Compare the Lutheran and Calvinist Reformations

Like the family and the economy, religion is a worldwide and pervasive phenomenon, a part of the cultural system, because it is fictitious to meet slightly basic need of military personnel being. Religion is an integrated part of hu humans bang and shows remarkable continuity through time. Even in the modern secularized societies in the West, religion has persisted and still exerts a great influence in the buy the farms of people.Al almost al wiz known peoples in all places and times fall out birth some set of specific cultural patterns do up of opinions and codes of look at, tinged with emotional views, an explanation or justification of human behavior and social organization regarding the dissemination of power between the leaders and the governed, the moral code, the statistical distribution of wealth, or the success of some and failure of some others whitethorn be found in religion. ghostly, beliefs and practices contribute been debated by various religious sectors and it includes the Lutheran and Calvinist re crapations. This radical comp bes and contrasts the doctrines and beliefs between Lutheran and Calvinist Re formulaations.II. DiscussionA. Calvinism and its beliefsThe godliness and system of church practices based on the teachings of the Protestant Reformation leader John Calvin. It is the doctrine of the Presbyterian and the amend churches and is part of the heritage of Baptists, the Congregationalists, and certain other deliverymanian stems. Calvins thought is most completely verbalised in his Institute of the Christian Religion (1536). other significant documents of Calvinism argon the Canons of Dort (1619), the doctrinal basis of the reform churches and the Westminster Confession (1646), the traditional Presbyterian creed.Fundamental to proto(prenominal) Calvinism was the belief in theologys absolute milkweed butterfly will over the affairs of man. To do matinee idols will was mans early duty. According to the doctrine of original sin, fling, the first man, was created sensitive and did divinity fudges will. Adams sin, however, resulted in mans fall from this state. Thus, all humanness was infected with a total depravity, leaving man free to sin but not to do good. All were rightfully damned (R. Po-Chia Hsia & Henk Van Nierop, pp. 234-236, 2002).The austere Calvinist doctrine of limited atonement held that Christs death atoned for the sins of a limited few, not all mankind. The limited few, called the cull, were thus saved. According to predestination, Calvins most widely known doctrine God decreed perennial life for the elect and eternal damnation, or reprobation, for the rest. According to the idea known as irresistible grace, individuals elected by God to be saved by his grace could not pack to resist it.Calvinist, like most other early Protestants, emphasized the doctrine of justification, which dealt with the condition of mans salvation. A saved individual was list inoffensive by Go ds grace, and by Gods judgment was declared just, or acceptable. estimable works by an individual could not achieve his salvation or justification he had to live by belief alone. However, his faith was expressed fall outwardly in strict moral and righteous conduct and good works. To a Calvinist, the ability to base ones life in faith was presumable evidence that one was saved from sin and numbered among the elect (Kingdon, p.45, 2006).In Calvinism, Scripture became the supreme authority in faith and life. Calvinists believed that the discussion designated but twain sacramentsbaptism and dedicated Comm essence. Calvins notion of the church government in which the church elects elders, or presbyters, to govern its affairs came from the Bible and was adopted by the Presbyterian and the better church servicees. This idea of realistic church government was an important influence on the development of modern democracy.In the 17th century, some Dutch theologians and the English Puritans added to Calvinism the covenant theology. The covenant was a contractual relationship between the Christian and God. The sacraments were attached as seals of the covenant. There were two covenants that God made with manthe covenant of works was made with Adam the covenant of grace was made in deliverer Christ (Van Bruaene, pp.481-489, 2004). The covenant theology, which became central to Puritanism in England and America, dumb the doctrine of predestination by giving cite to human cooperation in achieving salvation.B. Lutheran and its beliefsThese are Protestant Christians who follow the teachings of Martin Luther, the leader of the German Reformation. Lutherans form the largest base of Protestants. The Lutherans are the largest religious group in Germany they take in more than 95 percent of the people of the Scandinavian countries and they have inexpugnable minorities in many other countries. Lutherans in the United States number about 8,460,000 and are the nations fourth largest religious