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The LutheranChurch in the Light of the Scriptures
First Revised Edition
March 31, 2000
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Also by the same Author:
The Roman Catholic Church in the Light of the Scriptures
Questions Concerning Catholic Doctrines & Dogmas Answered
The Church of England in the Light of the Scriptures
The Baptist Church in the Light of the Scriptures
DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES OF THE LUTHERANCHURCH
In the Light of the Scriptures
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO THE LUTHERANCHURCH
A. The name “Lutheran”
B. Martin Luther, the Man
C. The LutheranChurch Today
D. Important Dates in LutheranChurch History
THE TEACHINGS OF THE LUTHERANCHURCH
1. Concerning the Rule and Standard of Doctrine
They teach: Bible plus Creeds
Error Refuted
2. Concerning Sin
They teach: The Doctrine of Original and Actual Sins
Error Refuted
3. Concerning Baptism
They teach: that Baptism is a sacrament; that the modes are washing, sprinkling, pouring and immersing.
Error Refuted
4. Concerning Salvation
They teach: Justification by “Sola Gratia” and “Sola Fide”
Error Refuted
5. Concerning the Lord’s Supper
They teach: That the Lord’s Supper is a sacrament; the doctrine of consubstantiation
Error Refuted
6. Concerning the Holy Days
They teach: That the Christian Sabbath is the Lord’s Day.
Error Refuted
7. Concerning the name “Lutheran”
They say that “Lutheran” is a proper name for the church.
Error Refuted
8. Concerning Confession
They teach: Confession of sins to the pastor.
Error Refuted
9. Concerning the church
They teach: The name “Christian church”; that the church is a sect; that the church is a house of worship, that it is catholic, etc.
Errors Refuted
The organization of the LutheranChurch
Conclusion
Appendices:
1. The so-called Apostles Creed
Proof that the Apostles did not compose it.
2. The so-called Athanasian Creed.
Proof that Athanasius did not compose it.
3. The so-called Nicene Creed
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THE LUTHERANCHURCH
An Introduction
A. THE NAME “LUTHERAN”
(1) The name is used to refer to those who have accepted Martin Luther’s views. “The name Lutheran is the designation given to those branches of Protestantism which have accepted the principles expressed by Martin Luther (1483-1546) who was a priest and Doctor of Theology in the Roman Catholic Church.”[1]
(2) The name was first applied to them by Eck[2] and by the pope ofRome. “The name ‘Lutherans,’[3]as a designation of all those who were in sympathy with Luther’s views, was, at the opening of the Reformation, first applied to them by Eck (q.v.) and pope Hadrian VI,[4] and was meant as a term of depreciation, and at first and for a considerable time designated the entire body of those who opposed the corruption of Rome...”[5]
(3) They are also known as “Protestants,” “Evangelicals,” and “Adherents of the Augsburg Confession.”[6] “The official and proper titles of the particular churches on which the name Lutheran has finally been fixed are ‘Protestant’ (q.v.), ‘Evangelical’ (q.v.), and ‘Adherents of the Augsburg Confession.’”[7]
(4) As a communion, they subscribe to the articles of faith authored by Luther.“The LutheranChurch is the ecclesiastical communion which adheres to the rule and articles of faith restored in the Reformation, of which Luther was the chief instrument.”[8]
B. MARTIN LUTHER: THE MAN (1483-1546):
(1) His Birth and Early Life.
(a) Martin Luther, the son of Hans Luther, an ambitious Saxon miner, and Margareta Lindemann, was born on November 10, 1483,[9] at Eisleben, a village of Lower (Ernestine) Saxony.[10] While he was young,[11] his family moved to Mansfeld, and there his father became a “man of property”[12]and town senator. At a boarding school in Magdeburg, he came under the influence of the pietistic Brethren of the Common Life, an order that emphasized simple piety rather than dogma and ritual.[13]
(b) At age 18 he entered the University of Erfurt and finished his Bachelor of Arts in 1503 and his Master of Arts in 1505. After graduation he began to study law. In early July 1505, almost struck by lightning,[14] he vowed to a dead saint[15] that he would become a monk. On July 17 of that year, he applied for admission at the convent of the Augustinians.[16] On May 2, 1507, he was consecrated for the priesthood.[17]
(c) In 1508, he was sent by Johann von Staupitz (1468?-1524),[18]vicar general of the Augustinian Hermits, to the University of Wittenberg where he pursued his studies and became a lecturer on dialectics and physics. He received his bachelor’s degree in theology in 1509. On October 19, 1512, he got his Doctor of Theology, which involved both an honor and an office.
(2) What Opened His Eyes to the Faults of the Roman Church
(a) Firstly, it was the corruption in the high ecclesiastical places. In 1510, he made a journey to Rome,on foot, partly in the interests of the Augustinian Hermits and yet more as a pilgrim. He saw the pomp of the Vatican and was shocked at the immorality and corruption in the high ecclesiastical offices. Although the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church held the world’s great coffers, Luther saw that the St. Peter’s Basilica was still half-finished.
