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1) What is a Lutheran?2) Who was Martin Luther?
What is a Lutheran?
A Lutheran is a follower of Jesus Christ, a member of the Christian Church. He or she would be defined as an evangelical Christian. The term ”evangelical” refers to a term Protestants like to use to point out that their faith centers in the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ. Lutherans make up the largest and, among the larger churches, the oldest of the groups that are heirs to the Reformation of the Western Church four or five centuries ago. There are about ten million Lutherans in the United States. The word Lutheran was a nickname we received in the sixteenth century. We were called that after the founder of our church Martin Luther (1483-1546) who, ironically, did not want to found a new church. Luther did not welcome such a designation for his fellow believers. But the name "stuck," so members of the Lutheran Church not only live with it, but enjoy remembering by means of it what God did through the sixteenth century reformer. [Top]
Who was Martin Luther?
Martin Luther was a fallible,
energetic, robust, occasionally crude, never dull German monk who had tried to
please God by living the disciplines of a medieval Roman Catholic monastery. But
nothing he did, did he feel was pleasing to God. After spending much time with
the Bible, he learned about a different kind of God than he had been taught. He
learned about a God of love and forgiveness, a God of inclusively and grace.
That was his kind of God. This was the God he wanted others to hear about too. |
