THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

Lutheranism

INTRODUCTION

Although we looked extensively at the life of Luther and his rejection of key Catholic doctrines, we now want to look more closely at what he taught and the basis for such teachings.

Before looking at Luther's doctrines, we must first cut him some slack. Luther did not go far enough in breaking away from his Catholic roots. The truth is that he had never really intended at least at first to break away from the Catholic church; he just wanted to purify the church. What is more there are serious indications that towards the end of his life he was quite ready to return to Catholicism, if the Roman Catholic Church underwent some revisions. The movement he started though had gained legs and now had momentum of its own. It was going to march forward with or without Luther.

Why cut him some slack though? Anabaptism (of which we are part) did not come directly from Catholicism. Rather we broke off from Lutheranism. We purified Lutheranism which in turn purified Catholicism. We are 2 steps removed from Catholicism while Luther was only one step removed.

It's like us and our parents and our grandparents' generations. Our parents' generation was more like our grandparents' generation than our generation is. Our parents' generation moved somewhat away from our grandparents' generation, and when we moved away from our parents' generation, we moved even farther away from our grandparents' generation. This same thing occurred theologically with the Roman Catholic Church, Luther, and Anabaptists.

Basically Baptists took Luther's doctrines and applied them even more consistently than he did. HOWEVER, and this is a huge HOWEVER, this would have never happened if Luther had not first broken away from Catholicism. We and many other Protestant groups are deeply indebted to Luther.

LUTHER'S CONTRIBUTIONS

Luther's major contributions can be summed up with 3 Latin phrases which are associated with Luther: solo scriptura (only Scripture), solo gratia (only grace), and solo fide (only faith). These are the watchwords of the Lutheran reformation.

Solo Scriptura

The foundation for Luther's doctrines is his appeal to Scripture as the ultimate authority. This contrasts greatly with Roman Catholicism which teaches that other sources can be just as authoritative as Scripture. For example, RC (Roman Catholicism) will accept such sources as the church fathers, great Catholic theologians and philosophers (such as Thomas Aquinas), great pagan thinkers (especially Aristotle) and the great church councils. Luther rejected these as ultimate sources of authority because not only did they contradict Scripture at many points, they also contradicted themselves. For example, Luther points out that whereas the 5th Lateran Council claimed that salvation came only through the RCC (Roman Catholic Church), the 4th Lateran Council had actually admitted salvation could come from outside the RCC.

A second major reason that Luther appeals only to Scripture and not to human reason is that he taught that Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden affected everything there is about man. The RCC teaches that man's mind was not affected by Adam's sin; therefore, the person who has not received God's revelation through the Bible and Jesus can come to know God just as well as the Christian who has both the Bible and Jesus. For this reason the RCC has no problem putting the pagan Greek philosopher Aristotle on the same par as St. Paul. According to Luther though Adam's sin did not merely affect just man's character as the RCC taught; it also affected his mind and his reasoning ability as well. When Adam fell in the Garden of Eden, everything about us fell, including our reasoning powers. As a result, we need special revelation from God in order to know God perfectly. Since the Bible is from God, it is the ultimate authority in matters of faith and religion. Other thinkers may have tapped into the truth; however, the only way we know they did is if their thoughts harmonize with Scripture and with Jesus.

Because of his appeal to Scripture, Luther will reject 5 of the sacraments, accepting only baptism and the Lord's Supper since he finds these alone in scripture. Moreover, he will reject works and indulgences as the means of salvation. If Scripture did not teach it, Luther rejected it. This was a major breakthrough in Christian thought.

Some of you naturally raise your eyebrows whenever you hear that Aristotle plays a major role in Catholic theology. Here is one example. Most of you realize that Catholics condemn contraceptives, not just abortion, but also contraceptives. Popes have gone to Latin American countries which are overly populated and preach against contraceptives. What do they base this on? The answer: Aristotle and his view of God.

Aristotle stated that God put the system of cause and effect into the world because He was the First Cause. For example, you are here today (the effect) because your parents gave you life (the cause). Your parents were alive (the effect) because their parents gave them life (the cause). Your grandparents lived (the effect) because your great grandparents gave them life (the cause). And so it goes on and on and on until we get to God who is the First Cause. God has never been an effect, only the First Cause. That is one of Aristotle's definition of God.

Well, according to Roman Catholics since Aristotle taught cause and effect based on his view of God, you cannot break the chain of cause and effect; otherwise, you break up God's system. Well, a contraceptive breaks up the chain of cause and effect because when the sperm comes into contact with the egg, it fertilizes the egg. A contraceptive then keeps the sperm from fertilizing the egg, thereby breaking up the system of cause and effect.

