, in a way specific to each sacrament, present with the Word and physical component. He earnestly offers to all who receive the sacrament forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation. He also works in the recipients to get them to accept these blessings and to increase the assurance of their possession.
Lutherans are not dogmatic about the number of the sacraments, though three sacraments are generally recognized: baptism, confession, and the eucharist. In line with Luther's initial statement in his Large Catechism some speak of only two sacraments,Baptism and Holy Communion, although later in the same work he calls Confession and Absolution "the third sacrament".
The definition of sacrament in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession lists Absolution as one of them.Private Confession is expected before receiving the Eucharist for the first time. Some churches also allow for individual absolution on Saturdays before the Eucharistic service. A General Confession and Absolution, known as the Penitential Rite, is proclaimed in the Eucharistic liturgy.
Baptism
Lutherans hold that Baptism is a saving work of God, mandated and instituted by Jesus Christ. Baptism is a "means of grace" through which God creates and strengthens "saving faith" as the "washing of regeneration" in which infants and adults are reborn. Since the creation of faith is exclusively God's work, it does not depend on the actions of the one baptized, whether infant or adult. Even though baptized infants cannot articulate that faith, Lutherans believe that it is present all the same.
It is faith alone that receives these divine gifts, so Lutherans confess that baptism "works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare". Lutherans hold fast to the Scripture cited in 1 Peter 3:21, "Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Therefore, Lutherans administer Baptism to both infants and adults. In the special section on infant baptism in his Large Catechism, Luther argues that infant baptism is God-pleasing because persons so baptized were reborn and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Eucharist
Lutherans hold that within the Eucharist, also referred to as the Sacrament of the Altar or the Lord's Supper, the true body and blood of Christ are truly present "in, with, and under the forms" of the consecrated bread and wine for all those who eat and drink it, a doctrine that the Formula of Concord calls the sacramental union.
Confession
Many Lutherans receive the sacrament of penance before receiving the Eucharist. Prior to going to Confessing and receiving Absolution, the faithful are expected to examine their lives in light of the Ten Commandments. An order of Confession and Absolution is contained in the Small Catechism, as well as in liturgical books. Lutherans typically kneel at the communion rails to confess their sins, while the confessor listens and then offers absolution while laying their stole on the penitent's head. Clergy are prohibited from revealing anything said during private Confession and Absolution per the Seal of the Confessional, and face excommunication if it is violated. Apart from this, Laestadian Lutherans have a practice of lay confession.
Rites
Apart from the three sacraments of baptism, confession and the eucharist, Lutherans observe four rites including confirmation, ordination to holy orders, anointing of the sick, and holy matrimony.
Additional ordinances are observed by Lutherans, such as feetwashing (especially on Maundy Thursday), as well as historically, head covering for Christian women during prayer and worship.
Conversion
In Lutheranism, conversion or regeneration in the strict sense of the term is the work of divine grace and power by which man, born of the flesh, and void of all power to think, to will, or to do any good thing, and dead in sin is, through the gospel and holy baptism, taken from a state of sin and spiritual death under God's wrath into a state of spiritual life of faith and grace, rendered able to will and to do what is spiritually good and, especially, made to trust in the benefits of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
During conversion, one is moved from impenitence to repentance. The Augsburg Confession divides repentance into two parts: "One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that for Christ's sake, sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terrors."
Predestination
Lutherans adhere to divine monergism, the teaching that salvation is by God's act alone, and therefore reject the idea that humans in their fallen state have a free will concerning spiritual matters. Lutherans believe that although humans have free will concerning civil righteousness, they cannot work spiritual righteousness in the heart without the presence and aid of the Holy Spirit. Lutherans believe that those who trust in Christ, and manifest their living faith by serving God, can be certain of their salvation.
According to Lutheranism, the central final hope of the Christian is "the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting" as confessed in the Apostles' Creed rather than predestination. Lutherans disagree with those who make predestination—rather than Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection—the source of salvation. Unlike some Calvinists, Lutherans do not believe in a predestination to damnation, usually referencing "God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" as contrary evidence to such a claim. Instead, Lutherans teach eternal damnation is a result of the unbeliever's sins, rejection of the forgiveness of sins, and unbelief.
Divine providence
According to Lutherans, God preserves his creation, cooperates with everything that happens, and guides the universe. While God cooperates with both good and evil deeds, with evil deeds he does so only inasmuch as they are deeds, but not with the evil in them. God concurs with an act's effect, but he does not cooperate in the corruption of an act or the evil of its effect. Lutherans believe everything exists for the sake of the Christian Church, and that God guides everything for its welfare and growth.
The explanation of the Apostles' Creed given in the Small Catechism declares that everything good that people have is given and preserved by God, either directly or through other people or things. Of the services others provide us through family, government, and work, "we receive these blessings not from them, but, through them, from God". Since God uses everyone's useful tasks for good, people should not look down upon some useful vocations as being less worthy than others. Instead people should honor others, no matter how lowly, as being the means God uses to work in the world.
Judgment and eternal life
Lutherans do not believe in any sort of earthly millennial kingdom of Christ either before or after his second coming on the last day. Lutherans teach that, at death, the souls of Christians are immediately taken into the presence of Jesus, where they await the second coming of Jesus on the last day. On the last day, all the bodies of the dead will be resurrected.
Their souls will then be reunited with the same bodies they had before dying. The bodies will then be changed, those of the wicked to a state of everlasting shame and torment, those of the righteous to an everlasting state of celestial glory. After the resurrection of all the dead, and the change of those still living, all nations shall be gathered before Christ, and he will separate the righteous from the wicked.
Christ will publicly judge all people by the testimony of their deeds, the good works of the righteous in evidence of their faith, and the evil works of the wicked in evidence of their unbelief. He will judge in righteousness in the presence of all people and angels, and his final judgment will be just damnation to everlasting punishment for the wicked and a gracious gift of life everlasting to the righteous.
| Protestant beliefs about salvation | |||
| This table summarizes the classical views of three Protestant beliefs about salvation. | |||
| Topic | Calvinism | Lutheranism | Arminianism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human will | Total depravity: Humanity possesses "free will", but it is in bondage to sin, until it is "transformed". | Total depravity: Humanity possesses free will in regard to "goods and possessions", but is sinful by nature and unable to contribute to its own salvation. | Total depravity: Humanity possesses freedom from necessity, but not "freedom from sin" unless enabled by "prevenient grace". |
| Election | Unconditional election. | Unconditional election. | Conditional election in view of foreseen faith or unbelief. |
| Justification and atonement | Justification by faith alone. Various views regarding the extent of the atonement. | Justification for all men, completed at Christ's death and effective through faith alone. | Justification made possible for all through Christ's death, but only completed upon choosing faith in Jesus. |
| Conversion | Monergistic, through the means of grace, irresistible. | Monergistic, through the means of grace, resistible. | Synergistic, resistible due to the common grace of free will. |
| Perseverance and apostasy | Perseverance of the saints: the eternally elect in Christ will certainly persevere in faith. | Falling away is possible, but God gives gospel assurance. | Preservation is conditional upon continued faith in Christ; with the possibility of a final apostasy. |
Practices
Liturgy
Many Lutherans follow a liturgical approach to worship services; although there are substantial non-liturgical minorities, for example, the Haugean Lutherans from Norway. Martin Luther was a great proponent of music, and this is why music forms a central part of Lutheran services to this day. In particular, Luther admired the composers Josquin des Prez and Ludwig Senfl, and wanted singing in the church to move away from the ars perfecta (Catholic Sacred Music of the late Renaissance) and towards singing as a Gemeinschaft (community). Lutheran hymns are sometimes known as chorales. Lutheran hymnody is well known for its doctrinal, didactic, and musical richness. Most Lutheran churches are active musically with choirs, handbell choirs, children's choirs, and occasionally change ringing groups that ring bells in a bell tower. Johann Sebastian Bach, a devout Lutheran, composed a huge body of sacred music for the Lutheran church.
Many Lutherans also preserve a liturgical approach to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist/Communion, emphasizing the Sacrament as the central act of Christian worship. Lutherans believe that the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ are present in, with and under the bread and the wine. This belief is called Real Presence or sacramental union and is different from consubstantiation and transubstantiation. Additionally Lutherans reject the idea that communion is a mere symbol or memorial. They confess in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession:
[W]e do not abolish the Mass but religiously keep and defend it. Among us the Mass is celebrated every Lord's Day and on other festivals, when the Sacrament is made available to those who wish to partake of it, after they have been examined and absolved. We also keep traditional liturgical forms, such as the order of readings, prayers, vestments, and other similar things.
In addition to the Holy Communion (Divine Service), congregations frequently also hold offices, which are worship services without communion. They may include Matins, Vespers, Compline, or other observances of the Daily Office. Private or family offices include the Morning and Evening Prayers from Luther's Small Catechism. Meals are blessed with the Common table prayer, Psalm 145:15–16, or other prayers, and after eating the Lord is thanked, for example, with Psalm 136:1. Luther himself encouraged the use of Psalm verses, such as those already mentioned, along with the Lord's Prayer and another short prayer before and after each meal: Blessing and Thanks at Meals from Luther's Small Catechism. In addition, Lutherans use devotional books, from small daily devotionals, for example, Portals of Prayer, to large breviaries, including the Breviarium Lipsiensae and Treasury of Daily Prayer.
The predominant rite used by Lutheran churches is a Western one based on the Formula missae ("Form of the Mass"), although other Lutheran liturgies are also in use, such as those used in the Byzantine Rite Lutheran Churches, such as the Ukrainian Lutheran Church and Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovenia. Although Luther's Deutsche Messe was completely chanted except for the sermon, this is less common today.
In the 1970s, many Lutheran churches began holding contemporary worship services for the purpose of evangelistic outreach. These services were in a variety of styles, depending on the preferences of the congregation. Often they were held alongside a traditional service in order to cater to those who preferred contemporary worship music. Today, a few Lutheran congregations have contemporary worship as their sole form of worship. Outreach is no longer given as the primary motivation; rather this form of worship is seen as more in keeping with the desires of individual congregations. In Finland, Lutherans have experimented with the and Metal Mass in which traditional hymns are adapted to heavy metal. Some Laestadians enter a heavily emotional and ecstatic state during worship. The Lutheran World Federation, in its Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture, recommended every effort be made to bring church services into a more sensitive position with regard to cultural context.
In 2006, both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), in cooperation with certain international English speaking church bodies within their respective fellowships, released new hymnals: Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELCA) and Lutheran Service Book (LCMS). Along with these, the most widely used among English speaking congregations include: Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996, Evangelical Lutheran Synod), The Lutheran Book of Worship (1978, Lutheran Council in the United States of America), Lutheran Worship (1982, LCMS), Christian Worship (1993, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod), and The Lutheran Hymnal (1941, Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America). In the Lutheran Church of Australia, the official hymnal is the Lutheran Hymnal with Supplement of 1986, which includes a supplement to the Lutheran Hymnal of 1973, itself a replacement for the Australian Lutheran Hymn Book of 1921. Prior to this time, the two Lutheran church bodies in Australia (which merged in 1966) used a bewildering variety of hymnals, usually in the German language. Spanish-speaking ELCA churches frequently use Libro de Liturgia y Cántico (1998, Augsburg Fortress) for services and hymns. For a more complete list, see List of English language Lutheran hymnals.
Kalendar
Lutherans observe the liturgical kalendar, which consists of the cycle of liturgical days and seasons that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of scripture are to be read. The kalendar features greater festivals, lesser festivals, and commemorations. The Lutheran Churches use a lectionary that enjoins appointed scripture readings for each day, which include an Old Testament reading, Psalm, Epistle reading, and Gospel reading.
Missions
Sizable Lutheran missions arose for the first time during the 19th century. Early missionary attempts during the century after the Reformation did not succeed. However, European traders brought Lutheranism to Africa beginning in the 17th century as they settled along the coasts. During the first half of the 19th century, missionary activity in Africa expanded, including preaching by missionaries, translation of the Bible, and education.
Lutheranism came to India beginning with the work of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, where a community totaling several thousand developed, complete with their own translation of the Bible, catechism, their own hymnal, and system of Lutheran schools. In the 1840s, this church experienced a revival through the work of the Leipzig Mission, including Karl Graul. After German missionaries were expelled in 1914, Lutherans in India became entirely autonomous, yet preserved their Lutheran character. In recent years India has relaxed its anti-religious conversion laws, allowing a resurgence in missionary work.
In Latin America, missions began to serve European immigrants of Lutheran background, both those who spoke German and those who no longer did. These churches in turn began to evangelize those in their areas who were not of European background, including indigenous peoples.
In 1892, the first Lutheran missionaries reached Japan. Although work began slowly and a major setback occurred during the hardships of WWII. Lutheranism there has survived and become self-sustaining. After missionaries to China, including those of the Lutheran Church of China, were expelled, they began ministry in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the latter which became a center of Lutheranism in Asia.
The Lutheran Mission in New Guinea, though founded only in 1953, became the largest Lutheran mission in the world in only several decades. Through the work of native lay evangelists, many tribes of diverse languages were reached with the Gospel.
Today the Lutheran World Federation operates Lutheran World Relief, a relief and development agency active in more than 50 countries.
Education
Catechism instruction is considered foundational in most Lutheran churches. Almost all maintain Sunday Schools, and some host or maintain Lutheran schools, at the preschool, elementary, middle, high school, folk high school, or university level. Lifelong study of the catechism is intended for all ages so that the abuses of the pre-Reformation Church will not recur. Lutheran schools have always been a core aspect of Lutheran mission work, starting with Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Putschasu, who began work in India in year 1706. During the Counter-Reformation era in German speaking areas, backstreet Lutheran schools were the main Lutheran institution among crypto-Lutherans.
Pastors almost always have substantial theological educations, including Koine Greek and Biblical Hebrew so that they can refer to the Christian scriptures in the original language. Pastors usually teach in the common language of the local congregation. In the U.S., some congregations and synods historically taught in German, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, or Swedish, but retention of immigrant languages has been in significant decline since the early and middle 20th century.
Church fellowship
Lutherans were divided about the issue of church fellowship for the first 30 years after Luther's death. Philipp Melanchthon and his Philippist party felt that Christians of different beliefs should join in union with each other without completely agreeing on doctrine. Against them stood the Gnesio-Lutherans, led by Matthias Flacius and the faculty at the University of Jena. They condemned the Philippist position for indifferentism, describing it as a "unionistic compromise" of precious Reformation theology. Instead, they held that genuine unity between Christians and real theological peace was only possible with an honest agreement about every subject of doctrinal controversy.
Complete agreement finally came about in 1577, after the death of both Melanchthon and Flacius, when a new generation of theologians resolved the doctrinal controversies on the basis of Scripture in the Formula of Concord of 1577. Although they decried the visible division of Christians on earth, orthodox Lutherans avoided ecumenical fellowship with other churches, believing that Christians should not, for example, join for the Lord's Supper or exchange pastors if they do not completely agree about what the Bible teaches. In the 17th century, Georgius Calixtus began a rebellion against this practice, sparking the Syncretistic Controversy with Abraham Calovius as his main opponent.
In the 18th century, there was some ecumenical interest between the Church of Sweden and the Church of England. John Robinson, Bishop of London, planned for a union of the English and Swedish churches in 1718. The plan failed because most Swedish bishops rejected the Calvinism of the Church of England, although Jesper Swedberg and Johannes Gezelius the younger, bishops of Skara, Sweden and Turku, Finland, were in favor. With the encouragement of Swedberg, church fellowship was established between Swedish Lutherans and Anglicans in the Middle Colonies. Over the course of the 1700s and the early 1800s, Swedish Lutherans were absorbed into Anglican churches, with the last original Swedish congregation completing merger into the Episcopal Church in 1846.
In the 19th century, Samuel Simon Schmucker attempted to lead the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of the United States toward unification with other American Protestants. His attempt to get the synod to reject the Augsburg Confession in favor of his compromising Definite Platform failed. Instead, it sparked a Neo-Lutheran revival, prompting many to form the General Council, including Charles Porterfield Krauth. Their alternative approach was "Lutheran pulpits for Lutheran ministers only and Lutheran altars...for Lutheran communicants only."
Beginning in 1867, confessional and liberal minded Lutherans in Germany joined to form the Common Evangelical Lutheran Conference against the ever looming prospect of a state-mandated union with the Reformed. However, they failed to reach consensus on the degree of shared doctrine necessary for church union. Eventually, the fascist German Christians movement pushed the final national merger of Lutheran, Union, and Reformed church bodies into a single Reich Church in 1933, doing away with the previous umbrella German Evangelical Church Confederation (DEK). As part of denazification the Reich Church was formally done away with in 1945, and certain clergy were removed from their positions. However, the merger between the Lutheran, United, and Reformed state churches was retained under the name Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD). In 1948 the Lutheran church bodies within the EKD founded the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD), but it has since been reduced from being an independent legal entity to an administrative unit within the EKD.
Lutherans are currently divided over how to interact with other Christian denominations. Some Lutherans assert that everyone must share the "whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27) in complete unity (1 Cor. 1:10) before pastors can share each other's pulpits, and before communicants commune at each other's altars, a practice termed closed (or close) communion. On the other hand, other Lutherans practice varying degrees of open communion and allow preachers from other Christian denominations in their pulpits.
While not an issue in the majority of Lutheran church bodies, some of them forbid membership in Freemasonry. Partly, this is because the lodge is viewed as spreading Unitarianism, as the Brief Statement of the LCMS reads, "Hence we warn against Unitarianism, which in our country has to a great extent impenetrated the sects and is being spread particularly also through the influence of the lodges." A 1958 report from the publishing house of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod states that, "Masonry is guilty of idolatry. Its worship and prayers are idol worship. The Masons may not with their hands have made an idol out of gold, silver, wood or stone, but they created one with their own mind and reason out of purely human thoughts and ideas. The latter is an idol no less than the former."
The largest organization of Lutheran churches around the world are the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum, the International Lutheran Council (ILC), and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC). These organizations together account for the great majority of Lutheran denominations. The LCMS and the Lutheran Church–Canada are members of the ILC. The WELS and ELS are members of the CELC. Many Lutheran churches, such as the Lutheran Church - International (a Confessional Lutheran denomination of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship), are not affiliated with the LWF, the ILC or the CELC: The congregations of the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC) are affiliated with their mission organizations in Canada, India, Nepal, Myanmar, and many African nations; and those affiliated with the Church of the Lutheran Brethren are especially active doing mission work in Africa and East Asia.
The Lutheran World Federation-aligned churches do not believe that one church is singularly true in its teachings. According to this belief, Lutheranism is a reform movement rather than a movement into doctrinal correctness. As part of this, in 1999 the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church jointly issued a statement, the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, that stated that the LWF and the Catholics both agreed about certain basics of Justification and lifted certain Catholic anathemas formerly applying to the LWF member churches.The LCMS has participated in most of the official dialogues with the Roman Catholic Church since shortly after the Second Vatican Council, though not the one which produced the Joint Declaration and to which they were not invited. While some Lutheran theologians saw the Joint Declaration as a sign that the Catholics were essentially adopting the Lutheran position, other Lutheran theologians disagreed, claiming that, considering the public documentation of the Catholic position, this assertion does not hold up.[citation needed]
Besides their intra-Lutheran arrangements, some member churches of the LWF have also declared full communion with non-Lutheran Protestant churches. The Porvoo Communion is a communion of episcopally led Lutheran and Anglican churches in Europe. Beside its membership in the Porvoo Communion, Church of Sweden also has declared full communion with the Philippine Independent Church and the United Methodist Church.[citation needed] The state Protestant churches in Germany many other European countries have signed the Leuenberg Agreement to form the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been involved in ecumenical dialogues with several denominations. The ELCA has declared full communion with multiple American Protestant churches.
Although on paper the LWF churches have all declared have full communion with each other, in practice some churches within the LWF have renounced ties with specific other churches. One development in this ongoing schism is the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum, which consists of churches and church related organizations tracing their heritage back to mainline American Lutheranism in North America, European state churches, as well as certain African churches. As of 2019, the Forum is not a full communion organization. Similar in this structure is the International Lutheran Council, where issues of communion are left to the individual denominations. Not all ILC churches have declared church-fellowship with each other. In contrast, mutual church-fellowship is part of the CELC member churches, and unlike in the LWF, this is not contradicted by individual statements from any particular member church body.
Laestadians within certain European state churches maintain close ties to other Laestadians, often called Apostolic Lutherans. Altogether, Laestadians are found in 23 countries across five continents, but there is no single organization which represents them. Laestadians operate Peace Associations to coordinate their churchly efforts. Nearly all are located in Europe, although they there are 15 combined in North America, Ecuador, Togo, and Kenya.
By contrast, the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference and International Lutheran Council as well as some unaffiliated denominations such as the Church of the Lutheran Confession and North American Laestadians maintain that the orthodox Confessional Lutheran churches are the only churches with completely correct doctrine. They teach that while other Christian churches teach partially orthodox doctrine and have true Christians as members, the doctrines of those churches contain significant errors. More conservative Lutherans strive to maintain historical distinctiveness while emphasizing doctrinal purity alongside Gospel-motivated outreach. They claim that LWF Lutherans are practicing "fake ecumenism" by desiring church fellowship outside of actual unity of teaching.
Although not an "ecumenical" movement in the formal sense, in the 1990s influences from the megachurches of American evangelicalism have become somewhat common. Many of the largest Lutheran congregations in the United States have been heavily influenced by these "progressive Evangelicals". These influences are sharply criticized by some Lutherans as being foreign to orthodox Lutheran beliefs.
Polity
Lutheran polity varies depending on influences. Although Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession mandates that one must be "properly called" to preach or administer the Sacraments, some Lutherans have a broad view of on what constitutes this and thus allow lay preaching or students still studying to be pastors someday to consecrate the Lord's Supper. Despite considerable diversity, Lutheran polity trends in a geographically predictable manner in Europe, with episcopal governance to the north and east but blended and consistorial-presbyterian type synodical governance in Germany.
Scandinavia
To the north in Scandinavia, the population was more insulated from the influence and politics of the Reformation and thus the Church of Sweden (which at the time included Finland) retained the Apostolic succession, although they did not consider it essential for valid sacraments as the Donatists did in the fourth and fifth centuries and the Roman Catholics do today. Recently, the Swedish succession was introduced into all of the Porvoo Communion churches, all of which have an episcopal polity. Although the Lutheran churches did not require this or change their doctrine, this was important in order for more strictly high church Anglican individuals to feel comfortable recognizing their sacraments as valid. The occasional ordination of a bishop by a priest was not necessarily considered an invalid ordination in the Middle Ages, so the alleged break in the line of succession in the other Nordic Churches would have been considered a violation of canon law rather than an invalid ordination at the time. Moreover, there are no consistent records detailing pre-Reformation ordinations prior to the 12th century.
