I was baptized into the PCUSA but I’m in classes to join the LCMS. Will I need to provide proof of my baptism before I formally join? If so what will I need and how can I get it? My home church left the PCUSA and there’s currently a conflict with them although hopefully that won’t make proving my baptism difficult.
Thanks in advance for your help
I’m an Orthodox now, but I was a White Horse Inn type Calvinist from about 2009-2016. I listened to hundreds of hours of Lutheran material, especially Issues Etc., and heard dozens of Lutheran clergy mentioned, in addition to attending a Lutheran Church for a year. Always “Pastor Charlie” or “Pastor Schultz”. Never once heard “Father Mike”, “Father Weedon”.
I’ve been out of that world for a decade now, but Over the last few years, I’ve seen some, mostly conservative/LCMS Lutherans on Twitter referring to “Fr. X”, for instance, I’m asking this now because there’s an advertisement for a conference responding to Orthodoxy that former Orthodox priest and now Lutheran minister Joshua Schooping is going to be speaking at, and multiple Lutherans, including Jordan Cooper, from whom I learned a lot, referred to him as “Fr. Schooping.” I’ve seen it over the last few years, but finally had to ask.
Is this a new trend, or is it an anomaly confined to online, or something else? Thanks.
I recently left a comment on a post about this matter saying that I affirm the perpetual virginity, and it got a lot of backlash, which I was surprised by. So it made me wonder: how many Lutherans here affirm the perpetual virginity?
Does anyone know what the stats are for how many churches have women’s suffrage and how many don’t? Percentage wise that is. I poked around but I can’t seem to find anything online.
Hello everyone, I’d like to go to private confession and absolution with a pastor, and I’m wondering if it would be appropriate for me to go to a pastor that isn’t mine. The reason is because my pastor is my father, and there are things that I need to address with a pastor that I feel uncomfortable talking about with my dad.
I’m considering reaching out to a local Lutheran lcms pastor, however I can’t find an email on the church website or the pastors phone number. I’m wondering if they would even consider meeting with me since I am not a member. Any thoughts?
What do you guys think about the upcoming convention? They have 10 main topics of discussion, right? How blessed are we to have a president in Harrison who is not afraid to always point to scripture, even in this world we live in now!
I understand that Lutheranism does not fall the Calvinistic idea of double predestination, but I am still trying to understand the Lutheran view. I have have Lutherans give me a few differing explanations on the subject too which only furthered confusion.
One person said that, in alignment with God's desire for all to be saved, that all are predestined to have salvation, but it is a resistible grace; we do not have the ability to choose God but we do have the ability in our sinful nature to reject Him. But this interpretation leaves it still that all can be saved as long as they don't reject Christ.
But then another person explained it that similarly to Calvinism, only a select amount are predestined to be saved, and within that selection, there is still a resistible grace.
The idea of only a select amount being chosen for salvation is something that never sat right with me, a reason I never bought into Calvinism. The Bible makes it clear that God desires all to be saved, but we know not every single person will be, so the only way it makes sense (to me) for both of those things to be true is that it is us humans that have some input in the matter. Now there's the Arminian belief or the similar but different belief in Orthodoxy that you can choose Christ, accepting His gift of salvation (which is something I have long held as my belief. I don't see it as "taking away what God has done" but view it more as accepting it. Like God is a chef who has done every last bit of preparation, cooking, and serving of a meal right before us, and we choose whether to enjoy the free gift or to reject it. No works of us to earn said gift, but still our choose to accept it or not). But as I have been intrigued by Lutheranism (and Orthodoxy) I am trying to understand more and have made a post here in the past about predestination but am wanting some more clarification on the Lutheran stance on it.
So is it that predestination is for all but then most choose to reject? Or that it's only for a select amount and within that people can reject? Or something else? God bless!
