Lutheranism

Jacob Priest (Anglican Church)

The history of the Lutheran church as a distinct group goes back to Martin Luther (1483-1546), the main figure in bringing about the Reformation in European church history. Originally studying law, Luther become a monk within the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, and like many at that time had a strong concern for his salvation and a great fear of hell. As a monk, Luther was encouraged to pursue study and became well educated in the Scriptures. As Luther read the Bible, he found disturbing differences between what the Bible was saying and what he had been taught by the Roman Catholic Church.

Luther’s great desire was to see the church of his time reformed, to see the church change its teachings and practices to reflect the Scriptures. On October 31, 1517, he put a challenge on the door of Wittenberg Castle Church, known as the ‘95 Theses’. This was a set of statements that Luther wanted to debate with church leaders, hoping to convince them of biblical truth. These 95 theses were soon copied and widely published throughout Europe.

The debate with the Roman Catholic Church began over a number of issues; one of the central aspects was the practice of indulgences. Put simply, the Roman church taught that because of the good deeds of Jesus and all the saints, the church held a treasury of good deeds, and the church could use it to ‘buy’ someone’s way out of purgatory. (In the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching, purgatory is a place that is neither heaven nor hell, but a place of cleansing from sin before people enter heaven forever.) Luther declared that there was no basis in the Scriptures for the church’s practice of giving, and even selling, indulgences. Neither was there a biblical basis for the belief in purgatory itself.

Luther’s original intention seems to have been to see the church of his time reformed by being brought back into line with the Bible, but as he began to debate with church leaders more fundamental issues began to emerge. Perhaps the most significant of these was the doctrine of justification by faith.

In his reading of the Bible, particularly the books of Galatians and Romans, Luther had come to see clearly that a person was made righteous before God not by any works that they did, but only by trusting in Jesus—by having faith in Jesus and his death on the cross. This teaching was expressed clearly in Martin Luther’s work On the Bondage of the Will (1525), in which he writes of righteousness being a gift of God by grace alone, through faith alone.

The Roman Catholic Church sent a number of theologians to debate with Luther, some seeking to restore him back to the Catholic position, others to oppose his teaching.

After his increasing conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, Martin Luther was excommunicated on January 3, 1521. He was summoned to appear at the Diet of Worms, a judicial and political meeting held at Worms, Germany. Luther was asked to deny his teachings and reject them. Luther refused, and was to be arrested. With the help of sympathetic friends he went into hiding, and yet even in hiding he was writing, translating the New Testament from Greek into German and producing other essays and writings. He wrote essays opposing the Catholic Mass as a form of idolatry, rejected the practice of compulsory confession to a priest, and opposed the idea of monastic vows. While Luther was in hiding, others continued the work of reforming the church. Many people had begun to follow Luther’s ideas due to his earlier teaching and preaching, and in 1522 he returned to Wittenberg and worked with local authorities to transform the church in that city. From 1526 onwards Luther was mainly involved in the work of organizing this new church and writing significant documents. He wrote a new order of service in German for these churches, and two catechisms that explained essential Christian beliefs to people. In 1534 Luther and others completed a translation into German of the Old Testament, thus bringing the whole Bible into the language of the common people.

The Reformation at this point was becoming much larger than simply the story of Martin Luther. There were a number of other groups and leaders leading towns in reforming their churches, and they did not always agree with Luther’s teachings on all points. It is at this point that we may begin talking about ‘Lutheranism’. Lutheranism is the strand of the Protestant churches that continued to follow Martin Luther’s teachings on key points.

All the major Protestant groups agreed on a number of key Reformation doctrines, especially that salvation was by grace alone through faith alone, that the ultimate authority was Scripture alone, and that salvation is accomplished in Christ alone. Two other issues came to divide Lutheran churches from others.

One of these key issues was about the practice of the Lord’s Supper. The Roman Catholic Church had taught that when believers remembered Jesus’ death by eating the bread and drinking the wine, the bread was really Christ’s body and the wine was really Christ’s blood, even though it looked and tasted like bread and wine. This is the doctrine of transubstantiation—the bread turns into Christ’s body, the wine turns into Christ’s blood. Martin Luther taught a different position, that is often called the doctrine of consubstantiation. Luther believed that the bread was both bread and Christ’s body, and the wine was both wine and Christ’s blood. Other reformers were teaching that the bread and the wine were symbols of Christ’s body and blood, and that it was an act of remembrance.

Another key issue, though less theological, involved the organization of the church in relation to political structures. Luther was happy to work alongside rulers and co-operate with political powers, whereas in other parts of Europe the organization of the church became a more independent activity. As a result, in those countries where Lutheranism became the dominant form of Christianity, there were strong links between church and government.

The Lutheran church subsequently became the dominant church in Germany, as well as countries such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. In Denmark and Norway, King Frederick I (1523-33) protected Lutheran preachers and reformers, and his son Christian III was Lutheran. In Sweden, two brothers led the elected king Gustav Vasa to Lutheran faith, and in the years that followed Sweden also became strongly Lutheran.

By 1580 the Lutheran churches had settled on nine documents that defined Lutheran faith and distinguished it from other forms of Protestantism. These nine documents include the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, as well as six other documents: The Augsburg Confession (1530), the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1531), Luther’s Large Catechism (1529), Luther’s Catechism for Children (1529), the Articles of Smalkald (1537), and the Form of Concord (1577).

In the middle of the 17^th century, Lutherans began to arrive in North America as immigrants. Also in the 17^th century Lutheranism was strongly influenced by Pietism, a movement that emphasised the practical side of Christian living and the importance of personal devotion and emotional commitment. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, Lutheran believers became more active in worldwide mission, establishing Lutheran churches in numerous other countries, so that Lutheranism is now a worldwide church. It is estimated that there are more than 70 million Lutherans worldwide. Also in the 18^th century, Lutheran thinking was strongly affected by the Enlightenment, and many Lutherans began to assert the importance of reason over revelation and Scripture, leading to increased liberalism.

To many believers, the practices and teachings of the Lutheran church can seem strange, and sometimes they seem very similar to the traditional practices of the Roman Catholic Church. In Luther’s time, his concern was to reform only those things that disagreed with the Scriptures. If it was not a matter of importance, then Luther did not consider that it had to be changed. This position was different to other reformers, who radically changed the way worship was conducted in their churches. So in many respects Luther’s changes to the worship practices of his church were very minimal, resembling the Roman Catholic church in many ways.

As mentioned above, one of the major differences between Lutheranism and other Protestant churches is in their understanding of the Lord’s Supper. This is also true of the understanding of baptism in the Lutheran church. Lutheran churches typically teach that baptism, like the Lord’s Supper, is a sacrament, an act instituted by God in which God offers, gives and seals the forgiveness of sins. In the Lutheran view it is necessary to be baptized in order to be saved, unless there is no opportunity. Lutherans, unlike Baptist groups, normally practice baptism of children as well as baptism of newly converted adults.

Like many of the large Protestant groups in the world, some significant parts of the Lutheran church have become deeply liberal, no longer believing or teaching that the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God. This is true both in the Lutheran churches in Europe and in Lutheran churches in America. This has led to different Lutheran denominations within some countries.