In the far north of the Scandinavian peninsula are the Sámi people, some of which practice a form of Lutheranism called Apostolic Lutheranism, or Laestadianism due to the efforts of Lars Levi Laestadius. However, others are Orthodox in religion. Some Apostolic Lutherans consider their movement as part of an unbroken line down from the Apostles. In areas where Apostolic Lutherans have their own bishops apart from other Lutheran church organizations, the bishops wield more practical authority than Lutheran clergy typically do. In Russia, Laestadians of Lutheran background cooperate with the Ingrian church, but since Laestadianism is an interdenominational movement, some are Eastern Orthodox. Eastern Orthodox Laestadians are known as Ushkovayzet (article is in Russian).
Eastern Europe and Asian Russia
Although historically Pietism had a significant influence on the understanding of the ministry among Lutherans in the Russian Empire, today nearly all Russian and Ukrainian Lutherans are influenced by Eastern Orthodox polity. In their culture, giving a high degree of respect and authority to their bishops is necessary for their faith to be seen as legitimate and not sectarian. In Russia, lines of succession between bishops and the canonical authority between their present-day hierarchy is also carefully maintained in order to legitimize the existing Lutheran churches as present day successors of the former Lutheran Church of the Russian Empire originally authorized by Catherine the Great. This allows for the post-Soviet repatriation of Lutheran church buildings to local congregations on the basis of this historical connection.
Germany
In Germany, several dynamics encouraged Lutherans to maintain a different form of polity. First, due to de facto practice during the Nuremberg Religious Peace the subsequent legal principal of Cuius regio, eius religio in the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, German states were officially either Catholic or "Evangelical" (that is, Lutheran under the Augsburg Confession). In some areas both Catholic and Lutheran churches were permitted to co-exist. Because German-speaking Catholic areas were nearby, Catholic-leaning Christians were able to emigrate and there was less of an issue with Catholics choosing to live as "crypto-papists" in Lutheran areas. Although Reformed-leaning Christians were not allowed to have churches, Melancthon wrote Augsburg Confession Variata which some used to claim legal protection as "Evangelical" churches. Many chose to live as crypto-Calvinists either with or without the protection offered by the Variata, but this did not make their influence go away, and as a result the Protestant church in Germany as of 2017 was only about ≈40% Lutheran, with most of the rest being United Protestant, a combination of Lutheran and Reformed beliefs and practices.
In terms of polity, over the 17th and 18th centuries the carefully negotiated and highly prescriptive church orders of the Reformation era gave way to a joint cooperation between state control and a Reformed-style blend of consistorial and presbyterian type synodical governance. Just as negotiations over the details in the church orders involved the laity, so did the new synodical governance. Synodical governance had already been practiced in the Reformed Netherlands prior to its adoption by Lutherans. During the formation of the modern German state, ideas about the nature of authority and the best design for governments and organizations came from the philosophies of Kant and Hegel, further modifying the polity. When the monarchy and the sovereign governance of the church were ended in 1918, the synods took over the governance of the state churches.
Western Hemisphere and Australia
During the period of the emigration, Lutherans took their existing ideas about polity with them across the ocean, though with the exception of the early Swedish Lutherans immigrants of the New Sweden colony who accepted the rule of the Anglican bishops and became part of the established church, they now had to fund churches on their own. This increased the congregationalist dynamic in the blended consistorial and presbyterian type synodical governance. The first organized church body of Lutherans in America was the Pennsylvania Ministerium, which used Reformed style synodical governance over the 18th and 19th centuries. Their contribution to the development of polity was that smaller synods could in turn form a larger body, also with synodical governance, but without losing their lower level of governance. As a result, the smaller synods gained unprecedented flexibility to join, leave, merge, or stay separate, all without the hand of the state as had been the case in Europe.
During their 19th-century persecution, Old Lutheran, defined as scholastic and orthodox believers, were left in a conundrum. Resistance to authority was traditionally considered disobedience, but, under the circumstances, upholding orthodox doctrine and historical practice was considered by the government disobedience. However, the doctrine of the lesser magistrate allowed clergy to legitimately resist the state and even leave. Illegal free churches were set up in Germany and mass emigration occurred. For decades the new churches were mostly dependent on the free churches to send them new ministerial candidates for ordination. These new church bodies also employed synodical governance, but tended to exclude Hegelianism in their constitutions, due to its incompatibility with the doctrine of the lesser magistrates. In contrast to Hegelianism where authority flows in from all levels, Kantianism presents authority proceeding only from the top down, hence the need for a lesser magistrate to become the new top magistrate.
Over the 20th and 21st centuries, some Lutheran bodies have adopted a more congregationalist approach, such as the Protes'tant Conference and the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, or LCMC. The LCMC formed due to a church split after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America signed an agreement with the Episcopal Church to start ordaining all of their new bishops into the Episcopalian apostolic succession. In other words, this meant that new ELCA bishops, at least at first, would be jointly ordained by Anglican bishops as well as Lutheran bishops so that the more strict Episcopalians (i.e., Anglo-Catholics) would recognize their sacraments as valid. This was offensive to some in the ELCA at the time because of the implications this practice would have on the teachings of the priesthood of all believers and the nature of ordination.
Some Lutheran churches permit dual-rostering. Situations like this one where a church or church body belongs to multiple larger organizations that do not have ties are termed "triangular fellowship". Another variant is independent Lutheran churches, although for some independent churches the clergy are members of a larger denomination. In other cases, a congregation may belong to a synod, but the pastor may be unaffiliated. In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church of Australia, the Wisconsin Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Church of the Lutheran Confession, and the Missouri Synod, teachers at parochial schools are considered to be ministers of religion, with the latter defending this before the Supreme Court in 2012. However, differences remain in the precise status of their teachers.
Throughout the world
Lutheran churches currently have millions of members, and are present on all populated continents. The Lutheran World Federation estimates the total membership of its churches to be over 77 million. This figure miscounts Lutherans worldwide, as not all Lutheran churches belong to this organization, and many members of merged LWF church bodies do not self-identify as Lutheran or attend congregations that self-identify as Lutheran. Lutheran churches in North America, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean regions are experiencing decreases and no growth in membership, while those in Africa and Asia continue to grow. Lutheranism is the largest religious group in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Namibia, Norway, Sweden, and North Dakota and South Dakota in the United States.
Lutheranism is also the dominant form of Christianity in the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache nations. In addition, Lutheranism is a main Protestant denomination in Germany (behind United Protestant (Lutheran and Reformed) churches; EKD Protestants form about 24.3% of the country's total population),Estonia, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Papua New Guinea, and Tanzania. Although some convents and monasteries voluntarily closed during the Reformation, and many of the remaining damenstift were shuttered by communist authorities following World War II, the Lüne abbeys are still open. Nearly all active Lutheran orders are located in Europe.
Although Namibia is the only country outside Europe to have a Lutheran majority, there are sizable Lutheran bodies in other African countries. In the following African countries, the total number of Lutherans exceeds 100,000: Nigeria, Central African Republic, Chad, Kenya, Malawi, Congo, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar. In addition, the following nations also have sizable Lutheran populations: Canada, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Netherlands (as a synod within the PKN and two strictly Lutheran denominations), South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, especially in the heavily German and Scandinavian Upper Midwest.
Lutheranism is also a state religion in Denmark and Iceland. Lutheranism was also the state church in Finland, Norway and Sweden, but its status in Norway and Sweden was changed to that of a national church in 2017 and 2000 respectively.
Brazil
The Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (Igreja Evangélica de Confissão Luterana no Brasil) is the largest Lutheran denomination in Brazil. It is a member of the Lutheran World Federation, which it joined in 1952. It is a member of the Latin American Council of Churches, the National Council of Christian Churches and the World Council of Churches. The denomination has 1.02 million adherents and 643,693 registered members. The church ordains women as ministers. In 2011, the denomination released a pastoral letter condemning discrimination against LGBT people and also supporting and accepting the Supreme Court's decision to allow same-sex civil marriage, however also reaffirming the denomination's official doctrine that marriage is between a man and a woman and upholding the ban on people in same-sex relationships from serving as ministers.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (Portuguese: Igreja Evangélica Luterana do Brasil, IELB) is a Lutheran church founded in 1904 in Rio Grande do Sul, a southern state in Brazil. The IELB is a conservative, confessional Lutheran synod which holds to the Book of Concord. It started as a mission of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and operated as the Brazilian District of that body. The IELB became an independent church body in 1980. It has about 243,093 members. The IELB is a member of the International Lutheran Council.
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) started a Brazilian mission, the first for WELS in the Portuguese language, in the early 1980s. Its first work was done in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in the south of Brazil, alongside some small independent Lutheran churches which had asked for help from WELS. Today, the Brazilian WELS Lutheran Churches are self-supporting and an independent mission partner of the Latin America WELS missions team.
Distribution
This map shows where countries with over 25,000 members of the Lutheran World Federation were located in 2019.
In addition to the Lutheran World Federation, which is the largest association of Lutheran church bodies in the world, there are other Lutheran denominations: the International Lutheran Council representing 7.15 million Lutherans,
the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, which represents 0.5 million Lutherans, and
the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum.
In addition, there are numerous unaffiliated Lutheran denominations that are not members of any of the aforementioned organizations.
See also
- List of Lutheran churches
- List of Lutheran clergy
- List of Lutheran colleges and universities
- List of Lutheran denominations
- List of Lutheran denominations in North America
- List of Lutheran dioceses and archdioceses
- List of Lutheran schools in Australia
- Lutheran orders (both loose social organizations and physical communities such as convents)
Notes
- Cf. material and formal principles in theology
- See [ru] and [ru] in the Russian Wikipedia for more on this.
- This map undercounts several countries, notably the United States. The LWF does not include the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and several other Lutheran bodies which together have over 2.5 million members
References
- Markkola, P (2015). "The Long History of Lutheranism in Scandinavia. From State Religion to the People's Church". Perichoresis. 13 (2): 3–15. doi:10.1515/perc-2015-0007.
- Fritschel, George John (1916). The Formula of Concord, Its Origin and Contents: A Contribution to Symbolics. Lutheran Publication Society. p. 123.
- Ludwig, Alan (12 September 2016). "Luther's Catholic Reformation". The Lutheran Witness.
When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession before Emperor Charles V in 1530, they carefully showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils and even the canon law of the Church of Rome. They boldly claim, "This is about the Sum of our Doctrine, in which, as can be seen, there is nothing that varies from the Scriptures, or from the Church Catholic, or from the Church of Rome as known from its writers" (AC XXI Conclusion 1). The underlying thesis of the Augsburg Confession is that the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church. In fact, it is actually the Church of Rome that has departed from the ancient faith and practice of the catholic church (see AC XXIII 13, XXVIII 72 and other places).
- Junius Benjamin Remensnyder (1893). The Lutheran Manual. Boschen & Wefer Company. p. 12.
- Olson, Roger E. (1 April 1999). The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition Reform. InterVarsity Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-8308-1505-0.
- Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Fourth Session, Decree on Sacred Scripture (Denzinger 783 [1501]; Schaff 2:79–81). For a history of the discussion of various interpretations of the Tridentine decree, see Selby, Matthew L., The Relationship Between Scripture and Tradition according to the Council of Trent, unpublished Master's thesis, University of St Thomas, July 2013.
- Jahn, Curtis A. (1 January 2014). A Lutheran Looks At Catholics. Northwestern Publishing House. ISBN 978-0-8100-2613-1.
Examples that Chemnitz cites include making the sign of the cross, turning to the east in prayer, the renunciation of Satan in Baptism, and others. Other ancient customs and practices clearly do have their origins already in the New Testament, such as replacing the Jewish Sabbath with Sunday as the regular weekly day for worship, also the laying on of hands when ordaining, installing and commissioning a minister of the gospel for public service in the church (1 Timothy 4:12; 2 Timothy 1:6). In Christian freedom, we may observe such ceremonies as they serve the preaching of the gospel. The only traditions Lutherans object to are those that pertain to doctrine and Christian life, have no foundation in Scripture, and are used as sources of doctrines—placed on the same level as the doctrines clearly taught in Scripture.
- Webber, David Jay (1992). "Why is the Lutheran Church a Liturgical Church?". Bethany Lutheran College. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
In the Byzantine world, however, this pattern of worship would not be informed by the liturgical history of the Latin church, as with the Reformation-era church orders, but by the liturgical history of the Byzantine church. (This was in fact what occurred with the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, which published in its 1933 Ukrainian Evangelical Service Book the first ever Lutheran liturgical order derived from the historic Eastern Rite.)
- Lackmann, Max (1963). The Augsburg Confession and Catholic Unity. Herder and Herder. p. 54.
- Galler, Jayson S. (2025). "Word & Sacrament". Pilgrim Lutheran Church. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
...generally in the Lutheran Christian tradition we speak of three sacraments.
- Becker, Matthew L. (25 January 2024). Fundamental Theology: A Protestant Perspective. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-567-70572-3.
Unitl that final revelation of the church, when it will be revealed to be what the apostles have said it is, the church proclaims the gospel and administers the sacraments (especially baptism, the Lord's Supper [also called Holy Communion or the Eucharist], and Holy Absolution [the formal proclamation of the forgiveness of sins)—all for the sake of calling people to faith, hope, and love and keeping them united with Christ and with one anothe rin the one church of Christ. And where the gospel is proclaimed and the sacraments administered in accord with that gospel, there the church truly is. Indeed, the Holy Spirit acts through the word and the sacraments, in Luther's phrase, "to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian church on earth" (the church is not a Platonic reality) and keep it united to Christ. Because of the power of the Spirit to create and preserve the church, even the gates of hell cannot prevail against it (Mt. 16.18).
- Jensen, Gordon A. (22 December 2016). Martin Luther's Sacramental Theology. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.359. ISBN 978-0-19-934037-8.
When Luther turned his attention to the number of sacraments in his 1520 treatise "The Babylonian Captivity of the Church," he reduced them from the seven recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. ... he reduced the valid sacraments from seven to three: "baptism, penance, and the bread"
- Walther, Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm (2008). Sermons and prayers for Reformation and Luther commemorations. Joel Baseley. p. 27. ISBN 9780982252321.
Furthermore, the Lutheran Church also thoroughly teaches that we are cleansed of our sins and born again and renewed in Holy Baptism by the Holy Ghost. But she also teaches that whoever is baptized must, though daily contrition and repentance, drown The Old Adam so that daily a new man come forth and arise who walks before God in righteousness and purity forever. She teaches that whoever lives in sins after his baptism has again lost the grace of baptism.
- Harstad, Adolph L. (10 May 2016). "Justification Through Faith Produces Sanctification". Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
- Preus, James (2 January 2025). "Rewards for Good Works". Christ for Us. Retrieved 14 May 2025.
- Martin Chemnitz (2007). Ministry, Word, and Sacraments: An Enchiridion; The Lord's Supper; The Lord's Prayer. Concordia Publishing House. ISBN 978-0-7586-1544-2.
- The Lutheran Witness, Volumes 9–11. English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States. 7 December 1892. p. 98.
- Martin Luther (11 April 2012). "Part 5: Office of the Keys and Confession". Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
- Mattox, Mickey L.; Roeber, A. G. (27 February 2012). Changing Churches: An Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran Theological Conversation. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-8028-6694-3.
In this "sacramental union," Lutherans taught, the body and blood of Christ are so truly united to the bread and wine of the Holy Communion so that the two may be identified. They are at the same time body and blood, bread and wine. This divine food is given, more-over, not just for the strengthening of faith, nor only as a sign of our unity in faith, nor merely as an assurance of the forgiveness of sin. Even more, in this sacrament the Lutheran Christian receives the very body and blood of Christ for the strengthening of the union of faith. The "real presence" of Christ in the Holy Sacrament is the means by which the union of faith, effected by God's Word and the sacrament of baptism, is strengthened and maintained.
- Wieting, Kenneth (23 November 2020). "Are You Fanatical about the Lord's Supper?". The Lutheran Witness. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
- Benedetto, Robert; Duke, James O. (13 August 2008). The New Westminster Dictionary of Church History: The Early, Medieval, and Reformation Eras. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 594. ISBN 978-0664224165.
In Sweden the apostolic succession was preserved because the Catholic bishops were allowed to stay in office, but they had to approve changes in the ceremonies.
- Alan Richardson; John Bowden John (1983). The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0664227481.
The churches of Sweden and Finland retained bishops and the conviction of being in continuity with the apostolic succession
- Gassmann, Günther; Oldenburg, Mark W. (10 October 2011). Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism. Scarecrow Press. p. xxi. ISBN 978-0-8108-7482-4.
- Lamport, Mark A. (31 August 2017). Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 138. ISBN 9781442271593.
- Porras, Gabriel (9 February 2021). "The Impact of Luther's Reformation on Education". International Missionary Society. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
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- Granquist, Mark (9 January 2015). Lutherans in America: A New History. Fortress Press. p. 154, 196. ISBN 978-1-4514-9429-7.
- Kurian, George Thomas; Lamport, Mark A. (10 November 2016). Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 1940. ISBN 978-1-4422-4432-0.
- Joy, Janet (1995). A Place Apart: Houses of Prayer & Retreat Centers in North America. Source Books. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-940147-30-0.
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- "Lutheranism". St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Welland, Ontario, Canada. 6 September 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2025.
- Espín, Orlando O. and Nickoloff, James B. An introductory dictionary of theology and religious studies. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, p. 796.
- Fahlbusch, Erwin, and Bromiley, Geoffrey William, The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 3. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2003. p. 362.
- Brown, Christopher Boyd (30 June 2009). Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation. Harvard University Press. p. 59-60. ISBN 978-0-674-02891-3.
Luther's example and influence helped to ensure not only the place of vernacular hymns, but also the preservation of much traditional church music along with the new polyphony; wherever there were Latin schools, Luther desired that the traditional music should be maintained. Though Luther and his followers eliminated some elements of medieval liturgy for theological reasons—especially the canon of the Mass—Lutherans retained not only the structure and texts of the liturgy but also a great many of the associated hymns and music.
- Charles Augustus Briggs, Charles (1912). Protestantism—What It Is and What It is Not. The Homiletic Review. p. 184.
Luther, like most great men, said and wrote at times many things that were his own peculiar personal opinions and were not adopted by the Lutheran churches. ... Luther may be regarded as the father of Protestantism. Strictly speaking, he was the most prominent of many fathers; but his personal opinions the Protestant churches do not now stand for, and have never stood for, except so far as they have been appropriated in the Augsburg Confession and other official statements of the three great churches of the Reformation.
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- Lutherans, Biblehistory.com
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- This photograph is of a replica of the original Hundskirche stone. Zeitschrift für Oesterreichische Volkskunde, (Google Books) by Theodor Vernaleken, 1896
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- Rietschel, William C. An Introduction to the Foundations of Lutheran Education. St. Louis: Concordia, 2000. p. 25 (Although this reference specifically mentions Saxony, government promoted rationalism was a trend across Germany)
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- Christian Cyclopedia article on Brünn
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- "Are Your Pews Filling With Young and New Christians?". Ad Crucem. Retrieved 16 May 2025.
Confessional and liturgical Lutheran churches have also enjoyed an influx of young men and women, which is part of an overall trend that has arrested the long-term decline in Christian affiliation in the US.
- Block, Mathew (4 February 2014). "Germany's Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church welcomes Iranian converts". International Lutheran Council. Retrieved 16 May 2025.
- Siirila, Rob (2024). "Helping Asian leaders remain faithful and fruitful amidst challenges". Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Retrieved 16 May 2025.
WELS ministry in Asia now serves people in at least a dozen countries. The church is growing quickly, but it faces many pressures.
- For the traditional Lutheran view of the Bible, see Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. pp. 3ff. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help). For an overview of the doctrine of verbal inspiration in Lutheranism, see Inspiration, Doctrine of in the Christian Cyclopedia. - Ewert, David (11 May 2010). A General Introduction to the Bible: From Ancient Tablets to Modern Translations. Zondervan. p. 104. ISBN 9780310872436.
- Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. pp. 7ff. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help), Engelder, Theodore E.W. (1934). Popular Symbolics: The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 29. - Braaten, Carl E. (1983). Principles of Lutheran Theology. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, p. 9
- Preus, Robert. The Inspiration of Scripture: A Study of the Theology of the 17th Century Lutheran Dogmaticians. London: Oliver and Boyd, 1957. p. 39.
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- Engelder, Theodore E.W. (1934). Popular Symbolics: The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 26.
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- Psalm 19:8, Psalm 119:105, Psalm 119:130, 2 Timothy 3:15, Deuteronomy 30:11, 2 Peter 1:19, Ephesians 3:3–4, John 8:31–32, 2 Corinthians 4:3–4, John 8:43–47, 2 Peter 3:15–16, Engelder, Theodore E.W. (1934). Popular Symbolics: The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 29., Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help), Engelder, Theodore E.W. (1934). Popular Symbolics: The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 28. - Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Engelder, Theodore E.W. (1934). Popular Symbolics: The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 28.
- Romans 1:16, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help), Engelder, Theodore E.W. (1934). Popular Symbolics: The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 27. - Romans 1:16, 1 Thessalonians 1:5, Psalm 119:105, 2 Peter 1:19, 2 Timothy 1:16–17,Ephesians 3:3–4, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help), Engelder, Theodore E.W. (1934). Popular Symbolics: The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 28. - John 6:63, Revelation 1:3, Ephesians 3:3–4, John 7:17, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help), Engelder, Theodore E.W. (1934). Popular Symbolics: The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 28. - "Smalcald Articles – Book of Concord". Archived from the original on 31 July 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- 2 Timothy 3:15–17, John 5:39, John 17:20, Psalm 19:7–8, Engelder, Theodore E.W. (1934). Popular Symbolics: The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 28.
- Isaiah 8:20, Luke 16:29–31, 2 Timothy 3:16–17, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help), Engelder, Theodore E.W. (1934). Popular Symbolics: The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 28. - Kringlebotten, Kjetil (27 July 2014). "Some Lutheran reflections on Scripture and Tradition". The Lutheran Neoplatonist.
- Jahn, Curtis A. (1 January 2014). A Lutheran Looks At Catholics. Northwestern Publishing House. ISBN 978-0-8100-2613-1.
- "Defense of the Augsburg Confession – Book of Concord". Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- Walther, C. F. W. The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel. W. H. T. Dau, trans. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1929.
- F.E. Mayer, The Religious Bodies of America. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1954, p. 184. For further information, see The Formula of Concord in the History of Swedish Lutheranism Archived 7 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine by Seth Erlandsson
- The Ecumenical Councils and Authority in and of the Church (PDF). The Lutheran World Federation. 10 July 1993.
