Thu 17 Jul 2014
Are Lutherans Catholic? The conversation continues
Posted by Mathew Block under Articles, Lutheran Leanings, Main
1 Comment
A word of thanks to those continuing the conversation about my recent First Things article “Are Lutherans Catholic?”. Gene Veith has some great conversation on the topic going on over at his blog Cranach, and Rev. Larry Peters is writing something similar over at Pastoral Meanderings (with reference to my “Too Damn Catholic” post from over on A Christian Thing). Nathan Rinne has also been contributing to the topic over at the Just & Sinner website.
It’s well worth checking out the conversation going on in these places, and I commend them all to your reading.
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If Lutherans are Catholic, then the Reformation was a waste of time. If the Reformation was not a real threat to the Papists, then there would have been no Counter-Reformation, no bloody Inquisition, and no Protestants. What is there to debate here? Are there some similarities between Catholics and Lutherans? Yes! Are there major doctrinal and Biblical differences? Of course! I think there are residues of Catholicism within Lutheranism, but having read some of the writings on Lutheran Blogs, it appears many Lutheran Pastors are a rather confused bunch, having been influenced by post modernist thinking and revisionism. Luther probably did not perceive how worse things would get for Lutheranism in both Europe and America. The fracturing of the Lutheran church into liberal and conservative synods, and currently an intermingling of truth and error speaks to a problem with the definition of what, according to contemporary thinking, is a Lutheran? In my view, the LCMS and WELS are still close, but ELCA is now apostate and embraces heretical and false ideas.