Today most modern societies would find it hard to imagine a time when the Holy Scriptures were not accessible to them in a language they could understand, but to the people at the time of the Reformation this was the accepted norm.
LCMS Worship provides hymn suggestions for 2017-18 for Series B and the One-Year Series.
Between 1537 and 1540, Martin Luther and his onetime colleague John Agricola fiercely debated the role of the Law in the Church.
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.
Luther’s use of Scripture to challenge the pope came to a climax in the early summer of 1519 when Luther and the renowned theologian John Eck met face to face in Leipzig to debate the main topics of contention raised by the Wittenberg theologians.
LCMS Worship provides suggestions for liturgy, psalms, readings, hymns and collects to use during 2017 midweek Advent services.
The LCMS Recognized Service Organizations newsletter for Fourth Quarter 2017 features the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch in North Dakota.
Many events were set in motion by Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses on October 31st, 1517, but ironically, not the very thing he intended. The 95 Theses were meant for theological debate, a debate that never occurred. Any expectation of a lively academic disputation was consumed by a firestorm that reached far beyond Wittenberg and Germany to the pope himself.
This month’s Life Together News Digest focuses on 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
While we often think of repentance being poorly understood because of Papist emphasis on man’s efforts, the Reformers (and we still to this day) also recognized that many are burdened in conscience by the notion that Christians shouldn’t need to repent.
The burning of the bull was not something Luther did lightly, or with great pomp necessarily. He later told his friend and superior Johann von Staupitz that he did this while “trembling and praying.”
Read the latest about religious liberty issues affecting Christian service members in our nation’s military and how LCMS military chaplains, the Synod’s Ministry to the Armed Forces and some religious liberty advocates are making a difference.
Through the Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ works faith in the hearts of men and causes them to be saved. This Luther realized and thus advocated for the tireless and ceaseless bringing of the Gospel to the people.
Located on the banks of the Elbe River, Hartenfels is not only an impressive Renaissance castle on the outside, but inside contains a jewel of the Reformation: the first newly constructed Lutheran church in the world!
The Large and Small Catechisms of Dr. Luther were born of pastoral necessity. In 1528, Luther and his colleagues visited the congregations in Saxony to assess their spiritual health. Luther was horrified.