What does the Lutheran Church teach about Justification by Faith and is the sacrament of Baptism essential to salvation?
score:1
Having been raised in the Lutheran church, and being born again as an adult, I spent a lot of time trying to understand this question, because It never made sense to me.
It's the type of question that requires a lot of context. The first thing is to understand that Lutheranism is NOT the same as reformed, calvnist, or baptist theologies.
They have a lot of common elements, and intersections, but these old ideas about baptism point more towards Catholicism than what other reformers would teach after Luther.
Here is an excerpt from the LCMS frequently asked questions page which explains quite frankly, that while they do indeed teach baptismal regeneration, they stop short of saying that baptism is REQUIRED for salvation.
Lutherans do not believe that only those baptized as infants receive faith. Faith can also be created in a person's heart by the power of the Holy Spirit working through God's (written or spoken) Word. Baptism should then soon follow conversion (cf. Acts 8:26-40) for the purpose of confirming and strengthening faith in accordance with God's command and promise. Depending on the situation, therefore, Lutherans baptize people of all ages from infancy to adulthood. The LCMS does not believe that Baptism is ABSOLUTELY necessary for salvation. All true believers in the Old Testament era were saved without baptism. Mark 16:16 implies that it is not the absence of Baptism that condemns a person but the absence of faith, and there are clearly other ways of coming to faith by the power of the Holy Spirit (reading or hearing the Word of God).
Heres the link to the whole FAQ. https://www.lcms.org/about/beliefs/faqs/doctrine#baptism This link is from the LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod). In my experience, this is about the best straight forward answers you can find. They have a bunch of stuff on baptism, and salvation in general. I think this will answer your question nicely.
With that being said,and the request for an official source being satisfied, I will give some brief points to help you contextualize the situation.
Lutherans believe human beings are saved by grace alone, through faith. They however differ from other protestants in that they believe that the sacrament of baptism, is an actually effectual means of grace, which benefits the baptized person. They talk about baptism as being "Water and the Word". So by baptism, the infant receives the word with faith.
They also teach that one can lose their salvation. Admittedly this is not brought up very much. But Lutheranism does not teach that an unbeliever, tho baptized as a child is any more saved than an unbaptized unbeliever.
By this they maintain that it is grace through faith that saves. They just do some "hand waving" and equate infant baptism with faith and grace.
As mentioned in the above quote, they do not teach that baptism is necessary for salvation.
This can all be somewhat confusing if you are coming from a Baptist/reformed understanding of things. I hope this helps!
More post
- 📝 In Jeremiah 12:7, who is the "Beloved of my Heart"?
- 📝 How was 'years' defined in the book of Genesis?
- 📝 How do Young Earth Creationists account for the arising of millions of species after the flood?
- 📝 What did Augustine mean by "The OT is the NT concealed. The NT is the OT revealed."?
- 📝 Did James brother of Jesus, believe that Jesus is God? if so, why were some Jews in the city offended by his death according to Josephus?
- 📝 According to Trinitarians, who is the begotten "son" in Psalm 2 and what happened on this "day"?
- 📝 How should other churches respond to a pastor and congregation who live contrary to the Gospel?
- 📝 Does the priest ask for reasons to prevent a marriage during a Catholic wedding?
- 📝 When was Job alive?
- 📝 Did St. Paul confess his sins in person?
- 📝 Are there any commentaries from Trinitarians that explain why the Holy Spirit doesn't have a throne/receive worship in Revelation?
- 📝 Do I need to confess the sins I committed before becoming Catholic?
- 📝 Sunday or Saturday?
- 📝 What does the Good News refer to?
- 📝 Why were Deuterocanonical books rejected in the Reformation?
- 📝 What is the meaning of 'scandalous' associated with the crucifixion of Jesus?
- 📝 How do Catholics support transubstantiation?
- 📝 According to Catholicism, how can a Christian be freed from the concupiscence of the flesh and thereby possess a sinless body?
- 📝 LDS belief about salvation in other worlds
- 📝 Biblical basis for treating a second marriage as sinful even in cases of adultery?
- 📝 "God desires all men to be saved" from a Calvinist perspective?
- 📝 What does Jesus mean when He says that we should be like children?
- 📝 What is the Catholic concept of "freedom to sin"?
- 📝 Why Does Matthew not give Jesus Christ's genealogy from Adam?
- 📝 Will God give us the gift of vision, dream, and prophecy if we request Him?
- 📝 Is it true that Luther claimed Popes and priests commonly practiced sodomy?
- 📝 According to Jehovah's Witnesses, why does the word Jehovah not get inserted into the Bible until Genesis 2:4?
- 📝 What is the "path" of a prayer?
- 📝 How Did the Earliest Church Define Salvation?
- 📝 Question for those who hold to the immortality of the soul
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What does the Lutheran Church teach about Justification by Faith and is the sacrament of Baptism essential to salvation?
- 📝 What does the LDS Church (Mormon) teach about marriage and polygamy in the afterlife?
- 📝 What does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints teach about who Jesus is and where He came from?
- 📝 What does the LDS Church teach about Jesus being married, having children, and His position on polygamy?
- 📝 What does the LDS church teach about what men and women did or do in the pre-existence?
- 📝 What does the Catholic church teach about fate of non-Catholic christians?
- 📝 What does the Roman Catholic church teach about those who die having never heard of Christ?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church teach that it has the authority to change what is morally right and wrong?
- 📝 What does the LDS Church teach about the pre-existence of each person prior to conception?
- 📝 What does the LDS Church teach about infallibility?
- 📝 What does the Roman Catholic Church teach about covenant theology?
- 📝 What does the Church say about the statements that the Pope Benedict XVI made in the book "God and the World"?
- 📝 What does Eastern-Orthodoxy teach about the Law and Gospel division?
- 📝 What does the Anglican Church teach about being born again?
- 📝 What does the Catholic Church teach about the communication that takes place among the Persons of the Trinity?
- 📝 What does Believers Eastern Church teach on the mode and subjects of baptism?
- 📝 What does the Catholic Church teach about the significance of reference to Jacob's Well at John 4:12?
- 📝 What does the Catholic Church teach about the observance of Sunday?
- 📝 What does Catholic Church teach about the interpretation of the metaphor of "salt of the earth?"
- 📝 What does the Orthodox Church actually teach about Original Sin?
- 📝 What has the LDS Church (Mormons) historically taught about the Curse of Cain and dark skin?
- 📝 What is the Lutheran doctrine of consubstantiation and how does it differ from transubstantiation and a more general protestant sacramental view?
- 📝 What does Catholic Church say about the post-resurrection wound marks of Jesus?
- 📝 On what basis does the Catholic Church teach that women cannot be ordained?
- 📝 What does the Bible teach about domestic discipline?
- 📝 What does the Bible say about this question- Why do Jesus and God have two seats in heaven when they are the same God?
- 📝 What does the Church have to say about the Pope's latest statement?
- 📝 What did the early Church Fathers (pre-Nicea A.D. 325) have to say about faith, baptism and if it is the act of baptism that saves?
- 📝 What privileges and powers does the Prophet of the LDS Church have in his office as Seer?
- 📝 What does the Catholic church say about its own presence or absence when the tribulation starts?