What Do ELCA Lutherans Believe?

What is the Church?
The Christian church is made up of those who have been baptized and thus have received Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world. Sometimes it is referred to as "the Body of Christ." Lutherans believe that they are a part of a community of faith that began with the gift of the Holy Spirit, God's presence with his people, on the day of Pentecost. The church, regardless of the external form it takes, is the fellowship of those who have been restored to God by Christ. Indeed, to be called into fellowship with Christ is also to be called into community with other believers.

To Lutherans, who subscribe to the Augsburg Confession, Article VII of that document defines the Church:

It is also taught among us that one holy Christian Church will be and remain forever. This is the assembly of all believers among who the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel. For it is sufficient for the true unity of the Christian church that the Gospel be preached in conformity with a pure understanding of it and that the sacraments be administered in accordance with the divine Word. It is not necessary for the true unity of the Christian church that ceremonies, instituted by (people), should be observed uniformly in all places. It is as Paul says in Eph. 4:4, 5, "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism." *

The church is essential to Christian life and growth. Its members are all sinners in need of God's grace. It has no claim on human perfection. The church exists solely for the hearing and doing of God's Word. It can justify its existence only when it proclaims the living Word of Christ, administers the Sacraments and gives itself to the world in deeds of service and love. ELCA Lutherans recognize a wider fellowship of churches and are eager to work alongside them in ecumenical ministries and projects, in response to Paul's description of the Church in Romans 12:4-5: "For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another."

* The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, translated by Theodore G. Tappert, 1959, Augsburg Fortress. Purchase this book.

Scripture quotation from New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

 

The Bible

The Bible as encounter with the living Word
Lutherans believe that the Bible is the most important of all the ways God's person and presence are revealed to humanity. That is because it is in reading the biblical books that we most reliably hear and encounter the living Word of God, who is the risen Jesus.

The Bible's very name begins to tell us what we have between its covers. In Greek "the Bible" literally means "the books." The Bible that Lutherans use is a collection of 66 books produced over a period of as much as 1,000 years. Each of these books had a life and use of its own prior to its incorporation into what we know as the "sacred canon."

The Bible contains the story of God's interaction with humankind, first through the understanding of the Jewish people (Old Testament, 39 books), and subsequently to all people through God's self revelation in Jesus (New Testament, 27 books).

Lutherans believe that people meet God in Scripture, where God's heart, mind, relationship to - and intention for - humankind are revealed. Through an ongoing dialogue with the God revealed in the Bible, people in every age are called to a living faith.

The Bible's authority rests in God
ELCA Lutherans confidently proclaim with all Christians that the authority of the Bible rests in God. We believe that God inspired the Bible's many writers, editors and compilers. As they heard God speaking and discerned God's activity in events around them in their own times and places, the Bible's content took shape. Among other things, the literature they produced includes history, legal code, parables, letters of instruction, persuasion and encouragement, tales of heroism, love poetry and hymns of praise. The varying types and styles of literature found here all testify to faith in a God who acts by personally engaging men and women in human history.

At the same time, we also find in the Bible human emotion, testimony, opinion, cultural limitation and bias. ELCA Lutherans recognize that human testimony and writing are related to and often limited by culture, customs and world view. Today we know that the earth is not flat and that rabbits do not chew their cud (Leviticus 11:6 ). These are examples of time-bound cultural understandings or practices. Christians do not follow biblically prescribed dietary laws such as eliminating pork from one's diet (Leviticus 11:7) because the new covenant we have with God has replaced the Old Testament covenant God had with his people. Because Biblical writers, editors and compilers were limited by their times and world views, even as we are, the Bible contains material wedded to those times and places. It also means that writers sometimes provide differing and even contradictory views of God's word, ways and will.

Listening to the living Jesus in the context of the church, we therefore have the task of deciding among these. Having done this listening, we sometimes conclude either that the writer's culture or personal experience (e.g., subordination of women or keeping of slaves) seems to have prompted his missing what God was saying or doing, or that God now is saying or doing something new.

