Lutherans follow Martin Luther, whose protest in 1517 started the Reformation.
Lutheran1517grew out of Catholic Church
Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses (31 October 1517) began as an academic protest against indulgences and became the Reformation: justification by faith alone, Scripture as the final authority, the Bible and the liturgy in German. It became one of the major traditions of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformed, Anabaptist and Anglican branches each broke with Rome on their own terms within twenty years rather than splitting from a Lutheran church, which is why their solid lines rise from the Catholic one; the dashed lines show that they took up what Luther had begun. The Augsburg Confession (1530) defined the churches that took his name, in Germany, Scandinavia and, by emigration, the American Midwest.
Lutherans began with a German monk and professor named Martin Luther. In 1517 he wrote a list of questions about how the Church was raising money, and asked for a public debate. The argument that followed became the Reformation, and the churches that took his side came to be called Lutheran.
Luther taught the Bible at the new university in Wittenberg. On 31 October 1517 he sent his Ninety-five Theses, against the sale of indulgences, to his archbishop 11. Within four years he had been excommunicated by Pope Leo X and had refused, before the emperor at Worms in 1521, to take back what he had written 11. Hidden in the Wartburg castle, he translated the New Testament into German in eleven weeks; the whole Bible followed in 1534 11,16.
The reforming princes and cities set out what they held before the emperor at Augsburg in 1530, in a confession drafted by Luther's colleague Philipp Melanchthon, and Lutherans have measured their teaching by it ever since 2,13. The name Protestant comes from the year before, when six princes and fourteen cities protested at the Diet of Speyer against the emperor's attempt to halt the Reformation 12. Lutheran churches became the established churches of most of northern Germany and all of Scandinavia, and German and Scandinavian emigrants planted them in North America, where Henry Melchior Muhlenberg organised the first Lutheran synod in 1748 15,1.
Lutherans believe that God forgives people and makes them right with him as a free gift, which a person receives by trusting Jesus, not by earning it. They believe the Bible is the final word on what Christians should teach.
The Augsburg Confession puts it this way in its fourth article: people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits or works, but are freely justified for Christ's sake, through faith 2. The Missouri Synod sums up the whole Lutheran position in three phrases, grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone 7. Lutherans confess the three ancient creeds, the Apostles', the Nicene and the Athanasian, and count themselves part of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church 2.
Two sacraments are held to be means by which God gives grace: baptism, given to infants as well as adults, and the Lord's Supper, in which Lutherans believe the body and blood of Christ are truly present in, with and under the bread and wine 2,3. Luther's Small Catechism of 1529, written so that parents could teach their children the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the sacraments, is still the book Lutheran children learn from before confirmation 3. Lutherans distinguish the law, which shows people their need, from the gospel, which gives them Christ, and hold that every baptised believer is a priest before God 1.
Worship and practice
A Lutheran service has hymns, Bible readings, a sermon, prayers and, most weeks, Holy Communion. Everyone sings. Lutherans have loved music since Luther wrote hymns for his own congregation.
The main service is called the Divine Service, and it follows the shape of the historic Western liturgy: confession and forgiveness, the Kyrie and the Gloria, readings and a psalm set by the lectionary for the church year, the creed, the sermon, the prayers of the church, and the Lord's Supper 8. Luther kept the old order and put it into German so that the people could understand it and join in 1. The hymns matter as much as the sermon; Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his cantatas and passions as a Lutheran cantor for exactly this liturgy 18. Children are baptised as infants and confirmed in their early teens after instruction in the Small Catechism 3.
Scripture and Bible translations
Lutherans read the whole Bible in their own language, and they always have. Luther's German Bible was one of the first books that ordinary German families owned.
Luther's New Testament appeared in 1522 and the complete Bible in 1534, in a German so plain and strong that it shaped the language itself 11,16. Lutherans keep the sixty-six books of the Protestant canon; Luther printed the Apocrypha between the Testaments as books useful to read but not equal to Scripture 16. In North America the two largest churches read different modern versions: the Missouri Synod adopted the English Standard Version for its hymnal and lectionary, the Lutheran Service Book 9, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America publishes its Lutheran Study Bible in the New Revised Standard Version 10. Neither can be hosted here. The Berean Standard Bible quoted below reads closest to the ESV, and the Lutherbibel of 1912 is Luther's text as German congregations read it for a century.
In church
The Missouri Synod adopted the ESV for its hymnal and lectionary, the Lutheran Service Book, and Concordia prints its study Bible in it. The ELCA's Lutheran Study Bible from Augsburg Fortress is in the NRSV, now the NRSVue. German congregations read the Lutherbibel, most recently revised in 2017.
At home
Household choices vary. These institutional examples do not establish which translation Lutheran families use most often.
