Category: Lutheran Confessions

Lutheran Distinctives

3/28/2024

What's Different about Lutheranism? Part 3 of 3
3/28/24

We have already looked at the distinction between Law and Gospel and the Lutheran view of vocation. A third important distinctive Lutheran idea is the doctrine of the two kingdoms, or the two realms.

Lutherans attempt to distinguish between two areas in which God works. The right hand kingdom or realm is the churchly work of gospel ministry. The left hand kingdom or realm is the entire world of civil relationships we maintain.

Notice that these realms function a little like the distinction between Law and Gospel, but the framework has implications beyond the scope of the Bible, while Law and Gospel are centered in biblical interpretation.

The two realms are related to the concept of vocation, but rather than being primarily applied to the individual, the two realms are applied mostly in an organization sense.

In the right hand kingdom we find all the churchly ministry which involves forgiveness and reconciliation. This includes conflict resolution, baptism, proclamation of the freedom of the gospel, and our standing before God as his forgiven people.

In the left hand kingdom we find the matters of applied "law" situations. There are lots of left hand kingdom matters which are dealt with in the church organization. For instance, maintaining a safe space for church services, keeping the lights on, and having some sort of orderly way of conducting business in the church is all in the left hand kingdom. Having a designated person to unlock and lock the building is in the left hand kingdom. It isn't a matter of forgiveness (though when the person doesn't show up and someone else finally comes with a key, there's likely some need for forgiveness). The city utility company doesn't work with the church on a basis of forgiveness. Neither does the fire inspector. And we find that structural engineering and gravity are particularly unforgiving!

The bottom line in distinguishing between the right hand and left hand kingdom is that we find ourselves in trouble when we confuse the two. Just as dealing with the plumbing in the building on the basis of forgiveness is a bad idea, so is an attempt to build a checklist which will be followed to ensure that forgiveness of sin is real or is merited by previous behavior. The two kingdoms overlap in their presence, but not in their duties.

Right application of the two kingdoms allows regulations to be respected. It also allows for transacted forgiveness which still holds limits on what one is free to do. As the apostle Paul said, "Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40, NKJV).

When we look at Lutheran distinctives, then, they really don't have a whole lot to do with the fact that historically Lutherans have mostly been Germanic, or that most participate in liturgy which is in line with 16th century practices, or any of the little cultural elements we often think about in our church community. The distinctives have a great deal to do with the way God is working in His people and how He uses them in the greater society. With that in mind, we are especially well equipped to love and serve our neighbors, bringing them the hope and help we have found in Christ.

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Lutheran Distinctives

3/21/2024

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What's Different about Lutheranism? Part 2 of 3
3/21/24

Last week we looked at the distinction between Law and Gospel. A second important distinction is our understanding of the doctrine of vocation. I really don't think any other theological discipline has considered vocation in the same way Lutherans have.

Rome and Orthodoxy talk about vocation in terms of serving as a priest, a monk, a nun, or perhaps some part of a diaconate. They are focused on what we might call "churchly" callings. In contrast to that view, Luther said everyone has vocation. God calls all of his people in some way. In fact, God has several callings on your life.

Some of the callings we have are permanent. For instance, though my parents have both died, I am still called to be a son to them. That's part of my identity. To this day, in one way or another, there are some ways in which my vocation as a son influences what I do, who and what I pay attention to, and the like. I have a primary vocation as a man, which, I suppose, is permanent, though for some time I was not a mature man as yet.

Do you get the idea that vocation is very similar to what most of our culture would call identity? This is also the case in our temporary vocations. One of those which pertains to me is my calling to be a husband. Temporary? Yes, I wasn't a husband until I was in my twenties. A temporary vocation may be a career, being a student, serving in a political office, or, for that matter, being a member of the bowling league or garden club.

Some of our vocations don't seem very important until we begin considering them as gifts which God has given us. Simply the fact that the Lord has given me something to do ought to motivate me to consider it important. By the nature of its source, every vocation has its own value and dignity.

So while church workers are called by God, so are parents, children, husbands, wives, employers, employees, students, mentors, citizens, and everything else that we do with a clear conscience before God. There is no legitimate role in your life that is not intended to bring honor to God in Christ.

