A Tale of Two Churches 2/2
Trinity Lutheran -vs- Bethany Lutheran
Will the real Lutheran Church please stand up.
“Almost every church claims to believe the Bible or practice Jesus’s ways. Our Lutheran Church boils down what God teaches… and everything Christians believe and do.”
“We are committed to working with people of other religions and worldviews toward mutual understanding and for the common good.”
In the previous blog we explored the mission statements of two Lutheran churches that are on opposite ends of the christian spectrum. Both churches call themselves Lutheran, but given their striking differences, I found myself asking, “Which one has actually based their church on the teachings of Martin Luther?”
In this blog we’ll compare both of their mission statements with the writings of Martin Luther himself. For me, the church that most closely aligns itself with the teachings of Martin Luther, shall be deemed a true Lutheran church. Let the games begin.
Excessive wordiness
Excessive wordiness was one of Luther’s special gifts. Here are several examples of just how verbose Luther tended to be. When Luther visited his parishes, he was very concerned with what he found to be a pitiable ignorance about Christian doctrine. He wrote this about what he found.
“The deplorable, miserable conditions which I recently observed when visiting the parishes… how pitiable, so help me God, were the things I saw: the common man, especially in the villages, knows practically nothing of Christian doctrine, and many of the pastors are almost entirely incompetent and unable to teach. (These) deplorable conditions have constrained and pressed me to put this catechism of Christian doctrine into this brief, plain, and simple form.”
Let’s see how brief, plain, and simple Luther’s catechism really is.
The first christian doctrine Luther addresses are The Ten Commandments, which contain a mere 127 words in total. Luther’s (brief) explanation exceeded 23,000 words. The First Commandment alone, which uses only eight words; “Thou shall have no other gods before me,” required a 3,000-word explanation.
Next, Luther tackled The Creed, which he calls “The Articles of Our Faith.” The entire Creed contains 120 words. Luther’s (brief) explanation of the Creed contains 4,545 words.
Luther’s attempt to simplify the 73-word Lord’s Prayer is an impressive show of verbosity. His (brief?) explanation contains a whopping 8,485 words. It took Luther 2,589 words to explain the first six words of the prayer, “Our Father which art in heaven.” How’s that for brief, plain, and simple?
In his 6,656-word commentary about the book of Romans, (which itself has just over 7,000 words) Luther explains that in order to understand what Paul meant in Romans his readers must first understand the meaning of seven important words. He writes,
“In the first place, we must acquaint ourselves with matters of language and understand what Paul means by these words: law, sin, grace, faith, righteousness, flesh, Spirit; otherwise, we shall derive no benefit from reading this epistle.”
In typical Luther fashion, he used 2,800 words to explain these seven words. That’s an average of 400 words to explain each one of the seven. Our first comparison, therefore, will be to see which mission statement contains the most words, making them more like Luther.
Bethany’s mission statement contains a mere 2150 words. It’s clear, brief and to the point. That is not in true Lutheran fashion. On the other hand, Trinity’s mission statement contains a whopping 8,500 words, not counting the links to other website where you could find even more information about what they believe. Trinity is hands down the clear winner on the point of wordiness as being more Luther-like.
Score: Trinity 1 / Bethany 0.
Lutheranism is the only true religion.
In the above-mentioned commentary of Romans, Luther warns his followers to beware of anyone who teaches contrary to his writings. He writes,
“Beware of all teachers who employ these (7) words (mentioned above) in a different sense, no matter who they are, even if they should happen to be Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Origen, and men like them or still higher than they.”
In this quote Luther references what can only be thought of as the Mt. Rushmore of early christian scholars and thinkers, who, in their times were considered the ultimate authority on all matters of theology. According to Luther, these great scholars were wrong, and (of course) he was right.
Trinity Lutheran
Trinity begins their mission statement with this paragraph.
“Almost every church claims to believe the Bible or practice Jesus’s ways. How can you tell the difference between what God teaches and what people have made up? Our Lutheran Church boils down what God teaches into a brief (5,100 words) form called the Small Catechism which summarizes everything Christians believe and do.”
And ends with this statement,
“Christianity is the only true religion you can rely on…”
For Trinity, other denominations are making up what God teaches but Luther’s Large and Small Catechism summarize “everything” christians believe and do. It seems clear that Trinity believes that Lutherans believe and do the right stuff, but all other forms of christianity practice a made-up religion and therefore are suspect.