The seven ecumenical councils of the early Church were assemblies of the bishops of the Church from all parts of the Roman Empire to clarify and express the apostolic faith. These councils are Nicaea (325 AD), Constantinople I (381), Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451), Constantinople II (553), Constantinople III (680/81), and Nicaea II (787)... As Lutherans and Orthodox we affirm that the teachings of the ecumenical councils are authoritative for our churches ... The Seventh Ecumenical Council, the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, which rejected iconoclasm and restored the veneration of icons in the churches, was not part of the tradition received by the Reformation. Lutherans, however, rejected the iconoclasm of the 16th century, and affirmed the distinction between adoration due to the Triune God alone and all other forms of veneration (CA 21). Through historical research this council has become better known. Nevertheless it does not have the same significance for Lutherans as it does for the Orthodox. Yet, Lutherans and Orthodox are in agreement that the Second Council of Nicaea confirms the christological teaching of the earlier councils and in setting forth the role of images (icons) in the lives of the faithful reaffirms the reality of the incarnation of the eternal Word of God, when it states: "The more frequently, Christ, Mary, the mother of God, and the saints are seen, the more are those who see them drawn to remember and long for those who serve as models, and to pay these icons the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration. Certainly this is not the full adoration in accordance with our faith, which is properly paid only to the divine nature, but it resembles that given to the figure of the honored and life-giving cross, and also to the holy books of the gospels and to other sacred objects" (Definition of the Second Council of Nicaea).
- Ecumenical Council. Titi Tudorancea Encyclopedia. 1991–2016.
The Lutheran World Federation, in ecumenical dialogues with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has affirmed all of the first seven councils as ecumenical and authoritative.
- Frey, H. (1918). Is One Church as Good as Another?. Vol. 37. The Lutheran Witness. pp. 82–83.
- "Sola Scriptura?". WELS Topical Q&A. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. 15 May 2006. Archived from the original on 27 September 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
[M]any passages...state sola scriptura, such as Revelation 22:18-19. If we cannot add anything to the words of Scripture and we cannot take anything away from them, that is Scripture alone.
- Paul R. Sponheim, "The Origin of Sin", in Christian Dogmatics, Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson, eds. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 385–407.
- Francis Pieper, "Definition of Original Sin", in Christian Dogmatics (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953), 1:538.
- Krauth, Charles P. (1875). "Part IX The Specific Doctrines Of The Conservative Reformation: Original Sin". The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology: As Represented in the Augsburg Confession, and in the History and Literature of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. pp. 335–455.
- Formula of Concord, Original Sin Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
- Rom. 7:18, 8:7 1 Cor. 2:14, Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent: Vol. I. Trans. Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971, pp. 639–652, "The Third Question: Whether the Good Works of the Regenerate in This Life Are So Perfect that They Fully, Abundantly, and Perfectly Satisfy the Divine Law".
- Gen. 6:5, 8:21, Mat. 7:17 Krauth, Charles P. (1875). "Part IX The Specific Doctrines Of The Conservative Reformation: Original Sin". The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology: As Represented in the Augsburg Confession, and in the History and Literature of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. pp. 388–390. Thesis VII The Results, Section ii Positive
- Dt. 27:26,Rom. 5:12,2 Th. 1:9 Rom. 6:23, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 38–41, Part VIII. "Sin"
- 1 Tim. 2:4, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 43–44, Part X. "Saving Grace", paragraph 55.
- Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church. St. Louis: Concordia, 1921. Large Catechism Archived 14 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine, The Lord's Prayer, The Second Petition, Par. 51.
- Gal. 3:13, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 43, Part X. "Saving Grace", paragraph 54.
- Rom. 10:4, Gal. 4:4–5, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 42, Part X. "Saving Grace", paragraph 52.
- Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, Article III, "Concerning the Righteousness of Faith before God". par. 57–58. trans. Kolb, R., Wengert, T., and Arand, C. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2000.
- "Augsburg Confession – Book of Concord". Archived from the original on 10 October 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- John 17:3, Luke 1:77,Galatians 4:9, Philippians 3:8, and 1 Timothy 2:4 refer to faith in terms of knowledge.
- John 5:46 refers to acceptance of the truth of Christ's teaching, while John 3:36 notes the rejection of his teaching.
- John 3:16,36, Galatians 2:16, Romans 4:20–25, 2 Timothy 1:12 speak of trust, confidence, and belief in Christ. John 3:18 notes belief in the name of Christ, and Mark 1:15 notes belief in the gospel.
- Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 54–55, Part XIV. "Sin"
- Ps. 51:10, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 57 Part XV. "Conversion", paragraph 78.
- John 17:20, Rom. 10:17, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 101 Part XXV. "The Church", paragraph 141.
- Titus 3:5, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 87 Part XXIII. "Baptism", paragraph 118.
- Eph. 2:8, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 57 Part XV. "Conversion", paragraph 78.
- The Roman Catholic Catechism, part 3, section 1, chapter 3, article 2, II, paragraphs 2000 and 2001; downloaded February 18, 2017; defines grace as something which brings about a change in us, such that we cooperate in justification and act without sin (i.e. sanctified).
- The American Lutheran, Volumes 9-10. American Lutheran Publicity Bureau. 1926. p. 95.
Occasionally there is a sanctuary lamp over the altar, its pulsating red light symbolizing a belief in the Real Presence
- quoted in Scaer, David P. (July 1983). "Luther's Concept of the Resurrection in his Commentary on I Corinthians 15" (PDF). Concordia Theological Quarterly. 47 (3): 219. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
- John 15:5, Tit. 2:14, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 62–63, Part XV. "Conversion", paragraph 88 The New Obedience Is The Fruit Of Conversion, The Product Of Faith.
- 2 Cor. 9:8, Krauth, C.P.,The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology: As Represented in the Augsburg Confession, and in the History and Literature of the Evangelical Lutheran Church . Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.. 1875. pp. 313–314, Part D Confession of the Conservative Reformation: II, Secondary Confessions: Book of Concord, Formula of Concord, Part IV The Doctrinal Result, 2, Section iv, Of Good Works.
- Phil 2:13, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 74, Part XIX. "Preservation in Faith", paragraph 102.
- Rom. 7:18 Heb 11:6, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 39–40, Part VIII. "Sin", paragraph 46 "Original Sin".
- "Mat. 7:15–16; NIV – True and False Prophets". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- Albrecht Beutel, "Luther's Life", tr. Katharina Gustavs, in The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther, ed. Donald K. McKim (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 11.
- Is. 63:8–9, Mueller, J.T., Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 158–160, section "The Doctrine of God", part 5. "The Holy Trinity Revealed in the Old Testament",Heb. 1:5, see Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 33–36, Part VI. "The Trinity".
- The Nicene Creed and the Filioque: A Lutheran Approach by Rev. David Webber for more information
- Athanasian Creed – for an older Trinitarian Creed used by Lutherans, see the Nicene Creed: the version in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) is the 1988 ecumenical (ELLC) version. But the version in both "Lutheran Service Book" (2006) of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Lutheran Church Canada (LCC) is that of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer with modernized spelling of the words "catholic" and "apostolic", with changes in capitalization of these and other words, and with "Holy Spirit" in place of "Holy Ghost".[citation needed]
- Luther's Small Catechism, The Apostles' Creed, Second Article Archived 28 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. pp. 100ff. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7. Archived from the original on 12 July 2006.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Augsburg confession, Article III Archived 11 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
- "The mother of our church?". Living Lutheran. 1 April 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
- The American Lutheran, Volume 49. American Lutheran Publicity Bureau. 1966. p. 16.
While the perpetual virginity of Mary is held as a pious opinion by many Lutheran confessors, it is not regarded as a binding teaching of the Scriptures.
- The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 11. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1983. p. 562. ISBN 978-0-85229-400-0.
Partly because of these biblical problems, the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary has not been supported as unanimously as has the doctrine of the virginal conceptioon or title mother of God. It achieved dogmatic status, however, at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and is therefore binding upon Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic believers; in addition, it is maintained by many Anglican, some Lutheran, and a few other Protestant theologians.
- Divozzo, R. (2019). Mary for Protestants. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5326-7585-0.
- Carlson, Kristofer J. (2014). Why Mary Matters: Protestants and the Virgin Mary. Dormition Press.
- "Private Absolution ought to be retained in the churches, although in confession an enumeration of all sins is not necessary." Article XI: Of Confession
- Matthew 28:19, 1 Corinthians 11:23–25, Matthew 26:26–28, Mark 14:22–24, Luke 22:19–20, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Ephesians 5:27, John 3:5, John 3:23, 1 Corinthians 10:16, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Ephesians 5:26, 1 Corinthians 10:16, 1 Corinthians 11:24–25, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Matthew 3:16–17, John 3:5, 1 Corinthians 11:19, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Luke 7:30, Luke 22:19–20, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Acts 21:16, Acts 2:38, Luke 3:3, Ephesians 5:26, 1 Peter 3:21, Galatians 3:26–27, Matthew 26:28, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - 1 Peter 3:21, Titus 3:5, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Titus 3:5, John 3:5, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - The Apology of the Augsburg Confession XIII, 2: "We believe we have the duty not to neglect any of the rites and ceremonies instituted in Scripture, whatever their number. We do not think it makes much difference if, for purposes of teaching, the enumeration varies, provided what is handed down in Scripture is preserved" (cf. Theodore G. Tappert, trans. and ed., The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 211).
- Luther's Large Catechism IV, 1: "We have now finished the three chief parts of the common Christian doctrine. Besides these we have yet to speak of our two Sacraments instituted by Christ, of which also every Christian ought to have at least an ordinary, brief instruction, because without them there can be no Christian; although, alas! hitherto no instruction concerning them has been given" (emphasis added; cf. Theodore G. Tappert, trans. and ed., The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 733).
- John 20:23, and Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 112–113, Part XXVI "The Ministry", paragraph 156.
- Luther's Large Catechism IV, 74–75: "And here you see that Baptism, both in its power and signification, comprehends also the third Sacrament, which has been called repentance, as it is really nothing else than Baptism" (emphasis added; cf. Theodore G. Tappert, trans. and ed., The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 751).
- The Apology of the Augsburg Confession XIII, 3, 4: "If we define the sacraments as rites, which have the command of God and to which the promise of grace has been added, it is easy to determine what the sacraments are, properly speaking. For humanly instituted rites are not sacraments, properly speaking, because human beings do not have the authority to promise grace. Therefore signs instituted without the command of God are not sure signs of grace, even though they perhaps serve to teach or admonish the common folk. The sacraments, therefore, are actually baptism, the Lord's Supper, and absolution (the sacrament of repentance)" (cf. Tappert, 211). Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 13, Of the Number and Use of the Sacraments
- Apology of the Augsburg Confession, article 24, paragraph 1. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
- Wendel, David M. (1997). Manual for the Recovery of a Parish Practice of Individual Confession and Absolution (PDF). The Society of the Holy Trinity. pp. 2, 7, 8, 11.
- Kolb, Robert (2008). Lutheran Ecclesiastical Culture: 1550 – 1675. Brill Publishers. p. 282. ISBN 9789004166417.
The North German church ordinances of the late 16th century all include a description of private confession and absolution, which normally took place at the conclusion of Saturday afternoon vespers, and was a requirement for all who desired to commune the following day.
- "The Sacraments of the Lutheran Church". Christ The King Lutheran Church. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
The Sacrament of Holy Absolution has two forms: the General Confession (known as the Penitential Rite or Order of Confession of Sins) that is done at the beginning of the Divine Service. In this case, the entire congregation says the confession, as the pastor says the absolution. Private Confession – done privately to a pastor, where the penitent confesses sins that trouble him/her and pleads to God for mercy, and the pastor announces God's forgiveness to the person, as the sign of the cross is made. Private confession is subject to total confidentiality by the pastor. In historic Lutheran practice, Holy Absolution is expected before partaking of Holy Communion. General confession, as well as Private Confession, are still contained in most Lutheran hymnals. Two works which are part of the Book of Concord lend support to the belief that Holy Absolution is for Lutherans the third sacrament. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession acknowledges outright that Holy Absolution is a sacrament, referring to it as the sacrament of penitence. In the Large Catechism, Luther calls Holy Absolution the third sacrament.
- 1 Pet. 3:21, Mueller, J.T., Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 491–496, section "The Doctrine of Baptism", part 4. "Baptism a True Means of Grace", and Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 87, Part XXIII. "Baptism", paragraph 118.
- Martin Luther, Small Catechism 4
- Titus 3:5
- John 3:3–7
- "Baptism and Its Purpose". Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Archived from the original on 6 February 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2009.
- Luther, Martin (2009) [1529]. "The Sacrament of Holy Baptism". Luther's Small Catechism. Evangelical Lutheran Synod. ISBN 978-0-89279-043-2. Archived from the original on 20 September 2008. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
- 1 Peter 3:21, ESV
- Mat. 19:14, Acts 2:38–39, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 90, Part XXIII. "Baptism", paragraph 122.
- 1 Cor. 1:14, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 90, Part XXIII. "Baptism", paragraph 122.
- Luther, Martin (2009) [1529]. "Of Infant Baptism". Luther's Large Catechism. ISBN 978-1-4264-3861-5. Archived from the original on 13 June 2008. Retrieved 10 March 2009.Luther's Large Catechism – Holy Baptism Archived 23 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- "Augsburg Confession – Book of Concord". Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- 1 Cor. 10:16, 11:20, 27, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 95, Part XXIV. "The Lord's Supper", paragraph 131.
- "The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, Article 8, The Holy Supper". Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
- Richard, James William (1909). The Confessional History of the Lutheran Church. Lutheran Publication Society. p. 113.
In the Luthearn Church, private confession was at first voluntary. Later, in portions of the Lutheran Church, it was made obligatory, as a test of orthodoxy, and as a preparation of the Lord's Supper.
- Granquist, Mark A. (2015). Scandinavian Pietists: Spiritual Writings from 19th-Century Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Paulist Press. p. 34. ISBN 9781587684982.
Initially, Laestadius exercised his ministry mainly among the indigenous Sami (Lapp) people, but his influence soon spread into areasa of northern Finland, and the Laestadian (or Apostolic Lutheran) movement became predominantly Finnish. Even though he was a university-trained pastor and scientist (he was a renowned botanist), his powerful preaching and spiritual example ignited a lay-awakening movement in the north, a movement that is known for its distinctive religious practices, including lay confession and absolution.
- Mueller, Steven P. (1 July 2005). Called to Believe, Teach, and Confess: An Introduction to Doctrinal Theology. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 323. ISBN 978-1-7252-4296-8.
- The Lutheran Liturgy: Authorized by the Synods Constituting The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 1941. p. 427.
- Augustus Lawrence Graebner, Lutheran Cyclopedia p. 136, "Conversion"
- "Augsburg Confession – Book of Concord". Archived from the original on 11 March 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- 1 Cor. 2:14, 12:3, Rom. 8:7, Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent: Vol. I. Trans. Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971, pp. 409–453, "Seventh Topic, Concerning Free Will: From the Decree of the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent".
- Augsburg Confession, Article 18, Of Free Will Archived 15 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
- Acts 13:48, Eph. 1:4–11, Epitome of the Formula of Concord, Article 11, Election Archived 10 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Mueller, J.T., Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 585–589, section "The Doctrine of Eternal Election: 1. The Definition of the Term", and Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 124–128, Part XXXI. "The Election of Grace", paragraph 176.
- Rom. 8:33, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 127–128, Part XXXI. "The Election of Grace", paragraph 179., Engelder, T.E.W., The Certainty of Final Salvation. The Lutheran Witness 2(6). English Evangelical Missouri Synod: Baltimore. 1891, pp. 41ff. "God desires us to be fruitful of good works, does He not? Then He also desires us to be certain of inheriting and enjoying eternal life for the latter is the source of the former. God would have His servants affirm constantly that they who are justified are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life, that they might be careful to maintain good works. Titus iii, 7.8. No sane man will deny that Christians must "abstain from fleshly lusts," Peter, ii. 11, "and keep themselves unspotted from the world." James i, 27. But no man will do it unless he is persuaded of gaining eternal life. On this certainty St. Paul bases his argument why Christians must not mind earthly things."
- 1 Tim. 2:4, 2 Pet. 3:9, Epitome of the Formula of Concord, Article 11, Election Archived 10 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine, and Engelder's Popular Symbolics, Part XXXI. The Election of Grace, pp. 124–128.
- 1 Timothy 2:3–4 ESV
- Hos. 13:9, Mueller, J.T., Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 637, section "The Doctrine of the Last Things (Eschatology), part 7. "Eternal Damnation", and Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 135–136, Part XXXIX. "Eternal Death", paragraph 196.
- Mueller, J.T., Christian Dogmatics. Concordia Publishing House. 1934. pp. 189–195 and Fuerbringer, L., Concordia Cyclopedia Concordia Publishing House. 1927. p. 635 and Christian Cyclopedia article on Divine Providence. For further reading, see The Proof Texts of the Catechism with a Practical Commentary, section Divine Providence, p. 212, Wessel, Louis, published in Theological Quarterly, Vol. 11, 1909.
- Mueller, Steven P.,Called to Believe, Teach, and Confess. Wipf and Stock. 2005. pp. 122–123.
- Mueller, J.T., Christian Dogmatics. Concordia Publishing House: 1934. pp. 190 and Edward. W. A.,A Short Explanation of Dr. Martin Luther's Small Catechism. Concordia Publishing House. 1946. p. 165. and Divine Providence and Human Adversity Archived 7 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine by Markus O. Koepsell
- "The Small Catechism". Archived from the original on 10 October 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- "Luther's Large Catechism, First Commandment". Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
- "Joh 18:36; ESV – Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of..." Bible Gateway. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- Luke 23:42–43, 2 Cor. 5:8, Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 130, Part XXXIV. "The State of the Soul in the Interval Between Death and the Resurrection", paragraph 185.
- 1 Cor. 15:22–24, Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 505–515; Heinrich Schmid, The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 624–32; John Mueller, Christian Dogmatics, 616–619
- John 6:40, John 6:54
- John 5:21, John 5:28–29, Matthew 25:32, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Acts 24:15
- Romans 8:11, Philippians 3:21, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Job 19:26, 1 Corinthians 15:44, 1 Corinthians 15:53, John 5:28, Revelation 20:12
- Daniel 12:2, Matthew 25:41–46, John 5:29
- Daniel 12:1–2, John 5:29, 1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Corinthians 15:42–44, 1 Corinthians 15:49–53, Philippians 3:21, Matthew 13:43, Revelation 7:16
- John 6:40, John 6:44, John 11:24
- 1 Corinthians 15:51–52, 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17
- Matthew 25:32, Romans 14:10, John 5:22, Acts 17:31, Revelation 1:7
- Matthew 25:32, Mark 16:16
- 2 Corinthians 5:10, 1 Corinthians 4:5, Romans 2:5, Romans 2:16
- Romans 2:6, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Matthew 25:35–36, Matthew 25:42–43
- Isaiah 43:25, Ezekiel 18:22, 1 John 2:28
- Matthew 25:34–35, John 3:16–18, John 3:36, Revelation 14:13, Galatians 5:6, John 13:35
- Matthew 25:42, Matthew 7:17–18, John 3:18, John 3:36
- Romans 2:5, Acts 17:31, Romans 2:16
- Luke 9:26, Matthew 25:31–32
- Matthew 25:41, Matthew 25:34, Matthew 25:46, Graebner, Augustus Lawrence (1910). Outlines of Doctrinal Theology. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. pp. 233–8. ISBN 978-0-524-04891-7.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Table drawn from, though not copied, from Lange, Lyle W. God So Loved the World: A Study of Christian Doctrine. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 2006. p. 448.
- "Calvinism and Lutheranism Compared". WELS Topical Q&A. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Archived from the original on 27 September 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
"Total Depravity – Lutherans and Calvinists agree." Yes this is correct. Both agree on the devastating nature of the fall and that man by nature has no power to aid in his conversions...and that election to salvation is by grace. In Lutheranism the German term for election is Gnadenwahl, election by grace--there is no other kind.
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge, III.23.2.
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge, II.3.5.
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge, III.3.6.
- Morris, J.W., The Historic Church: An Orthodox View of Christian History, p267, "The Book of Concord became the official statement of doctrine for most of the world's Lutherans. The Formula of Concord reaffirmed the traditional Lutheran doctrine of total depravity in very clear terms"
- Melton, J.G., Encyclopedia of Protestantism, p229, on Formula of Concord, "the 12 articles of the formula focused on a number of newer issues such as original sin (in which total depravity is affirmed)"
- "WELS vs Assembly of God". WELS Topical Q&A. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
[P]eople by nature are dead in their transgressions and sin and therefore have no ability to decide of Christ (Ephesians 2:1, 5). We do not choose Christ, rather he chose us (John 15:16) We believe that human beings are purely passive in conversion.
- Augsburg Confessional, Article XVIII, Of Free Will, saying: "(M)an's will has some liberty to choose civil righteousness, and to work things subject to reason. But it has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness; since the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14); but this righteousness is wrought in the heart when the Holy Ghost is received through the Word."
- Henry Cole, trans., Martin Luther on the Bondage of the Will (London, T. Bensley, 1823), 66. The controversial term liberum arbitrium was translated "free-will" by Cole. However Ernest Gordon Rupp and Philip Saville Watson, Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and Salvation (Westminster, 1969) chose "free choice" as their translation.
- Stanglin, Keith D.; McCall, Thomas H. (15 November 2012). Jacob Arminius: Theologian of Grace. New York: Oxford University Press USA. pp. 157–158.
- The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Lutheran Church, XI. Election. "Predestination" means "God's ordination to salvation".
- Olson, Roger E. (2009). Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. p. 63.
Arminians accepts divine election, [but] they believe it is conditional.
- The Westminster Confession, III:6, says that only the "elect" are "effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved." However in his Calvin and the Reformed Tradition (Baker, 2012), 45, Richard A. Muller observes that "a sizeable body of literature has interpreted Calvin as teaching "limited atonement", but "an equally sizeable body . . . [interprets] Calvin as teaching "unlimited atonement".
- "Justification / Salvation". WELS Topical Q&A. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Archived from the original on 27 September 2009. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
Romans 3:23-24, 5:9, 18 are other passages that lead us to say that it is most appropriate and accurate to say that universal justification is a finished fact. God has forgiven the sins of the whole world whether people believe it or not. He has done more than "made forgiveness possible." All this is for the sake of the perfect substitutionary work of Jesus Christ.
- "IV. Justification by Grace through Faith". This We Believe. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
We believe that God has justified all sinners, that is, he has declared them righteous for the sake of Christ. This is the central message of Scripture upon which the very existence of the church depends. It is a message relevant to people of all times and places, of all races and social levels, for "the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men" (Romans 5:18]). All need forgiveness of sins before God, and Scripture proclaims that all have been justified, for "the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men" (Romans 5:18). We believe that individuals receive this free gift of forgiveness not on the basis of their own works, but only through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9). ... On the other hand, although Jesus died for all, Scripture says that "whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16). Unbelievers forfeit the forgiveness won for them by Christ (John 8:24).
