Baptists, evangelicals (and many other Protestants) love Martin Luther! Growing up in this branch of Christianity, I was taught that Luther was one of us, the "true Christians". Luther was born again! His born again experience occurred when he was reading the book of Romans and re-discovered the core Christian doctrine that justification is by faith.
If you ask many Baptists and evangelicals about the Lutheran Church, many of them will respond: "The Lutheran Church changed and perverted the teachings of Luther after his death. The Lutheran Church today teaches false doctrine."
I really wish one of them would give us poor, misguided Lutherans some evidence of this! What teaching of Luther do we not uphold?
Lutherans follow all the teachings of Luther. You can look it up in the Book of Concord for yourself.
The link below is a link to a Baptist website that explores the History of Baptists. With whom do they start their story...Martin Luther!
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/trail.htm
Slideshow
This sets you up for two questions that need to be addressed: If Lutherans follow all the teachings of Luther given the fact that he is subject to Christ; then is Luther subject to the Apostles in addition, equal to the Apostles, or superior than the Apostles. Think hard about that...
ReplyDeleteSecondly, expound on that first answer to explain why there are an ELCA & LCMS instead of one united church in Lutheranism. Also curious in that regard...
To Lutherans, Martin Luther was the Great Reformer of the universal (catholic) Church. He was a preacher and a teacher.
ReplyDeleteOver approximately one thousand, five hundred years, the catholic church had slowly added false teachings to the true doctrines of the Faith, in a similar manner that barnacles attach themselves to a ship. Some of these "barnacles" attached themselves to the Church even prior to the Great Schism, between the western and eastern Church.
Many of these "barnacles" developed from the most offensive of the false teachings: the addition of good works to the doctrine of Justification. Instead of teaching that Christians are justified by faith alone, as stated in Holy Scripture, the catholic church began to teach the people that although Christ initiates their salvation, man must complete his salvation by performing "works" of righteousness. All kinds of terrible false doctrine followed:
1. Purgatory
There is not one iota of evidence in the Bible of the existence of Purgatory. This was an invention of the Church hierarchy. The people were threatened with years of torture and punishment in Purgatory if they did not perform enough good works and did not obey the Church powers.
2. Out of the idea of Purgatory, grew the sale of indulgences. "Pay money to the Church, and the Pope will cut off a few years of your sentence in Purgatory." The money collected with this false teaching built St. Peter's Basilica and other papal palaces.
3. Earning righteousness by entering the Monastic Orders
Again, this idea has no basis in Scripture. This corrupt idea got so out of hand that monks in Luther's day were selling their "extra righteousness" for money.
4. The cult of the saints.
What had started as veneration of Mary and the Saints, turned into a cult following. Prayers were said to Mary and the Saints for cures and miracles as if they were gods themselves.
Luther called the Church on these abuses and false teachings. But, instead of repenting and doing a thorough house cleaning, the Pope excommunicated him. Forced out of the Roman Church, he was forced to start a new Church. This new Church, the Lutheran Church, did not preach new doctrines, but the original doctrines of the Church and the Church Fathers.
The teachings of the Apostles as recorded in the Bible are God inspired and therefore inerrant. Lutherans do not believe that Luther's teachings are inerrant or Apostolic. We do believe, however, that he was right!
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ReplyDeleteLutherans do not have an episcopate form of government.
ReplyDeleteWe are united by doctrine (the Lutheran Confessions) but divided along historic ethnic divisions and liberal vs. conservative social positions.
Regarding purgatory: Luke 12 mentions 4 slaves, not just two. I agree with everything else, and really like the explanation of why there are divisions in Lutheranism.
ReplyDelete