Lutheran vs Baptist: Two Views of Baptism, Communion and Faith

Published

May 24, 2024

Updated

September 30, 2026

Summary

Lutherans and Baptists both teach salvation by grace through faith in Christ; they differ most over baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Lutherans baptize infants and teach that baptism forgives sins and gives salvation; Baptists baptize only people who profess faith, by immersion, as an act of obedience.
Lutherans believe Christ’s true body and blood are present under the bread and wine; the Southern Baptist confession calls the Supper a symbolic act that memorializes Christ’s death.
The ELCA welcomes all baptized visitors to Communion; the LCMS and WELS practise close communion; most Southern Baptist churches invite anyone who has put their faith in Jesus Christ.
The SBC teaches that true believers never fall away; the Augsburg Confession teaches that the justified can lose the Holy Spirit and be restored by repentance.
Lutherans date from Luther’s Ninety-five Theses of 1517; the first Baptist church formed among English exiles in Amsterdam around 1609.

Lutherans and Baptists agree that sinners are saved by grace through faith in Christ. Both are Protestant churches, and they part over what baptism and the Lord’s Supper do. Lutherans baptize babies, teach that baptism gives grace, and believe Christ’s body and blood are present in Communion. Baptists baptize only believers, by immersion, and keep the Supper as a memorial. Neither name covers a single church. In the United States the largest Lutheran bodies are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in…

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Bibliography (Click to show)

Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version, checked word for word at BibleGateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/
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The Augsburg Confession (1530), Articles IX, XII and XXIV. BookOfConcord.org. https://bookofconcord.org/augsburg-confession/
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