- Becker, Siegbert W. "Objective Justification" (PDF). Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. p. 1. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
- "Universal Justification". WELS Topical Q&A. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Archived from the original on 27 September 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
Christ paid for all our sins. God the Father has therefore forgiven them. But to benefit from this verdict we need to hear about it and trust in it. If I deposit money in the bank for you, to benefit from it you need to hear about it and use it. Christ has paid for your sins, but to benefit from it you need to hear about it and believe in it. We need to have faith but we should not think of faith as our contribution. It is a gift of God which the Holy Spirit works in us.
- Augsburg Confession, Article V, Of Justification. People "cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ's sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake. ..."
- Stanglin, Keith D.; McCall, Thomas H. (15 November 2012). Jacob Arminius: Theologian of Grace. New York: Oxford University Press USA. p. 136.
Faith is a condition of justification
- Paul ChulHong Kang, Justification: The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness from Reformation Theology to the American Great Awakening and the Korean Revivals (Peter Lang, 2006), 70, note 171. Calvin generally defends Augustine's "monergistic view".
- Diehl, Walter A. "The Age of Accountability". Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
In full accord with Scripture the Lutheran Confessions teach monergism. "In this manner, too, the Holy Scriptures ascribe conversion, faith in Christ, regeneration, renewal and all the belongs to their efficacious beginning and completion, not to the human powers of the natural free will, neither entirely, nor half, nor in any, even the least or most inconsiderable part, but in solidum, that is, entirely, solely, to the divine working and the Holy Ghost" (Trigl. 891, F.C., Sol. Decl., II, 25).
- Monergism; thefreedictionary.com
- "Calvinism and Lutheranism Compared". WELS Topical Q&A. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Archived from the original on 27 September 2009. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
- Olson, Roger E. (2009). Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. p. 18.
Arminian synergism" refers to "evangelical synergism, which affirms the prevenience of grace.
- Olson, Roger E. (2009). Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. p. 165.
[Arminius]' evangelical synergism reserves all the power, ability and efficacy in salvation to grace, but allows humans the God-granted ability to resist or not resist it. The only "contribution" humans make is nonresistance to grace.
- The Westminster Confession of Faith, Ch XVII, "Of the Perseverance of the Saints".
- "Once saved always saved". WELS Topical Q&A. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Archived from the original on 27 September 2009. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
People can fall from faith. The Bible warns, "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). Some among the Galatians had believed for a while, but had fallen into soul-destroying error. Paul warned them, "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace" (Galatians 5:4). In his explanation of the parable of the sower, Jesus says, "Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in time of testing they fall away" (Luke 8:13). According to Jesus a person can believe for a while and then fall away. While they believed they possessed eternal salvation, but when they fell from faith they lost God's gracious gift.
- "Perseverence of the Saints (Once Saved Always Saved)". WELS Topical Q&A. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Archived from the original on 27 September 2009. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
We cannot contribute one speck to our salvation, but by our own arrogance or carelessness we can throw it away. Therefore, Scripture urges us repeatedly to fight the good fight of faith (Ephesians 6 and 2 Timothy 4 for example). My sins threaten and weaken my faith, but the Spirit through the gospel in word and sacraments strengthens and preserves my faith. That's why Lutherans typically speak of God's preservation of faith and not the perseverance of the saints. The key is not our perseverance but the Spirit's preservation.
- Demarest, Bruce A. (1997). The Cross and Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation. Crossway Books. pp. 437–438.
- Demarest, Bruce A. (1997). The Cross and Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation. Crossway Books. p. 35.
Many Arminians deny the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.
- McGrath, Alister, E. Christianity: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 2006. p. 272.
- Taruskin, Richard. The Oxford History of Western Music – Volume I (Music in the Earliest Notations to the sixteenth century), pp. 753–758 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)
- Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXIV.1
- See Luther's Small Catechism, Daily Prayers Archived 1 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- Hämmerli, Maria; Mayer, Jean-François (23 May 2016). Orthodox Identities in Western Europe: Migration, Settlement and Innovation. Routledge. p. 13. ISBN 9781317084914.
- Principle examples of this in the ELCA include Family of God, Cape Coral FL. Archived 16 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine, The Well, Charlotte NC, Hosanna! of Lakeville, Minnesota, and Church of the Apostles, Seattle WA. Archived 20 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
- "A given culture's values and patterns, insofar as they are consonant with the values of the Gospel, can be used to express the meaning and purpose of Christian worship. Contextualization is a necessary task for the Church's mission in the world, so that the Gospel can be ever more deeply rooted in diverse local cultures." NAIROBI STATEMENT ON WORSHIP AND CULTURE: Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities Archived 22 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- John Dowden (1910). The Church Year and Kalendar. Cambridge University Press. p. xi.
The Church's Year, as it has been known for many centuries throughout Christendom, is characterised first, by the weekly festival of the Lord's Day (a feature which dates from the dawn of the Church's life and the age of the Apostles) and, secondly, by the annual recurrence of fasts and festivals, of certain days and certain seasons of religious observance. These latter emerged, and came to find places in the Kalendar at various times.
- "Devoted to Prayer: Introduction". North American Lutheran Church. Retrieved 11 May 2025.
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Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther the 16th century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 1517 The Lutheran Churches adhere to the Bible and the Ecumenical Creeds with Lutheran doctrine being explicated in the Book of Concord Lutherans hold themselves to be in continuity with the apostolic church and affirm the writings of the Church Fathers and the first four ecumenical councils Lutheran priest elevating the host during the Mass at Alsike Church SwedenRoskilde Cathedral a cathedral church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark The schism between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism which was formalized in the Edict of Worms of 1521 centered around two points the proper source of authority in the church often called the formal principle of the Reformation and the doctrine of justification the material principle of Lutheran theology Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification by Grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone the doctrine that scripture is the final authority on all matters of faith This contrasts with the belief of the Roman Catholic Church defined at the Council of Trent which contends that final authority comes from both Scripture and tradition In Lutheranism tradition is subordinate to Scripture and is cherished for its role in the proclamation of the Gospel The Lutheran Churches retain many of the liturgical practices and sacramental teachings of the pre Reformation Western Church with a particular emphasis on the Eucharist or Lord s Supper although Eastern Lutheranism uses the Byzantine Rite Though Lutherans are not dogmatic about the number of sacraments three Lutheran sacraments are generally recognized including baptism confession and the eucharist The Lutheran Churches teach baptismal regeneration that humans are cleansed of our sins and born again and renewed in Holy Baptism by the Holy Ghost Lutheranism teaches that sanctification commences at the time of justification and that Christians as a result of their living faith ought to do good works which are rewarded by God The act of mortal sin forfeits salvation unless individuals turn back to God through faith In the Lutheran Churches the Office of the Keys is the authority which Christ has given to His Church on earth to forgive the sins of the penitent sinners but to retain the sins of the impenitent as long as they do not repent The doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist via a sacramental union is central to the Lutheran faith with the Mass also known as the Divine Service being celebrated regularly especially on the Lord s Day Lutheranism became the state church of many parts of Northern Europe starting with Prussia in 1525 In Scandinavia the Roman Catholic bishops largely accepted the Lutheran reforms and the Church there became Lutheran in belief the threefold ministry of bishops priests and deacons was continued Lutheran divines who contributed to the development of Lutheran theology include Martin Luther Martin Chemnitz Philip Melanchthon Joachim Westphal Laurentius Petri Olaus Petri and Laurentius Andreae Lutheranism has contributed to Christian hymnody and the arts as well as the development of education Christian missions have been established by Lutherans in various regions Lutheran Churches operate a number of Lutheran schools colleges and universities around the world in addition to hospitals and orphanages A number of Lutheran religious orders as well as monasteries and convents live in community to pray and work Lutherans are found across all continents of the globe numbering 90 million Lutheran theology differs from Reformed theology in Christology divine grace the purpose of God s Law the concept of perseverance of the saints and predestination among other matters EtymologyThe high altar of Saint John s Evangelical Lutheran Church a parish of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Milwaukee The name Lutheran originated as a derogatory term used against Luther by German Scholastic theologian Johann Maier von Eck during the Leipzig Debate in July 1519 Eck and other Roman Catholics followed the traditional practice of naming a heresy after its leader thus labeling all who identified with the theology of Martin Luther as Lutherans Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran preferring the term evangelical which was derived from eὐaggelion euangelion a Greek word meaning good news i e Gospel The followers of John Calvin Huldrych Zwingli and other theologians linked to the Reformed tradition also used that term To distinguish the two evangelical groups others began to refer to the two groups as Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed As time passed by the word Evangelical was not always used Lutherans themselves began to use the term Lutheran in the middle of the 16th century in order to distinguish themselves from other groups such as the Anabaptists and Calvinists That being said many personal opinions of Martin Luther were not adopted by the Lutheran Churches in the Augsburg Confession the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and because Lutheranism retained much of the pre Reformation liturgical and devotional practices the Lutheran Reformation is generally considered to be the most conservative among the Protestant traditions In 1597 theologians in Wittenberg defined the title Lutheran as referring to the true church HistoryBronze statue of Martin Luther in front of the Lutheran Church of Our Lady in Dresden 1885 Lutheranism has its roots in the work of Martin Luther who sought to reform the Western Church to what he considered a more biblical foundation The reaction of the government and church authorities to the international spread of his writings beginning with the Ninety five Theses divided Western Christianity During the Reformation Lutheranism became the state religion of numerous states of northern Europe especially in northern Germany Scandinavia and the then Livonian Order Lutheran clergy became civil servants and the Lutheran churches became part of the state In 1521 the split between the Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church was made public and clear with the Edict of Worms in which the Diet condemned Luther and officially banned subjects of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating Luther s ideas facing advocates of Lutheranism with forfeiture of all property Half of it would be then forfeited to the imperial government and the remaining half to the accusing party In Scandinavia the Roman Catholic bishops largely accepted the Lutheran reforms and the Church there became Lutheran in belief the threefold ministry of bishops priests and deacons was continued Spread to Northern Europe The title page of the Swedish Gustav Vasa Bible translated by brothers Olaus Petri and Laurentius Petri and Laurentius Andreae Lutheranism spread through all of Scandinavia during the 16th century as the monarchs of Denmark Norway and Sweden adopted the faith Through Baltic German and Swedish rule Lutheranism also spread into Estonia and Latvia It also began spreading into Lithuania Proper with practically all members of the Lithuanian nobility converting to Lutheranism or Calvinism but at the end of the 17th century Protestantism at large began losing support due to the Counter Reformation and religious persecutions In German ruled Lithuania Minor however Lutheranism remained the dominant branch of Christianity Lutheranism played a crucial role in preserving the Lithuanian language Since 1520 regular Lutheran services have been held in Copenhagen Under the reign of Frederick I 1523 1533 Denmark Norway remained officially Catholic Although Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans he soon adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers the most significant of which was Hans Tausen During Frederick s reign Lutheranism made significant inroads in Denmark At an open meeting in Copenhagen attended by King Christian III in 1536 the people shouted We will stand by the holy Gospel and do not want such bishops anymore Frederick s son was openly Lutheran which prevented his election to the throne upon his father s death in 1533 However following his victory in the civil war that followed in 1536 he became Christian III and advanced the Reformation in Denmark Norway The constitution upon which the Danish Norwegian Church according to the Church Ordinance should rest was The pure word of God which is the Law and the Gospel It does not mention the Augsburg Confession The priests had to understand the Holy Scripture well enough to preach and explain the Gospel and the Epistles to their congregations The youths were taught from Luther s Small Catechism available in Danish since 1532 They were taught to expect at the end of life forgiving of their sins to be counted as just and the eternal life Instruction is still similar The first complete Bible in Danish was based on Martin Luther s translation into German It was published in 1550 with 3 000 copies printed in the first edition a second edition was published in 1589 Unlike Catholicism Lutheranism rejects the view that only the communion of the Bishop of Rome has been entrusted to interpret the Word of God The Reformation in Sweden began with Olaus and Laurentius Petri brothers who took the Reformation to Sweden after studying in Germany They led Gustav Vasa elected king in 1523 to Lutheranism The pope s refusal to allow the replacement of an archbishop who had supported the invading forces opposing Gustav Vasa during the Stockholm Bloodbath led to the severing of any official connection between Sweden and the papacy in 1523 Four years later at the Diet of Vasteras sv the king succeeded in forcing the diet to accept his dominion over the national church The king was given possession of all church properties as well as the church appointments and approval of the clergy While this effectively granted official sanction to Lutheran ideas Lutheranism did not become official until 1593 At that time the Uppsala Synod declared Holy Scripture the sole guideline for faith with four documents accepted as faithful and authoritative explanations of it the Apostles Creed the Nicene Creed the Athanasian Creed and the unaltered Augsburg Confession of 1530 Mikael Agricola s translation of the first Finnish New Testament was published in 1548 Counter Reformation and controversies A Hundskirche replica After the death of Martin Luther in 1546 the Schmalkaldic War started out as a conflict between two German Lutheran rulers in 1547 Soon Holy Roman Imperial forces joined the battle and conquered the members of the Schmalkaldic League oppressing and exiling many German Lutherans as they enforced the terms of the Augsburg Interim Religious freedom in some areas was secured for Lutherans through the Peace of Passau in 1552 and under the legal principle of Cuius regio eius religio the religion of the ruler was to dictate the religion of those ruled and the Declaratio Ferdinandei limited religious tolerance clauses of the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 Religious disputes among the Crypto Calvinists Philippists Sacramentarians Ubiquitarians and Gnesio Lutherans raged within Lutheranism during the middle of the 16th century These finally ended with the resolution of the issues in the Formula of Concord Large numbers of politically and religiously influential leaders met together debated and resolved these topics on the basis of Scripture resulting in the Formula which over 8 000 leaders signed The Book of Concord replaced earlier incomplete collections of doctrine unifying all German Lutherans with identical doctrine and beginning the period of Lutheran Orthodoxy In lands where Catholicism was the state religion Lutheranism was officially illegal although enforcement varied Until the end of the Counter Reformation some Lutherans worshipped secretly such as at the Hundskirke which translates as dog church or dog altar a triangle shaped Communion rock in a ditch between crosses in Paternion Austria The crowned serpent is possibly an allusion to Ferdinand II Holy Roman Emperor while the dog possibly refers to Peter Canisius Another figure interpreted as a snail carrying a church tower is possibly a metaphor for the Protestant church Also on the rock is the number 1599 and a phrase translating as thus gets in the world Lutheran orthodoxy The University of Jena in Germany the center of Gnesio Lutheran activity leading up to the Formula of Concord and a center of Lutheran orthodoxyDanish Queen Sophie Magdalene expressed her Pietist sentiment in 1737 by founding a Lutheran convent The historical period of Lutheran Orthodoxy is divided into three sections Early Orthodoxy 1580 1600 High Orthodoxy 1600 1685 and Late Orthodoxy 1685 1730 Lutheran scholasticism developed gradually especially for the purpose of arguing with the Jesuits and it was finally established by Johann Gerhard Abraham Calovius represents the climax of the scholastic paradigm in orthodox Lutheranism Other orthodox Lutheran theologians include Martin Chemnitz Aegidius Hunnius Leonhard Hutter Nicolaus Hunnius Jesper Rasmussen Brochmand Salomo Glassius Johann Hulsemann Johann Conrad Dannhauer Johannes Andreas Quenstedt Johann Friedrich Konig and Johann Wilhelm Baier Near the end of the Thirty Years War the compromising spirit seen in Philip Melanchthon rose up again in the Helmstedt School and especially in theology of Georgius Calixtus causing the syncretistic controversy Another theological issue that arose was the Crypto Kenotic controversy Late orthodoxy was torn by influences from rationalism philosophy based on reason and Pietism a revival movement in Lutheranism After a century of vitality the Pietist theologians Philipp Jakob Spener and August Hermann Francke warned that orthodoxy had degenerated into meaningless intellectualism and formalism while orthodox theologians found the emotional and subjective focuses of Pietism to be vulnerable to Rationalist propaganda The last famous orthodox Lutheran theologian before the rationalist Aufklarung or Enlightenment was David Hollatz Late orthodox theologian Valentin Ernst Loscher took part in the controversy against Pietistic Lutheranism Medieval mystical traditions continued in the works of Martin Moller Johann Arndt and Joachim Lutkemann Pietism became a rival of orthodoxy but adopted some devotional literature by orthodox theologians including Arndt Christian Scriver and Stephan Pratorius Rationalism Rationalist philosophers from France and England had an enormous impact during the 18th century along with the German Rationalists Christian Wolff Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant Their work led to an increase in rationalist beliefs at the expense of faith in God and agreement with the Bible In 1709 Valentin Ernst Loscher warned that this new Rationalist view of the world fundamentally changed society by drawing into question every aspect of theology Instead of considering the authority of divine revelation he explained Rationalists relied solely on their personal understanding when searching for truth Johann Melchior Goeze 1717 1786 pastor of St Catherine s Church in Hamburg wrote apologetical works against Rationalists including a theological and historical defence against the historical criticism of the Bible Dissenting Lutheran pastors were often reprimanded by the government bureaucracy overseeing them for example when they tried to correct Rationalist influences in the parish school As a result of the impact of a local form of rationalism termed Neology by the latter half of the 18th century genuine piety was found almost solely in small Pietist conventicles However some of the laity preserved Lutheran orthodoxy from both Pietism and rationalism by reusing old catechisms hymnbooks postils and devotional writings including those written by Johann Gerhard Heinrich Muller and Christian Scriver Revivals A 19th century Haugean conventicleThe Olbers one of the ships that carried Old Lutherans to the Western HemisphereRepresenting a continuous tradition of the Finnish Awakening youth are confirmed at Paavo Ruotsalainen s homestead in Nilsia Finland Luther scholar Johann Georg Hamann 1730 1788 a layman became famous for countering Rationalism and striving to advance a revival known as the Erweckung or Awakening In 1806 Napoleon s invasion of Germany promoted Rationalism and angered German Lutherans stirring up a desire among the people to preserve Luther s theology from the Rationalist threat Those associated with this Awakening held that reason was insufficient and pointed out the importance of emotional religious experiences Small groups sprang up often in universities which devoted themselves to Bible study reading devotional writings and revival meetings Although the beginning of this Awakening tended heavily toward Romanticism patriotism and experience the emphasis of the Awakening shifted around 1830 to restoring the traditional liturgy doctrine and confessions of Lutheranism in the Neo Lutheran movement This Awakening swept through all of Scandinavia except Iceland It developed from both German Neo Lutheranism and Pietism Danish pastor and philosopher N F S Grundtvig reshaped church life throughout Denmark through a reform movement beginning in 1830 He also wrote about 1 500 hymns including God s Word Is Our Great Heritage In Norway Hans Nielsen Hauge a lay street preacher emphasized spiritual discipline and sparked the Haugean movement which was followed by the Johnsonian Awakening within the state church as spearheaded by its namesake dogmatician and Pietist Gisle Johnson The Awakening drove the growth of foreign missions in Norway to non Christians to a new height which has never been reached since In Sweden Lars Levi Laestadius began the Laestadian movement that emphasized moral reform In Finland a farmer Paavo Ruotsalainen began the Finnish Awakening when he took to preaching about repentance and prayer In 1817 Frederick William III of Prussia ordered the Lutheran and Reformed churches in his territory to unite forming the Prussian Union of Churches The unification of the two branches of German Protestantism sparked the Schism of the Old Lutherans Many Lutherans called Old Lutherans chose to leave the state churches despite imprisonment and military force Some formed independent church bodies or free churches at home while others left for the United States Canada and Australia A similar legislated merger in Silesia prompted thousands to join the Old Lutheran movement The dispute over ecumenism overshadowed other controversies within German Lutheranism Despite political meddling in church life local and national leaders sought to restore and renew Christianity Neo Lutheran Johann Konrad Wilhelm Lohe and Old Lutheran free church leader Friedrich August Brunn both sent young men overseas to serve as pastors to German Americans while the Inner Mission focused on renewing the situation home Johann Gottfried Herder superintendent at Weimar and part of the Inner Mission movement joined with the Romantic movement with his quest to preserve human emotion and experience from Rationalism Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg though raised Reformed became convinced of the truth of historic Lutheranism as a young man He led the Neo Lutheran Repristination School of theology which advocated a return to the orthodox theologians of the 17th century and opposed modern Bible scholarship better source needed As editor of the periodical he developed it into a major support of Neo Lutheran revival and used it to attack all forms of theological liberalism and rationalism Although he received a large amount of slander and ridicule during his forty years at the head of revival he never gave up his positions The theological faculty at the University of Erlangen in Bavaria became another force for reform There professor Adolf von Harless though previously an adherent of rationalism and German idealism made Erlangen a magnet for revival oriented theologians Termed the Erlangen School of theology they developed a new version of the Incarnation which they felt emphasized the humanity of Jesus better than the ecumenical creeds As theologians they used both modern historical critical and Hegelian philosophical methods instead of attempting to revive the orthodoxy of the 17th century Friedrich Julius Stahl led the High Church Lutherans Though raised Jewish he was baptized as a Christian at the age of 19 through the influence of the Lutheran school he attended As the leader of a neofeudal Prussian political party he campaigned for the divine right of kings the power of the nobility and episcopal polity for the church Along with Theodor Kliefoth and August Friedrich Christian Vilmar he promoted agreement with the Roman Catholic Church with regard to the authority of the institutional church ex opere operato effectiveness of the sacraments and the divine authority of clergy Unlike Catholics however they also urged complete agreement with the Book of Concord The Neo Lutheran movement managed to slow secularism and counter atheistic Marxism but it did not fully succeed in Europe It partly succeeded in continuing the Pietist movement s drive to right social wrongs and focus on individual conversion The Neo Lutheran call to renewal failed to achieve widespread popular acceptance because it both began and continued with a lofty idealistic Romanticism that did not connect with an increasingly industrialized and secularized Europe The work of local leaders resulted in specific areas of vibrant spiritual renewal but people in Lutheran areas became increasingly distant from church life Additionally the revival movements were divided by philosophical traditions The Repristination school and Old Lutherans tended towards Kantianism while the Erlangen school promoted a conservative Hegelian perspective By 1969 Manfried Kober complained that unbelief is rampant even within German Lutheran parishes In the 21st century Lutheranism has experienced growth especially in Africa and Asia as well as among young adults in the West DoctrineBible Luther s 1534 translation of the BibleMoses and Elijah point the sinner looking for God s salvation to the cross to find it a Lutheran ideal known as the Theology of the Cross Traditionally Lutherans hold the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the only divinely inspired books the only presently available sources of divinely revealed knowledge and the only infallible source of Christian doctrine The Luther Bible placed the Apocrypha in a section in between the Old Testament and New Testament being books