Differences Between Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism

It all on October 31, when a then Catholic priest nailed 95 of his theses on the church door at Wittenberg, from that moment on the face of religion would be transformed forever. The priest, Martin Luther, would become the face of a movement later known as the Restoration, which saw many reformers of the corrupt Catholic Church break off and form their own denominations. The most prominent of which is the Lutheran faith. Despite the break back then, these two religious "superpowers" aren't all that different today.

Lutherans and Catholics agree on a lot of the same issues, such as the Bible as a main source of doctrine, Christ as our savior, baptism, and sin. However the main issues that they disagree with are church leadership, how people are saved, as well as the very make up of the worship service itself.

The Service
For the most part Lutheran services are somewhat more involved than in Catholic sermons. They incorporate the whole congregation singing into their prayer to God whereas Catholics typically tend to listen to the music being sung rather than singing it themselves. Lutherans also do not follow any set cycle of Gospels determined by anyone else. They are usually determined by the ministers of the church. Lutherans also do not receive the Eucharist at every worship service like the Catholics do. When they do receive the Eucharist, they see it as only a representation of the body and blood of Jesus Christ while Catholics believe that the bread and wine do turn into the body and blood of Christ.

Leadership
According to Pastor Michael P Walther of the Good Sheppard Lutheran Church, "The Roman Catholic Church believes that the church was founded upon the Apostle Peter because of Jesus' famous statement to Peter...They believe that this authority is passed down from Peter to his successors, the bishops of the Church of Rome. The Lutherans, on the other side, believe that Jesus was speaking of Peter's confession of faith when He used the words, "this rock," since Peter had just made a remarkable statement that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of living God." What that means is they do not believe that Jesus gave the Apostle Peter the authority to run the Catholic Church but that it was from the faith that Peter shows that a church would grow from. They also claim that because the gospels never say anything more about Peter's authority to run the church, there was no authority given. This is why the Lutheran church has no set hierarchy of leadership but rather Lutheran churches are autonomous and meet with members of the same synod to discuss their beliefs. However the churches do not necessarily have to adopt the beliefs of another church if the congregation does not see fit.

Beliefs
As stated above, the Lutheran and Catholic churches agree on the same fundamental beliefs- Jesus Christ is the messiah who saved us and will come again, the Bible is the main source of doctrine, the trinity, and so on. However some of the beliefs that came later, Lutherans do not agree with. For example, Lutheran do not see the Virgin Mary or any other saint for that matter as any sort of "mediator" between God and humans. They see the worship of such people by Catholics as a form of idolatry.