St John Lutheran Church
Luther and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod History
Martin Luther, the namesake of the Lutheran faith, was a rebel of his day. Born Nov. 10, 1483, Luther grew to become a Catholic priest, a German professor of theology, composer, monk, and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation.
As a priest, Luther came to reject several teaching and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, which ultimately led to the Reformation from which not only was Lutheranism born but other Christian faiths as well that ultimately sprang from the Reformation.
Luther came to strongly dispute the Catholic doctrine of indulgences, whereby a person of means could purchase indulgences and improve their standing within the Roman Catholic Church and thereby be in good graces with God. Luther proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his famed 95 Theses of 1517, which were not well received by Pope Leo X, who in 1520 demanded Luther renounce his writing. Luther's unwillingness to renounce those works made him a rebel outlaw and resulted in Luther's excommunication by the Pope in 1521.
Luther believed that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are neither earned nor purchased by good deeds or wealth but are received as the free gift of God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin.
It was Luther's theology that challenged the very authority and office of the Pope by teaching the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge from God. Luther opposed sacerdotalism, by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood. Those who identify with these same beliefs, and many of Luther's wider teachings, are called Lutherans.
As Europeans flooded into the New World with the promise of freedom of religion without persecution, Lutherans immigrated and gathered for worship.
Three-hundred, fifty seven years after Luther offered his 95 Theses, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod was formed in America, when Saxon and other German immigrants established a new church body in America, seeking the freedom to practice and follow confessional Lutheranism.
Initial members, which included 12 pastors representing 14 congregations from Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, New York and Ohio, signed the church body's constitution on April 26, 1847, at First Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Chicago.
Originally named the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States, the name was shortened to The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod in 1947 on the occasion of our 100th anniversary.
The Rev. Dr. C.F.W. Walther served as the first president of the church body. As a young pastor, Walther joined the Saxon Germans who immigrated to the United States in 1839, and at only 27 years old, he was the leader of the group that settled in Perry County, MO.