The Bible's authority is interpreted through Jesus
By no means does that human presence in sacred Scripture detract from the Bible's testimony to God. Rather, this human testimony provides layers of faith and insight by those who contributed to the canon. The Bible's reliability lies not in reading it as science or proscription, but as humankind's chief witness to God, reflecting on faith as it is to be lived. Again, ELCA Lutherans judge all Scripture through the window of God's chief act ? that of entering human flesh in Jesus of Nazareth ? and they interpret Scripture by listening to the living Jesus in the context of the Church. Because Jesus' person, life and witness become the lens through which we read and interpret all Scripture, we can judge slavery as "not of Jesus," yet understand the customs of the time and read Paul's inspiring letter to Philemon, master of the slave Onesimus, as testimony to faith.

On several occasions, Martin Luther suggested that not all books of the Bible have the same value for faith formation. Similarly, as in all of life, ELCA Lutherans ask, "Is what we find here consistent with God's revelation in Jesus?" This is a central question/prescription that provides guidance for acting as moral beings and for calling humankind to justice; it also becomes the authority for our reading Scripture, for it is the Jesus of Scripture, the living Word, who reveals God and judges Scripture, just as he is the judge for all else in life. Therefore, it is a question that ELCA Lutherans find best answered within the life of the Church in community, for this risen Jesus is Lord of the Church.

Biblical interpretation as scholarly endeavor
ELCA Lutherans understand that the Bible contains various kinds of testimony to God's purpose for humanity. Included in its literary forms are history, story, parable, legal codes, hymns, inspirational and instructive letters, and personal faith testimony.

Some ancient Biblical content precedes the written word and was passed orally from generation to generation. Thereafter, early manuscripts were written fully or in part in a number of languages, principally Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. In order to duplicate and disseminate these manuscripts before the invention of the printing press texts were hand copied. While they are remarkable in their agreement and accuracy, sometimes - though mostly in minor matters ? because of a copyist's writing, mistakes or incorporation of margin notes, these texts do not agree among themselves.

Manuscript variances raise questions among scholars concerning the original text's intent or meaning. For instance, did God use ravens or Arabs to feed Elijah in the wilderness (1 Kings 17:6)? The two words share the same Hebrew characters, and since the passage predates the use of vowels in the Hebrew language, manuscript translations vary according to which vowels were assigned later by the scribe-copyists.

It may be helpful here to distinguish studying Biblical texts from mining the Bible for devotional material. ELCA Lutherans honor and employ both approaches in faith formation. The distinctions are not clear cut, for elements of each are found in both approaches. Yet some Biblical material particularly lends itself to meditation or reflection on the will of God for faithful living (e.g. Hebrews 11 on examples of faith).

There is also the kind of textual study that dissects a passage for deeper meaning or insight. In so doing, one discovers clarification, or understanding that informs and shapes doctrine (e.g. Romans 5 on grace and justification).

ELCA Lutherans understand that the Bible can be read and understood by an individual. We also recommend its being read and interpreted in Christian community, using helps provided by scholarly work for this getting to the heart and meaning of Biblical texts.

Biblical "criticism"

To come to the best understanding of a texts meaning, ELCA Lutherans, together with Roman Catholics and most other churches, respect the light shone on Biblical passages by a number of scholarly methods of scriptural study. These are called "criticisms" in that a critical eye uses one of several methods to analyze texts in an attempt to discover their meaning. The term criticism is not to be understood as being critical of the text. In the example of God providing Elijah food, a highly specialized area of research called "textual criticism" would compare the diverse manuscript copies known to exist, as well as other similar ancient translations of the words in question, to determine the more likely meaning.

Other such helpful "criticisms" used to understand author intent are, to name just a few:

• Historical (applying knowledge of ancient languages, grammar, idioms, customs, etc.)
• Form (comparing literary forms used by the author with similar Biblical and non-Biblical literature found in legends, stories, narratives, etc.)
• Redaction (understanding how writers creatively shaped material they inherit and how, perhaps, they brought nuances from their own context and culture)

ELCA Lutherans and ELCA teaching scholars do not rely on a single critical approach to a text, but find a variety of approaches helpful for understanding the meaning of various passages. These scholarly tools help to inform and strengthen our knowledge, faith and understanding of Gods marvelous acts, and point us to Gods ongoing action in the world in every age.