Inspite of what he had seen, his heart still remained fixed in its strong love for the Roman church. Call these mixed emotions, but this feeling of his later played a great role in his indecisiveness in separating from Rome, opting rather to work within the Roman Catholic system as a reformer.[19]
Visiting the cloisters of Misnia and Thuringia (in 1516), Luther saw more immoralities and corruptions among the people and the clergy.
(b) His biblical approach to theology. Though he was well acquainted with the scholastic theology of his day, Luther made the study of the Bible, especially the epistles of Saint Paul, the center of his work. He “found that his teachings diverged increasingly from the traditional beliefs of the Roman church. His studies had led him to the conclusion that Christ was the sole mediator between God and man and that forgiveness of sin and salvation are effected by God’s grace alone and are received by faith alone on the part of man.[20]This point of view turned him against scholastic theology, which had emphasized man’s role in his own salvation, and against many church practices that emphasized justification by good works. His approach to theology soon led to a clash between Luther and church officials, precipitating the dramatic events of the Reformation.”[21]
(c) The trafficking in indulgences at Wittenberg. “The doctrine of indulgences, with its mechanical view of sin and repentance, aroused Luther’s indignation. The sale by the church of indulgences—the remission of temporal punishments for sins committed and confessed to a priest—brought in much revenue. The archbishop of Mainz, Albert of Brandenburg, sponsored such a sale[22]in 1517 to pay the pope[23]for his appointment to Mainz and for the construction of St. Peter’s [basilica] in Rome. He selected Johann Tetzel,[24] a Dominican friar, to preach the indulgences and collect the revenues.
As Tetzel went around Germany, he made out that money is “well-nigh omnipotent to remove every dreaded consequence of sin, whether in this life or in that to come.”[25] Aside from the pardons of heaven, the purchasers were promised the following graces:
(i) The privilege of having a confessor of one’s own choice who would absolve him from sin and penalties, and this was confirmed by the certificate;
(ii) Participation in the treasures of the UniversalChurch, in its prayers, pilgrimages, and various orders of meritorious works; and
(iii) The release of souls from purgatory.[26] The master salesman even went so far as granting indulgences for sins that were yet to be committed. “A Saxon nobleman took advantage of this, fell upon the train of Tetzel, and carried off his money-box. Tetzel made a loud outcry. The nobleman was brought to trial, but, upon showing his indulgence paper, was declared acquitted by Duke George.”[27]
Johann Tetzel came into the area of Wittenberg. “Luther found that the consciences of manyof his flock were being debauched. When coming to the confessional, instead of expressing any repentance for their sins or any purpose of amendment, they simply showed their indulgence papers, and expected absolution in their virtue.”[28] This forced Luther to act to correct what he perceived to be an abuse of the name of the Catholic Church. At the confessional and in the pulpit, he began warning his people, and wrote letters of remonstrance to the bishops of Mayence and Brandenburg. But receiving unfavorable comments on his position from the prelates concerning the trafficking in merits of salvation, he determined to make his opposition public. “On the 31st of October, 1517, at midday, Luther affixed to door of the castle church[29] at Wittenberg ninety-five theses which he proposed to defend at the university, completely denying the position on which Tetzel rested the merits of indulgences”[30]
Some of Luther’s theses directly criticized papal policies, yet “they were put forward as tentative objections for discussion.”[31]The event made him the man of the hour. “The theses ran clear through all Germany in fourteen days, for all the world was complaining about the indulgences; and because all the bishops and doctors were silent, and nobody was willing to bell the cat, Luther became a renowned doctor, because at last somebody had come who took hold of the thing.”[32]
(3)His Movement for Reform
Howells says “it is generally considered that the history of Lutheranism began with the promulgation of Luther’s ninety-five theses in 1517.”[33] Hence, if one must look for a date, Oct. 31, 1517 is it. The theses nailed on the chapel door of Wittenberg contained everything Luther believed concerning the place of repentance and reconciliation in the matter of salvation, and the most important of his teachings are here enumerated:[34]
(1) Genuine repentance is the chief condition of the remission of sins which should express itself in outward works.
(2) The works acceptable to God are works of charity, benevolence and righteous living, and whoever neglects these and depends upon the purchase of indulgences incurs the divine anger.
(3) The purchase of indulgences is a matter of free choice and ranks at best as only an inferior kind of good work.
(4) Without the use of indulgences, the Christian who truly repents may enjoy a full remission, both of the penalty and of the guilt of sin.
(5) The hope that the mere buying of indulgences can secure one’s own salvation, or the release of souls from purgatory, is an empty and lying hope.
(6) Even a pope cannot remit any condemnation, but can only announce and confirm the forgiveness imparted by God.
(7) The Church ought to impose penance only on the living, and in this matter have no regard to the dead; therefore the pardoning power of the popes ought not to be asserted with respect to the dead.
(8) The indulgences of the popes should be treated with respect but the people should be taught not to place any false confidence in them.
(9) The sale of indulgences is a form of extortion. According the Luther, the true treasure of God is the gospel of the grace of God, not the indulgences entrusted to the pope.
