Lutherans believe that Jesus is the only way to get to a trusting relationship with God and eternal life. We don’t believe that just “living a good life,” no matter how good it is, will be good enough to earn those great gifts. The logic of Jesus Only If we could live lives that were Read more about Jesus Only[…]
One of the first things that Martin Luther did at the beginning of our movement was to translate the Bible into something that was readable by his German neighbors and friends. He wasn’t the first person to do this, but it does show that since the beginning, Lutherans have felt the Bible is important. In Read more about Lutherans and the Bible[…]
Lutherans believe and teach that human beings are saved by “faith only”. This seems like a simple enough idea, but some people seem to have a mistaken notion about what it means to be saved by “faith only”. This is perhaps because often when people think about the word “faith” they are thinking about holding Read more about Faith Only[…]
The 95 Theses were a document that Martin Luther posted to a church door in Wittenburg, Germany. His posting of this document amounted to the first definitive act of the Lutheran reformation. The posting of the 95 theses was a rather ordinary event in the academic life of Wittenburg, Germany, the city in which Martin Read more about What were the 95 Theses about?[…]
The word “Gospel” is the English translation of the Greek word “eu-angelion”. “Eu-angelion” means “good news”. The New Testament book of Mark opens with the words “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah”. It is that kind of good news that Lutherans are talking about when they talk about this word “Gospel”. Read more about What do you mean “Gospel”?[…]
What are Lutherans, anyway? Are they a denomination of Christianity? Are they a tradition? Are they a movement? All of those ways of talking about Lutherans would probably be correct in one way or another, but we think that the best way to think about Lutherans is to think of them as a movement within Read more about Lutherans: Denomination, Tradition, or Movement[…]
A sacrament at its most basic level of meaning is “a sacred thing”, but when Lutherans use it, the best way to think about a sacrament is to think of it as a “means of grace”. It’s like a “grace delivery system” for God. Lutherans believe that a sacrament has to have the following: It Read more about What is a “sacrament”?[…]
Yes. Here’s why: On the one hand, we Baptize infants because we believe that God is doing all the work in Baptism – He doesn’t need our help. On the other hand, we confess that Baptism is not valid without faith. Simply pouring water over someone’s head doesn’t make them a Christian. And so you Read more about Do you Baptize infants?[…]
Many times you will see the core Lutheran beliefs stated in the Latin form that they were first presented (at the time, Latin was the language of scholarship, and if you were going to be taken seriously you needed to write in Latin). These Latin terms were: Sola Scriptura Sola Fide Sola Gratia and later Read more about Why we translate “sola” as “only” and not “alone”[…]
We thought that the following things might be helpful to understand. This page is produced by members of an American Lutheran church body call the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. There are other church bodies and while we share the same history and much of the same beliefs, there are times that we differ. Where Read more about Disclaimers[…]