Why I'm a Lutheran I thought, since I have spoken of my spiritual journey here before, that I would this morning write a bit about that journey and about why I have come to the particular path I am on now.

My spiritual journey began in Immanuel Lutheran church in San Jose, California on April 15, 1956 when as a 5 month old infant I was baptized into the family of God, into the body of Christ. I am convinced that this baptism was crucial in my life. From that time on I was a child of God. In spite of my wanderings the Lord always brought me back to him. We are saved through the grace of God by faith, yet that faith is not something we ourselves are capable of, it is a gift of God. As it says in Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. So it is God who gives the faith and is not anything we mere humans can do. This is my way of making a point, that through all of my long journey away from God, he was always with me as a Father, and never once abandoned me, never gave up hope for me and knew that because I was his child that in the end I would certainly return to him, and of course he was right. I have no intention of arguing infant baptism with anyone, however if you want to read about the Lutheran view you can go to the LCMS web site. There you may read about the beliefs of the LCMS on a number of issues.

Up until I was about 13 years old my family attended the local Lutheran church, then, for some reason, a change in Pastor as I remember it, they started church shopping for a while. After a year or so of that, well they simply stopped going at all.

I did not like the idea of not going to church and eventually contacted, or maybe he contacted me, the Pastor of the Lutheran church and started going there again. I joined the youth group and chorus there. I studied and was confirmed eventually.

Then I joined the Army in 1973 at the age of 17. I was stationed at Fort Lewis Washington. I had an Aunt and Uncle near there who were involved in a huge church in Olympia called Evergreen Christian Center, an Assembly of God church. These folks, my aunt and uncle and the church there, quickly convinced me I was not really a baptized. They only believed in "believers baptism" and that had to be by immersion. I was only 17 and quite suggestible so I was immersed there in October of 1973. They also pressured me to "speak in tongues" as evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Eventually I did this too. I still do it from time to time when in very intense prayer I cannot find words of my own. It feels all right to me but I don't do it in public :-)

After three years I got out of the Army and started attending Northwest College of the Assemblies of God in Kirkland Washington. By the end of my first year there I was broke financially and spiritually. I left, bitter and angry. I had seen that much of the church was corrupt and greedy. I declared myself an atheist, although I don't think that was ever really true. What I really was saying was that I was angry with God.

After that I drifted into drug use, lots of alcohol use and other things we simply don't need to go into detail about here. :-)

Spiritually I became what I always called a "seeker". I was looking for the "TRUTH" out there in the world. I investigated every religion and philosophy that sounded like it might be at least partly true.

Hinduism
Buddhism
Theosophy
My Own Private Isms - enlightenment through massive doses of hallucinogenic drugs
Pantheism

Later on, when I was married, I went back to the Lutheran church for a time, just long enough to get married really then we drifted away from there again.

Several years after that I tried out the Baha'i Faith for a time.

After my marriage ended I went to several Episcopal churches but they were so watered down all that was left was the liturgy, though that was nice and I did find it useful they didn't seem to actually believe in anything at all.

Finally I looked into the Catholics, as I've discussed here before. They turned out not to be even close to right for me, too much extra baggage loaded onto the gospel, so much so that it is pretty much obscured totally.

So, now I'm back to being a Lutheran!

You see, although I was raised a Lutheran I did not come to this place just because I was born to it. No, I have studied it, I have agonized over it, I have prayed and fasted and beat my head against the walls of heaven over it. Turns out I was in the right place in the beginning. :-) The theology of the Lutheran church simply makes more sense than any other I have ever tried to believe in.

I'm home.  ¶ 10/01/2004 06:45:00 AM 0 Comments