So are you saying that anyone who is not Lutheran is not Christian? After all, you've just said that anyone with incorrect doctrine is accursed. Or maybe you are using a different definition of "gospel" than Paul is. I think that equating "gospel" with "monergistic justification by grace alone through faith alone" is a very narrow definition of "gospel." That is part of it, but it is not all of it.
You have assumed a lot, and read
way too much into what I posted. Let me answer your objections one by one.
So are you saying that anyone who is not Lutheran is not Christian? After all, you've just said that anyone with incorrect doctrine is accursed.
I should have used the word "gospel" in place of doctrine. My bad. However, according to the Apostle Paul (not me), anyone who preaches a different gospel
is anathema. I am
not saying that anyone who is not Lutheran is not Christian. That couldn't be further from what I believe. (See below for more detail on what gospel we must believe and preach or be ananthematized.)
I think that equating "gospel" with "monergistic justification by grace alone through faith alone" is a very narrow definition of "gospel." That is part of it, but it is not all of it.
You have assumed that I equate the gospel with believing in the
doctrine of monergistic justification by grace alone through faith alone - something which I neither said nor implied in my post.
Actually, I believe that the gospel is quite simple: Christ has been crucified and raised again from the dead for the forgiveness of our sins. Anyone who has faith in Christ through the preaching of
that gospel is saved. Whether that person believes salvation happens synergistically or monergistically is not a salvation issue. You can be wrong on a great number of things, but if you cling to Christ in faith, believing that your sins are forgiven for the sake of His death and resurrection, you will be saved. I DO believe in the doctrine of monergistic salvation by grace alone through faith alone, but I don't believe that believing
that doctrine is what brings salvation. Believing in
Christ and His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins is what saves. Sometimes, I think we Lutherans get the two mixed up.
Anyway, back to the point of my previous post: I believe, as the reformers did, that the visible church is found anywhere the gospel is truly preached and the sacraments rightly administered. And a Christian is any person who has faith in Christ's sacrifice for the forgiveness of his sins - no matter of what "church" they may be a part.
The point I was trying to make (and which I obviously made very badly) is that, according to Galatians, the true preaching of the gospel will
always trump any spiritual credentials -- even those of an angel, or the Apostle Paul himself. I think one should start from that premise when it comes to discerning where the true church is. So, for example, if a church teaches (or emphasizes to the point where it obscures the gospel) that the purchase of indulgences brings the forgiveness of sins, rather than that faith in the death and resurrection of Christ brings the forgiveness of sins, it ceases to be the church - no matter how well it can trace its succession back to the original apostles.