Whats the diffrence between coptic and lutheran church ????

newbie

i wanted to ask about whats really the diffrence between coptic and lutheran church , and plz i need lots of details , so be detailed as possible

Unknown

I used to be a Lutheran myself, so I guess I could do a brief summary:

Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic monk who lived in Germany in the 16th century. He was a man of quite a severe and stubborn character, which he showed through his asceticism (his fellow monks once found him half-dead in the snow).

To make a long story short, he wrote a famous work called the 95 thesis which criticised various points of Roman Catholic belief - mainly the Papacy and holy Tradition.

He was declared a heretic by Pope Leo X and excommunicated - his followers became known as Lutherans. The Lutheran manifesto is called the Book of Concord and includes the Nicene Creed and other statements of faith. Most Lutherans live in the 5 Scandinavian countries and Germany. Traditional Lutheranism is basically identical to the Anglican church, and these two groups are in semi-communion with eachother.

Sacraments:
Lutherans aknowledge only two sacraments - Holy Communion and Baptism (although confirmation, ordination and matrimony are also performed). They do not have confession and holy unction.

Sola Scriptura:
Luther promoted an idea of "Scripture alone", whereas Orthodox appeal to a much wider body of Holy Tradition, of which the Bible is only a part. However, Luther did not reject Tradition altogether, and his doctrine of "Sola Scriptura" should not be compared to the "Bible only" belief held by American fundamentalists.
Also, Lutherans (like all Protestants) use the Jewish canon of the OT and only have 39 books, omitting the Deuterocanonical books (Apocrypha) used by Orthodox and Catholics.

Saints:
Lutherans do not reject the idea of Saints as such (you will often hear Lutherans speak of "St Augustine" or "St Paul") they do not honour Saints and ask for their intercession like we do (although this is not forbidden).
This is also true of the Blessed Virgin who does not hold the same special place that we ascribe for her - nor do they call her Theotokos (although, again, this is not forbidden as far as I'm aware).

Icons:
Lutherans are not total iconoclasts and you will often see stained glass windows, paintings and statues in Lutheran churches. However, these are purely decoration and can in no way be compared to Orthodox icons which are an integral part of our relgion.

Faith alone:
Lutherans tend to stress salvation by faith alone - i.e. you are saved by what you believe, not what you do. However, it should be noted that Lutherans also believe that saving faith produces good works, and so they don't seperate the two.

Grace alone:
Orthodox people believe that salvation is a combination of God's grace and man's response to this grace. Lutherans tend to focus soly on God's grace as the means of salvation. Whilst they do not accept the Calvinist idea of predestination, one could argue that that is simply following their belief to its logical conclusion.

Salvation:
Like all western Christians, Lutherans hold believe that the purpose of Christ's incarnation was to die on the cross as a sacrifice to appease an angry God (the Father) so that He would forgive us. The Orthodox, however, believe that the purpose of Jesus' incarnation was to restore humanity to its original glory, destroying the binding power of death and sin and opening the way to ressurection.


These are some of the many differences between us. Hope this helps.

Unknown

[quote author=Orthodox11 link=board=12;threadid=3422;start=0#msg49882 date=1142290301]
they do not honour Saints and ask for their intercession like we do (although this is not forbidden).


I realised I made a mistake in my previous post. Lutherans are not allowed to pray to the Saints, however, they do not reject the idea that the Saints can see us and pray for us.