group.Lutherans places strong emphasis on doctrine. It affirms that the Bible is the sole regulation of faith and accepts all traditional Protestant Christian doctrines. Distinctive Lutheran beliefs are defined in Luthers two catechisms, the Augsburg Confession, the Schmalkaldic Articles, and the Formula of Concord (Anderson, pp.121-125, 2001).The promontory Lutheran tenet is justification by faith alone. Salvation, according to this belief, does not come through food works. Rather, it comes by the faith of believers that God has exoneraten their sins through the generate of Christ, and that by Gods grace they have been justified (become righteous).Lutheranism has two sacraments, baptism and the Lords Supper.Lutherans believe that in Holy Communion at that place is no physical change in the scraping and wine, but that Christ is truly present to forgive sins and to renew the spiritual life of believers. Lutheran churches make greater use of liturgy the most Protestant churches, but there are differences in forms of domain worship among Lutheran bodies (Braaten, pp. 83-86, 2004).There are differences withal in church government. The Lutheran churches in atomic number 63 have bishops. In the United State the local congregation is the unit of church organization and the extraction of authority. During the nineteenth century congregations combined in synods, or regional groupings (Arnold, p.47, 2002). After 1900 many synods united to form national denominations. Some synods are advisory bodies darn others have a enormous amount of authority.The evangelical Lutheran church building in America was form in 1987 by a merger of the American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church in America, and the linkup of evangelistic Lutheran Churches. The denomination has 5,300,000 members, two of the denomination that make up the church were born out of mergers and one, the association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, was a group that seceded from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (Braaten, pp. 83-86, 2004).The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod believes in strict hamper to the Bible and to all Lutheran confessions. This denomination, of German origin, was founded in 1847 by the Rev. Cal F. W. Walther. The Missouri Synod has about 2,630,000 members. It has many congregations in Canada (Rogness, pp. 364-366, 2000).The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod is one of the conservative Lutheran bodies, holding without reservation to the Lutheran confessions and the infallibility of the Bible. The church was unionised in Milwaukee in 1850. It has congregation in most states of the Union and has some 400,000 members. Other Bodies. There are several small Lutheran denominations.Thy include the pompous Lutheran Church of America (6,000 members), Association of thaw Lutheran Congregations(19,000 members), Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America (12,000 members) Church of the Lutheran Confession (9,000 members), Estonian Evangel ical Lutheran Church (7,000 members), Evangelical Lutheran Synod (20,000 members), Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (14,000 members), Protestant Conference (Lutheran), Inc. (1,000 members), and World Confessional Lutheran Association (1,300 members) (Nelson, p.17, 2002).III. endIn conclusion, by the early 20th century, only a few Protestant churches held to the strict Calvinism of the sixteenth and 17th centuries. Most churches characterized as Calvinist have either greatly modified or rejected such doctrines as election, predestination, and irresistible grace to give man a free will to chink his salvation. Moreover, there was much rivalry between Lutherans and the Reformed Church, which was founded by John Calvin. The reformed faith gained considerable support in some German states. During the 19th century the Lutheran and Reformed groups formed union churches in many of the states.ReferenceAnderson, C.S. Faith and granting immunity The Christian Faith According to the Lutheran Confession, pp.121-125, (Augsburg, 2001). Arnold, D.W. The Way, the Truth, and the life an Introduction to Lutheran Christianity, p.47 (Baker Book House, 2002). Braaten, C.E., editor. The New Church Debate Issues Facing American Lutheranism pp. 83-86, (Fortress Press, 2004). Kingdon, Robert M. The Disciplinary mutation Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early new-fashioned Europe. Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 59, p.45. 2006 Nelson, E.C. The Rise of World Lutheranism, p.17 (Fortress Press, 2002). Rogness, A.N. The Story of the American Lutheran Church, pp. 364-366, (Augsburg, 2000). Van Bruaene, Anne-Laure. Calvinism and Religious Toleration in the Dutch Golden Age. Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 57, pp.481-489, 2004. R. Po-Chia Hsia, Henk Van Nierop. Calvinism and Religious Toleration in the Dutch Golden Age. pp. 234-236, Cambridge University Press, 2002