Lutherans are NOT a Protestant Denomination
A while back, a brief discussion thread on one of the warm, friendly, and always theologically-astute CAT41 mailing lists piqued my interest, and I’m finally getting around to blogging about it.
More specifically, a response from a Pastor that I respect (and who has graciously given his permission for me to quote from his message) really brought some things into clearer relief for me regarding the tensions between Lutheranism and Protestantism (particularly the American strain), and the fact that Lutherans are not Protestants. Rather, from the very beginning Lutherans wanted to reform the historic catholic church, not break from it — this fundamental difference (and the theological underpinnings from which it is derived) is still true today.
As Lutherans we live in a society of American Protestants. Even most Lutherans seem to think that we are just a “protestant denomination.” They listen to “Christian radio” and so, outnumbered 100 to 1 we begin to conform to them. Virtually all those “Christians” deny the means of grace. So what’s left? You have to find God on your own, so everything is about ME and I.
“Jesus, I want to know you” is a pure, Arminian, Protestant statement. We already know Jesus through His words, through water, and through bread and wine. When we deny those simple, basic elements and expect Jesus to come down and show Himself to us personally, we are in grave danger of being OUT.”
We are “IN” Christ because He has Baptized us into His body, the Holy Christian Church (see John 3, Romans 6, Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:5, 5:23-26, etc). Christ is IN us because He feeds us on His body and His blood through the bread and wine of His Supper (John 6:52-56, Matthew 26:26-28, etc). Outside of that we have no “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” We may pray and pray like the pagans do, but we will never find Jesus on our own. Our Father in heaven knows our needs before we ask for them, and is pleased to give us the Kingdom. When we reject God’s means of grace for our own heart-felt desires, we are on our own.
And if there’s one thing that current American Protestant church bodies are pushing, it is the postmodern/relativistic agenda of “relevance” — unfortunately, what is relevant to our sinful human minds is not going to keep us pointed to what we really need - i.e., the cross. We do nothing but cause trouble for ourselves when we try to “help” God out by “freshening up” His Word & the doctrine clearly stated therein.
I don’t know how old you are, but obviously you are not a teenager. So don’t try to be one. Trying to frame a prayer in the hip-hop words of someone who has not learned proper grammar, and who does not have a mature thought process is condescending at best. Kids know this. Kids want adults in their lives. They have plenty of friends and peers, they need parents who will teach them to be adults.
If prayer is part of your study, God has given us the perfect pattern for praying, “When you pray say . . .” This is well covered in the Small Catechism. Look at the Psalms, this is the prayer book and hymnal of the early church from the time of Moses. We really don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
A “weekly catechetical study” will focus on Luther’s Small Catechism. As Part of the Book of Concord, it is our confessional guide for teaching. I know there is a ton of “great new ways” to teach, bla, bla, bla. Most of them teach false Protestant doctrines. You can be pretty much assured of this if they didn’t come from CPH. But that thinking has even rushed into our own source, in an effort to be “relevant,” “cute,” and profitable.
Please realize that everyone is not going to accept this. Most people want to save themselves. Teaching the truth of Scripture and the Book of Concord are the only way a person is given faith to believe that Jesus is Lord, and that by believing have life. You are on your own with man-made doctrines and programs.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to be left on my own — as smart as my arrogant mind thinks it is, the Holy Ghost has (thankfully) led me to a faith whereby I know I’m not that smart, and that all I need do is look to the cross & cling its fulfilled promise. YAY!
-ghp
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