Monday, March 08, 2004 AD
Evangelical, but not Protestant
More excellent Ruminations from "Pennsy", this time on why Lutherans aren't Protestant. Personally, I find the question a bit "pot-ay-to, pot-ah-to", but the Ruminator's comments on Lutherans as evangelicals are spot-on:
Part of my purpose with this blog is to demonstrate that becoming a Lutheran absolutely does not involve ceasing to be an evangelical: quite the contrary, it involves becoming more consistently and thoroughly evangelical than before.
This is very important on a personal level - numerous friends are likely to think we've gone completely off the rails, spiritually, by becoming Lutherans (especially because of the sacramentalism). Even if I can't persuade them to become Lutherans, I'm determined to prove that we are still evangelicals, through and through - not for polemical purposes, but out of love for people who will be genuinely and deeply concerned for our well-being.
Lutherans are people of the Scriptures who profess the Word of God as, in Luther's words, "the true holy thing above all holy things". We are evangelical in the true sense of the word, professing the Good News of salvation by faith through grace and by no merit of our own. In fact, Luther's choice for the name of the churches that accepted his reforms was not "Lutheran" but "Evangelical", as Lutherans are still widely known in Europe.That's exactly the sense in which I have been and remain a "Confessing Evangelical" - the term "evangelical" is far too important to surrender it to the assorted Arminians, Open Theists, legalists and Charismatics who parade under that banner today.
Part of my purpose with this blog is to demonstrate that becoming a Lutheran absolutely does not involve ceasing to be an evangelical: quite the contrary, it involves becoming more consistently and thoroughly evangelical than before.
This is very important on a personal level - numerous friends are likely to think we've gone completely off the rails, spiritually, by becoming Lutherans (especially because of the sacramentalism). Even if I can't persuade them to become Lutherans, I'm determined to prove that we are still evangelicals, through and through - not for polemical purposes, but out of love for people who will be genuinely and deeply concerned for our well-being.
