• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Lutheran

The first of the 95 theses which Dr. Martin Luther affxed to the door of the castle-church of Wittenberg on 31 Oct. 1517, read as follows: "Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, saying, Repent ye, would have the whole life of believers to be repentance." This academic act has been generally looked upon as the inaugural act of the Lutheran Reformation, so much so, that 31 October is to this day celebrated by Lutherans in all lands as the Festival of the Reformation. And the thesis quoted above is perhaps the most concise exhibition of Lutheranism extant. The thesis is, as a whole and in all its parts, a positive doctrinal statement. Doctrine, positive doctrine, is, and was from the beginning, of first importance, the groundwork — the very life — of Lutheranism.

The cradle of Lutheranism was 'Saxony in 'Germany. Here, at Wittenberg, the great Reformer taught and preached and wrote under the -protection of the Elector Frederick the Wise, and hand in hand with his successors John and John Frederick. The effects of his 95 theses far exceeded the expectations of their author. When Luther published this manifesto, he had no thought of the establishment of a new church. The very name of Lutherans was not adopted by the free choice of those who bore it, but was solemnly inflicted upon them in a Bull published by Pope Leo X. 03 January 1521. By this Bull Luther and his adherents were excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, and when Luther had refused to recant at the Diet at Worms, he and the Lutherans were also politically outlawed by an imperial edict, which exposed them to persecution and the death of confirmed heretics.

The execution of this edict was suspended in Germany because ot the great headway which the Lutheran movement had by this time made, and for various political reasons, which bound the emperor's hands, and at the Diet at Spires, in 1526, the German princes and representatives formally agreed that everyone should so conduct himself toward the edict of Worms as he would deem himself able to answer before God and His Imperial Majesty.

At a second Diet at Spires, in 1529, a majority made an effort to stay the progress of Lutheranism in Germany, and in spite of the protest of the Lutheran members, from which they were called Protestants, these efforts were continued at the Diet at Augsburg, in 1530. Here, however, the Lutheran princes and cities succeeded in presenting to the emperor and Diet and thus publishing to the world, a statement of their faith and doctrine, the Augsburg Confession, which, in the course of time, was adopted as its fundamental creed by the Lutheran Church the world over.

While Germany was the home of the Lutheran Church, Lutheranism obtained a permanent foothold and became the church of the realm in a number of extra-German countries during the period of the Reformation. In Sweden Luther's doctrine was disseminated as early as 1519 by two brothers, Lars and Olav Petersen, who had studied at Wittenberg. Under Gustavus Vasa, Lars Petersen was made professor of theology at the University of Upsala, and Olav Petersen was the leading preacher at Stockholm. The Bible was translated into Swedish and at the Diets of Westeras, 1527, at Orebro, 1529, and at Westeras, 1544, the organization of the Swedish Lutheran Church as a national church with an episcopal form of government was effected.

At the same time a number of doctrinal controversies threatened to vitiate the orthodox character of the church of the Augsburg Confession, until, by the united labors of Lutheran theologians and princes, sound in doctrine and deeply concerned about the peace of the church and the purity of its doctrine, the last of the great Lutheran Confessions, the Formula of Concord, closed the series of Lutheran standards, all of which, the Augsburg Confession, its Apology, the Smalcald Articles, Luther's Large Catechism, Luther's Small Catechism, the Formula of Concord, together with the three ancient Ecumenical Creeds of all Christendom, constitute the body of Lutheran Symbols, known as the Book of Concord of 1580.

The first and foremost task of the Lutheran Church is the promulgation and maintenance of sound doctrine. Preaching, in the Lutheran Church, is not primarily exhortation but teaching, and doctrinal preaching is considered the chief element of Lutheran public worship. Even the better part of Lutheran hymnology is preponderating^ doctrinal. The great bulk of Luther's voluminous writings is doctrinal, and no other church has so extensive a doctrinal literature as the Lutheran Church. Even its controversial theology partakes of this character.

The direct outcome of the Reformation, this communion, called Lutherans by Catholic contestants, a name opposed by Luther as "sectarian," embraces in its numerous branches most of the countries of the world. These bodies are practically one in belief, holding cither to the Augsburg Confession or to the Book of Concord, or to both; but using the episcopal form of government in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe and the congregational or presbyterial systems in the United States and elsewhere. In Germany, the United Evangelical State Church was reckoned as about seven-eighths Lutheran and one-eighth Reformed.

Teaching presupposes or implies a master and a disciple or number of disciples. And of the master Luther says in his thesis: "Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. No councils nor synods, no traditions of the Church, no Fathers, early or late, not Luther himself, not any of these, nor all of these together, must be acknowledged as empowered to establish articles of doctrine which every disciple is bound to accept. Bound to accept. For the Master is also the Lord. He comes with authority; his teaching is not human but divine. Christian doctrine is not a product of evolution, nor of human speculation, nor of self-consciousness of the church, but the truth of God set forth by the Fountain of divine truth, who has said, "I am the Truth." He is the one and only authoritative teacher in the church. There is no such thing as an evolution or perfectibility of Christian doctrine. Here man has no alternative but either to accept or to reject. Here to add or to modify is to adulterate, and to take away or to yield is to deny. Such is the Lutheran concept of the primary source of Christian doctrine.

The material principle of Lutheranism, the cardinal doctrine, around which all other doctrines radiate, because it is the central doctrine of Scripture, is also indicated in the thesis. Luther there describes the subjects and disciples of their Lord and Master Christ as believers. According to the Lutheran concept of Christianity and the Christian church it is faith that constitutes a Christian and a member of the church of Christ, which is simply the whole number of all believers. Christianity, as distinguished from all other religions, is that religion according to which salvation is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by what God has done in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. And faith is simply the acceptance of this reconciliation. Not as a work of obedience, with any merit of its own, but only as the acceptance of the merits of Christ, faith is saving faith. It is justifying faith inasmuch as, in view and consideration of the merits of Christ accepted by faith, God in his judgment pronounces the believer righteous. And this doctrine, that God justifies the sinner by His grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, is the material principle of Lutheranism, the cardinal doctrine of Lutheran theology.

The material principle of Lutheranism is the scriptural doctrine of justification. Lutheranism holds that Christ, the only head and foundation of the church, vested all the rights and powers of the church, the keys of heaven, the power of remitting and retaining sins in his name as his agent, the government and discipline of the church, in the local congregation of believers. Lutheranism maintains that Christ, the only mediator between God and man, has instituted an office in the church, the ministry of the word, for the public administration of the means of grace, that this office is conferred on its incumbent, by Christ's authority through the call of the congregation, and has no power but the power of the word as set forth in the Scriptures, all ministers being equal in rank among themselves.

Lutheranism also holds and teaches a doctrine of predestination, not, however, a decree of damnation, but only an election and predestination of the children of God to eternal salvation by faith in Christ Jesus, who is the redeemer not only of the elect, but of all mankind, and by whom the decree of election is determined as by its meritorious cause, and not as an accessory means of execution. Thus, likewise, the gospel and the sacraments, according to the Lutheran concept, are the ordained means, whereby the same universal grace, according to which God earnestly desires the salvation of all men, and, by the power of his Spirit in all cases efficaciously, but in no case irresistibly, exerted through such means of grace, calls, converts or regenerates, sanctifies and preserves to eternal life all those who do not wilfully and obstinately resist the saving grace of God.