a Lutheran’s Confessions

“Accord its honor to this article of faith; for he who eats, that is, believes, already has eternal life. If, then, you have eternal life, why do you want to be so foolish as to earn it? After all, you are baptized, have received the Lord’s Supper, and have eternal life. Are you not, then, mad and demented to want to attain salvation—in the devil’s name—through your works?” (#1899, What Luther Says, CPH)

1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
1 John 4:1-3 (ESV)

     The current issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY magazine says what many of us Lutherans have been saying for years—the modern evangelical churches, which we are constantly urged to imitate, are in serious trouble and decline.

     Sentimental sweetness, entertainment, and an intentional avoidance of doctrine have plagued the modern evangelical movement for decades.

     Church attendance is declining in America, even among the modern evangelicals. The world can sense what the church cannot—that we have lost our way, remaking ourselves into whatever the marketplace demands and the consumer wants. Nothing is more irrelevant than that.

     The world hasn’t changed. We sinners still need the law in all its severity and the gospel of Jesus Christ in all of its comfort and sweetness. We need the focus on Jesus, not gimmicks or distractions.

     It’s time for modern evangelicals to return to their roots—to the faith of the first evangelicals—to the Lutherans.