| Until recently, I was unfamiliar with Christianity except for very general beliefs. My friend, who is a Lutheran, pointed me to various materials and Bible passages to read, as well as to your web site. You seem to have a generally sensible view of the Bible, but there are some things that confuse me. I am willing to put reason behind and believe what the Bible says, but some of your views seem to be based on tainted readings of verses, where you attempt to make the verse fit a belief that you already have. Perhaps I am wrong in this, and you will be able to explain to me.
The entire concept of sacraments seems to have come out of nowhere. I did a little researching, and it appears that sacraments are something of a hold over from Catholicism, where there are seven, including the two you claim, baptism and the Lord's supper. I am curious why the sacrament is still present in the Lutheran faith as a concept basically the same as the concept in Catholicism, only there are fewer. Is it the case that rather than starting from the bottom and seeing if sacraments even exist, Luther simply eliminated the sacraments which he was absolutely certain were not ordained by the Bible?
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| Our view of sacrament starts from the top, that is, from Scripture. In the Bible we find two rites that are in a class by themselves, baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are instituted by Christ, give forgiveness of sins, and are associated with a visible element (water, bread and wine). There are no other rites in the Bible that share these three traits. That is why we place them in a class by themselves. Whether we call them by the name "sacrament" or some other name would not make any difference. What matters is that we not place any other rites that don't share these traits into the same category.
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