A Lutheran view of vocation gives dignity and purpose to our life. The man who takes out the trash at a restaurant is loving and serving his neighbor by being diligent and doing the job right. The CEO of the Fortune 500 company is doing a job with the same dignity, the same purpose, and the same kind of value, except it probably influences a larger number of people. The parent changing a baby's diaper is loving and serving a neighbor. So is the professor giving a lecture to an overcrowded lecture hall. We don't look at the glamor and glitz of what we are doing to find its value. We look at the Lord Jesus who worked and gave work to us.

For further reading, you may find Gustaf Wingren's book Luther on Vocation helpful. Another author who has said a lot about vocation is Gene Edward Veith. A good place to start in his writings is God at Work.

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Lutheran Distinctives

3/14/2024

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What's Different about Lutheranism? Part 1 of 3
3/14/24

I recall one day when I was doing campus visibility. I had just sat down at a table at the Student Center and put up my "Free Listens and Prayers" sign. Before I had a chance to drop a note about it onto social media, someone sat down across from me. He wanted to know what's different about Lutherans than other church bodies. I found out what he was using as a comparison, then tried to describe the difference in terms he would understand. He thanked me and left. About a minute later, another person came, sat down, and asked the same question. She was from a different background than the first person. They weren't trying to pick on me. Nothing like that. It struck me that there's some curiosity out there. What are Lutheran distinctives? Why would you want to be part of a Lutheran church?

I think there are three primary distinctives of Lutheranism. We could talk about similarities with other church bodies for a long long time, but let's try to identify some of the things that make it special. Because I try to limit the length of my blog posts, I will deal with one per post.

Lutherans specifically look at Scripture in terms of Law and Gospel. We consider it very important not to confuse the two. Let's describe them.

Law is what God requires of us. Did God say to do something? It's a law statement. Does God make a regulation? It's a law statement.

Gospel is what God has done for us. By that, I don't mean that because God commands something that's good for us it's a gospel statement. No, gospel in this sense applies only to God's particular actions done for us.

When we confuse Law and Gospel, it always leads to some sort of trouble. After all, we are not capable of doing the gospel. Only God can do that. If we try, we are both trying to take the place of God, and setting ourselves up for certain failure and discouragement.

One of the problems we have with God's law is that we aren't able to do it adequately. Only Jesus can do that. Yet that doesn't make the law bad. It's good, very good, so good that God will affirm it as what is pleasing to Him. We want God's law to be kept.

The law has several functions. First, it keeps society civil. If God says "don't murder" and a society agrees and complies with that law, the society is going to be relatively safe, at least from murder. He also prohibits stealing. Great idea!

A second function of the law is that it shows us our sin and failure. For instance, when God says to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, that's a 24/7/365 responsibility, sleeping and waking, throughout our entire life. We have certainly failed at this. It shows us our need for a savior. It shows us that we need something outside of ourselves to reconcile us to God.

A third function of the law is that it shows us what is pleasing to God. He likes it when we depend on him. He likes us to live at peace with one another. He likes it when we make a distinction between being his people and being people who don't care about him. Unlike people in folk religions, paganism, or any of the many therapeutic attempts at religion we can buy in the self-help bookstore, the God of the Bible tells us what is pleasing. We don't have to guess.

Since we can't keep the law perfectly, one thing the law does is to accuse us. The law does other things as well, but regardless, it always accuses us. There's always some failure on my part. Again, this drives me to my Savior for forgiveness.

Now, the Gospel part is easier. Again, only God in Christ can do the things of the gospel. It's what God does for us. Jesus keeps the law of God on our behalf and in our place. Jesus delivers his perfect righteousness to us. What do we do? We receive it by faith. Through the Gospel we receive life, hope, and peace with God. And it comes in a way that never accuses us or condemns us. That's the law's job.

The distinction between Law and Gospel is uniquely described in Lutheran theology. It's a compass that we need to see our path rightly. It serves as an anchor to keep us from becoming a shipwreck on the rocks of life. Lutherans do it like no other church body that I know.

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Why Do Some Churches Recite Creeds, Confessions, and Pre-Written Prayers?

