So, a summary please...

[BrokenGhost]

There is a church down the way that is a LCMS congregation.If you had to sum up succinctly LCMS and how it differs from other denominations, what would you say?

 

[alexnbethmom]

There is a church down the way that is a LCMS congregation.If you had to sum up succinctly LCMS and how it differs from other denominations, what would you say?

i'm not very eloquent when it comes to questions like this - i'm sure there will be someone in here shortly that would gladly and willingly be able to answer this for you.....

however for the time being, i can direct you to www.lcms.org

they have a LOT on that website that can help you out.....

i think it also might be helpful to know, what specifically are you looking for?

 

[LilLamb219]

We could give a better response if you let us know what kind of denominations you're already familiar with.

But...the short version is that Lutherans believe we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus who died on the cross in our substitute for the forgiveness of our sins. We believe in the sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper that are means of grace, delivering the benefits of the cross to us.

There's tons more...is that helpful in any way? Or were you meaning our church services and not just the beliefs?

 

[Bryne]

Wow...I don't know that I can sum it up succinctly. We differ from pretty much every other denomination out there in a significant way. But here some things that are of importance to me regarding LCMS teachings.

We affirm baptism and the Lord's Supper as sacraments...means of grace...and not just symbolic acts of obedience.

We affirm the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the elements of the Lord's Supper.

Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit and requires nothing on our part. It is solely a work of God.

Faith is given to us by the Holy Spirit...He creates it in our hearts. We can't take credit in any way. We don't choose to believe or choose to accept in order to be saved.

We can resist and reject the Holy Spirit. So while we have no power to say yes to God in and of ourselves, we do have the power to say no to God.

Jesus died for everyone and desires all to come to Him.


There are more, I am sure...

 

[BrokenGhost]

Well, I was raised Catholic, and have attended mostly non-denominational churches any time I did attend after. I'm currently trying to get back into attending services and such. I just feel that obviously something I was doing before wasn't working, so maybe I'll make some changes.

 

[alexnbethmom]

has any of what's been posted helped any? what other questions do you have?

 

[BrokenGhost]

Heh, well, it seems I don't really know what a lot of that terminology actually means.

Can I get some clarification on the "salvation is by grace alone through faith alone"?

 

[Bryne]

Grace is unmerited favor. So, when we say we are saved by grace, we mean that we saved by God because He loves us and not because we did anything to merit it.

Faith is belief in God and what He has done for us...but it is more than just intellectual belief. It is much deeper than that and the result of true faith is that we will respond with love for God. This kind of faith is a gift from God.

Basically, we don't do anything to earn God's favor or make Him love us anymore. We can't do anything to make ourselves better people. We are totally dependent on God to forgive us and to change us into better people.

 

[BrokenGhost]

Grace is unmerited favor. So, when we say we are saved by grace, we mean that we saved by God because He loves us and not because we did anything to merit it.

Faith is belief in God and what He has done for us...but it is more than just intellectual belief. It is much deeper than that and the result of true faith is that we will respond with love for God. This kind of faith is a gift from God.

Basically, we don't do anything to earn God's favor or make Him love us anymore. We can't do anything to make ourselves better people. We are totally dependent on God to forgive us and to change us into better people.

Ok, so then that leaves me confused. If we do nothing of merit to gain salvation, then how are we punished for not getting it?

 

[DaRev]

Ok, so then that leaves me confused. If we do nothing of merit to gain salvation, then how are we punished for not getting it?

Our sin is what merits punishment. When we reject God's gift of grace, then we are damned.

 

[Bryne]

Yeah...we do plenty to merit punishment.

 

[Tangible]

Here is a brief but good statement I found on the website of Valley Lutheran Church | What Do Lutherans Believe?

What Do Lutherans Believe?

Lutherans place their faith in the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who has made us, redeemed us, and empowers us for Christian living.

We believe Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God, who came to earth as a man, suffered and died in our place to win for us forgiveness of sin, and who rose again to life, assuring us that we, too, can live with Him eternally.

We teach that we come to stand in a right relationship with God not through our own goodness or righteousness, but through faith in Jesus as our Savior. Faith alone receives the full promises of God.

We believe that the two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, were instituted by Christ and offer forgiveness of sin to all who receive them in faith.

Concerning Baptism, we teach that infants should also be baptized, since they, too, are sinful and in need of God’s grace. God can work faith in them, even though they are too young to intellectually grasp the Gospel.

We believe that the body and blood of Christ are truly present in the Lord’s Supper through miraculous means, and that only Christians who share this belief should commune with us.

We believe that God speaks to the world through His Word in the Bible, which we consider to be entirely accurate and true.

We believe that God loves every person and intends for all to live a life of dignity and meaning.

We assert the vital importance of the Christian congregation as the community of believers in which the Gospel is preached and the Sacraments are rightly administered.

Here is a more complete statement: What do Lutheran's Believe?

 

[Luther073082]

Well, I was raised Catholic, and have attended mostly non-denominational churches any time I did attend after. I'm currently trying to get back into attending services and such. I just feel that obviously something I was doing before wasn't working, so maybe I'll make some changes.

The Lutheran church is probably between the two but more toward the Roman Catholic side in terms of doctrine.

Do you understand Roman Catholic doctrine? If you do, its easier to point out the differences between Lutherans and Roman Catholics then it is to list the differences between Non-denominational (Usually baptist in doctrine) churchs and Lutheran churchs.

A few quick reads that may help. (There is a ton of reading that one could do on these but these are fairly quick reads that will give you a crash course.)

The (unaltered) Augsburg Confession
Augsburg Confession - Book of Concord

Luther's Small Catechism
The Small Catechism - Book of Concord

The doctrinal position of the LCMS (Will download a PDF File)
http://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=958

Reading through those you should get a general idea of what confessional Lutheran's belive. I would say read through those and if you have any questions, ask the questions on here and we can answer them for you.

 

[LilLamb219]

Heh, well, it seems I don't really know what a lot of that terminology actually means.

Can I get some clarification on the "salvation is by grace alone through faith alone"?

We are sinful human beings and deserve to not be with God. But God loves us and so He came to earth in the form of man (Jesus the Christ), lived a perfectly obedient life that we could never do and then died on the cross in our place for the forgiveness of our sins.

We are saved because of Christ's death.

God gives us the gift of faith to believe in this so that we may have everlasting life.