I had a conversation with a pastor and we were discussing sin and faith. The conversation went onto the people who worked to help at the World Trade Center after 9-11. He said that those people who were not saved and who were there helping were sinning because they did not have faith. He even went so far as to say that if someone without faith brushes their teeth, they are sinning. He referenced the verse Rom. 14:23. Is this what The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod believes and teaches?

I know that the Lutheran church teaches justification by faith alone and I have always believed that, but what about James 2:24? I know that salvation is by faith alone and good works follow faith, but I am confused on justification. What is the difference between justification, salvation, and sanctification? I cannot get a clean grasp on the meanings.

I am having some trouble coming to understanding of faith alone based off of the Scripture that was cited on your website and was hoping for further explanation regarding the seemingly conflicting messages. I think for me what is most problematic is actually Romans 2--not listed as a reference but essential in understanding fully Romans 3 and 4. Romans 2 is based on the idea that to be truly Jewish is to be inwardly circumcised and not outwardly circumcised and inwardly something else. Then given Romans 3 and 4, is this necessarily an attack on good works as being a means for salvation or is this an attack on professing to be one thing and actually being another? I was just wondering because of the obvious stark contrast to James 2:14-26.

How does the church feel about the theological tension between the universal offer of salvation (Matt 11:28, John 3:16, John 6:40) and divine election (John 15:16, Eph. 1:4, Acts 13:48)?  If God already predetermined who was saved, what is the point of witnessing?

Please comment on cheap grace/costly grace as per Dietrich Bonhoefer's book "Cost of Discipleship."

It seems to me that you are contradicting yourselves on the topic of whether or not there is a choice involved on the part of the believer for his salvation.  You say that he either rejects the free gift of salvation or he is saved through the  Holy Spirit.  How can there be possibility of rejection without possibility of acception?   And if there is a possibility for either, does that not leave the ultimate decision of whether to accept or reject the free gift of God to the individual?  The Bible says that it is the gift of God.(Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 6:23)  The use of the word "gift" implies a choice.  It is either accepted or rejected by the person it is given to.

Under the Belief and Practices section on the web site in section 16 of the Brief Doctrinal Statement "Of Conversion," it says "Calvinists solve this mystery, which God has not revealed in His Word, by denying the universality of grace; synergists, by denying that salvation is by grace alone. Both solutions are utterly vicious, since they contradict Scripture and since every poor sinner stands in need of, and must cling to, both the unrestricted universal grace and the unrestricted "by grace alone," lest he despair and perish." My question is that if we say the sinner must "cling to, both universal grace and....grace alone.....," isn't clinging an action or work? Isn't it God's grace that clings to or keeps us?

I have a severely disabled child. Mentally she is no more than 12 months and she is unlikely to progress. Since the Bible says that only those who reject the Lord will be lost then what of those who cannot know grace personally due to severe mental handicap? Can we know for a certainty that they have saving grace from God? Surely they must ALL be saved because they do not reject the Lord and only those who reject the Lord will be lost.

I have a question for you. I just read your FAQ about "when you were saved." I liked your answer and the emphasis on the fact that God is the important person in the saving, not us by our own decision. However, how would you answer the argument that we are changing one human action for another? We are not "saving ourselves" by choosing to ask Jesus into our heart; however are we "saving ourselves" by choosing to baptize? Or is it different because our parents are choosing on our behalf?

I recently was asked when I was "saved." Growing up in the LCMS I was baptized as an infant. I came to faith throughout my childhood and I continue to grow in faith everyday. I could not pinpoint one specific day I was "saved" or a specific time I asked Christ to come into my life. I know he lives in my heart. This person told me that it was a shame I didn't know an exact date I was saved. I want to know how Lutherans feel about the expressions: "The day I was saved," "When I got saved," and "I accepted Christ into my life."

Is it accurate to say that Lutherans believe that we are first given the ability to believe in Christ as Lord and Savior through the Holy Spirit and then it is our choice and responsibility to choose to believe in Christ, or am I off here?

I have heard people making a distinction between a theology of glory and the theology of the cross. What is the distinction being made?

Can you lose your salvation and if you can, what do you need to do to regain it again?

One of your FAQ answers states that it is possible for one to lose his salvation. However, in your Theses on Justification (1983) on this website it says plainly that believers have eternal assurance (paragraph 58). Which is it?