Bethany:
On the other hand, Bethany is accepting of other religions. Their mission statement says this,
“In our multireligious world, the ELCA is committed to working with people of other religions and worldviews toward mutual understanding and for the common good.”
This is definitely not a concept Luther would have embraced. In fact, his philosophy was nearly the exact opposite. He wrote,
“But those who refuse to learn (i.e. don’t believe as we believe) are to be told that they are denying Christ and do not belong to Him. They are not to be admitted to the Sacrament, accepted as sponsors at Baptism, or allowed to exercise Christian liberty in any way. They should instead be simply directed back to the pope and his functionaries, yes, even to Satan himself. Moreover, their parents and superiors should refuse them food and drink, telling them that the prince is of a mind to expel such rude persons from his realm, and so on.”
Dissenters should be ostracized and refused food and drink? Now that’s more like Luther. Trinity wins another round.
Score: Trinity 2 / Bethany 0.
God’s Love
Bethany mentions God’s love 16 times, saying that God’s Love is limitless, unconditional, never ending, and for everyone.
Trinity only mentions Love twice. “The Bible has two big commands that God gives us: to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves.” It’s really no surprise that God’s love for humanity is not mentioned in Trinity’s mission statement. The only reason love got mentioned at all, is because it’s part of the great commandment, and Luther loved commandments and thus, so do Lutherans.
In Luther’s Large and Small Catechisms, he instructs his followers to love (and fear) God, to love God’s laws and commandments, to love their parents, to love their spouse and to love their enemies. However, there is no mention of God’s love for humanity anywhere in Luther’s writings (at least that I could find). That makes Trinty’s lack of love more Luther-like.
Score: Trinity 3 / Bethany 0.
The Jews & their Lies.
Martin Luther’s anti-Judaic writings
At the beginning of his career, Martin Luther was sympathetic to the Jews, probably because, like him, they were resistance to the Catholic Church. However, when he expected them to convert to his purified version of Christianity and they did not, he turned violently against them. In a vitriol essay entitled “The Jews and their lies” Luther wrote,
“Therefore, the blind Jews are truly stupid fools. Now just behold these miserable, blind, and senseless people … their blindness and arrogance are as solid as an iron mountain.”
“Therefore, be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming (sic) his eyes on them.”
“Moreover, they are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat no morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they have not stolen and pilfered from us by means of their accursed usury.”
“(We) should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants… and then eject them forever from this country.”
Bethany:
“The ELCA has repudiated Martin Luther’s anti-Judaic writings and is committed to Jewish relations and combating anti-Semitism.”
Trinity:
No mention of Luther’s anti-Judaic writings.
For Bethany to disassociated themselves from the teaching of their honored patriarch is a bold move. It is absolutely the right thing to do but cannot be considered the Lutheran thing to do. Trinity’s silence on the matter, while not being PC, can be considered as more like Luther.
Score: Trinity 4 / Bethany 0.
So, Trinity Lutheran wins the contest. They are without a doubt, more Lutheran than Bethany. Yet, I’m not saying that it’s necessarily a good thing. Lutheranism as practiced by Trinity Lutheran definitely has its flaws and personally, I would not choose to attend a church like that. On the other hand, I would be more inclined to visit Bethany Lutheran, because I like their acceptance of others.
They write,
“(We) are continually working toward reconciliation and to share our fundamental belief that God’s love and grace are limitless and for everyone. At Bethany Lutheran Church we value people of diverse race, sexual identity, ethnicity, and political affiliation.”
Definitely not Lutheran-like, but maybe Christ-like. But how would I know?
I’ll end this blog with a quote from renown historian Will Durant.
“He (Luther) freed his followers from an infallible pope but subjected them to an infallible book; and it has been easier to change the popes than the book. He retained the most cruel and incredible dogmas of medieval religion, while allowing almost all its beauty to be stamped out in its legends and its art, and bequeathed to Germany a Christianity no truer than the old one, yet far less joyous and comforting. He became almost as intolerant as the Inquisition.”
Endnote:
I have included this because it would be almost unbelievable to some people that Luther actually said these inflammatory statements. But he did, and here are his 7 steps to deal with the “lying Jews”.
- First, set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians.
- Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.
- Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.
- Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb.
- Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside.
- Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping.
- Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam.
From Where I Stand
Sept. 14, 2025
Dale Crum