Protestant considering leaving your denomination for something else?
Dear Christian reader,
If you are reading this post then you are most likely an evangelical Christian who sincerely believes the Lord Jesus is your Lord and Saviour but you are having some struggles in your faith. Most likely, your preacher is saying that your faith in Christ is proved by your actions and you are honestly assessing your life and saying am I doing enough, am I really a Christian. Or your preacher is pointing to an emotional or spiritual experience to prove that you are born again and you have never had that so you are doubting your faith. Others, hopefully fewer of you, are being told that a Christian blessed by God should be wealthy and healthy and extremely blessed in all areas and you’re having some struggles and that picture is not you, so you are doubting.
It is said online and I have heard locally here in Kitchener-Waterloo that many Protestant Christians are considering leaving their denomination to join the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox church. It seems there is some truth to this. (For a related article in the Canadian Lutheran see: https://www.canadianlutheran.ca/the-road-to-lutheranism/) Here at Grace I am seeing an increasing number of people, especially single males, who are seeking biblical teaching and preaching that is both true to Holy Scripture and at the same time gives them Good News, peace in their struggles, and hope.
Lutheranism does that. Dr. Luther, an ordained Roman Catholic Augustinian monk and professor of the Holy Bible, made the most important discovery which launched the Reformation. What he discovered was that our salvation comes from outside us as a gift from God which is received through grace by faith. What Luther perceived as he read Romans and the entire Holy Bible was that Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as the God-man was the fulfilment of God’s promise and plan of salvation given even to Adam and Eve right after they sinned. We are saved and made favourable in God’s eyes not because of what we have done but because our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ took all our sins on himself and died as a holy and righteous sacrifice for our sins on the cross. Jesus’ sacrifice was accepted by God the Father because he raised Jesus from the dead.
The question for every Christian is how do I know God loves me and how can I have peace with God? That God loves you is shown by Christ’s death for you-that is indisputable. How can you have peace with God? Peace with God never comes through what we do. If we had to do enough good works to have peace with God we’d never know if we’d done enough. Looking to our emotions for a connection with God is not reliable: some of us are less emotional than others. What Luther and Lutheran preaching directs you to is never yourself but to Jesus Christ, your Lord and Saviour who lives for you, dies for you, and continually forgives you your sins through the preaching of the Word, the reception of his sacraments of Baptism, Holy Communion (and Luther and the Lutheran Confessions are willing to include Confession and Absolution). This gives us peace because our forgiveness and peace with God comes from outside us and is grounded outside of us-from God as a gift all by grace.
If you are a Protestant and looking for a denomination that holds the Holy Bible as authoritative and inerrant and teaches that salvation comes from God by grace Lutheranism and Lutheran Church-Canada in particular could be the place for you. It would be my honour to introduce you more into Lutheranism, the original Protestant denomination, and the Lutheran way of reading and interpreting the Holy Bible which gives anxious sinners peace.
Sincerely,
Pastor Korsch
