On the 15th I blogged about Lutheran Rebecca's post on Candy's blog (see And Now a Word from the Lutherans). Do you suppose it is the same Lutheran Rebecca that posted this on Candy's blog?:
Hi Candy. Great blog! It cleared up something for me. I was raised a Luthern. It is sort of a spinoff of the Catholic Church. They do have the confirmation process. I was confirmed at 13. I was baptized at 9 years old (sprinkled). The Luthern church baptizes babies. Very wrong, I know. But anyway, I'm not sure why my mother waited so long with me. But to make a long story short, I got saved later in life and realize these rituals are not Biblical, now. But I always wondered if my soul was damned to hell for eternity because I did go through confirmation and baptism early on. But after reading the testimonies of former Catholics, I know now that I am forgiven for that. But one thing, I am not making excuses for myself, but I was a child then and didn't really have a choice. My mother entered mre in Catacism and I went to class. It was just how things were done in the Luthern church. I was sprinkled at my grandmothers house with all the relatives there in a formal ceremony. But I do agree with one of the testemonies that I learned a lot about Jesus as a child in Sunday School. I always thought the hymns and bible stories were so beautiful. I remember the benediction. That must have been a holdover from the RC church. But since I have been saved I have been properly baptized in a freezing cold creek with the congregation standing on the shore and singing the most beautiful song. But anyway, I will shut up now. But I was really worried about if I could even be saved or if I had sold my soul to the devil. God must have directed me to this blog or directed you to write it. He does work in mysterious ways! A heartfelt thank you! Rebecca
Well...I have to agree with Rebecca, God works in mysterious ways!
6 comments:
I'm glad you brought this up, because I was really wondering about how she describes her baptism. Could it really have been in her Grandma's backyard? I thought Lutherans baptized in their churches, like us paga-, er, Catholics.
Of course, I guess she could have gone to one of those hippy ones, where Pastor Jill and her partner Liz sprinkled her in the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.
Lutherans are a spin-off of the RC Church? Americans are weak on history, it seems.
I'm going with Kelly's working theory that she was not properly catechised. This is kind of mean to say, but really how Lutheran can you be if you can't even spell "Lutheran"?
FYI Kelly - My daughter was baptized at home. We prefer to do it in the church (for the sake of order) but there's a cultural component as well. Some Lutheran churches in other parts of the world routinely baptize by immersion in a river (if one is available). Unlike many Protestant churches, Lutherans do not place the emphasis on the mode of baptism (ie. sprinking vs. dunking) but rather on what God is accomplishing through baptism (forgiveness of sins and new life). Baptism is regarded not as something that we do, but something that God does for us.
I was very loosely raised Lutheran. By that I mean we said we were Lutheran, and I was baptized Lutheran - in the church, at the age of 12 - as were my mom and her siblings and my grandmother and her siblings. We come from a long line of strong Norwegian Lutherans. Mostly, we identified as Lutherans for the sake of identifying ourselves as something, and events were in Lutheran churches (Marriages, baptisms, etc.) but we weren't religious by any stretch of the imagination and it was not part of our lives.
And, even *I* seem to know more about the Lutheran faith than Rebecca.
Kelly - LOL! I like your description of the hippie baptism. If it was ELCA anything is possible.
Unashamed - Yeah, I winced at the spelling too. In fact when I first read it I seriously doubted this comment was genuine.
What I find scary is that although Rebecca considers herself to be "saved" she still thinks she might be damned. And the only reason she can come up with as why she might not be damned is because x-RCs get "saved."(?) Someone get this girl the Gospel!!
That's the inherent problem with decision theology. If you are relying on the sincerity of your "choice" or "decision" then you are always going to have to wonder...was I REALLY sincere when I chose to follow Jesus? Am I really saved? On the other hand, when God says "In baptism you are cleansed from all your sins", are you going to question HIS sincerity?
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