2/29/2024

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Why Do Some Churches Recite Creeds, Confessions, and Pre-Written Prayers?
2/29/24

This is one of the more common questions that I'm asked. While on campus it might yield some questions in response, as I try to find out what the questioner finds objectionable, I wanted to write a post answering the question in a positive manner.

In fact, if we look at the history of Christianity, most churches use creeds, confessional statements, and often prayers which were written in advance, often passed down from generation to generation. Older Christian traditions do this more than the newer groups.

There's a really good reason to use creedal statements. The very word "creed" is derived from the Latin word "credo" meaning "I believe." So a creed is a statement of what we believe. Making a statement of faith, all together as a congregation, is a good way of cementing those ideas into the whole community, old and new.

The details of creeds were generally worked out in vigorous debate over issues that threatened the well-being of the Church. Christians want to be sure their statements, and then their lives, agree with the Bible and focus on essential elements of Christianity. If it's an important factor in the Christian life, you can pretty well assume some group of people had a major dispute about it at some point in history. The statement of truth that came out of that issue is going to be very carefully worded, to say something important in a way that could stand up against opposing views.

Most church bodies around the world and throughout history (at least since about the 4th century) recognize the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Lord's prayer as foundational issues. The content of those two creeds and that one prayer have served for many centuries to define the way Christians think about the facts of their salvation.

Why would a church use these every week? Does it risk becoming a meaningless repetition, just something you say but not that you believe? There's a risk of becoming bored or flippant about anything. Yet that isn't the problem of the creed, it's the problem of the person reciting the creed. We can say and do things in all areas of our life without paying adequate attention. So we do need to be careful.

The confessions can serve as an effective test of other teaching we receive. Did the sermon's picture of Jesus agree with the creed's picture? Which area of the Lord's prayer would be similar to the lesson we just heard? Asking questions and evaluating what goes on in church is perfectly fair.

The confessions can serve as a reminder of God's person and work. They're centered on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, engaged in the things of this world. Jesus, the very real savior, did all that he did for you and for me, in a particular time, in a particular place.

Repeated use of confessions provides us with a strong memory of essentials of the Christian faith. You can carry that along with you always. It's always appropriate to get statements of definitive truth like we find in the creeds into your mind in a way you can't forget. You may forget everything sometime, except for those things you have purposely lodged in your mind.

The real question about using the creeds, then, is why people don't do this. In Matthew 6:7 Jesus warns his disciples against making vain repetitions, mindless words, which do no good. Some church bodies view creeds, as well as the Lord's Prayer, as being what Jesus warns against. However, in Matthew 6, immediately after warning against the vain repetitions, Jesus tells his disciples, "Pray this way." He teaches them the Lord's prayer. Another possible reason that a church wouldn't use historic creeds, confessions, and prayers is because they think the things that we make up on the spot might be better than what other people have worked out. Frankly, I'm not arrogant enough to think that I can do it better than the council at Nicea, or the many godly people who have worked at constructing beautiful and meaningful prayers.

We can be glad as Christians that God has raised up good scholars and teachers who preserve the Scripture and statements based on it so as to feed our faith.

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The Lutheran Confessions

1/18/2024

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Confessional Subscription - What Is It and Why Does It Matter?

Our church body, The American Association of Lutheran Churches, affirms that the Lutheran confessions, including the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, and the Formula of Concord are binding upon us because they are a fair and accurate summary of the teachings of Scripture. The good Lutheran, based on Luther's Small Catechism (another one of our confessional documents), would ask, "What do you mean by that?"

It's a completely fair question to ask of any church body. In fact, you shouldn't go joining a church or any other organizaiton without understanding and agreeing with what it stands for. For instance, lots of churches say they believe the Bible. That's great, but what do they mean by that? We also believe the Bible to be infallible, inerrant, and inspired by God. Our Clergy Commission regularly asks people to explain their views about the Bible. It matters. We need to be of one mind about the central tenets of our faith!

Since so many church bodies confess that they believe the Bible, and will use words like infallible, inerrant, and inspired, it helps to find a means of clarifying what we mean. This is where an appropriate use of tradition comes into play.

"Okay," you say, "Now he's done it. the Bible and tradition? Give me a break! That sounds like something that belongs in the Roman Catholic Church!"

