Luther and Calvin in America

I often wonder why Lutherans felt and perhaps still feel so threatened by the Reformed.  The truth is that Lutherans far outnumber Calvinists - at least in the United States. For example, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is still about 4 times larger than the mainline Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. – roughly 3.7 million compared to less than 1 million. Compare Missouri Synod Lutherans to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and they are almost 80 times larger than the OPC – 2.3 million vs 30,000. Even the small Wisconsin Synod is substantially larger than the Presbyterian Church in America, a denomination that seemed poised to transform urban America into Presbyterians thanks to Tim Keller; the WELS has roughly 400,000 members and the PCA has only 300,000.  So even though the Presbyterians may be better known and understood among Americans, they are a shadow of the size of Lutherans and this does not even count those who see themselves as Lutheran but do not belong to a Lutheran congregation!

That said, sometimes we act as if Calvinism was a real threat to us still.  The reality is that Calvinists are not all that Calvinist anymore.  But then I probably should say that there are a number of Lutherans who are not Lutheran anymore, either.  And perhaps that is the problem.  The old polemics do not fit in a world where Lutherans are no longer defined by their confessional documents and Calvinists are not longer defined by their characteristic TULIP doctrinal flower.  In fact, the sad truth is that we don't even speak doctrinally anymore.  Dogma has become secondary to feelings and truth is subject to preference and desire takes precedence over everything.

Some insist that the playing field of Christianity has changed so much that we are more like the situation the first Christians faced.  That might be true except that the people around us think they know Christianity and have rejected it -- a far different landscape than early Christianity in which the Gospel was brand new and people had never heard or seen anything like it.  It was virgin ground then but not now.  Now we face a world which believes it knows Christianity and has judged it false or irrelevant or contrary to reason or experience.  Part of the task today is to replace the false characterizations of the faith with the real deal, speaking the Word clearly to those who are not really listening because they think they have heard it all before.  But it is not simply argument or evidence but the Holy Spirit who works the work that brings faith to the skeptical or fearful heart.  Maybe once we realize this we might just try the Word and let God do what He has promised.  It could not do any worse than our feeble attempts to try and frame modern settings into the same old landscapes of the past or to reduce objections by offering a lite version of Christian with half the truth and less flavor.