that were useful for edification and instruction in moral matters though noncanonical Scripture alone is the formal principle of the faith the final authority for all matters of faith and morals because of its inspiration authority clarity efficacy and sufficiency The authority of the Scriptures has been challenged during the history of Lutheranism Martin Luther taught that the Bible was the written Word of God and the only infallible guide for faith and practice He held that every passage of Scripture has one straightforward meaning the literal sense as interpreted by other Scripture These teachings were accepted during the orthodox Lutheranism of the 17th century During the 18th century Rationalism advocated reason rather than the authority of the Bible as the final source of knowledge but most of the laity did not accept this Rationalist position In the 19th century a confessional revival re emphasized the authority of the Scriptures and agreement with the Lutheran Confessions Today Lutherans disagree about the inspiration and authority of the Bible Theological conservatives use the historical grammatical method of Biblical interpretation while theological liberals use the higher critical method Inspiration Although many Lutherans today hold less specific views of inspiration historically Lutherans affirm that the Bible does not merely contain the Word of God but every word of it is because of plenary verbal inspiration the direct immediate word of God The Apology of the Augsburg Confession identifies Holy Scripture with the Word of God and calls the Holy Spirit the author of the Bible Because of this Lutherans confess in the Formula of Concord we receive and embrace with our whole heart the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the pure clear fountain of Israel The prophetic and apostolic Scriptures are confessed as authentic and written by the prophets and apostles A correct translation of their writings is seen as God s Word because it has the same meaning as the original Hebrew and Greek A mistranslation is not God s word and no human authority can invest it with divine authority Clarity Historically Lutherans understand the Bible to present all doctrines and commands of the Christian faith clearly In addition Lutherans believe that God s Word is freely accessible to every reader or hearer of ordinary intelligence without requiring any special education A Lutheran must understand the language that scriptures are presented in and should not be so preoccupied by error so as to prevent understanding As a result of this Lutherans do not believe there is a need to wait for any clergy pope scholar or ecumenical council to explain the real meaning of any part of the Bible Efficacy Lutherans confess that Scripture is united with the power of the Holy Spirit and with it not only demands but also creates the acceptance of its teaching This teaching produces faith and obedience Holy Scripture is not a dead letter but rather the power of the Holy Spirit is inherent in it Scripture does not compel a mere intellectual assent to its doctrine resting on logical argumentation but rather it creates the living agreement of faith As the Smalcald Articles affirm in those things which concern the spoken outward Word we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one except through or with the preceding outward Word Sufficiency Law and Grace a portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder the left side shows humans condemnation under God s law and the right side presents God s grace in Christ Lutherans are confident that the Bible contains everything that one needs to know in order to obtain salvation and to live a Christian life There are no deficiencies in Scripture that need to be filled with by tradition pronouncements of the Pope new revelations or present day development of doctrine Role of Tradition The Lutheran divines held that Scripture was still to be read within a living ecclesial Tradition and especially though the writings of the Church Fathers Furthermore the Lutheran Churches teach Scripture as the norm which norms but which is not itself normed norma normans or norma normans non normata and Tradition especially the ecumenical creeds as the norms which are normed norma normata As such Lutherans hold that Although Scripture cannot be normed by Tradition norma normans non normata it can be and is interpreted through Tradition Tradition is still a norm norma normata In the Lutheran Churches tradition is revered in the sense of the transmission of the Scriptures from one generation to the next the Ecumenical Creeds the Book of Concord the true exposition and understanding of Scripture received from the apostles and handed down to future generations Christian doctrines not explicity stated in Scripture but drawn from clear Scripture on the basis of sound reason the teachings of the early church fathers as they taught Scripture ceremonies as they serve the preaching of the gospel such as making the sign of the cross turning to the east in prayer and the renunciation of Satan in Baptism As Lutheranism emerged it did reject what it see as Roman Catholic traditions that have no foundation in Scripture and are used as sources of doctrines placed on the same level as the doctrines clearly taught in Scripture Law and Gospel Lutherans understand the Bible as containing two distinct types of content termed Law and Gospel or Law and Promises Properly distinguishing between Law and Gospel prevents the obscuring of the Gospel teaching of justification by grace through faith alone Lutheran confessions The cover page of the Book of Concord published in 1580 The Book of Concord published in 1580 contains 10 documents which many Lutherans believe are faithful and authoritative explanations of Holy Scripture Besides the three Ecumenical Creeds which date to Roman times the Book of Concord contains seven credal documents articulating Lutheran theology in the Reformation era The doctrinal positions of Lutheran churches are not uniform because the Book of Concord does not hold the same position in all Lutheran churches For example the state churches in Scandinavia consider only the Augsburg Confession as a summary of the faith in addition to the three ecumenical creeds Lutheran pastors congregations and church bodies in Germany and the Americas usually agree to teach in harmony with the entire Lutheran confessions Some Lutheran church bodies require this pledge to be unconditional because they believe the confessions correctly state what the Bible teaches Others allow their congregations to do so insofar as the confessions are in agreement with the Bible In addition Lutherans accept the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils of the Christian Church The Lutheran Church traditionally sees itself as the main trunk of the historical Christian Tree founded by Christ and the Apostles holding that during the Reformation the Church of Rome fell away As such the Augsburg Confession teaches that the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new but the true catholic faith and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession to Charles V Holy Roman Emperor they explained that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils Justification The Lutheran faith preaches that whoever has faith in Jesus alone will receive salvation from the grace of God and will enter heaven for eternity The key doctrine or material principle of Lutheranism is the doctrine of justification Lutherans believe that humans are saved from their sins by God s grace alone Sola Gratia through faith alone Sola Fide on the basis of Scripture alone Sola Scriptura Orthodox Lutheran theology holds that God made the world including humanity perfect holy and sinless However Adam and Eve chose to disobey God trusting in their own strength knowledge and wisdom Consequently people are saddled with original sin born sinful and unable to avoid committing sinful acts For many Lutherans original sin is the chief sin a root and fountainhead of all actual sins Lutherans teach that sinners while capable of doing works that are outwardly good are not capable of doing works that satisfy God s justice Every human thought and deed is infected with sin and sinful motives Because of this all of humanity deserves eternal damnation in hell God in eternity has turned His Fatherly heart to this world and planned for its redemption because he loves all people and does not want anyone to be eternally damned To this end God sent his Son Jesus Christ our Lord into the world to redeem and deliver us from the power of the devil and to bring us to Himself and to govern us as a King of righteousness life and salvation against sin death and an evil conscience as Luther s Large Catechism explains Because of this Lutherans teach that salvation is possible only because of the grace of God made manifest in the birth life suffering death resurrection and continuing presence by the power of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ By God s grace made known and effective in the person and work of Jesus Christ a person is forgiven adopted as a child and heir of God and given eternal salvation Christ because he was entirely obedient to the law with respect to both his human and divine natures is a perfect satisfaction and reconciliation of the human race as the Formula of Concord asserts and proceeds to summarize Christ submitted to the law for us bore our sin and in going to his Father performed complete and perfect obedience for us poor sinners from his holy birth to his death Thereby he covered all our disobedience which is embedded in our nature and in its thoughts words and deeds so that this disobedience is not reckoned to us as condemnation but is pardoned and forgiven by sheer grace because of Christ alone Lutherans believe that individuals receive this gift of salvation through faith alone Saving faith is the knowledge of acceptance of and trust in the promise of the Gospel Even faith itself is seen as a gift of God created in the hearts of Christians by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word and Baptism Faith receives the gift of salvation rather than causes salvation Thus Lutherans reject the decision theology which is common among modern evangelicals including Baptists and Methodists The term grace has been defined differently by other Christian church bodies Lutheranism defines grace as entirely limited to God s gifts to us which is bestowed as pure gift not something we merit by behavior or acts To Lutherans grace is not about our response to God s gifts but only His gifts Sanctification The chancel of St Matthew s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Charleston The continually lit sanctuary lamp indicates the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist At the time of the justification of an individual Lutherans teach that the process of sanctification commences which is defined as the Holy Spirit s work which follows justification through faith and consists of renewing the believer and bringing forth in him works of renewal In Lutheranism sanctification has two components including 1 The inner renewal of the Holy Spirit in the Christian and 2 the living out of that inner renewal in the Christian s new life of good works The Lutheran Confessions hold that it is necessary to exhort people to Christian discipline and good works and to remind them how necessary it is that they exercise themselves in good words as an evidence of their faith and their gratitude toward God For Christians good works are necessary fruits of faith in the life of a Christian and that they proceed from a renewed heart that is thankful to God for His mercy and love These good works done by Christians are rewarded by God Those individuals who commit mortal sin render themselves subject to divine wrath and eternal death unless turned again they are reconciled to God through faith The Formula of Concord summarizes salvation in Lutheran Christianity First the Holy Spirit kindles faith in us in conversion through the hearing of the Gospel Faith apprehends the grace of God in Christ whereby the person is justified After the person is justified the Holy Spirit next renews and sanctifies him and from this renewal and sanctification the fruits of good works will follow FC Solid Declaration Article III Righteousness 40 41 Tappert The Lutheran Confessions state After a person has been justified by faith a true living faith becomes active through love Gal 5 6 Thus good works always follow justifying faith and are certainly to be found with it since such faith is never alone but is always accompanied by love and hope FC Epitome Article III Righteousness Tappert p 474 We also reject and condemn the teaching that faith and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are not lost through malicious sin but that the holy ones and the elect retain the Holy Spirit even though they fall into adultery and other sins and persist in them FC Article IV Good Works Good works Even though I am a sinner and deserving of death and hell this shall nonetheless be my consolation and my victory that my Lord Jesus lives and has risen so that He in the end might rescue me from sin death and hell said Martin Luther concerning the meaning of the Resurrection Lutherans believe that Augsburg Confession s Article XX Of Good Works are the fruit of faith always and in every instance Good works have their origin in God not in the fallen human heart or in human striving their absence would demonstrate that faith too is absent Lutherans do not believe that good works are a factor in obtaining salvation they believe that we are saved by the grace of God based on the merit of Christ in his suffering and death and faith in the Triune God Good works are the natural result of faith not the cause of salvation Lutheran theology holds that Christians freely and willingly serve God and their neighbors The Lutheran Churches teach that God rewards good works done by Christians with each one receiving his her own reward according to his her labour the Apology of the Augsburg Confession teaches We also affirm what we have often said that although justification and eternal life go along with faith nevertheless good works merit other bodily and spiritual rewards and degrees of reward According to 1 Corinthians 3 8 Each will receive his wages according to his labor Trinity Lutherans believe in the Trinity Lutherans believe in the Trinity rejecting the idea that the Father and God the Son are merely faces of the same person stating that both the Old Testament and the New Testament show them to be two distinct persons Lutherans believe the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son In the words of the Athanasian Creed We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity Neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance For there is one Person of the Father another of the Son and another of the Holy Ghost But the Godhead of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all one the glory equal the majesty coeternal Two natures of Christ Lutherans believe Jesus is the Christ the savior promised in the Old Testament They believe he is both by nature God and by nature man in one person as they confess in Luther s Small Catechism that he is true God begotten of the Father from eternity and also true man born of the Virgin Mary The Augsburg Confession explains T he Son of God did assume the human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary so that there are two natures the divine and the human inseparably enjoined in one Person one Christ true God and true man who was born of the Virgin Mary truly suffered was crucified dead and buried that He might reconcile the Father unto us and be a sacrifice not only for original guilt but also for all actual sins of men Mariology With regard to Mary the Lutheran Churches universally teach the Marian doctrines of the Virgin Birth and the Theotokos The doctrines of the perpetual virginity of Mary and Sinlessness of Mary are maintained as pious opinions by many Lutherans both being held by Martin Luther himself Sacraments Article IX Of Confession of the Augsburg Confession Lutherans hold that sacraments are sacred acts of divine institution Whenever they are properly administered by the use of the physical component commanded by God along with the divine words of institution God is in a way specific to each sacrament present with the Word and physical component He earnestly offers to all who receive the sacrament forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation He also works in the recipients to get them to accept these blessings and to increase the assurance of their possession Lutherans are not dogmatic about the number of the sacraments though three sacraments are generally recognized baptism confession and the eucharist In line with Luther s initial statement in his Large Catechism some speak of only two sacraments Baptism and Holy Communion although later in the same work he calls Confession and Absolution the third sacrament The definition of sacrament in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession lists Absolution as one of them Private Confession is expected before receiving the Eucharist for the first time Some churches also allow for individual absolution on Saturdays before the Eucharistic service A General Confession and Absolution known as the Penitential Rite is proclaimed in the Eucharistic liturgy Baptism Lutherans practice infant baptism Lutherans hold that Baptism is a saving work of God mandated and instituted by Jesus Christ Baptism is a means of grace through which God creates and strengthens saving faith as the washing of regeneration in which infants and adults are reborn Since the creation of faith is exclusively God s work it does not depend on the actions of the one baptized whether infant or adult Even though baptized infants cannot articulate that faith Lutherans believe that it is present all the same It is faith alone that receives these divine gifts so Lutherans confess that baptism works forgiveness of sins delivers from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this as the words and promises of God declare Lutherans hold fast to the Scripture cited in 1 Peter 3 21 Baptism which corresponds to this now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ Therefore Lutherans administer Baptism to both infants and adults In the special section on infant baptism in his Large Catechism Luther argues that infant baptism is God pleasing because persons so baptized were reborn and sanctified by the Holy Spirit Eucharist Martin Luther communing John the Steadfast Lutherans hold that within the Eucharist also referred to as the Sacrament of the Altar or the Lord s Supper the true body and blood of Christ are truly present in with and under the forms of the consecrated bread and wine for all those who eat and drink it a doctrine that the Formula of Concord calls the sacramental union Confession Many Lutherans receive the sacrament of penance before receiving the Eucharist Prior to going to Confessing and receiving Absolution the faithful are expected to examine their lives in light of the Ten Commandments An order of Confession and Absolution is contained in the Small Catechism as well as in liturgical books Lutherans typically kneel at the communion rails to confess their sins while the confessor listens and then offers absolution while laying their stole on the penitent s head Clergy are prohibited from revealing anything said during private Confession and Absolution per the Seal of the Confessional and face excommunication if it is violated Apart from this Laestadian Lutherans have a practice of lay confession Rites Apart from the three sacraments of baptism confession and the eucharist Lutherans observe four rites including confirmation ordination to holy orders anointing of the sick and holy matrimony Additional ordinances are observed by Lutherans such as feetwashing especially on Maundy Thursday as well as historically head covering for Christian women during prayer and worship Conversion In Lutheranism conversion or regeneration in the strict sense of the term is the work of divine grace and power by which man born of the flesh and void of all power to think to will or to do any good thing and dead in sin is through the gospel and holy baptism taken from a state of sin and spiritual death under God s wrath into a state of spiritual life of faith and grace rendered able to will and to do what is spiritually good and especially made to trust in the benefits of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus During conversion one is moved from impenitence to repentance The Augsburg Confession divides repentance into two parts One is contrition that is terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin the other is faith which is born of the Gospel or of absolution and believes that for Christ s sake sins are forgiven comforts the conscience and delivers it from terrors Predestination Article XVIII of the Augsburg Confession Of Free Will Free Will Lutherans adhere to divine monergism the teaching that salvation is by God s act alone and therefore reject the idea that humans in their fallen state have a free will concerning spiritual matters Lutherans believe that although humans have free will concerning civil righteousness they cannot work spiritual righteousness in the heart without the presence and aid of the Holy Spirit Lutherans believe that those who trust in Christ and manifest their living faith by serving God can be certain of their salvation According to Lutheranism the central final hope of the Christian is the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting as confessed in the Apostles Creed rather than predestination Lutherans disagree with those who make predestination rather than Christ s suffering death and resurrection the source of salvation Unlike some Calvinists Lutherans do not believe in a predestination to damnation usually referencing God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth as contrary evidence to such a claim Instead Lutherans teach eternal damnation is a result of the unbeliever s sins rejection of the forgiveness of sins and unbelief Divine providence The Broad and the Narrow Way a popular 1866 German Pietist portrait According to Lutherans God preserves his creation cooperates with everything that happens and guides the universe While God cooperates with both good and evil deeds with evil deeds he does so only inasmuch as they are deeds but not with the evil in them God concurs with an act s effect but he does not cooperate in the corruption of an act or the evil of its effect Lutherans believe everything exists for the sake of the Christian Church and that God guides everything for its welfare and growth The explanation of the Apostles Creed given in the Small Catechism declares that everything good that people have is given and preserved by God either directly or through other people or things Of the services others provide us through family government and work we receive these blessings not from them but through them from God Since God uses everyone s useful tasks for good people should not look down upon some useful vocations as being less worthy than others Instead people should honor others no matter how lowly as being the means God uses to work in the world Judgment and eternal life Lutherans do not believe in any sort of earthly millennial kingdom of Christ either before or after his second coming on the last day Lutherans teach that at death the souls of Christians are immediately taken into the presence of Jesus where they await the second coming of Jesus on the last day On the last day all the bodies of the dead will be resurrected Their souls will then be reunited with the same bodies they had before dying The bodies will then be changed those of the wicked to a state of everlasting shame and torment those of the righteous to an everlasting state of celestial glory After the resurrection of all the dead and the change of those still living all nations shall be gathered before Christ and he will separate the righteous from the wicked Christ will publicly judge all people by the testimony of their deeds the good works of the righteous in evidence of their faith and the evil works of the wicked in evidence of their unbelief He will judge in righteousness in the presence of all people and angels and his final judgment will be just damnation to everlasting punishment for the wicked and a gracious gift of life everlasting to the righteous Protestant beliefs about salvationThis table summarizes the classical views of three Protestant beliefs about salvation Topic Calvinism Lutheranism ArminianismHuman will Total depravity Humanity possesses free will but it is in bondage to sin until it is transformed Total depravity Humanity possesses free will in regard to goods and possessions but is sinful by nature and unable to contribute to its own salvation Total depravity Humanity possesses freedom from necessity but not freedom from sin unless enabled by prevenient grace Election Unconditional election Unconditional election Conditional election in view of foreseen faith or unbelief Justification and atonement Justification by faith alone Various views regarding the extent of the atonement Justification for all men completed at Christ s death and effective through faith alone Justification made possible for all through Christ s death but only completed upon choosing faith in Jesus Conversion Monergistic through the means of grace irresistible Monergistic through the means of grace resistible Synergistic resistible due to the common grace of free will Perseverance and apostasy Perseverance of the saints the eternally elect in Christ will certainly persevere in faith Falling away is possible but God gives gospel assurance Preservation is conditional upon continued faith in Christ with the possibility of a final apostasy PracticesLuther composed hymns and hymn tunes including Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott A Mighty Fortress Is Our God Divine Service at the St Nicholas church in Luckau GermanyLiturgy Many Lutherans follow a liturgical approach to worship services although there are substantial non liturgical minorities for example the Haugean Lutherans from Norway Martin Luther was a great proponent of music and this is why music forms a central part of Lutheran services to this day In particular Luther admired the composers Josquin des Prez and Ludwig Senfl and wanted singing in the church to move away from the ars perfecta Catholic Sacred Music of the late Renaissance and towards singing as a Gemeinschaft community Lutheran hymns are sometimes known as chorales Lutheran hymnody is well known for its doctrinal didactic and musical richness Most Lutheran churches are active musically with choirs handbell choirs children s choirs and occasionally change ringing groups that ring bells in a bell tower Johann Sebastian Bach a devout Lutheran composed a huge body of sacred music for the Lutheran church Many Lutherans also preserve a liturgical approach to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist Communion emphasizing the Sacrament as the central act of Christian worship Lutherans believe that the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ are present in with and under the bread and the wine This belief is called Real Presence or sacramental union and is different from consubstantiation and transubstantiation Additionally Lutherans reject the idea that communion is a mere symbol or memorial They confess in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession W e do not abolish the Mass but religiously keep and defend it Among us the Mass is celebrated every Lord s Day and on other festivals when the Sacrament is made available to those who wish to partake of it after they have been examined and absolved We also keep traditional liturgical forms such as the order of readings prayers vestments and other similar things In addition to the Holy Communion Divine Service congregations frequently also hold offices which are worship services without communion They may include Matins Vespers Compline or other observances of the Daily Office Private or family offices include the Morning and Evening Prayers from Luther s Small Catechism Meals are blessed with the Common table prayer Psalm 145 15 16 or other prayers and after eating the Lord is thanked for example with Psalm 136 1 Luther himself encouraged the use of Psalm verses such as those already mentioned along with the Lord s Prayer and another short prayer before and after each meal Blessing and Thanks at Meals from Luther s Small Catechism In addition Lutherans use devotional books from small daily devotionals for example Portals of Prayer to large breviaries including the Breviarium Lipsiensae and Treasury of Daily Prayer The predominant rite used by Lutheran churches is a Western one based on the Formula missae Form of the Mass although other Lutheran liturgies are also in use such as those used in the Byzantine Rite Lutheran Churches such as the Ukrainian Lutheran Church and Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovenia Although Luther s Deutsche Messe was completely chanted except for the sermon this is less common today In the 1970s many Lutheran churches began holding contemporary worship services for the purpose of evangelistic outreach These services were in a variety of styles depending on the preferences of the congregation Often they were held alongside a