The Harper Collins Study Bible, NRSV (includes introductions and annotations by members of the Society of Biblical Literature)
The New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV

The Holy Spirit

"I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith."

For hundreds of years, Lutheran children have learned and often been asked to recite these words which introduce Martin Luther's explanation of the third article of the Apostles' Creed (Luther's Small Catechism). ELCA Lutherans believe that the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us in the faith, and that all of this flows from what we understand to be the Holy Spirit's paramount work -- to reveal and glorify Christ, and to strengthen the believer's faith.

The Spirit as person

For Luther the Spirit is both altogether person and altogether gift:

• person in the manner in which the Spirit comes to us and thus always remains the Lord
• gift in the manner in which the Spirit brings us to Christ and preserves us in the faith.*

Together, Father, Christ and Holy Spirit are the manifestations of the one God whom we know and understand to be revealed in a trinity of persons. For ELCA Lutherans, the Holy Spirit -- as person -- might be said to be one of God's "three faces."

The center of God's divine activity is the incarnate Son of God, Jesus the Christ. Yet, just as the Son performed the work of the Father who sent him, so the Spirit performs the work of the Son. The Spirit underscores the fulfillment of prophecy, witnessing to God revealed in Jesus. In carrying on Jesus' earthly ministry, the Spirit's ongoing work is to reveal truth, give life and strengthen faith (John 7:39, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7-15).

In the doctrine's Old Testament roots, the Spirit is God present in

• the natural order, at work creating the world and sustaining life
• history, using Israel to reveal God's divine redemptive purpose for humankind
• individual believers, anticipating the New Testament doctrine of the Spirit who dwells in human hearts (indwelling Spirit).

The continuity to the New Testament can be seen as the Spirit

• comes to Mary to give birth to Jesus (Luke 1:35)
• is present at Jesus' baptism (Luke 3:22 , often depicted in art as a descending dove)
• is given by the post-Resurrection Jesus to his disciples (John 20:22, often depicted in art as breath or wind), and
• enters and forms the church at Pentecost, extending Jesus' earthly ministry throughout the world (Acts 2:4 often depicted in art as tongues of fire).

The New Testament is uniquely a book of the Holy Spirit. All its writings, except 2 and 3 John, contain references to the Spirit.

Giver of life

The Holy Spirit as the "giver of life" has a central place in Christian revelation. ELCA Lutherans confess in the words of the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) that:

... We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the prophets. ...

In the Latin-speaking (Western) Church, the phrase and the Son (in Latin filioque) was first added to the Nicene Creed at the Synod of Toledo in Spain in 447. The formula was used in a letter from Pope Leo I to the members of that synod, responding to heresies they were confronting. (Primarily, it was added to the Creed in order to oppose the Arian heresy, which taught that the Son was a creature and not God.) At the third synod of Toledo in 589, the ruling Visigoths, who had been Arian Christians, submitted to the Catholic Church. They were obliged to accept the Nicene Creed with the filioque.**

It is the essence of the Gospel that the new life in Christ from beginning to end is solely the work of the Spirit. The Spirit's essential work of bestowing God's grace of forgiveness is pure gift, renewing us so that Christ may dwell in us. For Christians, the Spirit makes the living and life-changing Christ a personally experienced reality. In John 14:16 we are told by Jesus that the Spirit is our Advocate, God's "face" which is given to dwell with us forever. John goes on to say, "You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you" (John 14:17). Thus the Spirit, whose intrinsic nature of vital ongoing divine activity is recognized within the early church, comes to humankind from both Father and Son.

In church and world

ELCA Lutherans concur with Martin Luther that "the Holy Spirit is among humans in a twofold way":

"'First through a universal activity, by which [the Holy Spirit] preserves them as well as God's other creatures. ...' (Thus, the Spirit's activity is not limited to the sphere of faith and the church, but that all activity in which God engages with reference to the world and humankind is mediated through the Spirit.)

