History

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.

Casiodoro de Reina, translator and publisher of first complete Spanish Bible

Casiodoro de Reina, a monk in the Seville area of Spain in the mid-16th century, was one of the first Spaniards to embrace the principles of the Protestant Reformation.

Juan de Frías, Lutheran martyr of Venezuela

In 1672, the Inquisition imprisoned four priests on the charge of being unrepentant Lutheran heretics. Three of the priests were Canary Islanders serving in Venezuela; the fourth was a native Venezuelan from Caracas named Juan de Frías.

Essay: ‘The History of LCMS Mercy Work with African Americans’

The Rev. Dr. Roosevelt Gray explores the legacy of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod using mercy work as a means by which to share the Gospel with African-Americans.

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.

Luther’s Time at the Wartburg

Wartburg Castle was a hunting castle that belonged to the ducal family of Saxony. To the present day, it lies in the Thuringian forest in north-central Germany.

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.

Reformers on the Marks of the Church

The Western Church, prior to the Lutheran Reformation, had been arguing about the church. Was its top instance of decision-making authority, for example, the Roman Curia or a (properly convened) council?