traditional service in order to cater to those who preferred contemporary worship music Today a few Lutheran congregations have contemporary worship as their sole form of worship Outreach is no longer given as the primary motivation rather this form of worship is seen as more in keeping with the desires of individual congregations In Finland Lutherans have experimented with the fi and Metal Mass in which traditional hymns are adapted to heavy metal Some Laestadians enter a heavily emotional and ecstatic state during worship The Lutheran World Federation in its Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture recommended every effort be made to bring church services into a more sensitive position with regard to cultural context In 2006 both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ELCA and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod LCMS in cooperation with certain international English speaking church bodies within their respective fellowships released new hymnals Evangelical Lutheran Worship ELCA and Lutheran Service Book LCMS Along with these the most widely used among English speaking congregations include Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary 1996 Evangelical Lutheran Synod The Lutheran Book of Worship 1978 Lutheran Council in the United States of America Lutheran Worship 1982 LCMS Christian Worship 1993 Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and The Lutheran Hymnal 1941 Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America In the Lutheran Church of Australia the official hymnal is the Lutheran Hymnal with Supplement of 1986 which includes a supplement to the Lutheran Hymnal of 1973 itself a replacement for the Australian Lutheran Hymn Book of 1921 Prior to this time the two Lutheran church bodies in Australia which merged in 1966 used a bewildering variety of hymnals usually in the German language Spanish speaking ELCA churches frequently use Libro de Liturgia y Cantico 1998 Augsburg Fortress for services and hymns For a more complete list see List of English language Lutheran hymnals Kalendar Lutheran church year Lutherans observe the liturgical kalendar which consists of the cycle of liturgical days and seasons that determines when feast days including celebrations of saints are to be observed and which portions of scripture are to be read The kalendar features greater festivals lesser festivals and commemorations The Lutheran Churches use a lectionary that enjoins appointed scripture readings for each day which include an Old Testament reading Psalm Epistle reading and Gospel reading Missions Christ Lutheran Church in India Sizable Lutheran missions arose for the first time during the 19th century Early missionary attempts during the century after the Reformation did not succeed However European traders brought Lutheranism to Africa beginning in the 17th century as they settled along the coasts During the first half of the 19th century missionary activity in Africa expanded including preaching by missionaries translation of the Bible and education Lutheranism came to India beginning with the work of Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg where a community totaling several thousand developed complete with their own translation of the Bible catechism their own hymnal and system of Lutheran schools In the 1840s this church experienced a revival through the work of the Leipzig Mission including Karl Graul After German missionaries were expelled in 1914 Lutherans in India became entirely autonomous yet preserved their Lutheran character In recent years India has relaxed its anti religious conversion laws allowing a resurgence in missionary work In Latin America missions began to serve European immigrants of Lutheran background both those who spoke German and those who no longer did These churches in turn began to evangelize those in their areas who were not of European background including indigenous peoples In 1892 the first Lutheran missionaries reached Japan Although work began slowly and a major setback occurred during the hardships of WWII Lutheranism there has survived and become self sustaining After missionaries to China including those of the Lutheran Church of China were expelled they began ministry in Taiwan and Hong Kong the latter which became a center of Lutheranism in Asia The Lutheran Mission in New Guinea though founded only in 1953 became the largest Lutheran mission in the world in only several decades Through the work of native lay evangelists many tribes of diverse languages were reached with the Gospel Today the Lutheran World Federation operates Lutheran World Relief a relief and development agency active in more than 50 countries Education Resurrection Lutheran School is a parochial school of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod WELS in Rochester Minnesota and the fourth largest private school system in the United States Catechism instruction is considered foundational in most Lutheran churches Almost all maintain Sunday Schools and some host or maintain Lutheran schools at the preschool elementary middle high school folk high school or university level Lifelong study of the catechism is intended for all ages so that the abuses of the pre Reformation Church will not recur Lutheran schools have always been a core aspect of Lutheran mission work starting with Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Putschasu who began work in India in year 1706 During the Counter Reformation era in German speaking areas backstreet Lutheran schools were the main Lutheran institution among crypto Lutherans Pastors almost always have substantial theological educations including Koine Greek and Biblical Hebrew so that they can refer to the Christian scriptures in the original language Pastors usually teach in the common language of the local congregation In the U S some congregations and synods historically taught in German Danish Finnish Norwegian or Swedish but retention of immigrant languages has been in significant decline since the early and middle 20th century Church fellowship Georg Calixtus taught at the University of Helmstedt during the Syncretistic controversy The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem in the Holy Land houses Lutheran congregations that worship in Arabic German Danish and EnglishA Lutheran pastor wearing a chasuble during communionConfirmation at the Church of Norway s Lunder Church in Ringerike Norway in 2012A Laestadian lay preacher in Finnmark Norway in 1898 Lutherans were divided about the issue of church fellowship for the first 30 years after Luther s death Philipp Melanchthon and his Philippist party felt that Christians of different beliefs should join in union with each other without completely agreeing on doctrine Against them stood the Gnesio Lutherans led by Matthias Flacius and the faculty at the University of Jena They condemned the Philippist position for indifferentism describing it as a unionistic compromise of precious Reformation theology Instead they held that genuine unity between Christians and real theological peace was only possible with an honest agreement about every subject of doctrinal controversy Complete agreement finally came about in 1577 after the death of both Melanchthon and Flacius when a new generation of theologians resolved the doctrinal controversies on the basis of Scripture in the Formula of Concord of 1577 Although they decried the visible division of Christians on earth orthodox Lutherans avoided ecumenical fellowship with other churches believing that Christians should not for example join for the Lord s Supper or exchange pastors if they do not completely agree about what the Bible teaches In the 17th century Georgius Calixtus began a rebellion against this practice sparking the Syncretistic Controversy with Abraham Calovius as his main opponent In the 18th century there was some ecumenical interest between the Church of Sweden and the Church of England John Robinson Bishop of London planned for a union of the English and Swedish churches in 1718 The plan failed because most Swedish bishops rejected the Calvinism of the Church of England although Jesper Swedberg and Johannes Gezelius the younger bishops of Skara Sweden and Turku Finland were in favor With the encouragement of Swedberg church fellowship was established between Swedish Lutherans and Anglicans in the Middle Colonies Over the course of the 1700s and the early 1800s Swedish Lutherans were absorbed into Anglican churches with the last original Swedish congregation completing merger into the Episcopal Church in 1846 In the 19th century Samuel Simon Schmucker attempted to lead the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of the United States toward unification with other American Protestants His attempt to get the synod to reject the Augsburg Confession in favor of his compromising Definite Platform failed Instead it sparked a Neo Lutheran revival prompting many to form the General Council including Charles Porterfield Krauth Their alternative approach was Lutheran pulpits for Lutheran ministers only and Lutheran altars for Lutheran communicants only Beginning in 1867 confessional and liberal minded Lutherans in Germany joined to form the Common Evangelical Lutheran Conference against the ever looming prospect of a state mandated union with the Reformed However they failed to reach consensus on the degree of shared doctrine necessary for church union Eventually the fascist German Christians movement pushed the final national merger of Lutheran Union and Reformed church bodies into a single Reich Church in 1933 doing away with the previous umbrella German Evangelical Church Confederation DEK As part of denazification the Reich Church was formally done away with in 1945 and certain clergy were removed from their positions However the merger between the Lutheran United and Reformed state churches was retained under the name Protestant Church in Germany Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland EKD In 1948 the Lutheran church bodies within the EKD founded the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany VELKD but it has since been reduced from being an independent legal entity to an administrative unit within the EKD Lutherans are currently divided over how to interact with other Christian denominations Some Lutherans assert that everyone must share the whole counsel of God Acts 20 27 in complete unity 1 Cor 1 10 before pastors can share each other s pulpits and before communicants commune at each other s altars a practice termed closed or close communion On the other hand other Lutherans practice varying degrees of open communion and allow preachers from other Christian denominations in their pulpits While not an issue in the majority of Lutheran church bodies some of them forbid membership in Freemasonry Partly this is because the lodge is viewed as spreading Unitarianism as the Brief Statement of the LCMS reads Hence we warn against Unitarianism which in our country has to a great extent impenetrated the sects and is being spread particularly also through the influence of the lodges A 1958 report from the publishing house of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod states that Masonry is guilty of idolatry Its worship and prayers are idol worship The Masons may not with their hands have made an idol out of gold silver wood or stone but they created one with their own mind and reason out of purely human thoughts and ideas The latter is an idol no less than the former The largest organization of Lutheran churches around the world are the Lutheran World Federation LWF the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum the International Lutheran Council ILC and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference CELC These organizations together account for the great majority of Lutheran denominations The LCMS and the Lutheran Church Canada are members of the ILC The WELS and ELS are members of the CELC Many Lutheran churches such as the Lutheran Church International a Confessional Lutheran denomination of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship are not affiliated with the LWF the ILC or the CELC The congregations of the Church of the Lutheran Confession CLC are affiliated with their mission organizations in Canada India Nepal Myanmar and many African nations and those affiliated with the Church of the Lutheran Brethren are especially active doing mission work in Africa and East Asia The Lutheran World Federation aligned churches do not believe that one church is singularly true in its teachings According to this belief Lutheranism is a reform movement rather than a movement into doctrinal correctness As part of this in 1999 the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church jointly issued a statement the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification that stated that the LWF and the Catholics both agreed about certain basics of Justification and lifted certain Catholic anathemas formerly applying to the LWF member churches The LCMS has participated in most of the official dialogues with the Roman Catholic Church since shortly after the Second Vatican Council though not the one which produced the Joint Declaration and to which they were not invited While some Lutheran theologians saw the Joint Declaration as a sign that the Catholics were essentially adopting the Lutheran position other Lutheran theologians disagreed claiming that considering the public documentation of the Catholic position this assertion does not hold up citation needed Besides their intra Lutheran arrangements some member churches of the LWF have also declared full communion with non Lutheran Protestant churches The Porvoo Communion is a communion of episcopally led Lutheran and Anglican churches in Europe Beside its membership in the Porvoo Communion Church of Sweden also has declared full communion with the Philippine Independent Church and the United Methodist Church citation needed The state Protestant churches in Germany many other European countries have signed the Leuenberg Agreement to form the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been involved in ecumenical dialogues with several denominations The ELCA has declared full communion with multiple American Protestant churches Although on paper the LWF churches have all declared have full communion with each other in practice some churches within the LWF have renounced ties with specific other churches One development in this ongoing schism is the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum which consists of churches and church related organizations tracing their heritage back to mainline American Lutheranism in North America European state churches as well as certain African churches As of 2019 the Forum is not a full communion organization Similar in this structure is the International Lutheran Council where issues of communion are left to the individual denominations Not all ILC churches have declared church fellowship with each other In contrast mutual church fellowship is part of the CELC member churches and unlike in the LWF this is not contradicted by individual statements from any particular member church body Laestadians within certain European state churches maintain close ties to other Laestadians often called Apostolic Lutherans Altogether Laestadians are found in 23 countries across five continents but there is no single organization which represents them Laestadians operate Peace Associations to coordinate their churchly efforts Nearly all are located in Europe although they there are 15 combined in North America Ecuador Togo and Kenya By contrast the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference and International Lutheran Council as well as some unaffiliated denominations such as the Church of the Lutheran Confession and North American Laestadians maintain that the orthodox Confessional Lutheran churches are the only churches with completely correct doctrine They teach that while other Christian churches teach partially orthodox doctrine and have true Christians as members the doctrines of those churches contain significant errors More conservative Lutherans strive to maintain historical distinctiveness while emphasizing doctrinal purity alongside Gospel motivated outreach They claim that LWF Lutherans are practicing fake ecumenism by desiring church fellowship outside of actual unity of teaching Although not an ecumenical movement in the formal sense in the 1990s influences from the megachurches of American evangelicalism have become somewhat common Many of the largest Lutheran congregations in the United States have been heavily influenced by these progressive Evangelicals These influences are sharply criticized by some Lutherans as being foreign to orthodox Lutheran beliefs Polity Hallowed be Thy Name by Lucas Cranach the Elder illustrates a Lutheran pastor preaching Christ crucified During the Reformation and afterwards many churches did not have pews so people would stand or sit on the floor The elderly might be given a chair or stool Lutheran polity varies depending on influences Although Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession mandates that one must be properly called to preach or administer the Sacraments some Lutherans have a broad view of on what constitutes this and thus allow lay preaching or students still studying to be pastors someday to consecrate the Lord s Supper Despite considerable diversity Lutheran polity trends in a geographically predictable manner in Europe with episcopal governance to the north and east but blended and consistorial presbyterian type synodical governance in Germany Scandinavia Nathan Soderblom is ordained as archbishop of the Church of Sweden in 1914 Although Swedish Lutherans boast of an unbroken line of ordinations going back prior to the Reformation the bishops of Rome do not recognize such ordinations as valid To the north in Scandinavia the population was more insulated from the influence and politics of the Reformation and thus the Church of Sweden which at the time included Finland retained the Apostolic succession although they did not consider it essential for valid sacraments as the Donatists did in the fourth and fifth centuries and the Roman Catholics do today Recently the Swedish succession was introduced into all of the Porvoo Communion churches all of which have an episcopal polity Although the Lutheran churches did not require this or change their doctrine this was important in order for more strictly high church Anglican individuals to feel comfortable recognizing their sacraments as valid The occasional ordination of a bishop by a priest was not necessarily considered an invalid ordination in the Middle Ages so the alleged break in the line of succession in the other Nordic Churches would have been considered a violation of canon law rather than an invalid ordination at the time Moreover there are no consistent records detailing pre Reformation ordinations prior to the 12th century In the far north of the Scandinavian peninsula are the Sami people some of which practice a form of Lutheranism called Apostolic Lutheranism or Laestadianism due to the efforts of Lars Levi Laestadius However others are Orthodox in religion Some Apostolic Lutherans consider their movement as part of an unbroken line down from the Apostles In areas where Apostolic Lutherans have their own bishops apart from other Lutheran church organizations the bishops wield more practical authority than Lutheran clergy typically do In Russia Laestadians of Lutheran background cooperate with the Ingrian church but since Laestadianism is an interdenominational movement some are Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Laestadians are known as Ushkovayzet article is in Russian Eastern Europe and Asian Russia Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Saint Petersburg Although historically Pietism had a significant influence on the understanding of the ministry among Lutherans in the Russian Empire today nearly all Russian and Ukrainian Lutherans are influenced by Eastern Orthodox polity In their culture giving a high degree of respect and authority to their bishops is necessary for their faith to be seen as legitimate and not sectarian In Russia lines of succession between bishops and the canonical authority between their present day hierarchy is also carefully maintained in order to legitimize the existing Lutheran churches as present day successors of the former Lutheran Church of the Russian Empire originally authorized by Catherine the Great This allows for the post Soviet repatriation of Lutheran church buildings to local congregations on the basis of this historical connection Germany The Schwabisch Hall Church Order in 1543 In Germany several dynamics encouraged Lutherans to maintain a different form of polity First due to de facto practice during the Nuremberg Religious Peace the subsequent legal principal of Cuius regio eius religio in the 1555 Peace of Augsburg German states were officially either Catholic or Evangelical that is Lutheran under the Augsburg Confession In some areas both Catholic and Lutheran churches were permitted to co exist Because German speaking Catholic areas were nearby Catholic leaning Christians were able to emigrate and there was less of an issue with Catholics choosing to live as crypto papists in Lutheran areas Although Reformed leaning Christians were not allowed to have churches Melancthon wrote Augsburg Confession Variata which some used to claim legal protection as Evangelical churches Many chose to live as crypto Calvinists either with or without the protection offered by the Variata but this did not make their influence go away and as a result the Protestant church in Germany as of 2017 was only about 40 Lutheran with most of the rest being United Protestant a combination of Lutheran and Reformed beliefs and practices In terms of polity over the 17th and 18th centuries the carefully negotiated and highly prescriptive church orders of the Reformation era gave way to a joint cooperation between state control and a Reformed style blend of consistorial and presbyterian type synodical governance Just as negotiations over the details in the church orders involved the laity so did the new synodical governance Synodical governance had already been practiced in the Reformed Netherlands prior to its adoption by Lutherans During the formation of the modern German state ideas about the nature of authority and the best design for governments and organizations came from the philosophies of Kant and Hegel further modifying the polity When the monarchy and the sovereign governance of the church were ended in 1918 the synods took over the governance of the state churches Western Hemisphere and Australia The Pennsylvania Ministerium published this hymnal in 1803 The high altar of Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Baltimore which belongs to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod During the period of the emigration Lutherans took their existing ideas about polity with them across the ocean though with the exception of the early Swedish Lutherans immigrants of the New Sweden colony who accepted the rule of the Anglican bishops and became part of the established church they now had to fund churches on their own This increased the congregationalist dynamic in the blended consistorial and presbyterian type synodical governance The first organized church body of Lutherans in America was the Pennsylvania Ministerium which used Reformed style synodical governance over the 18th and 19th centuries Their contribution to the development of polity was that smaller synods could in turn form a larger body also with synodical governance but without losing their lower level of governance As a result the smaller synods gained unprecedented flexibility to join leave merge or stay separate all without the hand of the state as had been the case in Europe During their 19th century persecution Old Lutheran defined as scholastic and orthodox believers were left in a conundrum Resistance to authority was traditionally considered disobedience but under the circumstances upholding orthodox doctrine and historical practice was considered by the government disobedience However the doctrine of the lesser magistrate allowed clergy to legitimately resist the state and even leave Illegal free churches were set up in Germany and mass emigration occurred For decades the new churches were mostly dependent on the free churches to send them new ministerial candidates for ordination These new church bodies also employed synodical governance but tended to exclude Hegelianism in their constitutions due to its incompatibility with the doctrine of the lesser magistrates In contrast to Hegelianism where authority flows in from all levels Kantianism presents authority proceeding only from the top down hence the need for a lesser magistrate to become the new top magistrate Over the 20th and 21st centuries some Lutheran bodies have adopted a more congregationalist approach such as the Protes tant Conference and the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ or LCMC The LCMC formed due to a church split after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America signed an agreement with the Episcopal Church to start ordaining all of their new bishops into the Episcopalian apostolic succession In other words this meant that new ELCA bishops at least at first would be jointly ordained by Anglican bishops as well as Lutheran bishops so that the more strict Episcopalians i e Anglo Catholics would recognize their sacraments as valid This was offensive to some in the ELCA at the time because of the implications this practice would have on the teachings of the priesthood of all believers and the nature of ordination Some Lutheran churches permit dual rostering Situations like this one where a church or church body belongs to multiple larger organizations that do not have ties are termed triangular fellowship Another variant is independent Lutheran churches although for some independent churches the clergy are members of a larger denomination In other cases a congregation may belong to a synod but the pastor may be unaffiliated In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America the Lutheran Church of Australia the Wisconsin Synod the Evangelical Lutheran Synod the Church of the Lutheran Confession and the Missouri Synod teachers at parochial schools are considered to be ministers of religion with the latter defending this before the Supreme Court in 2012 However differences remain in the precise status of their teachers Throughout the worldThe building of a congregation in North Sumatra in Indonesia belonging to the Batak Christian Protestant Church which is a merged denomination that includes a Lutheran element ar in Ramallah PalestineFaith Lutheran School in Hong Kong Lutheran churches currently have millions of members and are present on all populated continents The Lutheran World Federation estimates the total membership of its churches to be over 77 million This figure miscounts Lutherans worldwide as not all Lutheran churches belong to this organization and many members of merged LWF church bodies do not self identify as Lutheran or attend congregations that self identify as Lutheran Lutheran churches in North America Europe Latin America and the Caribbean regions are experiencing decreases and no growth in membership while those in Africa and Asia continue to grow Lutheranism is the largest religious group in Denmark Finland Iceland Latvia Namibia Norway Sweden and North Dakota and South Dakota in the United States Church of Peace in Jawor in Poland part of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland The Churches of Peace in Jawor and Swidnica are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites Lutheranism is also the dominant form of Christianity in the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache nations In addition Lutheranism is a main Protestant denomination in Germany behind United Protestant Lutheran and Reformed churches EKD Protestants form about 24 3 of the country s total population Estonia Poland Austria Slovakia Slovenia Croatia Serbia Kazakhstan Tajikistan Papua New Guinea and Tanzania Although some convents and monasteries voluntarily closed during the Reformation and many of the remaining damenstift were shuttered by communist authorities following World War II the Lune abbeys are still open Nearly all active Lutheran orders are located in Europe Although Namibia is the only country outside Europe to have a Lutheran majority there are sizable Lutheran bodies in other African countries In the following African countries the total number of Lutherans exceeds 100 000 Nigeria Central African Republic Chad Kenya Malawi Congo Cameroon Ethiopia Tanzania Zimbabwe and Madagascar In addition the following nations also have sizable Lutheran populations Canada France the Czech Republic Poland Hungary Slovakia Malaysia India Indonesia the Netherlands as a synod within the PKN and two strictly Lutheran denominations South Africa the United Kingdom and the United States especially in the heavily German and Scandinavian Upper Midwest Lutheranism is also a state religion in Denmark and Iceland Lutheranism was also the state church in Finland Norway and Sweden but its status in Norway and Sweden was changed to that of a national church in 2017 and 2000 respectively Brazil The Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil Igreja Evangelica de Confissao