I think we need to evaluate the role of tradition in our interpretation, though. In fact, you think so also. Before rejecting the idea of tradition out of hand, where will you stand on interpretive tradition? Does each Christian have an obligation to ignore all past interpreters? If we reject tradition does that also mean that we self-consciously reject any interpretation of Scripture anyone has held in the past? This throws us into a dystopian world of exegesis in which "I" am the only one who can be right, and can only be right by carefully dodging anything anyone else has ever thought is right in the past.

Rather than experiencing an implosion of the entire world, let's entertain a right role of tradition in our interpretation. Christianity has had about two millennia to try answering some important questions. Many times, as we have worked with these interpretive concepts carefully our scholars have developed good explanations of what the Scripture means and how it should be applied to our lives and our world. After all, the Word of God is intended to be clear and reliable. We should expect that most careful thinkers and interpreters would come to approximately the same interpretations, and that they would normally be right. This is why we don't reject all the history of Christian interpretation out of hand.

In the 16th century Reformation, a good deal of effort was put into clarifying some of the issues surrounding the conflict between the Roman church and the Evangelicals, who later became known as Lutherans. This led to the publication of the Augsburg Confession in 1530, which described many ways in which the Evangelicals held practices consistent with their Roman past. The Smalcald Articles, in 1537, served as a presentation of truth claims which took the place of testimony in person by Dr. Martin Luther. Later, in 1578, the Formula of Concord was developed, describing the doctrines which identified and held the Lutheran Christians together. These three documents, along with some ancillary helps and explanations make up the bulk of the Book of Concord, first published in 1580. The Confessions serve to clarify the Christian interpretation of the first Lutherans, defending their teaching and practice.

The Lutheran Confessions contribute to our understanding of the Christian faith because they are careful evaluations of theological statements, considered in light of Scriptures. Through a review of the concepts found in the Lutheran Confessions, we find a comprehensive summary of a biblical view on the topics included in the Confessions. The content of these Confessions has been tested and tried many times over nearly 450 years. Time and again, they have proven to be a fair and accurate summary of the teachings of Scripture.

When I teach a topical Bible study, the Lutheran Confessions are my go-to resource. They are chock full of solid biblical exposition. They raise timeless questions and life problems. A good edition normally has an extensive index of Scripture passages. Through use of our Confessions, we can know that we stand in a good place in our theology, our understanding of humanity, of the work of the church, and our role in society. We affirm them because they are a right exposition of Scripture.

Does your church congregation have a study of the Book of Concord or some of the Lutheran Confessions? I'm sure the Evangel editor would love to have letters from people talking about studies they are doing. Since our church body subscribes to these Confessions, we do well to devote some of our study to them. Now is a great time to gather with likeminded Christians, pull out a Book of Concord and your Bibles, and be like the Bereans in Acts 17 - study the Scriptures to find out if what we are saying is true!

For further study, you might find the following resources helpful.

www.bookofconcord.org provides a lightly searchable version of the 1921 edition of the Book of Concord as translated into English by F. Bente and W.H.T. Dau.

Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis has issued A Reader's Edition of the Book of Concord based on the same translation, but with some updates to the language and with extensive footnotes and introductory editorial information. This work is in its second edition, 2006.

The definitive 20th century edition, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church translated and edited by Theodore Tappert was published by Fortress Press in Philadelphia, 1959.

In 2000, an new scholarly edition, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church was released in a new translation, edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy Wengert, by Fortress Press, now in Minneapolis. This edition is gradually taking the place of the 1959 Tappert edition, though both are excellent scholarly works.
This article was submitted in December 2023 for publication to The Evangel, the magazine of The American Association of Lutheran Churches.

Pastor Dave Spotts serves as a missionary chaplain to the college campuses in Columbia Missouri under the auspices of Wittenberg Door Campus Ministry, a mission of The American Association of Lutheran Churches.

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Lutheran Distinctives

Lutheran Distinctives

Lutheran Distinctives

Why Do Some Churches Recite Creeds, Confessions, and Pre-Written Prayers?

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Lutheran Distinctives

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Why Do Some Churches Recite Creeds, Confessions, and Pre-Written Prayers?

The Lutheran Confessions

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