Lutheran FAQ

What are Lutherans? Lutherans are Christians who believe that the efforts of Martin Luther to keep the church faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ were on target and need to continue.

What is the Gospel? The Gospel is that you, just as you are, in your anxiety and guiltiness, as creature and sinner, are infinitely loved, forgiven, received, valued and accepted by God. This Word of God was uniquely incarnate in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It lives today in the Church, the Body of Christ.

What is sin? Sin is not sickness or ignorance. Sin is people’s refusal to be who God created them to be.

What is salvation? Salvation is being grasped by the grace of God so that you know yourself to be loved and forgiven by God and therefore reconciled to God, yourself and all your neighbors. You cannot do anything to earn salvation. God does it all, through grace alone.

If you don’t have to do anything to earn salvation, does that mean Lutherans don’t do good works? Lutherans do lots of good works. But we do them out of gratitude to God, not to make God like us better.

Do Lutherans believe in the Bible? Not the same way we believe in God. God so loved the world that he didn’t give it a book. He gave it his Son Jesus Christ. The Bible is very important, but it is not a substitute for God.

How many sacraments do Lutherans have? Two. Baptism and Communion. In them we believe God comes to us; we do not go to God.

How do Lutherans worship?  We follow the traditional liturgy of Word and Sacrament, that is, preaching and communion.

Are Lutherans ecumenical? Yes. We believe that all churches who are faithful to the Word of God in Jesus Christ are already one with us.

Do Lutherans believe they hold the one true faith? Yes. But we also believe we are not the only ones who hold it.     Copyright © 1999 - 2013 by Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Houston, Texas All rights reserved E-mail to Webmaster