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What
is a Lutheran?
Martin
Luther would never have wanted people to blindly follow his teachings.
A
Freudian psychologist is one who adheres to the teachings of Sigmund
Freud, the most famous of all psychologists. Some might define Lutheran in
a similar way: someone who follows the teachings of Martin Luther. Yes, but
there are two things wrong with that definition. First, some who claim to be
Lutheran follow teachings inconsistent with those of Martin Luther. Second, and
more important, Martin
Luther
lived at a time when the gospel was all but lost. The church of his day taught
that sins were paid for by doing penance, that is, good works that supposedly
erased bad deeds. If you couldn’t do enough good works to pay for all your
sins, you could buy the good works of others.
This purchase was known as an indulgence. Jesus was never portrayed as the Savior, only as a merciless
judge.
Many
people accepted these false teachings without question, because they had no way
to hear the truths of God’s Word. The few Bibles that existed were locked up
in the monasteries and churches. And
those Bibles were generally Latin translations, a language few understood.
When
Martin Luther heard these teachings, he feared he would never be able to do
enough good to win God’s favor. He dreaded that he had no chance of going to
heaven. He became a monk to earn God’s love. But when Luther became a monk, he
gained access to the Bible. As he read and studied the Bible, he learned that
humans of all time have been granted forgiveness of sins, full and free, because
of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
From that
point on, Luther realized how dangerous it is to blindly follow the religious
teachings of others. He understood
that only God’s Word can unlock the mystery of salvation. So Luther translated
the entire Bible into German so that people could read it for themselves.
What is a
Lutheran? A Lutheran is not someone who blindly follows the teachings of Martin
Luther. How Luther would have hated
that! Luther once wrote, “Nothing
better could be wished than that all books would be put aside and nothing else
stay in all the world, especially among Christians, but simply the pure
Scripture or Bible” (What Luther Says, p. 112).
A Lutheran
is someone who, like Luther, understands that only God’s Word can dictate our
conscience. A Lutheran is someone who, like Luther, understands how important
God’s Word is to our salvation. Simply
put, being Lutheran means being like Luther when it comes to God’s Word. We
love it more than anything. We study it all we can. We defend it courageously.
We proclaim it boldly. Just like Martin Luther.
Many of Luther's writings can be found at:
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-home.html
A
Lutheran is someone who, like Luther, understands how important God’s Word is
to our salvation.
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2000 Northwestern Publishing House. All rights reserved.