Sketches of Faith and Life in the 175-Year History of the LCMS
Learn more about some of the people who made a significant impact on the LCMS throughout its history.
A Reading List of LCMS History
Learn from the very early years when immigrants came to Missouri through more recent events of the 20th century.
Faces of the Reformation Series
Explore the past through the people who lived it! Meet 25 men and women passionate about the Reformation re-discovery of the Gospel—either for or against it. Download reproducible bulletin inserts, biographical handouts, and Bible studies for each unforgettable face of the Reformation era.
The Holy Innocents
Holy Innocents is the often-overlooked feast day of the church calendar on December 28th that commemorates the slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem following the birth of Jesus.
An image of Albrecht Dürer's Virgin and Child with Half a Pear
Albrecht Dürer’s “Virgin and Child with Half a Pear”
At first glance, Dürer's Virgin and Child With Half a Pear may simply look like a lovely Renaissance mother holding her baby, but Dürer confesses much more as he paints the flesh, blood, and bone of the Son of God.
Luther’s Hauspostille
Picture yourself sitting in Luther’s house. It’s Sunday, late in the day and many others are gathered with you in the old Augustinian monastery-turned-parsonage in Wittenberg. Around you sits...
Where Does God Reveal Himself?
It’s good for us to meditate on what the church believes, teaches, and confesses about how God reveals himself to his creatures.
Luther on the Incarnation
Our Lord Jesus has two natures, divine and human, in one undivided person. He is fully divine, the eternally begotten Son of God, and fully man, born of the Virgin Mary. And for our justification to be accomplished, He must be both.
The Cross Alone is our Theology
When we look at the cross, there we can truly understand who God is, and apply that understanding to the rest of the world.
Reformation Theology of Missions
From its beginning, the Reformation was missional; it called forth evangelists to carry the message of the Gospel throughout the world.
Luther’s Baptismal Rites
Martin Luther actually produced two different orders of baptism. The first Order of Baptism was published in 1523. It was basically a translation of the existing Latin rite into German, with a few minor changes, mainly the addition of the Flood Prayer. This order was revised in 1526, primarily by simplifying and shortening it.
The Diet of Worms
The imperial Diet of Worms of 1521 was in many respects the culmination of the first phase of the Luther’s Reformation. As opposition increased, and as he studied the Scriptures in their original languages, Luther’s departures from late medieval theology grew ever more significant.
The Antinomian Disputations
Between 1537 and 1540, Martin Luther and his onetime colleague John Agricola fiercely debated the role of the Law in the Church.
The Marburg Colloquy
Even before the meeting at Marburg, Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli had each written forcefully against the position of the other regarding whether the true body of Jesus Christ was present in the Lord’s Supper. In what came to be known as the Great Controversy, it was clear that Luther and Zwingli could not come to agreement on this doctrinal issue.