Where did Lutherans come from?

Lutheranism gets its name from a man named Martin Luther (1483-1546). Luther was a monk who studied the Bible to find that these scriptures disagreed with what was being taught in his day. The holy Christian Church should teach that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone, as professed by scripture alone.

A breakthrough to seeing this was seeing in Romans 1:17 “the righteous shall live by faith.” It is frightening to think that living our faith means we must be perfectly right in every action because we sin every day. No one is righteous of themselves (Romans 3:11). But it is not our righteousness which gives us life by faith. The perfect righteousness of God has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ in whom our sins are forgiven. The forgiveness of Jesus is a free gift that is received by faith (Romans 3:24-25). Those who are righteous are those who are made righteous by God to live by faith in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:26). No part of salvation is our work. Our salvation lies entirely within Jesus dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and raising us to new life like how he rose from the dead. This is the Gospel.

Believers in the Gospel defended it and the beliefs that flowed from it in what is called the Augsburg Confession (1530). The Confession declares the beliefs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Much of the Confession references not only the Bible but teachers of the faith going all the way back to the early Christian Church. Lutheran reformers were not teaching anything new. The whole focus of Lutheranism is to purely teach the historical Christian faith without error.

Objections to the Confession were brought forth from opponents of Lutheranism which resulted in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. It did not apologize for any beliefs but rather defended these beliefs in a more detailed manner than the Augsburg Confession (“apology” means “a defense”).

Over time, many people converted to Lutheranism. In order to make sure all the new pastors were teaching things properly, Luther wrote the Small Catechism and the Large Catechism to talk about the basics of the faith: the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, the Office of the Keys, and the Lord’s Supper.

The church in Rome got ready to call a council to address Lutheranism and other Reformation movements, so Luther decided to write an exposition of Lutheran beliefs and their difference from Roman Catholic beliefs. This document is called the Smalcald Articles (1537). A Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (written by Philip Melanchthon) was added to further explain to Roman Catholics that Lutheranism is valid.

After Martin Luther died in 1546, disagreements began to take place among Lutherans about how to understand certain points of doctrine. The Formula of Concord (1577) was written by Martin Chemnitz and others in order to put these disagreements to rest. Together the three historical creeds of the ancient Christian Church (Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed, and Athanasian Creed), Augsburg Confession, the Apology to the Augsburg Confession, the Small Catechism, the Large Catechism, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord were bound as the Book of Concord (1580) to be the confessional documents of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The Book of Concord states the Christian faith found in the Bible.

To explore the Book of Concord, please go to Book of Concord.

What are some Lutheran beliefs ?

Lutherans Believe
That the Bible is the source of knowledge about God and His forgiveness and is also the way in which He speaks to us today. The Bible was written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and so is true and without error.

Lutherans Believe

The word of the Bible presents both the Law and the Gospel. The Law is God’s holy will for how creation should be. When we do not follow God’s Law, we are guilty of sin. The Gospel is the good news of God forgiving us our sins because of Jesus Christ so we may live with our Lord eternally.

Lutherans Believe
That God is the Creator of the universe with all of its grandeur and beauty, and that He sustains it with His almighty power. There is one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity. He also created our first parents, Adam and Eve, in His own image that they might live in fellowship with Him and be His instruments to care for the creation.

Lutherans Believe
That Adam and Eve, whom God created, doubted and rebelled against Him. They sinned and their natures became evil. Now every human being is born with a self-centered nature and a tendency for evil that violates God’s will and desire. Attempts to change human nature or to please God with our own good are doomed to failure. The wages of sin is death. People need forgiveness and new life, and God provides it through His grace.

Lutherans Believe
That God out of pure love gives people forgiveness of sins and thus reconciles them to Himself. He does this even though He is a just God who punishes sin because His own Son, Jesus Christ, took the punishment for all people upon Himself when He died on the cross of Calvary. God raised him from the dead on Easter and thus demonstrated to the world that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God has been accepted and man’s debt of sin is paid.

Lutherans Believe
That people receive forgiveness through faith. Faith is trust which accepts God’s free gift. Faith is created by the Holy Spirit through the means of the Gospel message which tells of God’s love demonstrated in Jesus Christ. Baptism is the means by which a child is given a new life and received into God’s kingdom.

Lutherans Believe
That the church is the fellowship of all those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. The purpose of the church is to nurture faith through the Word and the Sacrament of the Altar, and to share the love of God through Word and deed with the whole world in order to make other people disciples of Jesus Christ.

Lutherans Believe
God creates, and preserves us as his people. He does this through his Word and Sacraments. Baptism is to create faith and the Lord’s Supper (also known as Holy Communion) is to nurture faith. In Holy Communion Jesus Christ gives the communicant His body and blood “in, with, and under” the bread and wine.

Lutherans Believe
That the fellowship which God establishes with His believers on earth will continue after this life as believers live with Him in Heaven for all eternity.