If the Lutheran church has one distinctive, it is the steadfast conviction that our salvation is by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, plus nothing, minus nothing. And because the good news of God’s grace is clearly proclaimed in Scripture, Lutherans believe that the Bible is a clear book and that its words can be taken at face value (2 Corinthians 1:13 and 3:12). Furthermore, because the Papacy has opposed and even placed a curse on that doctrine, Lutherans condemn the Papacy’s opposition to the gospel as anti-Christian, while refuting its unscriptural doctrines.

However, Satan has been quietly infiltrating Lutheran churches, raising up what amounts to a non-Lutheran church within its very ranks, while hiding the doctrinal aberrations of this "church" behind ambiguous terminology. I am not talking about "liberalism," although that is certainly part of the problem, but about a considerable percentage of the Lutheran people who have a bogus understanding of what the Lutheran church teaches. These people generally feel that they are good Lutherans. Often they think of themselves as conservative, and sometimes even as champions of confessional Lutheranism. Nevertheless, because they have misunderstood what the Lutheran church teaches they wind up misrepresenting that teaching in a way that obscures the truth, confuses Law and Gospel, and discredits both Luther and the doctrine that he championed.

If what I have just said leaves you feeling somewhat incredulous, let me present some of the reasons that I have come to that conclusion and you can decide for yourself.

BOOK DOCTRINE VERSUS PERCEIVED DOCTRINE

The Clarity of Scripture:

The Lutheran church has always regarded the Bible as a clear book. Lutherans are quick to point out, that if the Bible were not clear it could never be a "lamp" unto our feet and a "light" unto our path (Psalm 119:105). In fact, belief in the clarity Scripture underlies every aspect of Lutheran theology. Every doctrine rests on the belief that God alone has the right to establish doctrine, and that what He wants us to believe and teach is nothing other than what the Bible plainly says. Because Lutherans believe in the clarity of Scripture, they believe that every believer has a responsibility to learn what the Bible teaches and to judge what is being taught in their congregation.

However, without even denying the Reformation commitment to the clarity of Scripture, Satan has been able to lead many Lutherans to regard the Bible as an obscure book that can only be understood by someone who has studied the original Hebrew and Greek. These people may not realize that they regard the Bible as an obscure book. In fact, they will usually affirm the clarity of Scripture when it is presented as a doctrine of their church. Yet they are, in effect, denying the clarity of Scripture by making understanding contingent on familiarity with the original languages.

While a knowledge of the original Hebrew and Greek sometimes makes it easier to follow the train of thought, or to recognize invalid conclusions, Lutherans have always held that the true doctrine is set forth in passages so clear that they need no interpretation. The meaning God intends for us to receive is nothing other than what the words plainly say, and that meaning is usually clear in any language. For example: The words, "This is the True God, and eternal life" mean the same thing in any language (1 John 5:20).

Baptism:

The Lutheran church has always held that baptism is simply a promise of grace, to which God has attached a ceremony. Furthermore, the Bible makes it clear that it is only through personal faith in Christ that we have access to what is promised (2 Corinthians 1:20, Romans 5:2, Galatians 3:22). In a Lutheran Hour sermon entitled, "The Power of Pentecost" (1943), Dr. Walter A. Maier expressed that doctrine this way.

Those who fail to understand the relationship of personal faith in Christ to what is promised, often assume that the ceremony conveys forgiveness automatically, simply by the performance of the act. However, that is not what the Lutheran Church teaches. In the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (Art. 12) we read, "This is absolutely a Jewish opinion, to hold that we are justified by a ceremony, without a good disposition of the heart, i. e., without faith. … Paul contradicts this and denies, Rom. 4, 9, that Abraham was justified by circumcision, but asserts that circumcision was a sign presented for exercising faith. Thus we teach that in the use of the Sacraments faith ought to be added, which should believe these promises and receive the promised things there offered in the Sacrament."

Therefore, the ceremony of baptism simply presents God’s promise of forgiveness to the one being baptized in the same way that a good sermon presents God’s promise of forgiveness to the listeners. "Just as Scripture does not teach (as the simplest Christian knows) that the mere outward act of hearing the Word saves any one, just as little does it teach that the Sacraments save thus." (Law and Gospel, by C.F.W. Walther, page 357)

However, without even denying what the confessions say about baptism, Satan has been able to lead many Lutherans to believe that one is born again, or saved, simply by being baptized. And I lay the blame for such soul endangering confusion at the feet of theologians who often speak of baptism as if the ceremony had the power to save apart from faith in Christ. Of such theologians C.F.W. Walther said, "One would indeed think it to be utterly impossible for a Christian minister to teach that the Sacraments produce salutary effects ex opere operato; still, that is what happens again and again. This awful error is taught by the very men who wish to pass for genuinely strict Lutherans, every time they discuss the Sacraments. When they have finished unfolding their doctrine of Baptism, every hearer has received the unmistakable impression that, in order to get to heaven, it is merely necessary to submit to the act of being baptized." (Law and Gospel, page 351)

One of the most misleading statements, is the phrase, "We are born again through baptism." If you were to poll any number of non-Lutherans, and ask them what that phrase is saying, they would, undoubtedly, reply that it is saying that the ceremony of baptism saves, or that we are born again simply by being baptized. None of them would see any connection between that statement and faith in Christ. And that is exactly why many Lutheran lay-people see no connection between baptism and Christ. Therefore, if, in the words of C.F.W. Walther, , "At no time has the Lutheran Church asserted that men are saved by the mere external use of the Sacraments. That is a teaching against which it has always raised its voice, which it has always combated and condemned," then it is contrary to sound doctrine to use a terminology that obscures the truth and promotes the very doctrine being condemned.