Solo Gratia and Solo Fide

One of the most drastic breaks from Catholicism revolved around the way a person receives the grace of Christ. The RCC had basically taught that you received grace by partaking of and participating in the 7 sacraments. Based on Romans 1:17 Luther taught that the only way a man could receive God's grace was by means of faith, not faithfulness, but faith. God's grace is a gift from God which we receive purely by faith and not by works. This faith will produce works; however, faith itself is not a work. It is mere acceptance.

Other Elements of Lutheranism

Two Sacraments (Not 7)

Because the Scriptures do not teach that confirmation, holy orders, penance, marriage, and last rites are means of receiving grace, Luther rejected these 5 as being sacraments. He accepted only 2 as sacraments, infant baptism and the Lord's Supper. According to Luther these 2 acts help give grace to the believer.

   Infant Baptism

Infant baptism is one area which Luther found difficult to break away from the RCC and its doctrines. It was so ingrained in him that he just couldn't break away from it. He firmly believed that faith alone in Christ saved a person. But Luther was also concerned about Adam's sin which was in the baby?

So how did Luther reconcile faith with infant baptism? By saying that faith was latently present in the child. Although the child was not exercising faith, faith was nevertheless in the child and that one day he would exercise that faith. In order to make sure the child does exercise that faith one day, Luther used the process of confirmation in which a child at the age of 12 is taught the doctrines of the faith and confirms that he indeed does believe in Jesus.

How could Luther justify such a position? He compares the faith latently present in a child to a man who has faith even when he is asleep. He has faith before he falls asleep, and he has faith when he wakes up from his sleep. In between, while he is asleep, he has faith; it's just that he's not operating out of faith while asleep. It's there but only latently present. For Luther this holds true for the child also.

   The Lord's Supper

Luther also accepts the Lord's Supper as a sacrament. Luther rejected the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation because (1) Scripture does not teach it and (2) it comes from a merging of Scripture AND Aristotle's philosophy (Thomas Aquinas). (Luther was affected by Plato because he accepted the teachings of St. Augustine, a neo-Platonist of the 4th and 5th centuries. Plato and Aristotle were diametrically opposite in their teachings on the nature of reality.)

However, Luther promotes consubstantiation, the belief that although the bread and wine are not literally the body and blood of Christ, the body and blood of Christ really are with the bread and wine as they are being offered. This view is shared in a modified form by the Church of England and the Episcopal Church.

The Church and the Government/State

Because Luther promotes the infant baptism of EVERY infant, he creates a situation in which the church and state are one. Every member of the society is baptized; therefore, the entire society is both church and state. When Luther launches Lutheranism, this belief benefits him because the state (Elector Frederick of Saxony) supports Luther. HOWEVER, this unfortunately has led to disaster at other times. For example, during WW2 many Lutheran Germans turned their heads whenever Hitler persecuted the Jews and launched WW2. Now this is not true of every German Lutheran. For example, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran theologian, is considered one of the great Christian martyrs of the 20th century. Fifteen days before the Allies liberated his concentration camp Hitler ordered him to be executed because he had joined in a plot to blow up Hitler. Unfortunately, on the whole many Lutherans looked away while Hitler spearheaded the Holocaust.

Because of Luther's linkage of the state and the church, he endorsed an event which has seriously stained his reputation. Anabaptists emerged from Lutheranism. "Ana" means "again"; "anabaptism" means "to baptize again," referring to baptism as an adult. They agreed with Luther that faith alone saved a person; therefore, since baptism went along with salvation, only a knowledgeable adult could be baptized. (Most of the Anabaptists were baptized as little babies; their baptism as adults made them Anabaptists.)

Moreover, since every person had to have faith in order to be saved, every man was equal to every other man. (RC taught that there was hierarchy in life: first the pope, then the bishops, then the priests, and lowest of all the laity.) Since every man is equal to every man, no man should be above another, neither in the religious sphere nor in the political sphere. This doctrine shook the foundations of political in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Luther simply was not ready for this governmental innovation. Almost more than anything else, Luther wanted order in society; he feared anarchy. As a result, when the peasants' war broke out (partly upon this very issue), Luther supports the destruction of the peasants. Around 100,000 peasants die during this ordeal. Luther to a large degree shares a fair amount of blame because of their deaths.

Luther devised what is called the "territorial church." In other churches, the religion of each territory would be determined by the majority in that territory. If the majority wanted Catholicism, then that territory was to be Catholic; all other denominations in that territory would either convert to Catholicism or else leave the territory. If the majority wanted Lutheranism, then that territory was to be Lutheran; all other denominations in that territory would either convert to Lutheranism or else leave the territory. The territorial church might lead to order; however, it definitely limits freedom of religion.

Church Government/State

Because Luther felt that Scripture is not as clear on this matter as others, Lutheran churches have basically been free to select the type of church government which best suits them: congregationalism, presbyterianism, etc.