From one of this year's convention overtures:
>>WHEREAS, The Synod has condemned (2019 Res. 7-02) such harmful ideologies, which embrace the Marxist concepts of victim and oppressor by appealing to our sinful nature to lord it over one another (Mark 10:42);
And the cited 2019 resolution:
>>WHEREAS, Today’s predominant culture of higher education presents a particular challenge to the Gospel and the Church, and seeks to destroy the faith of the next generation, due to the prevalence of current academic theories such as post-modernism, relativism, progressive education, constructivism, social/restorative justice, intersectionality, pedagogy of oppression, and other harmful ideologies;
What confuses me is that oppression is mentioned almost 200 times in Scripture, and there's not enough specificity above (I submitted a comment to the floor committee asking for this to be added) to distinguish the scriptural understanding of the concept from the bogeyman of Marxism. Does anyone know of any resources on the topic? I scanned the CTCR, and all I got was stuff about persecution of Christians.
Thank you!
Psalms 72:1, 4
[1] Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.
[4] May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
For those who were once reformed (and I am referring to reformed presbyterian) and attended a reformed church and are now Lutheran, what would you say are some of the differences you noticed culturally within the church? What was day to day or sunday chuch life like then vs now? As an example, I am a member of a reformed presbyterian church and smoking cigars during church fellowship times is common, is there something similar that Lutherans do that is common?
Just curious. thank you.
Dear friends in Christ,
I’m a Confessional Lutheran in a place (Italy) where there are no such churches. Oh well, there is something (God bless the LCMS for your efforts!) but too far away for me.
Nobody accepted me as a Lutheran, I simply accepted the faith in my heart, intending to keep it until I die, God willing.
What I do is basically reading my Scripture daily, studying my Book of Concord weekly, doing my morning and evening prayers as per the Small Cathechism, plus “attending” a virtual LCMS parish on YouTube on Sunday and watching Lutheran content online (Pastor Wolfmuller, Cooper and so on).
Is there anything I’m doing wrong/something I can improve?
Every suggestion is very welcome🤗
So my wife and I have been going through a rough time in our current church learning that we have massive doctrinal belief differences, including but not limited to denying Nicene Christianity. That’s a whole different story though.
I have always really enjoyed theology and have looked into many different traditions. I have now read the Augsburg Confession, Small and Large catechism, and reading through the Smalcald articles and the about to start the Formula of Concord. Needless to say, I have truly found Lutheran theology to be what seems to see the truth. We have an extremely traditional Lutheran church near us that she has said she feels like is weird and feels wrong. (Coming from an extreme low church tradition with no Liturgy). However though, there is an LCMS church near us as-well that has both a contemporary and a Traditional service. I would be okay with going to the contemporary service and the traditional service like 50/50, but also really don’t like the contemporary service since it doesn’t follow the LSB.
I have loved the pastors of this church already from just a few visits. I really don’t like the contemporary service and would love to get her to love the traditional service, but I’m sure it would just take time. I don’t want her to go reluctantly and just because I want to go though.
Any suggestions?
I’ve been studying Matthew 22:23-33 and I’m curious how pastors/theologians here would respond to an interpretation I’ve been considering regarding marriage after the resurrection.
Jesus says that in the resurrection people “neither marry nor are given in marriage.” Most Christians seem to interpret this as meaning no marriages continue in heaven at all.
But I’m wondering if Jesus may specifically be addressing:
Here’s why I’m questioning the traditional interpretation:
- Scripture consistently teaches that death ends marriage (Romans 7:2), but Paul also says not all believers will “sleep” before glorification (1 Corinthians 15:51).
- So what about married couples who are still alive at Christ’s return and are transformed without experiencing death?
- If marriage is a covenant established by God and husband/wife become “one flesh,” why assume that covenant is dissolved if death never actually severed it?
- Jesus says people will not “marry” or be “given in marriage,” but He does not explicitly say all existing marriages are abolished.
I understand the standard argument that resurrection life transcends earthly institutions, but I’m trying to determine whether Scripture explicitly teaches the dissolution of already-existing marriages that remain intact at the resurrection.
Am I missing a major exegetical or theological issue with this interpretation?
Like many American men, pornography has been a wicked burden on my life. While I have abstained from those perverted videos for about 11 or 12 years now, lustful thoughts boil up in the Old Adam.