The Lord’s Supper:

As with baptism, the Lutheran church has always held that the Lord’s Supper is simply a promise of grace, to which God has attached a ceremony. In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther explained the relationship of faith to what is promised when he said.

In other words, what we are receiving when we believe that Christ’s body and blood were "Given and shed" for us, is the atonement that He died to obtain for us. Therefore, through His Supper, He is giving us His body and blood, not in a physical way, but as the atonement for our sins. He is giving us His body and blood only in the sense that He is giving us His atonement. The Lutheran Church has always rejected the idea that we are somehow eating Christ’s physical body or drinking His physical blood. However, Satan has been able to lead many Lutherans to believe exactly that. I have talked to Lutherans who are convinced that when they go to the Lord’s Supper they are eating and drinking flesh and blood. In fact, debates over the "moment of real presence" indicate that misunderstanding is even widespread among many of the clergy. Yet those who hold such ideas, more often than not believe that that is what their Church teaches.

[NOTE: The reason Luther found Zwingli’s words, "It isn’t really His body, it just represents His body," extremely offensive; was not because he believed that physical flesh was actually present, but because those words make the words of Christ ("take eat, this is my body") of none effect (Mark 7:13). Zwingli’s willingness to contradict Christ also indicated that he had a spirit of error (1 John 4:6)]

Judging what is taught:

Because the Lutheran Church believes in the "Priesthood of Believers," it has always held that believers have both the right and the responsibility to judge what is being taught by the Word of God (Acts 17:11, 1 Corinthians 10:15). However, with many of its members holding to a Romanized understanding of Baptism and The Lord’s Supper, it should not surprise us to find a percentage of those members who, like Roman Catholics, believe that they are just supposed to accept whatever their pastor says. In fact, I have heard Lutherans say, "I just believe whatever my pastor says."

Ordination:

Since there is no promise of Divine grace connected with ordination, and the Bible does not require it, Lutherans have always held that ordination is nothing more than a Jewish custom that was carried into the Christian Church. It does not confer any spiritual status on the one being ordained, and it certainly does not give them any special powers or authority over other believers. Yet many Lutherans wrongly assume that it does.

Falling from grace:

According to Lutheran teaching, just as God works through His Word to bring us to faith, He also works through His Word to keep us in faith. Therefore, just as our faith is a gift of God’s grace, the preservation of our faith is, likewise, a gift of God’s grace (Romans 10:17, 1 Peter 1:5). That is why Luther, in his Small Catechism, said, "The Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the one true faith." However, while Lutheran theology looks to God’s grace to keep us from falling into unbelief, it does not deny the passages that warn us of the danger of falling. Instead it realizes that Just as God uses His law to show us our need for His grace, He uses the passages that warn of falling to show us our need for His sustaining grace. The passages that warn of the danger of falling are used by God to rebuke unrepentant thoughts and desires that arise in our hearts, while the passages that assure us He will keep us from falling lead those who repent to trust in His grace.

However, the fact that some pastors combat the idea that we can harden our hearts in unrepentance without losing salvation, by dwelling on the danger of losing salvation, has robbed some Lutherans of the assurance that God will keep them from falling.

The Baptism of John:

Since baptism began with John the Baptist, and was continued by Jesus, Lutherans have always held that there is no essential difference between the baptism of John and Christian Baptism (John 4:1-3). However, because of the twelve men who were rebaptized in Acts 19:1-7 many Lutherans, including some pastors, assume that the Baptism of John was not a Christian baptism.

Actually, because none of the apostles that had been baptized by John were ever rebaptized, Lutheran theologians tend to believe that those men were not baptized by John, but by some of John’s followers who rejected Christ. Such followers did exist, and one group of them (the Mandeans) still exists.

 Watering Down the Law:

    Lutherans stress the fact that the law needs to be proclaimed in its full sternness in order to convict men of sin and point them to Christ for forgiveness. Nevertheless, because certain theologians have adopted the Catholic practice of referring to some sins as mortal and others as venial, many laymen fail to take certain sins seriously. Therefore, the terms mortal and venial need to be rejected for they are out of harmony with the proper distinction between law and gospel. Strictly speaking, there are no “venial” sins for even the sin that seems smallest in the eyes of man, if unforgiven, will send a person to hell as surely as the most heinous crime (James 2:10).

    Lutherans, of all people, ought to find the errors of Rome abhorrent! The Lutheran Church regards the mass (with its resacrifice of Christ) as an abomination. It regards the doctrine of purgatory, along with the idea that we can atone in part for our own sin, as a false gospel. And it condemns the idea that Mary, or the Saints, can help us to get into heaven as satanic doctrine. Yet because many Lutherans fail to understand what their own Church teaches, they fail to see much difference between their own Church and the Church of Rome, and they fail to appreciate their own heritage. I find it hard to see that as anything other than satanic delusion.

CONCLUSION

Although God used Martin Luther to restore the truth of the Gospel to His Church, Satan has been able to raise up a bogus religion, that consists of a false understanding of what Luther taught, right in the midst of the Lutheran Church. Because those who labor under this bogus religion endanger souls, hinder the work of the Gospel, and discredit the Evangelical Church we are in dire need of a new reformation.

We need to eliminate ambiguous, unbiblical, and confusing terminology from our theology, while emphasizing the importance of personal faith in Jesus Christ. And to that end, I would like to hold up the sermons of Dr. Walter A. Maier as an example to follow. During the 1930’s and 40’s his clear and forceful presentation of the Gospel brought hope and life to millions around the world, and that is exactly what we need today.