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
The verse that turned Luther's life around. He wrote that when he understood it, righteousness given rather than demanded, he felt born again and the gates of paradise opened.
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Luther added the word alone when he translated this verse, and defended the choice: faith alone is what the sentence means. It is the shortest statement of Lutheran teaching there is.
So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The appointed Gospel for Reformation Day. Freedom through the Word is the Lutheran story in a sentence.
People
Martin Luther1483-1546 Monk, professor and reformer, whose Ninety-five Theses of 1517 and German Bible of 1534 began the Reformation and shaped the German language.11
Katharina von Bora1499-1552 A former nun who married Luther in 1525 and ran the household, farm and brewery at the old Black Cloister in Wittenberg, setting the pattern of the Protestant parsonage.11
Philipp Melanchthon1497-1560 Luther's colleague and a scholar of Greek, who drafted the Augsburg Confession of 1530 and organised Lutheran schools across Germany.13
Johann Sebastian Bach1685-1750 Cantor of St Thomas's in Leipzig, whose cantatas, passions and chorale settings were written week by week for the Lutheran liturgy.18
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg1711-1787 The German pastor sent to Pennsylvania in 1742 who organised the first Lutheran synod in America in 1748.15
Dietrich Bonhoeffer1906-1945 Pastor and theologian of the Confessing Church, executed by the Nazis in April 1945; his Cost of Discipleship is read by Christians of every tradition.14
Today
The Lutheran World Federation represents over 78 million Christians in its member churches, not all Lutherans worldwide 4. The biggest Lutheran churches today are not in Germany but in Ethiopia and Tanzania.
The Lutheran World Federation, which most Lutheran churches belong to, counted 78.4 million members in 150 member churches in 2023 5; the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, with about 12 million members, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, with about 8.5 million, are its two largest 5. The regional churches of Germany and the national churches of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland remain large in membership, though Sunday attendance in them is low 1,17. In the United States the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, formed by a merger of three bodies in 1988, is the largest Lutheran church and belongs to the Federation 6; the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod hold a more confessional reading of the Lutheran books and remain outside it, which is why the ELCA and the Missouri Synod differ on the ordination of women, on how Scripture is read, and on sharing communion with other churches 7,6.
Words to know
Reformation
The movement that began with Martin Luther in 1517 to reform the Western Church, and that produced the Protestant churches.
indulgence
In the medieval Church, a release from some of the penalty for sin, granted by the Church. The selling of indulgences for money was what Luther first protested.
excommunication
Being formally cut off from a church, so that one may no longer receive its sacraments. Luther was excommunicated in 1521.
justification
How a person is made right with God. Luther's teaching that this happens by faith alone, as a gift, was the heart of the Reformation.
confession
In the Reformation churches, a written statement of what a church believes, such as the Augsburg Confession. In Catholic and Orthodox use, also the sacrament of telling one's sins to a priest.
liturgy
The set form of a service: its prayers, readings and actions in their usual order. The Orthodox call their main service the Divine Liturgy.
sacrament
A sacred act Christians believe carries God's grace, such as baptism and communion. Traditions count and understand them differently.
creed
A short statement of belief said together in worship. The Nicene Creed is shared by nearly every Christian tradition.
lectionary
A fixed schedule of Bible readings for worship through the year, used in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran and many other churches.
Questions people ask
Are Lutherans Protestant or Catholic?
Protestant, and the first. The word was coined in 1529 for the Lutheran princes and cities who protested at the Diet of Speyer 12. Lutherans do confess the creeds' one holy catholic Church and kept more of the old liturgy than most Protestants did, which is why a Lutheran service can look Catholic to a visitor 1,2.
What do Lutherans believe about Holy Communion?
That the body and blood of Christ are truly present in, with and under the bread and wine, and are received by everyone who communes, for the forgiveness of sins 2,3. Lutherans do not explain how. They set aside both the Catholic account called transubstantiation and the view that the bread and wine are only symbols 1.
What is the difference between the ELCA and the Missouri Synod?
Both hold the Augsburg Confession. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, formed in 1988, ordains women, is in full communion with several other churches, and reads Scripture with the tools of modern historical scholarship 6. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod ordains only men, holds Scripture to be without error in every matter it touches, and shares communion only with churches that agree with it in doctrine 7. The Missouri Synod is not a member of the Lutheran World Federation 4,7.
What Bible do Lutherans use?
Luther's own German Bible in German-speaking churches, most recently revised in 2017. In the United States the Missouri Synod reads the English Standard Version in its hymnal and lectionary 9, and the ELCA publishes its study Bible in the New Revised Standard Version 10.
Sources
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “Lutherans: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-09, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/lutheran/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-06; last changed 2026-09-09. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
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