Christian Pure
Denominations Compared92 articles

Lutheran vs Methodist: Free Will, Baptism and Communion

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • The Lutherans began with Martin Luther’s reform in Germany, from 1517, and Methodism began in England in the early 1700s under John and Charles Wesley. In 1738 John Wesley felt his heart “strangely warmed” while he heard Luther’s preface to Romans read aloud.
  • Both confess justification by faith. Lutherans teach that conversion is the Holy Spirit’s work alone, and Methodists that prevenient grace frees every person to accept or refuse God’s offer.
  • Both baptize infants. Luther’s Small Catechism says baptism “works forgiveness of sins,” and the United Methodist By Water and the Spirit calls it the means of entry into new life, though new birth may not come at the moment of the water.
  • Both teach that a believer can fall from grace. Methodists seek Christian perfection, by which they mean perfect love rather than sinlessness, and the LCMS lists that teaching among its main differences with Methodists.
  • Lutherans confess Christ’s true body and blood “under the bread and wine,” received by all who eat, while Methodists teach that Christ is really present and received by faith.
  • The ELCA and the United Methodist Church have been in full communion since 2009. The LCMS practices close communion, and the Global Methodist Church, formed in 2022, is not part of the agreement.

Lutherans and Methodists both baptize infants, and both teach that we are justified by faith. Where they differ most is conversion: Lutherans teach that it is God’s work alone, and Methodists that grace frees every person to accept God or refuse him. They explain baptism and Communion differently too, and yet the ELCA and the United Methodist Church have shared full communion since 2009. Methodism’s own story has Luther in it, because John Wesley’s heart was “strangely warmed” in 1738…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
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