"Secondly, the Holy Spirit 'is gift from Christ' to believers. One can establish the principle that, for Luther, a relationship with God is possible only through the Spirit -- understood in the strict sense as a person of the Trinity. He believed that there is not a single theological doctrine in which the activity of the Spirit is not fundamental. The activities of the Spirit are personal in nature: speaking, bearing witness, and uniting believers with one another in one body. Apart from the Spirit there is no activity of God in the world or in human life, no living Word, no grace of Baptism, no real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist, no conversion or regeneration, no faith or fellowship in Christ.

"The Gospel also ascribes to the Holy Spirit the creation and preservation of the Christian community, the church. Through this ?communion of saints,' which has been entrusted with the Word and the Sacraments, the Spirit creates faith and fellowship, and thus carries out God's purpose for humankind." The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5:22).*

In Word and Sacrament

For Luther the Spirit is the author of preaching the Gospel and, simultaneously, gift to humankind enclosed in the Word. He stressed both the Spirit as the creator of the new life and as indwelling witness. He professed that such things as "raising one's children, loving one's wife and obeying the magistrate are fruits of the Spirit."

At the same time, Luther taught and ELCA Lutherans profess that, within the Church, the Spirit works through the Word and Sacraments, so ELCA Lutherans appreciate Word and the Sacraments as instruments of the Spirit which "feed" our faith.

"In binding the Spirit to the external means of Word and Sacrament, Luther did not deny the inner working of the Spirit. However, he did understand these to be safeguards against the excesses of subjectivism and emotionalism, a kind of romanticizing or ecstatic internalization of the Spirit. He disputed the (Reformation era) fanatics' right to appeal to special inspirations apart from revelation or Word and Sacrament ... and noted that the Spirit's proper work is precisely a strengthening in faith."*

As Luther put it in his explanation to the third article of the Apostles' Creed, still professed by ELCA Lutherans:

... the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth. ... In this Christian church he daily and abundantly forgives all my sins, and the sins of all believers, and on the last day he will raise me and all the dead, and will grant eternal life to me and to all who believe in Christ. This is most certainly true."

We pray, following the Words of Institution, as we prepare to receive the Lord's Supper,

"We ask you mercifully to accept our praise and thanksgiving and with your Word and Holy Spirit to bless us, your servants, and these your own gifts of bread and wine, so that we and all who share in the body and blood of Christ may be filled with heavenly blessing and grace, and, receiving the forgiveness of sin, may be formed to live as your holy people and be given our inheritance with all your saints. To you, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory in your holy church, now and forever. Amen" (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 109).

* Martin Luther's Theology, by Bernhard Lohse, trans. Roy A Harrisville, (Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Fortress, 1999), pp. 237-238, including citation of Luther's lectures on Galatians.
** http://en.allexperts.com/

 

The Triune God

God's three faces
The term Trinitas (Latin) was coined by the early church theologian Tertullian (A.D. 160-225) and probably first used in the sense of the coexistence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the unit of the Godhead by Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch in Syria (A.D. 169-177). While not a biblical term, The Trinity represents the crystallization of New Testament teaching. In writing his first letter to the Corinthians in about A.D. 55, just two decades after Christ's death and resurrection, St. Paul correlates Spirit, Lord and God (1 Corinthians 12:4-6). There is a similar correlation in the benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:14 and in the trinitarian baptismal formula of Matthew 28:19.

The church's confession of faith originated as a baptismal formula. "In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit asserts that God reveals himself in a threefold manner because he is a triune God. The doctrine is founded on the events of revelation in which the living God has disclosed himself to the world and manifested his determination to establish communion with humankind" (Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church).

Creation, redemption, reconciliation
"When the church, on the basis of the prophetic and apostolic witness, confesses one God it confesses its faith that the creator at the beginning of time and the re-creator at the end and the redeemer at the center of time is one God. And again, when the church, in obedience to the same witness, worships this one God by three distinct names, it recognizes and acknowledges the difference between creation, reconciliation, and redemption, and it confesses in the one God the three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit" (Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church).

Who is God?
ELCA Lutherans believe that God reveals who God really is to us. Therefore the Christian church must confess its faith in the essential Trinity. God is one God, revealed in three persons. Article 1 of the Augsburg Confession affirms the doctrinal decisions of the fourth century that deal with the oneness of the divine substance which is God, and the difference of the three persons (sometimes spoken of by their functions as Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier), declaring them fundamental for the faith of the Reformation. ELCA Lutherans fully subscribe to these confessions presented by the reformers to Emperor Charles V in 1530 in Augsburg, Germany.