Something I’ve done when I feel temptation arise (whether lust, or anger, or pride, or gluttony or etc.) is to do this:
Grab your Bible and grab your Book of Concord. I carry both with me.
Sit down and open to a random page. Any page. Doesn’t matter. I suppose if you’re particularly curious about Election or Repentance you can go straight to those articles, but any page).
Read and check each scripture citation. Pray after each text and ask God to sustain and strengthen your faith in the true doctrine and increase in your purity of life.
Continue reading until you’ve forgotten why you even sat down in the first place.
While we can never rid ourselves of sin, I’ve found this a swell method. Blessings and peace friends.
The other day I posted looking for a church in DFW that offered weekly communion and jad a traditional worship service.
I have never been baptized or been a member of a church but have always believed in the word of God. I have sinned against God greatly in my life even after knowing better and attempting repentance. Recently I became drawn to find a church to join, be baptized and partake in the Eucharist. I attended a couple Greek Orthodox churches and loved tje Divine Liturgy and reverance that was seen and felt there. Not to mention how beautoful tje churches are with all the paintings of icons and Bible stories. That being said, the veneration of Icons and Marianism give me concern. I found the LCMS after searching for churches with alignment of early church traditions, and communion.
So I made it to my forst Divine Service this morning. It was nice.
Here are some thoughts.
My first time hearing a pipe organ (in person), very cool. Following along with the hymnals definitely proved difficult for a layperson lol.
There were some children who were being confirmed so I was able to witness that process. They must have been baptized at some prior point. I followed a long in the book so I could see the questions/statements they were being asked to confess. The only thing that gave me pause was in regards to statement about believing in the full scope of the Lutheran doctrine (paraphrasing).
The communion was beautiful. Members came to a circular rail around the altar to kneel and receive it. Next time I will go up with arms crossed as I saw others do for a blessing. When I went to the Orthodox church they allow going up after service to get some of the blessed bread which I did.
I enjoyed listening to the pastors sermon, I had already listened to a few of his sermons on the drive up they had posted on their website and thought they were great. This is Our Redeemer LC in Dallas BTW.
An older woman who sat behind me greeted me after service and asked if I was visiting, I had all the pamphlets. I told her I was seeking a church, she was kind and reccomemded this one in high regard. She was the only one who really spoke with me.
I grabbed some coffee and hit the road. I listened to the other sermons available in tje website on tje way home and they were great as well.
I plan to go back next Sunday. Hopefully I can attend bible study as well and meet the pastor if he is the one who leads it.
I got a copy of the small catechism today and read that as well as a pamphlet titled A Simple Explanation of Church History. I now plan to get a copy and read the large catechism and then the book of Concord
Please let me know any thoughts or advice.
Im definitely struggling with what I have found out is called ecclesiastical anxiety (fear of choosing the wrong church and not being saved)
I'm in a hurry to find a church and make peace with my decision because I want to be baptized and receive communion ASAP. I'm approaching my mid 40s and have been called to seek and live in repentance.
I’m trying to do some research for myself origin of words of confession of sins from setting one in LSB: “…that we are by nature sinful and unclean...”. Could someone direct me to good resources, please?
Hello I am Lutheran. And having done plenty of research both on thomistic metaphysics/classical theism/absolute divine simplicity, as opposed to eastern orthodox metaphysics and the essence energies distinction, I actually really like the EO doctrine of this. I think it explains certain things better and doesn't run into as many problems. Is a position contra to this official for us? Or is it aight
Thank you God bless
I’ve been talking with Christians who are heavily influenced by YouTube prophecy channels claiming that current economics and technology signal the imminent end of the world. I’ve reminded them that Christians have been anticipating the end since the first century and that Scripture warns against trying to predict dates, but the fascination persists.
For those who’ve dealt with this in your congregations or communities: what approaches have helped you address this fear? What things could they watch on YouTube instead? And what alternative resources have you found that redirect people toward a healthier, more Christ-centered outlook?
Jesus explicitly states baptism is for all people according to my Lutheranism 101 book but for the institution of communion this seems to be instructions to the disciples. What is the biblical basis for repeating this every week with everyone?