Luterana no Brasil is the largest Lutheran denomination in Brazil It is a member of the Lutheran World Federation which it joined in 1952 It is a member of the Latin American Council of Churches the National Council of Christian Churches and the World Council of Churches The denomination has 1 02 million adherents and 643 693 registered members The church ordains women as ministers In 2011 the denomination released a pastoral letter condemning discrimination against LGBT people and also supporting and accepting the Supreme Court s decision to allow same sex civil marriage however also reaffirming the denomination s official doctrine that marriage is between a man and a woman and upholding the ban on people in same sex relationships from serving as ministers The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil Portuguese Igreja Evangelica Luterana do Brasil IELB is a Lutheran church founded in 1904 in Rio Grande do Sul a southern state in Brazil The IELB is a conservative confessional Lutheran synod which holds to the Book of Concord It started as a mission of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and operated as the Brazilian District of that body The IELB became an independent church body in 1980 It has about 243 093 members The IELB is a member of the International Lutheran Council The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod WELS started a Brazilian mission the first for WELS in the Portuguese language in the early 1980s Its first work was done in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the south of Brazil alongside some small independent Lutheran churches which had asked for help from WELS Today the Brazilian WELS Lutheran Churches are self supporting and an independent mission partner of the Latin America WELS missions team Distribution This map shows where countries with over 25 000 members of the Lutheran World Federation were located in 2019 Lutheran World Federation membership by country in 2019 More than 10 million 5 million to 10 million 1 million to 5 million 500 thousand to 1 million 100 thousand to 500 thousand 25 thousand to 100 thousand adata for China is explicitly for the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong bArgentina s LWF member churches include member congregations in Paraguay and Uruguay In addition to the Lutheran World Federation which is the largest association of Lutheran church bodies in the world there are other Lutheran denominations the International Lutheran Council representing 7 15 million Lutherans the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference which represents 0 5 million Lutherans and the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum In addition there are numerous unaffiliated Lutheran denominations that are not members of any of the aforementioned organizations See alsoList of Lutheran churches List of Lutheran clergy List of Lutheran colleges and universities List of Lutheran denominations List of Lutheran denominations in North America List of Lutheran dioceses and archdioceses List of Lutheran schools in Australia Lutheran orders both loose social organizations and physical communities such as convents NotesCf material and formal principles in theology See ru and ru in the Russian Wikipedia for more on this This map undercounts several countries notably the United States The LWF does not include the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and several other Lutheran bodies which together have over 2 5 million membersReferencesMarkkola P 2015 The Long History of Lutheranism in Scandinavia From State Religion to the People s Church Perichoresis 13 2 3 15 doi 10 1515 perc 2015 0007 Fritschel George John 1916 The Formula of Concord Its Origin and Contents A Contribution to Symbolics Lutheran Publication Society p 123 Ludwig Alan 12 September 2016 Luther s Catholic Reformation The Lutheran Witness When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession before Emperor Charles V in 1530 they carefully showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils and even the canon law of the Church of Rome They boldly claim This is about the Sum of our Doctrine in which as can be seen there is nothing that varies from the Scriptures or from the Church Catholic or from the Church of Rome as known from its writers AC XXI Conclusion 1 The underlying thesis of the Augsburg Confession is that the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new but the true catholic faith and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church In fact it is actually the Church of Rome that has departed from the ancient faith and practice of the catholic church see AC XXIII 13 XXVIII 72 and other places Junius Benjamin Remensnyder 1893 The Lutheran Manual Boschen amp Wefer Company p 12 Olson Roger E 1 April 1999 The Story of Christian Theology Twenty Centuries of Tradition Reform InterVarsity Press p 158 ISBN 978 0 8308 1505 0 Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Fourth Session Decree on Sacred Scripture Denzinger 783 1501 Schaff 2 79 81 For a history of the discussion of various interpretations of the Tridentine decree see Selby Matthew L The Relationship Between Scripture and Tradition according to the Council of Trent unpublished Master s thesis University of St Thomas July 2013 Jahn Curtis A 1 January 2014 A Lutheran Looks At Catholics Northwestern Publishing House ISBN 978 0 8100 2613 1 Examples that Chemnitz cites include making the sign of the cross turning to the east in prayer the renunciation of Satan in Baptism and others Other ancient customs and practices clearly do have their origins already in the New Testament such as replacing the Jewish Sabbath with Sunday as the regular weekly day for worship also the laying on of hands when ordaining installing and commissioning a minister of the gospel for public service in the church 1 Timothy 4 12 2 Timothy 1 6 In Christian freedom we may observe such ceremonies as they serve the preaching of the gospel The only traditions Lutherans object to are those that pertain to doctrine and Christian life have no foundation in Scripture and are used as sources of doctrines placed on the same level as the doctrines clearly taught in Scripture Webber David Jay 1992 Why is the Lutheran Church a Liturgical Church Bethany Lutheran College Retrieved 18 September 2018 In the Byzantine world however this pattern of worship would not be informed by the liturgical history of the Latin church as with the Reformation era church orders but by the liturgical history of the Byzantine church This was in fact what occurred with the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession which published in its 1933 Ukrainian Evangelical Service Book the first ever Lutheran liturgical order derived from the historic Eastern Rite Lackmann Max 1963 The Augsburg Confession and Catholic Unity Herder and Herder p 54 Galler Jayson S 2025 Word amp Sacrament Pilgrim Lutheran Church Retrieved 9 May 2025 generally in the Lutheran Christian tradition we speak of three sacraments Becker Matthew L 25 January 2024 Fundamental Theology A Protestant Perspective Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN 978 0 567 70572 3 Unitl that final revelation of the church when it will be revealed to be what the apostles have said it is the church proclaims the gospel and administers the sacraments especially baptism the Lord s Supper also called Holy Communion or the Eucharist and Holy Absolution the formal proclamation of the forgiveness of sins all for the sake of calling people to faith hope and love and keeping them united with Christ and with one anothe rin the one church of Christ And where the gospel is proclaimed and the sacraments administered in accord with that gospel there the church truly is Indeed the Holy Spirit acts through the word and the sacraments in Luther s phrase to call gather enlighten and sanctify the whole Christian church on earth the church is not a Platonic reality and keep it united to Christ Because of the power of the Spirit to create and preserve the church even the gates of hell cannot prevail against it Mt 16 18 Jensen Gordon A 22 December 2016 Martin Luther s Sacramental Theology Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion doi 10 1093 acrefore 9780199340378 013 359 ISBN 978 0 19 934037 8 When Luther turned his attention to the number of sacraments in his 1520 treatise The Babylonian Captivity of the Church he reduced them from the seven recognized by the Roman Catholic Church he reduced the valid sacraments from seven to three baptism penance and the bread Walther Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm 2008 Sermons and prayers for Reformation and Luther commemorations Joel Baseley p 27 ISBN 9780982252321 Furthermore the Lutheran Church also thoroughly teaches that we are cleansed of our sins and born again and renewed in Holy Baptism by the Holy Ghost But she also teaches that whoever is baptized must though daily contrition and repentance drown The Old Adam so that daily a new man come forth and arise who walks before God in righteousness and purity forever She teaches that whoever lives in sins after his baptism has again lost the grace of baptism Harstad Adolph L 10 May 2016 Justification Through Faith Produces Sanctification Evangelical Lutheran Synod Preus James 2 January 2025 Rewards for Good Works Christ for Us Retrieved 14 May 2025 Martin Chemnitz 2007 Ministry Word and Sacraments An Enchiridion The Lord s Supper The Lord s Prayer Concordia Publishing House ISBN 978 0 7586 1544 2 The Lutheran Witness Volumes 9 11 English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States 7 December 1892 p 98 Martin Luther 11 April 2012 Part 5 Office of the Keys and Confession Evangelical Lutheran Synod Retrieved 25 February 2022 Mattox Mickey L Roeber A G 27 February 2012 Changing Churches An Orthodox Catholic and Lutheran Theological Conversation Wm B Eerdmans Publishing p 54 ISBN 978 0 8028 6694 3 In this sacramental union Lutherans taught the body and blood of Christ are so truly united to the bread and wine of the Holy Communion so that the two may be identified They are at the same time body and blood bread and wine This divine food is given more over not just for the strengthening of faith nor only as a sign of our unity in faith nor merely as an assurance of the forgiveness of sin Even more in this sacrament the Lutheran Christian receives the very body and blood of Christ for the strengthening of the union of faith The real presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament is the means by which the union of faith effected by God s Word and the sacrament of baptism is strengthened and maintained Wieting Kenneth 23 November 2020 Are You Fanatical about the Lord s Supper The Lutheran Witness Retrieved 27 December 2024 Benedetto Robert Duke James O 13 August 2008 The New Westminster Dictionary of Church History The Early Medieval and Reformation Eras Westminster John Knox Press p 594 ISBN 978 0664224165 In Sweden the apostolic succession was preserved because the Catholic bishops were allowed to stay in office but they had to approve changes in the ceremonies Alan Richardson John Bowden John 1983 The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 0664227481 The churches of Sweden and Finland retained bishops and the conviction of being in continuity with the apostolic succession Gassmann Gunther Oldenburg Mark W 10 October 2011 Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism Scarecrow Press p xxi ISBN 978 0 8108 7482 4 Lamport Mark A 31 August 2017 Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers p 138 ISBN 9781442271593 Porras Gabriel 9 February 2021 The Impact of Luther s Reformation on Education International Missionary Society Retrieved 9 May 2025 Lutheran Worship Council of Lutheran Churches Retrieved 11 May 2025 Granquist Mark 9 January 2015 Lutherans in America A New History Fortress Press p 269 ISBN 978 1 4514 9429 7 Granquist Mark 9 January 2015 Lutherans in America A New History Fortress Press p 154 196 ISBN 978 1 4514 9429 7 Kurian George Thomas Lamport Mark A 10 November 2016 Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States Rowman amp Littlefield p 1940 ISBN 978 1 4422 4432 0 Joy Janet 1995 A Place Apart Houses of Prayer amp Retreat Centers in North America Source Books p 88 ISBN 978 0 940147 30 0 Gassmann Gunther Oldenburg Mark W 10 October 2011 Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism Scarecrow Press p 202 ISBN 978 0 8108 7482 4 Lutheranism St Matthew s Evangelical Lutheran Church Welland Ontario Canada 6 September 2012 Retrieved 10 May 2025 Espin Orlando O and Nickoloff James B An introductory dictionary of theology and religious studies Collegeville Minnesota Liturgical Press p 796 Fahlbusch Erwin and Bromiley Geoffrey William The Encyclopedia of Christianity Volume 3 Grand Rapids Michigan Eerdmans 2003 p 362 Brown Christopher Boyd 30 June 2009 Singing the Gospel Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation Harvard University Press p 59 60 ISBN 978 0 674 02891 3 Luther s example and influence helped to ensure not only the place of vernacular hymns but also the preservation of much traditional church music along with the new polyphony wherever there were Latin schools Luther desired that the traditional music should be maintained Though Luther and his followers eliminated some elements of medieval liturgy for theological reasons especially the canon of the Mass Lutherans retained not only the structure and texts of the liturgy but also a great many of the associated hymns and music Charles Augustus Briggs Charles 1912 Protestantism What It Is and What It is Not The Homiletic Review p 184 Luther like most great men said and wrote at times many things that were his own peculiar personal opinions and were not adopted by the Lutheran churches Luther may be regarded as the father of Protestantism Strictly speaking he was the most prominent of many fathers but his personal opinions the Protestant churches do not now stand for and have never stood for except so far as they have been appropriated in the Augsburg Confession and other official statements of the three great churches of the Reformation Bethany Lutheran Ministries Home Bethany Lutheran Ministries Archived from the original on 18 January 2012 Retrieved 5 March 2015 Lutherans Biblehistory com MSN Encarta s v Lutheranism Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine by George Wolfgang Forell Christian Cyclopedia s v Reformation Lutheran by Lueker E et al Archived 2009 10 31 Lutherans believe that the Roman Catholic Church is not the same as the original Christian church Kulturiniai ir tikybiniai santykiai XVI amziuje The cultural and religious relations in the 16th century in Lithuanian Istorijai lt Original archived on 5 August 2018 Retrieved on 4 April 2023 Liuteronybe Mazojoje Lietuvoje Lutheranism in Minor Lithuania in Lithuanian Reformacijai 500 Vysniauskiene M 31 October 2015 Mindaugas Sabutis Jei ne liuteronai turbut siandien lietuviskai nekalbetume If not for Lutherans we probably wouldn t be speaking in Lithuanian today in Lithuanian Bernardinai lt Rohmann J L 1836 Historisk fremstilling af reformationens indforelse i Danmark Retrieved 5 March 2015 Chapter 12 The Reformation In Germany And Scandinavia Renaissance and Reformation by William Gilbert Rohmann J L 1836 Historisk fremstilling af reformationens indforelse i Danmark Kjobenhavn p 195 Retrieved 5 March 2015 J L Rohmann 1836 Historisk fremstilling af reformationens indforelse i Danmark Kjobenhavn p 202 Retrieved 5 March 2015 Rohmann J L 1836 Historisk fremstilling af reformationens indforelse i Danmark Retrieved 5 March 2015 Danmarks og Norges Kirke Ritual Kirkeritualet retsinformation dk 25 July 1685 Retrieved 5 March 2015 Hastings James October 2004 A Dictionary of the Bible The Minerva Group ISBN 9781410217301 Retrieved 5 March 2015 Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church Retrieved 5 March 2015 N F Lutheran Cyclopedia article Upsala Diet of New York Schrivner 1899 pp 528 529 Lutheran Cyclopedia article Agricola Michael New York Schrivner 1899 p 5 Fuerbringer L Concordia Cyclopedia Concordia Publishing House 1927 p 425 This photograph is of a replica of the original Hundskirche stone Zeitschrift fur Oesterreichische Volkskunde Google Books by Theodor Vernaleken 1896 Lutheran Theology after 1580 article in Christian Cyclopedia Fuerbringer L Concordia Cyclopedia Concordia Publishing House 1927 p 426 Kleinig Vernon P Confessional Lutheranism in Eighteenth Century Germany Concordia Theological Quarterly 60 1 2 Jan April 1996 Part I Valentin Ernst Loescher p 102 Kleinig Vernon P Confessional Lutheranism in Eighteenth Century Germany Concordia Theological Quarterly 60 1 2 Jan April 1996 Part II Melchior Goeze pp 109 112 Rietschel William C An Introduction to the Foundations of Lutheran Education St Louis Concordia 2000 p 25 Although this reference specifically mentions Saxony government promoted rationalism was a trend across Germany Untitled Document Archived from the original on 24 September 2015 Retrieved 5 March 2015 Gritsch Eric W A History of Lutheranism Minneapolis Fortress Press 2002 p 180 Armin Sierszyn 2000 Jahre Kirchengeschichte Book 4 Die Neuzeit p 155 Suelflow Roy A Walking With Wise Men Milwaukee South Wisconsin District LCMS 1967 p 10 Latourette Kenneth Scott Christianity in a Revolutionary Age Volume II The Nineteenth Century in Europe Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press p 165 Gritsch Eric W A History of Lutheranism Minneapolis Fortress Press 2002 p 182 Gritsch Eric W A History of Lutheranism Minneapolis Fortress Press 2002 p 183 Building God s Kingdom Norwegian Missionaries in Highland Madagascar 1866 1903 by Karina Hestad Skeie p 22 Benton William ed 1974 Lutheran Churches Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 11 15 ed Chicago Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc p 198 ISBN 978 0 85229 290 7 Christian Cyclopedia article on Brunn Gritsch Eric W A History of Lutheranism Minneapolis Fortress Press 2002 p 184 Gritsch Eric W A History of Lutheranism Minneapolis Fortress Press 2002 p 187 Latourette Kenneth Scott Christianity in a Revolutionary Age Volume II The Nineteenth Century in Europe Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press 1959 p 21 Repristination Theology Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved 6 April 2010 Latourette Kenneth Scott Christianity in a Revolutionary Age Volume II The Nineteenth Century in Europe Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press p 22 Nichols James Hastings History of Christianity 1650 1950 Secularization of the West New York Ronald Press 1956 p 175 Gassmann Gunther et al Historical dictionary of Lutheranism Augsburg Fortress Lanham Maryland Scarecrow Press 2001 p 32 Gritsch Eric W A History of Lutheranism Minneapolis Fortress Press 2002 p 188 Detzler Wayne A The Changing Church in Europe Grand Rapids Zondervan 1979 p 17 Quotation from Manfred Kober Theology in Germany from the Reformation Review April 1969 Are Your Pews Filling With Young and New Christians Ad Crucem Retrieved 16 May 2025 Confessional and liturgical Lutheran churches have also enjoyed an influx of young men and women which is part of an overall trend that has arrested the long term decline in Christian affiliation in the US Block Mathew 4 February 2014 Germany s Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church welcomes Iranian converts International Lutheran Council Retrieved 16 May 2025 Siirila Rob 2024 Helping Asian leaders remain faithful and fruitful amidst challenges Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Retrieved 16 May 2025 WELS ministry in Asia now serves people in at least a dozen countries The church is growing quickly but it faces many pressures For the traditional Lutheran view of the Bible see Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House pp 3ff ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 Archived from the original on 12 July 2006 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help For an overview of the doctrine of verbal inspiration in Lutheranism see Inspiration Doctrine of in the Christian Cyclopedia Ewert David 11 May 2010 A General Introduction to the Bible From Ancient Tablets to Modern Translations Zondervan p 104 ISBN 9780310872436 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House pp 7ff ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 Archived from the original on 12 July 2006 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 29 Braaten Carl E 1983 Principles of Lutheran Theology Philadelphia Fortress Press p 9 Preus Robert The Inspiration of Scripture A Study of the Theology of the 17th Century Lutheran Dogmaticians London Oliver and Boyd 1957 p 39 Benton William ed 1978 Lutheran Churches Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 11 15 ed Chicago Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc pp 197 98 ISBN 978 0 85229 290 7 Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 26 God s Word or Holy Scripture from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession Article II of Original Sin Archived 22 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine the Scripture of the Holy Ghost Apology to the Augsburg Confession Preface 9 Archived 31 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord Archived from the original on 28 February 2020 Retrieved 5 March 2015 Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 27 Psalm 19 8 Psalm 119 105 Psalm 119 130 2 Timothy 3 15 Deuteronomy 30 11 2 Peter 1 19 Ephesians 3 3 4 John 8 31 32 2 Corinthians 4 3 4 John 8 43 47 2 Peter 3 15 16 Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 29 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House pp 11 12 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 Archived from the original on 12 July 2006 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 11 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 Archived from the original on 12 July 2006 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 28 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 11 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 Archived from the original on 12 July 2006 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 28 Romans 1 16 1 Thessalonians 2 13 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 11 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 Archived from the original on 12 July 2006 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 27 Romans 1 16 1 Thessalonians 1 5 Psalm 119 105 2 Peter 1 19 2 Timothy 1 16 17 Ephesians 3 3 4 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House pp 11 12 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 Archived from the original on 12 July 2006 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 28 John 6 63 Revelation 1 3 Ephesians 3 3 4 John 7 17 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 12 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 Archived from the original on 12 July 2006 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 28 Smalcald Articles Book of Concord Archived from the original on 31 July 2017 Retrieved 5 March 2015 2 Timothy 3 15 17 John 5 39 John 17 20 Psalm 19 7 8 Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 28 Isaiah 8 20 Luke 16 29 31 2 Timothy 3 16 17 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 13 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 Archived from the original on 7 August 2007 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Engelder Theodore E W 1934 Popular Symbolics The Doctrines of the Churches of Christendom and Of Other Religious Bodies Examined in the Light of Scripture Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 28 Kringlebotten Kjetil 27 July 2014 Some Lutheran reflections on Scripture and Tradition The Lutheran Neoplatonist Jahn Curtis A 1 January 2014 A Lutheran Looks At Catholics Northwestern Publishing House ISBN 978 0 8100 2613 1 Defense of the Augsburg Confession Book of Concord Archived from the original on 18 January 2013 Retrieved 5 March 2015 Walther C F W The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel W H T Dau trans St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1929 F E Mayer The Religious Bodies of America St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1954 p 184 For further information see The Formula of Concord in the History of Swedish Lutheranism Archived 7 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine by Seth Erlandsson The Ecumenical Councils and Authority in and of the Church PDF The Lutheran World Federation 10 July 1993 The seven ecumenical councils of the early Church were assemblies of the bishops of the Church from all parts of the Roman Empire to clarify and express the apostolic faith These councils are Nicaea 325 AD Constantinople I 381 Ephesus 431 Chalcedon 451 Constantinople II 553 Constantinople III 680 81 and Nicaea II 787 As Lutherans and Orthodox we affirm that the teachings of the ecumenical councils are authoritative for our churches The Seventh Ecumenical Council the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 which rejected iconoclasm and restored the veneration of icons in the churches was not part of the tradition received by the Reformation Lutherans however rejected the iconoclasm of the 16th century and affirmed the distinction between adoration due to the Triune God alone and all other forms of veneration CA 21 Through historical research this council has become better known Nevertheless it does not have the same significance for Lutherans as it does for the Orthodox Yet Lutherans and Orthodox are in agreement that the Second Council of Nicaea confirms the christological teaching of the earlier councils and in setting forth the role of images icons in the lives of the faithful reaffirms the reality of the incarnation of the eternal Word of God when it states The more frequently Christ Mary the mother of God and the saints are seen the more are those who see them drawn to remember and long for those who serve as models and to pay these icons the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration Certainly this is not the full adoration in accordance with our faith which is properly paid only to the divine nature but it resembles that given to the figure of the honored and life giving cross and also to the holy books of the gospels and to other sacred objects Definition of the Second Council of Nicaea Ecumenical Council Titi Tudorancea Encyclopedia 1991 2016 The Lutheran World Federation in ecumenical dialogues with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has affirmed all of the first seven councils as ecumenical and authoritative Frey H 1918 Is One Church as Good as Another Vol 37 The Lutheran Witness pp 82 83 Sola Scriptura WELS Topical Q amp A Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod 15 May 2006 Archived from the original on 27 September 2009 Retrieved 26 May 2024 M any passages state sola scriptura such as Revelation 22 18 19 If we cannot add anything to the words of Scripture and we cannot take anything away from them that is Scripture alone Paul R Sponheim The Origin of Sin in Christian Dogmatics Carl E Braaten and Robert W Jenson eds Philadelphia Fortress Press 1984 385 407 Francis Pieper Definition of Original Sin in Christian Dogmatics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1953 1 538 Krauth Charles P 1875 Part IX The Specific Doctrines Of The Conservative Reformation Original Sin The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology As Represented in the Augsburg Confession and in the History and Literature of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Philadelphia J B Lippincott amp Co pp 335 455 Formula of Concord Original Sin Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine Rom 7 18 8 7 1 Cor 2 14 Martin Chemnitz Examination of the Council of Trent Vol I Trans Fred Kramer St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1971 pp 639 652 The Third Question Whether the Good Works of the Regenerate in This Life Are So Perfect that They Fully Abundantly and Perfectly Satisfy the Divine Law Gen 6 5 8 21 Mat 7 17 Krauth Charles P 1875 Part IX The Specific Doctrines Of The Conservative Reformation Original Sin The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology As Represented in the Augsburg Confession and in the History and Literature of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Philadelphia J B Lippincott amp Co pp 388 390 Thesis VII The Results Section ii Positive Dt 27 26 Rom 5 12 2 Th 1 9 Rom 6 23 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 38 41 Part VIII Sin 1 Tim 2 4 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 43 44 Part X Saving Grace paragraph 55 Triglot Concordia The Symbolical Books of the Ev Lutheran Church St Louis Concordia 1921 Large Catechism Archived 14 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine The Lord s Prayer The Second Petition Par 51 Gal 3 13 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 43 Part X Saving Grace paragraph 54 Rom 10 4 Gal 4 4 5 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 42 Part X Saving Grace paragraph 52 Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord Article III Concerning the Righteousness of Faith before God par 57 58 trans Kolb R Wengert T and Arand C Minneapolis Augsburg Fortress 2000 Augsburg Confession Book of Concord Archived from the original on 10 October 2008 Retrieved 5 March 2015 John 17 3 Luke 1 77 Galatians 4 9 Philippians 3 8 and 1 Timothy 2 4 refer to faith in terms of