Hello all, new here. I am a Catechuman in Orthodoxy who left Lutheranism

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Moises_el_moreno

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Greetings all, looking forward to getting to know others here. As stated, left Confessional Lutheranism (LCMS) and am a Catechuman in Orthodoxy.
 
Why did you leave the LCMS if you don’t mind me asking. I’m currently lcms.
 
Not the OP but I myself was intrigued when Jarislov Pelikan life long Lutheran Scholar became Orthodox.
Hank Hanegraff(the Bible answerman) too.
DH and I have been looking East too, but not sure about it.
Subscribing to this thread.
Also a confessional Lutheran.
 
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I left the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church when I was 18 and went off to college. Now I am 66 and found my home in the Catholic Church. I felt that the Lutheran church stripped out all the mystery and mystic elements of Christianity and made it very surface level. No Saints, No Mary, No 2000 years of incredible scholarship, tradition and wisdom through the ages. They re-invented the wheel, so to speak from scratch and left a lot out. The belief that only faith is needed for salvation is what I think has brought us the modern non-Catholic Christian who can be a total jerk (no fruits of the spirit are necessary) and thinks he is saved by believing the Nicene Creed. So it is a business transaction, like signing a contract, but there is no change in personality. If you go into religion as a jerk, you should come out as a saint. But I didn’t see that in Lutheranism. Where were the fruits of spirit? Now, I am generalizing and there are many saintly people in ALL churches. But I also saw so much malice and spite, the Bible Thumper phenomena of people using God’s Word to beat up on other people.

But to be fair, Missouri Synod Lutheranism is the most conservative Lutheran synod. So when I read the Catholic Catechism (recommended! Or read the US Catholic Catechism for Adults put out by US Bishops), I found that just about everything matched my Lutheran beliefs, except for taking away Mary, the Saints, Tradition, the role of the Catholic Church as Christ’s church on earth, etc. So the Lutheran church took stuff out but was basically the same in the core beliefs. So converting wasn’t very hard for me. I wasn’t losing anything but instead gaining a lot that was thrown away by Protestants. Much of what was thrown away included some really beautiful elements of Catholicism.

Well, good luck to you.
 
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“Taking away” means removing these elements from Christianity. In Lutheranism (as I was taught), Mary is just like any other woman. She just happened to give birth to Jesus, but she is not worthy of any special admiration or veneration. She was sinful and probably had a mess of other kids after Jesus. She was a good sport to agree to have the Christ Child, but otherwise she is nothing special. The Saints are not even mentioned as Saints. There is no concept of a Saint in the Lutheran Church. Certainly, Paul and the apostles are venerated, but they are not considered above the rest of us in any “saintly” way. I also was never taught that certain elements of Christianity were mysteries, such as the Catholic Mystery of the Trinity, or the Mystery of the Virgin Birth or the Resurrection of Jesus. While Lutheranism believed in these 3 mysteries, they were never called mysteries, which recognizes that they may be beyond the comprehension and understanding of mere mortals. And then there are the 7 sacraments which are reduced to only 2: Baptism and Holy Communion. Lutherans believe that none of the others are sacraments because they cannot find scriptural confirmation of this, Bear in mind that Lutherans only believe in the Bible, nothing else. So if Catholic tradition and extra-Biblical doctrines - even millions of pages over 2000 years - supports 7 sacraments, the Lutherans won’t accept it. There is no Confession, for example. No anointing of the sick. No Holy Orders. The remaining sacraments (Confirmation and Marriage) are practiced but not given the honor of being known as sacraments. Lutherans threw out all Catholic scholarship and tradition and rely only on the Bible itself. The Lutherans had the view that anyone can interpret the Bible. Fine, but this has now led to over 45,000 separate Protestant denominations in the USA alone as any group that interprets the Bible a little differently splits off from a Protestant church and forms another church. In that sense, Protestantism is splintering itself into slow oblivion as each person could theoretically have his own interpretation and be his own Church.
 
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Okay. I won’t belabor the point. I know you are blessed by word and sacrament where you are.
I will just say that, in many of your points, your catechesis as a Lutheran did not serve you well.

Jon
 
Actually, to be able to respond to you factually, I took everything I wrote from Lutheran websites. I did not just make it up as I went along. It all came from websites that compare Lutheran and Catholic beliefs. I almost just copy/pasted it into the comment, but summarized it.
 
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ATraveller said:
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Dylansdad:
Missouri Synod Lutheranism is the most conservative Lutheran synod
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That title would actually go to WELS, the relatively large yet forgotten Lutheran denomination.
Click to expand...
Depends on what one means by conservative.
 
Dylansdad said:
Actually, to be able to respond to you factually, I took everything I wrote from Lutheran websites. I did not just make it up as I went along. It all came from websites that compare Lutheran and Catholic beliefs. I almost just copy/pasted it into the comment, but summarized it.
Click to expand...
Can you link to a Lutheran website that says the Blessed Virgin Mary was just another woman, no one special? That is so remarkably Un Lutheran, contrary to the Lutheran Confessions, to the writings of the great Lutheran theologians from Luther and Chemnitz to Walther.
 
Do your Orthodox pastor and Catechism teacher know and approve that you have joined CAF?
 
ATraveller said:
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JonNC:
Depends on what one means by conservative.
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That’s true.
My response was in the context of theology and governance not politics.
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Mine was, too. Perhaps the proper term is confessional, conserving the confessions.
Then again, i May be wrong, considering my recent experience and @Dylansdad ‘s comments.
 
JonNC said:
Mine was, too. Perhaps the proper term is confessional, conserving the confessions.
Then again, i May be wrong, considering my recent experience and Dylansdad ‘s comments.
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Both are confessional and the differences are few. One that comes to mind quite easily is WELS is much stricter on close/closed communion than the LCMS and possibly on interfaith issues. It always seemed as though, at least to me, WELS is much more hostile to the papacy.
 
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ATraveller said:
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JonNC:
Mine was, too. Perhaps the proper term is confessional, conserving the confessions.
Then again, i May be wrong, considering my recent experience and Dylansdad ‘s comments.
Click to expand...
Both are confessional and the differences are few. One that comes to mind quite easily is WELS is much stricter on close/closed communion than the LCMS and possibly on interfaith issues. It always seemed as though, at least to me, WELS is much more hostile to the papacy.
Click to expand...
On these points, you are spot on.
 
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