In 1518, Luther attended the Augustinian convention held in Heidelberg and there he disputed on the theses of free-will and the fall, grace, faith, justification and good works. In the disputation, Luther staunchly defended his stand. He also wrote his “Resolutiones,” which were solutions to points in dispute concerning the indulgences, and sent these to pope Leo X. In the “Resolutiones,” his appeal was first of all to the Holy Bible, and secondly to St. Augustine as the “profoundest expositor of the scriptures among the church fathers.”[35]
Replies were made to Luther’s theses, both by Johann Tetzel and by Conrad Wimpina writing under the name of Tetzel.[36] But the strongest reply came from the man who possessed more talent and skill than either Tetzel or Wimpina, from Johann Meyer of the University of Ingolstadt, commonly known from the place of his birth as Dr. Johann Eck.[37] Supremely confident of his intellectual superiority, Johann Eck also published a set of theses, the Obelisci (Obelisk),[38] ostensibly in preparation for a debate with Carlstadt but really directed against the principal doctrines of Luther. These counter-theses were regarded by the German reformer as a challenge that needed to be answered. The result was the debate held in Leipzig under the auspices of Duke George of Saxony, between June 27 to July 16, 1519.[39] In the debate,[40]Luther argued that the primacy of the pope is simply de jure humano, that is, based on the consent of men, and this the pope cannot claim by any divine right; that the need for a head over the church does not imply any divinely appointed ecclesiastical monarch; that historical records of the councils’ decisions, such as the council of Nicea, implied that they recognized no universal headship in the Roman bishop; that the papal monarchy was no part of the primitive constitution of the early church; that the Eastern Christians had repudiated such monarchy for fourteen hundred years; that anyone who damned as heretic anybody who does not recognize the headship of the Roman pontiff also damned as heretics the early saints of the church who had recognized no Roman pontiff.[41]
In September 1520, Eck appeared in Germany with papal bull dated June 15, 1520.[42] The bull condemned as heresies the forty-one propositions extracted from Luther's writings, ordered his works to be burned, and summoned him—on pain of excommunication[43]--to retract his errors and throw himself upon the mercy of pope Leo X.[44] Instead, Luther, “in the presence of a vast multitude of people, burned the papal bull, and with it the decree, the decretals and the entire code of Romish canon law as the root of all evil, on December 10, 1520.”[45]
Meanwhile, the church officials acted against Luther, and the Saxon Dominican officials charged him with heresy.[46] Luther, refusing to recant,[47] fled to Wittenberg and sought the protection of elector Frederick III of Saxony, who spirited him away to WartburgCastle.[48] When the Wittenberg faculty sent a letter to the elector declaring their solidarity with Luther, Frederick III refused to send Luther to Rome, where he would certainly meet imprisonment or death.[49]
(4) The Impact Created by Luther and His Movement
(1) Luther was and still is the symbol of the unpaid bills of the Roman Catholic system.[50]The Catholic Church at this time had just recovered from the Great Schism (1378-1418),[51] and the pope, beholden and dependent upon the support of governmental authorities, and closing his eyes to the evils and corruptions of the Catholic system, had chosen to impose his authoritativeness on the rebel priest who meant only to reform the church he at that time still loved.
(2) Lutheranism became the rallying point of the aspirations of a disgruntled people. The success of Luther’s evangelicalism could be attributed to some distinct factors: (a) The failure of traditional medieval Catholic religion to provide its adherents either the full personal or intellectual satisfaction. (b) The alienation of many Catholic believers by the corruption that had spread through the Roman Catholic Church. Add to these (c) the political support of rebellious electors and kings and(d) the rising nationalismof the people who resented sending their wealth to Rome. They could explain the rapid spread and growth of Protestantism in much of northern Europe.[52]
(3) Luther’s movement gave rise to the establishment of Protestant churches.“With Philipp Melanchthon and others, Luther organized the Evangelical churches in the German territories whose princes supported him. He abolished many traditional practices, including confession and private mass. Priests married; convents and monasteries were abandoned...”[53]Iconoclasts destroyed altars, images and crucifixes.
All was not well with Martin Luther, however. His popularity plummeted; and the man of the hour was truly a man of the hour. He “lost some popular support when he urged the suppression of the Knights’ Revolt (1522) and the Peasants’ War (1524-1526).”[54]His failure “to reach doctrinal accord with Ulrich Zwingli on the nature of the Eucharist (1529) split the ReformationMovement.”[55] However he found personal consolation in his marriage (1525) to Katherina von Bora, a former Cistercian nun; they raised six children.[56]
At the Diet of Augsburg (1530), the Evangelicals presented the Augsburg Confession of Faith, and many theologians, princes and city councils rallied to the support of Martin Luther and his movement. In late 1545, he was asked to arbitrate a quarrel in Eisleben, his birthplace. He traveled there inspite of the icy winter weather. The dispute was settled on Feb. 17, 1546. But the strain had been very great, and he died the next day.[57] By the time of his death, a large part of northern Europe had left Roman Catholicism.