knowledge John 5 46 refers to acceptance of the truth of Christ s teaching while John 3 36 notes the rejection of his teaching John 3 16 36 Galatians 2 16 Romans 4 20 25 2 Timothy 1 12 speak of trust confidence and belief in Christ John 3 18 notes belief in the name of Christ and Mark 1 15 notes belief in the gospel Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 54 55 Part XIV Sin Ps 51 10 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 57 Part XV Conversion paragraph 78 John 17 20 Rom 10 17 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 101 Part XXV The Church paragraph 141 Titus 3 5 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 87 Part XXIII Baptism paragraph 118 Eph 2 8 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 57 Part XV Conversion paragraph 78 The Roman Catholic Catechism part 3 section 1 chapter 3 article 2 II paragraphs 2000 and 2001 downloaded February 18 2017 defines grace as something which brings about a change in us such that we cooperate in justification and act without sin i e sanctified The American Lutheran Volumes 9 10 American Lutheran Publicity Bureau 1926 p 95 Occasionally there is a sanctuary lamp over the altar its pulsating red light symbolizing a belief in the Real Presence quoted in Scaer David P July 1983 Luther s Concept of the Resurrection in his Commentary on I Corinthians 15 PDF Concordia Theological Quarterly 47 3 219 Retrieved 28 September 2023 John 15 5 Tit 2 14 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 62 63 Part XV Conversion paragraph 88 The New Obedience Is The Fruit Of Conversion The Product Of Faith 2 Cor 9 8 Krauth C P The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology As Represented in the Augsburg Confession and in the History and Literature of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Philadelphia J B Lippincott amp Co 1875 pp 313 314 Part D Confession of the Conservative Reformation II Secondary Confessions Book of Concord Formula of Concord Part IV The Doctrinal Result 2 Section iv Of Good Works Phil 2 13 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 74 Part XIX Preservation in Faith paragraph 102 Rom 7 18 Heb 11 6 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 39 40 Part VIII Sin paragraph 46 Original Sin Mat 7 15 16 NIV True and False Prophets Bible Gateway Retrieved 5 March 2015 Albrecht Beutel Luther s Life tr Katharina Gustavs in The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther ed Donald K McKim New York Cambridge University Press 2003 11 Is 63 8 9 Mueller J T Christian Dogmatics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 158 160 section The Doctrine of God part 5 The Holy Trinity Revealed in the Old Testament Heb 1 5 see Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 33 36 Part VI The Trinity The Nicene Creed and the Filioque A Lutheran Approach by Rev David Webber for more information Athanasian Creed for an older Trinitarian Creed used by Lutherans see the Nicene Creed the version in Evangelical Lutheran Worship 2006 of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ELCA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada ELCIC is the 1988 ecumenical ELLC version But the version in both Lutheran Service Book 2006 of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod LCMS and the Lutheran Church Canada LCC is that of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer with modernized spelling of the words catholic and apostolic with changes in capitalization of these and other words and with Holy Spirit in place of Holy Ghost citation needed Luther s Small Catechism The Apostles Creed Second Article Archived 28 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House pp 100ff ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 Archived from the original on 12 July 2006 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Augsburg confession Article III Archived 11 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 17 April 2010 The mother of our church Living Lutheran 1 April 2013 Retrieved 13 May 2025 The American Lutheran Volume 49 American Lutheran Publicity Bureau 1966 p 16 While the perpetual virginity of Mary is held as a pious opinion by many Lutheran confessors it is not regarded as a binding teaching of the Scriptures The New Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 11 Encyclopaedia Britannica 1983 p 562 ISBN 978 0 85229 400 0 Partly because of these biblical problems the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary has not been supported as unanimously as has the doctrine of the virginal conceptioon or title mother of God It achieved dogmatic status however at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and is therefore binding upon Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic believers in addition it is maintained by many Anglican some Lutheran and a few other Protestant theologians Divozzo R 2019 Mary for Protestants Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN 978 1 5326 7585 0 Carlson Kristofer J 2014 Why Mary Matters Protestants and the Virgin Mary Dormition Press Private Absolution ought to be retained in the churches although in confession an enumeration of all sins is not necessary Article XI Of Confession Matthew 28 19 1 Corinthians 11 23 25 Matthew 26 26 28 Mark 14 22 24 Luke 22 19 20 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 161 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Ephesians 5 27 John 3 5 John 3 23 1 Corinthians 10 16 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 161 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Ephesians 5 26 1 Corinthians 10 16 1 Corinthians 11 24 25 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 161 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Matthew 3 16 17 John 3 5 1 Corinthians 11 19 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 161 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Luke 7 30 Luke 22 19 20 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 162 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Acts 21 16 Acts 2 38 Luke 3 3 Ephesians 5 26 1 Peter 3 21 Galatians 3 26 27 Matthew 26 28 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 163 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help 1 Peter 3 21 Titus 3 5 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 163 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Titus 3 5 John 3 5 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House p 163 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help The Apology of the Augsburg Confession XIII 2 We believe we have the duty not to neglect any of the rites and ceremonies instituted in Scripture whatever their number We do not think it makes much difference if for purposes of teaching the enumeration varies provided what is handed down in Scripture is preserved cf Theodore G Tappert trans and ed The Book of Concord The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Philadelphia Fortress Press 1959 211 Luther s Large Catechism IV 1 We have now finished the three chief parts of the common Christian doctrine Besides these we have yet to speak of our two Sacraments instituted by Christ of which also every Christian ought to have at least an ordinary brief instruction because without them there can be no Christian although alas hitherto no instruction concerning them has been given emphasis added cf Theodore G Tappert trans and ed The Book of Concord The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Philadelphia Fortress Press 1959 733 John 20 23 and Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 112 113 Part XXVI The Ministry paragraph 156 Luther s Large Catechism IV 74 75 And here you see that Baptism both in its power and signification comprehends also the third Sacrament which has been called repentance as it is really nothing else than Baptism emphasis added cf Theodore G Tappert trans and ed The Book of Concord The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Philadelphia Fortress Press 1959 751 The Apology of the Augsburg Confession XIII 3 4 If we define the sacraments as rites which have the command of God and to which the promise of grace has been added it is easy to determine what the sacraments are properly speaking For humanly instituted rites are not sacraments properly speaking because human beings do not have the authority to promise grace Therefore signs instituted without the command of God are not sure signs of grace even though they perhaps serve to teach or admonish the common folk The sacraments therefore are actually baptism the Lord s Supper and absolution the sacrament of repentance cf Tappert 211 Apology of the Augsburg Confession Article 13 Of the Number and Use of the Sacraments Apology of the Augsburg Confession article 24 paragraph 1 Retrieved 16 April 2010 Wendel David M 1997 Manual for the Recovery of a Parish Practice of Individual Confession and Absolution PDF The Society of the Holy Trinity pp 2 7 8 11 Kolb Robert 2008 Lutheran Ecclesiastical Culture 1550 1675 Brill Publishers p 282 ISBN 9789004166417 The North German church ordinances of the late 16th century all include a description of private confession and absolution which normally took place at the conclusion of Saturday afternoon vespers and was a requirement for all who desired to commune the following day The Sacraments of the Lutheran Church Christ The King Lutheran Church Retrieved 14 May 2023 The Sacrament of Holy Absolution has two forms the General Confession known as the Penitential Rite or Order of Confession of Sins that is done at the beginning of the Divine Service In this case the entire congregation says the confession as the pastor says the absolution Private Confession done privately to a pastor where the penitent confesses sins that trouble him her and pleads to God for mercy and the pastor announces God s forgiveness to the person as the sign of the cross is made Private confession is subject to total confidentiality by the pastor In historic Lutheran practice Holy Absolution is expected before partaking of Holy Communion General confession as well as Private Confession are still contained in most Lutheran hymnals Two works which are part of the Book of Concord lend support to the belief that Holy Absolution is for Lutherans the third sacrament The Apology of the Augsburg Confession acknowledges outright that Holy Absolution is a sacrament referring to it as the sacrament of penitence In the Large Catechism Luther calls Holy Absolution the third sacrament 1 Pet 3 21 Mueller J T Christian Dogmatics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 491 496 section The Doctrine of Baptism part 4 Baptism a True Means of Grace and Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 87 Part XXIII Baptism paragraph 118 Martin Luther Small Catechism 4 Titus 3 5 John 3 3 7 Baptism and Its Purpose Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Archived from the original on 6 February 2009 Retrieved 24 February 2009 Luther Martin 2009 1529 The Sacrament of Holy Baptism Luther s Small Catechism Evangelical Lutheran Synod ISBN 978 0 89279 043 2 Archived from the original on 20 September 2008 Retrieved 10 March 2009 1 Peter 3 21 ESV Mat 19 14 Acts 2 38 39 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 90 Part XXIII Baptism paragraph 122 1 Cor 1 14 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 90 Part XXIII Baptism paragraph 122 Luther Martin 2009 1529 Of Infant Baptism Luther s Large Catechism ISBN 978 1 4264 3861 5 Archived from the original on 13 June 2008 Retrieved 10 March 2009 Luther s Large Catechism Holy Baptism Archived 23 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine Augsburg Confession Book of Concord Retrieved 5 March 2015 1 Cor 10 16 11 20 27 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 95 Part XXIV The Lord s Supper paragraph 131 The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord Article 8 The Holy Supper Archived from the original on 21 November 2008 Retrieved 20 April 2007 Richard James William 1909 The Confessional History of the Lutheran Church Lutheran Publication Society p 113 In the Luthearn Church private confession was at first voluntary Later in portions of the Lutheran Church it was made obligatory as a test of orthodoxy and as a preparation of the Lord s Supper Granquist Mark A 2015 Scandinavian Pietists Spiritual Writings from 19th Century Norway Denmark Sweden and Finland Paulist Press p 34 ISBN 9781587684982 Initially Laestadius exercised his ministry mainly among the indigenous Sami Lapp people but his influence soon spread into areasa of northern Finland and the Laestadian or Apostolic Lutheran movement became predominantly Finnish Even though he was a university trained pastor and scientist he was a renowned botanist his powerful preaching and spiritual example ignited a lay awakening movement in the north a movement that is known for its distinctive religious practices including lay confession and absolution Mueller Steven P 1 July 2005 Called to Believe Teach and Confess An Introduction to Doctrinal Theology Wipf and Stock Publishers p 323 ISBN 978 1 7252 4296 8 The Lutheran Liturgy Authorized by the Synods Constituting The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1941 p 427 Augustus Lawrence Graebner Lutheran Cyclopedia p 136 Conversion Augsburg Confession Book of Concord Archived from the original on 11 March 2021 Retrieved 5 March 2015 1 Cor 2 14 12 3 Rom 8 7 Martin Chemnitz Examination of the Council of Trent Vol I Trans Fred Kramer St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1971 pp 409 453 Seventh Topic Concerning Free Will From the Decree of the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent Augsburg Confession Article 18 Of Free Will Archived 15 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine Acts 13 48 Eph 1 4 11 Epitome of the Formula of Concord Article 11 Election Archived 10 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine Mueller J T Christian Dogmatics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 585 589 section The Doctrine of Eternal Election 1 The Definition of the Term and Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 124 128 Part XXXI The Election of Grace paragraph 176 Rom 8 33 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 127 128 Part XXXI The Election of Grace paragraph 179 Engelder T E W The Certainty of Final Salvation The Lutheran Witness 2 6 English Evangelical Missouri Synod Baltimore 1891 pp 41ff God desires us to be fruitful of good works does He not Then He also desires us to be certain of inheriting and enjoying eternal life for the latter is the source of the former God would have His servants affirm constantly that they who are justified are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life that they might be careful to maintain good works Titus iii 7 8 No sane man will deny that Christians must abstain from fleshly lusts Peter ii 11 and keep themselves unspotted from the world James i 27 But no man will do it unless he is persuaded of gaining eternal life On this certainty St Paul bases his argument why Christians must not mind earthly things 1 Tim 2 4 2 Pet 3 9 Epitome of the Formula of Concord Article 11 Election Archived 10 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine and Engelder s Popular Symbolics Part XXXI The Election of Grace pp 124 128 1 Timothy 2 3 4 ESV Hos 13 9 Mueller J T Christian Dogmatics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 637 section The Doctrine of the Last Things Eschatology part 7 Eternal Damnation and Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 135 136 Part XXXIX Eternal Death paragraph 196 Mueller J T Christian Dogmatics Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 189 195 and Fuerbringer L Concordia Cyclopedia Concordia Publishing House 1927 p 635 and Christian Cyclopedia article on Divine Providence For further reading see The Proof Texts of the Catechism with a Practical Commentary section Divine Providence p 212 Wessel Louis published in Theological Quarterly Vol 11 1909 Mueller Steven P Called to Believe Teach and Confess Wipf and Stock 2005 pp 122 123 Mueller J T Christian Dogmatics Concordia Publishing House 1934 pp 190 and Edward W A A Short Explanation of Dr Martin Luther s Small Catechism Concordia Publishing House 1946 p 165 and Divine Providence and Human Adversity Archived 7 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine by Markus O Koepsell The Small Catechism Archived from the original on 10 October 2008 Retrieved 5 March 2015 Luther s Large Catechism First Commandment Archived from the original on 17 May 2008 Retrieved 9 March 2009 Joh 18 36 ESV Jesus answered My kingdom is not of Bible Gateway Retrieved 5 March 2015 Luke 23 42 43 2 Cor 5 8 Engelder T E W Popular Symbolics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 p 130 Part XXXIV The State of the Soul in the Interval Between Death and the Resurrection paragraph 185 1 Cor 15 22 24 Francis Pieper Christian Dogmatics 505 515 Heinrich Schmid The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church 624 32 John Mueller Christian Dogmatics 616 619 John 6 40 John 6 54 John 5 21 John 5 28 29 Matthew 25 32 2 Corinthians 5 10 Acts 24 15 Romans 8 11 Philippians 3 21 2 Corinthians 5 10 Job 19 26 1 Corinthians 15 44 1 Corinthians 15 53 John 5 28 Revelation 20 12 Daniel 12 2 Matthew 25 41 46 John 5 29 Daniel 12 1 2 John 5 29 1 Corinthians 15 52 1 Corinthians 15 42 44 1 Corinthians 15 49 53 Philippians 3 21 Matthew 13 43 Revelation 7 16 John 6 40 John 6 44 John 11 24 1 Corinthians 15 51 52 1 Thessalonians 4 15 17 Matthew 25 32 Romans 14 10 John 5 22 Acts 17 31 Revelation 1 7 Matthew 25 32 Mark 16 16 2 Corinthians 5 10 1 Corinthians 4 5 Romans 2 5 Romans 2 16 Romans 2 6 2 Corinthians 5 10 Matthew 25 35 36 Matthew 25 42 43 Isaiah 43 25 Ezekiel 18 22 1 John 2 28 Matthew 25 34 35 John 3 16 18 John 3 36 Revelation 14 13 Galatians 5 6 John 13 35 Matthew 25 42 Matthew 7 17 18 John 3 18 John 3 36 Romans 2 5 Acts 17 31 Romans 2 16 Luke 9 26 Matthew 25 31 32 Matthew 25 41 Matthew 25 34 Matthew 25 46 Graebner Augustus Lawrence 1910 Outlines of Doctrinal Theology Saint Louis MO Concordia Publishing House pp 233 8 ISBN 978 0 524 04891 7 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a ISBN Date incompatibility help Table drawn from though not copied from Lange Lyle W God So Loved the World A Study of Christian Doctrine Milwaukee Northwestern Publishing House 2006 p 448 Calvinism and Lutheranism Compared WELS Topical Q amp A Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Archived from the original on 27 September 2009 Retrieved 26 January 2015 Total Depravity Lutherans and Calvinists agree Yes this is correct Both agree on the devastating nature of the fall and that man by nature has no power to aid in his conversions and that election to salvation is by grace In Lutheranism the German term for election is Gnadenwahl election by grace there is no other kind John Calvin Institutes of the Christian Religion trans Henry Beveridge III 23 2 John Calvin Institutes of the Christian Religion trans Henry Beveridge II 3 5 John Calvin Institutes of the Christian Religion trans Henry Beveridge III 3 6 Morris J W The Historic Church An Orthodox View of Christian History p267 The Book of Concord became the official statement of doctrine for most of the world s Lutherans The Formula of Concord reaffirmed the traditional Lutheran doctrine of total depravity in very clear terms Melton J G Encyclopedia of Protestantism p229 on Formula of Concord the 12 articles of the formula focused on a number of newer issues such as original sin in which total depravity is affirmed WELS vs Assembly of God WELS Topical Q amp A Archived from the original on 14 July 2014 P eople by nature are dead in their transgressions and sin and therefore have no ability to decide of Christ Ephesians 2 1 5 We do not choose Christ rather he chose us John 15 16 We believe that human beings are purely passive in conversion Augsburg Confessional Article XVIII Of Free Will saying M an s will has some liberty to choose civil righteousness and to work things subject to reason But it has no power without the Holy Ghost to work the righteousness of God that is spiritual righteousness since the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor 2 14 but this righteousness is wrought in the heart when the Holy Ghost is received through the Word Henry Cole trans Martin Luther on the Bondage of the Will London T Bensley 1823 66 The controversial term liberum arbitrium was translated free will by Cole However Ernest Gordon Rupp and Philip Saville Watson Luther and Erasmus Free Will and Salvation Westminster 1969 chose free choice as their translation Stanglin Keith D McCall Thomas H 15 November 2012 Jacob Arminius Theologian of Grace New York Oxford University Press USA pp 157 158 The Book of Concord The Confessions of the Lutheran Church XI Election Predestination means God s ordination to salvation Olson Roger E 2009 Arminian Theology Myths and Realities Downers Grove InterVarsity Press p 63 Arminians accepts divine election but they believe it is conditional The Westminster Confession III 6 says that only the elect are effectually called justified adopted sanctified and saved However in his Calvin and the Reformed Tradition Baker 2012 45 Richard A Muller observes that a sizeable body of literature has interpreted Calvin as teaching limited atonement but an equally sizeable body interprets Calvin as teaching unlimited atonement Justification Salvation WELS Topical Q amp A Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Archived from the original on 27 September 2009 Retrieved 29 January 2015 Romans 3 23 24 5 9 18 are other passages that lead us to say that it is most appropriate and accurate to say that universal justification is a finished fact God has forgiven the sins of the whole world whether people believe it or not He has done more than made forgiveness possible All this is for the sake of the perfect substitutionary work of Jesus Christ IV Justification by Grace through Faith This We Believe Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Retrieved 5 February 2015 We believe that God has justified all sinners that is he has declared them righteous for the sake of Christ This is the central message of Scripture upon which the very existence of the church depends It is a message relevant to people of all times and places of all races and social levels for the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men Romans 5 18 All need forgiveness of sins before God and Scripture proclaims that all have been justified for the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men Romans 5 18 We believe that individuals receive this free gift of forgiveness not on the basis of their own works but only through faith Ephesians 2 8 9 On the other hand although Jesus died for all Scripture says that whoever does not believe will be condemned Mark 16 16 Unbelievers forfeit the forgiveness won for them by Christ John 8 24 Becker Siegbert W Objective Justification PDF Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary p 1 Retrieved 26 January 2015 Universal Justification WELS Topical Q amp A Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Archived from the original on 27 September 2009 Retrieved 5 February 2015 Christ paid for all our sins God the Father has therefore forgiven them But to benefit from this verdict we need to hear about it and trust in it If I deposit money in the bank for you to benefit from it you need to hear about it and use it Christ has paid for your sins but to benefit from it you need to hear about it and believe in it We need to have faith but we should not think of faith as our contribution It is a gift of God which the Holy Spirit works in us Augsburg Confession Article V Of Justification People cannot be justified before God by their own strength merits or works but are freely justified for Christ s sake through faith when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ s sake Stanglin Keith D McCall Thomas H 15 November 2012 Jacob Arminius Theologian of Grace New York Oxford University Press USA p 136 Faith is a condition of justification Paul ChulHong Kang Justification The Imputation of Christ s Righteousness from Reformation Theology to the American Great Awakening and the Korean Revivals Peter Lang 2006 70 note 171 Calvin generally defends Augustine s monergistic view Diehl Walter A The Age of Accountability Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Retrieved 10 February 2015 In full accord with Scripture the Lutheran Confessions teach monergism In this manner too the Holy Scriptures ascribe conversion faith in Christ regeneration renewal and all the belongs to their efficacious beginning and completion not to the human powers of the natural free will neither entirely nor half nor in any even the least or most inconsiderable part but in solidum that is entirely solely to the divine working and the Holy Ghost Trigl 891 F C Sol Decl II 25 Monergism thefreedictionary com Calvinism and Lutheranism Compared WELS Topical Q amp A Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Archived from the original on 27 September 2009 Retrieved 9 February 2015 Olson Roger E 2009 Arminian Theology Myths and Realities Downers Grove InterVarsity Press p 18 Arminian synergism refers to evangelical synergism which affirms the prevenience of grace Olson Roger E 2009 Arminian Theology Myths and Realities Downers Grove InterVarsity Press p 165 Arminius evangelical synergism reserves all the power ability and efficacy in salvation to grace but allows humans the God granted ability to resist or not resist it The only contribution humans make is nonresistance to grace The Westminster Confession of Faith Ch XVII Of the Perseverance of the Saints Once saved always saved WELS Topical Q amp A Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Archived from the original on 27 September 2009 Retrieved 7 February 2015 People can fall from faith The Bible warns If you think you are standing firm be careful that you don t fall 1 Corinthians 10 12 Some among the Galatians had believed for a while but had fallen into soul destroying error Paul warned them You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ you have fallen away from grace Galatians 5 4 In his explanation of the parable of the sower Jesus says Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it but they have no root They believe for a while but in time of testing they fall away Luke 8 13 According to Jesus a person can believe for a while and then fall away While they believed they possessed eternal salvation but when they fell from faith they lost God s gracious gift Perseverence of the Saints Once Saved Always Saved WELS Topical Q amp A Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Archived from the original on 27 September 2009 Retrieved 7 February 2015 We cannot contribute one speck to our salvation but by our own arrogance or carelessness we can throw it away Therefore Scripture urges us repeatedly to fight the good fight of faith Ephesians 6 and 2 Timothy 4 for example My sins threaten and weaken my faith but the Spirit through the gospel in word and sacraments strengthens and preserves my faith That s why Lutherans typically speak of God s preservation of faith and not the perseverance of the saints The key is not our perseverance but the Spirit s preservation Demarest Bruce A 1997 The Cross and Salvation The Doctrine of Salvation Crossway Books pp 437 438 Demarest Bruce A 1997 The Cross and Salvation The Doctrine of Salvation Crossway Books p 35 Many Arminians deny the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints McGrath Alister E Christianity An Introduction 2nd ed Malden Massachusetts Blackwell 2006 p 272 Taruskin Richard The Oxford History of Western Music Volume I Music in the Earliest Notations to the sixteenth century pp 753 758 Oxford Oxford University Press 2010 Apology of the Augsburg Confession Article XXIV 1 See Luther s Small Catechism Daily Prayers Archived 1 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine Hammerli Maria Mayer Jean Francois 23 May 2016 Orthodox Identities in Western Europe Migration Settlement and Innovation Routledge p 13 ISBN 9781317084914 Principle examples of this in the ELCA include Family of God Cape Coral FL Archived 16 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine The Well Charlotte NC Hosanna of Lakeville Minnesota and Church of the Apostles Seattle WA Archived 20 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine A given culture s values and patterns insofar as they are consonant with the values of the Gospel can be used to express the meaning and purpose of Christian worship Contextualization is a necessary task for the Church s mission in the world so that the Gospel can be ever more deeply rooted in diverse local cultures NAIROBI STATEMENT ON WORSHIP AND CULTURE Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities Archived 22 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine John Dowden 1910 The Church Year and Kalendar Cambridge University Press p xi The Church s Year as it has been known for many centuries throughout Christendom is characterised first by the weekly festival of the Lord s Day a feature which dates from the dawn of the Church s life and the age of the Apostles and secondly by the annual recurrence of fasts and festivals of certain days and certain seasons of religious observance These latter emerged and came to find places in the Kalendar at various times Devoted to Prayer Introduction North American Lutheran Church Retrieved 11 May 2025