Of the Godhead
Article 1 of the Augsburg Confession says, "We unanimously hold and teach, in accordance with the Council of Nicea, that there is one divine essence which is called and which is God, eternal, incorporated, indivisible, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the maker and preserver of all things, visible and invisible. Yet there are three persons, of the same essence and power, who are also co-eternal: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, together with the other 135 Lutheran World Federation* member churches, therefore, are Trinitarian churches, understanding that God has chosen to reveal God's self in triune fashion so that we might better know, understand and witness to God's activity in the world. With Western Christian churches, we celebrate the Sunday after Pentecost as Trinity Sunday.

* Lutheran World Federation churches span 78 countries, with approximately 68.6 million members in 140 member churches.

Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Abinngdon, 1976
The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, Augsburg, 1965

 

Jesus Christ

The New Testament witness
The New Testament is the only document that gives us a reliable picture of Jesus of Nazareth, who he is and what he means for humankind. The Gospel according to St. Mark, the earliest of the recorded Gospels, (about 70 A.D.) says, "In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased'" (Mark 1:9-11).

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews calls him "... the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross ... and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).

St. Paul, the earliest of the New Testament writers, says, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers ? all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:15-20).

St. John's Gospel calls Jesus the Word, saying "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it" (John 1:1-5).

The universal Christ
ELCA theologian, Carl Braaten, writes: "(Jesus) is clearly depicted as the Messiah of Israel, God's only Son, the Lord of creation, the Savior of all humanity. The New Testament abounds with titles which identify the uniqueness of Jesus. It is simply not possible to ... subtract these titles from the picture of the Man and have any real Jesus at all. We have no picture of Jesus as merely Jesus, to interpret as we please. The only Jesus we know is Jesus as the Christ, Son of God, Logos, Lord, Savior ? all titles of highest possible honor, putting him in the place which Israel had reserved for God alone, so much so that ultimately the church's "trinitarian formula (Father, Son and Holy Spirit)" (becomes) the only sound way to speak about the identity and meaning of Jesus. If we rightly read the New Testament, we learn that Jesus is not a son of God, but the only Son, not a savior, but the only Savior, not a Lord, but the Lord of lords, etc." Braaten goes on to say: "The special quality of Jesus' uniqueness is best grasped in terms of his universal meaning. The concrete person, Jesus of Nazareth, is unique because of his unequaled universal significance. The point of his uniqueness underlines his universality. If Jesus is the Lord and Savior, he is the universal Lord and Savior, not merely my personal Lord and Savior."*

True God, true man
But for Christians all over the world he is that, too ? a personal Lord and Savior. The earliest of the universal Christian creeds, confessed by ELCA Lutherans in worship and drawn from the New Testament witness, says:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father,
Through him all things were made
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

Incarnation, salvation, invitation
For ELCA Lutherans, as for all Christians, Jesus is fully man and fully God. We believe that in this Jesus atonement (the reconciliation of God and humankind) is accomplished. He is God's promised Messiah, the Christ, humankind's savior. In him, "God reveals to us most supremely who God is, how God relates to us and the world, and the depths to which God will go for our salvation." **

ELCA Lutherans believe that incarnated, enfleshed in this First Century human being, God's promise to redeem all creation is fulfilled, God's righteousness is shown, and God's covenant with humankind is fulfilled. We believe that Jesus, who having been put to death by crucifixion by the decree of the Roman curator Pontius Pilate, was witnessed as resurrected, and became, in the words of St. Paul, the first born of the dead (Romans 6:1-11). We believe that in his death our own sin and separation from God died We believe that God intends humankind to participate in a resurrection like his that will unite us with him in his heavenly kingdom. Just so -- as he did with St. Peter and St. Andrew -- this Jesus invites each of us in our lifetime to "Follow me" (Matthew 4:19).

* Carl Braaten, The Universal Meaning of Jesus Christ, Lutheran Church in America, Partners Magazine, December, 1980

** Terence E. Fretheim, About The Bible, Augsburg Fortress, 1999