- Apr 30, 2013
- 30,678
- 18,559
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- United Ch. of Christ
- Politics
- US-Democrat
Lutherans are not Arminians, and we are not Calvinists... we are Lutheran. In practice, we are somewhere in between and we do our own thing. We don't have the same theological categories as other churches. For us, the locus of theology isn't on election, or free will, it's on justification.
The only sin that can separate us from God is rejecting God. Now, we believe some behaviors are reasonable grounds to question ones faith, and to see if in fact it isn't really a dead faith, and to warn those people with God's law (which is why I suggested on another thread that our president should probably avoid receiving communion), but the typical things many evangelicals and Catholics worry about ("pelvic issues", personal purity, etc.) aren't part of them. As one Lutheran theologian once said, the sins you really think of as mortal are often really just venial, and the venial sins are often mortal.
You will have trouble understanding our faith and where it is coming from if you don't actually see it happening. It's not heady, rationalistic stuff, it's meant to be lived out, and we accept that ultimately God and life is more than a bit of a mystery and we are just trying to be faithful to the Word we have been given. The Word and Spirit must work on us and in us, we can't stand above it and judge it, it does require faith at some point.
Attend some Lenten services and you will have assurance that we have a serious sense of sin. I can't think of any service that has a more weighty sense of God's judgment upon sin, than the Lenten prayer services I attended this year. Heavier than even the Orthodox churches or the times I have gone to private confession. Even our Advent season is quite penitential in tone relative to other Protestant churches.
I am Lutheran because it holds all the essentials of the catholic faith. I am not Lutheran because all our doctrines are necessarily the best possible articulation of the faith, but because I intuitively know this is how the authentic Christian life can be lived out, at least for me. My little church is a piece of heaven on earth, it contains the kinds of people I would like to spend all of eternity with. They are more my family than my own biological family, who are irreligious, sadly. It's a pragmatic response but it's the best I can give on why my church's teachings are true, without selling you flim-flam.
The only sin that can separate us from God is rejecting God. Now, we believe some behaviors are reasonable grounds to question ones faith, and to see if in fact it isn't really a dead faith, and to warn those people with God's law (which is why I suggested on another thread that our president should probably avoid receiving communion), but the typical things many evangelicals and Catholics worry about ("pelvic issues", personal purity, etc.) aren't part of them. As one Lutheran theologian once said, the sins you really think of as mortal are often really just venial, and the venial sins are often mortal.
You will have trouble understanding our faith and where it is coming from if you don't actually see it happening. It's not heady, rationalistic stuff, it's meant to be lived out, and we accept that ultimately God and life is more than a bit of a mystery and we are just trying to be faithful to the Word we have been given. The Word and Spirit must work on us and in us, we can't stand above it and judge it, it does require faith at some point.
Attend some Lenten services and you will have assurance that we have a serious sense of sin. I can't think of any service that has a more weighty sense of God's judgment upon sin, than the Lenten prayer services I attended this year. Heavier than even the Orthodox churches or the times I have gone to private confession. Even our Advent season is quite penitential in tone relative to other Protestant churches.
I am Lutheran because it holds all the essentials of the catholic faith. I am not Lutheran because all our doctrines are necessarily the best possible articulation of the faith, but because I intuitively know this is how the authentic Christian life can be lived out, at least for me. My little church is a piece of heaven on earth, it contains the kinds of people I would like to spend all of eternity with. They are more my family than my own biological family, who are irreligious, sadly. It's a pragmatic response but it's the best I can give on why my church's teachings are true, without selling you flim-flam.
Last edited:
Upvote
0