Near the end of the Athanasian Creed, it says "that if you do good" you will be saved. How does this relate to being saved by grace?

Would you explain the LCMS position on "predestined" in Romans 8 and Ephesians 1? If one is predestined to be adopted as a redeemed child of God, then does it follow that another is predestined to not be adopted and therefore damned?

Recently in a conversation, an individual stated that if a believer dies with unconfessed known sin he or she loses salvation and spend eternity in hell. What is the LCMS position regarding this matter?

What does the LCMS believe regarding man's freedom of will?

What place do feelings have in guiding our Christian faith? I know that our salvation is dependent on Christ alone, and not on how we feel, but it seems that God often uses feelings to help guide us. What is the Synod's view on this?

I like to think that there is a little good in everyone. My wife, however, says that everyone is completely bad until they believe and even then they need to confess each day to have any good in them, since only God is good and He does not exist where there is bad. This idea seems very negative to me. I thought that I was taught (I was Catholic) that there is some good in everyone. I'm sure that I have some bad in me, but I believe God is living in me and that I always have good in me. I also take it a little further and think that God poured out His spirit to everyone.

Listening to a sermon on Sunday, the pastor was telling us that we should lead good lives and try not to sin. But we do know that God is all forgiving and that he died for all of our sins. To me, this sounds like double talk. On one hand we are not to sin, but on the other hand, we don't have to worry as long as we believe in our Lord Jesus Christ -- everything will be okay. I don't think our Lord came down and taught for three years on how to be holy and lead good lives and then die on the cross so that we can do what we want. Don't we have to ask for forgiveness, be truly sorry and really try to amend our life's in order to be saved?

If I believe someone to be a believing Christian, can I ever criticize him for failing to do good works? Given that he is saved by faith, does God see to it that he will do good works and if so, does God fix the number and character of these works? Can a person with faith feel assured that he is doing enough good works, and that God is indifferent to further ones? Can a person who is not saved do good works? Is God indifferent to them? Or is He glad when an agnostic performs an act of Christ-like mercy? If a Christian knows that he is saved by knowing that he has faith, should he bother with the question whether he is practicing Christ's teachings, given that faith alone is sufficient for salvation? Or should he bother with it only because a large enough absence of good works would suggest his faith might be too weak for salvation?

I've noticed that the Lutheran Church says that we need to "believe (through faith) in Jesus" to be saved. I've always been told that "believing" is not enough, for even the demons "believe" in Jesus and shudder at His name - - this does not mean the demons are saved. We must "accept" Him as our Savior and ask Him into our life - - hence, the Baptist Sinner's Prayer. Could you please comment on this for me?

On what should we base our assurance of salvation? I know the Word and the promises of the Gospel are our rock, but how do we distinguish between real faith and mere intellectual assent? I ask this because many evangelicals make me nervous when they say that if one has doubts about one's salvation, one is probably not saved, because the Holy Spirit is supposed to provide inner assurance. (I guess this ties in to the whole Pietist problem.) But in the face of emotional ups and downs, moral failings, intellectual doubts, and confusion over doctrine, how can one know if one truly has faith in Christ?

I understand that God chose those for salvation before the very foundation of the world. The Bible does not say that there are those who are chosen and that there are those who are not. So, does that mean then that God chose everyone to be saved before the foundation of the world and therefore it is man's choice whether he will accept God's saving grace or not? However, one cannot come into God's grace by himself, but by the Holy Spirit "leading" him unto salvation. Is that the correct interpretation? I am confused by the fact that we were chosen by God before the foundation of the world, yet the very action of choosing can mean that there were those who were not chosen. I know that God wishes everyone to be saved. Can you help me?

In the Bible, Mark 16:16 states: "Whoever believes and is baptized, will be saved; whoever does not believe and is baptized, will be condemned."  Even though it says flat out, "Whoever believes...will be saved," along with other verses which support the simple fact that "...by faith you are saved by grace...," why is it that other doctrinal views are thrown in to be the "true interpretation" of the Holy Scripture?  (For example, Holy Communion, which separates us from other Christian denominations.)  Why can't we simply have the common fundamental idea that whoever believes by faith that Christ is their Savior and they are saved, instead of being so segregated from other Christian denominations that profess the same thing concerning our salvation?  In other words, why are our petty differences that shouldn't matter to the guarantee to salvation separate us? 

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