Now as it pertains tot he history of the church,

it has fought long and hard to reduce rigor,

but it does not go by faith alone.

For many centuries it had to safeguard doctrine from all sorts of heresies.

Of course it's not only faith

But if you lead a good life and have faith you will be saved

Even if you're not in church

Many would-be popes attempted rigorousness only as a means of gate keeping because they did not win the papacy.

According to Wels Lutheran salvation is a gift from God freely given and if we have faith and accept the gift it is ours. Doing good works is our thanks for the gift of salvation, but works won't save us, according to the Lutheran doctrine.

Correct, but again, *not works, nor faith, alone*

the keyword being alone,

it takes both.

And in order to be a decent Christian, you must do both.

As I was about to say, it is a rather large criticism of the church that it does too many earthly works and not enough spiritual, or that it lacks personal connection with God.

A personal connection is entirely up to the person worshipping.

The church is there to act as an authority,

a governing body.

It is no fault of theirs if a man turns away from God, if a man does not pursue him.

It is their duty to bring them to God, but what might they do if they're simply rebuffed?

The majority of rigor, and legalism as well as long held tradition within the church, is to prevent such a thing from happening.

The ceremonies, the sacraments, the traditions,

they must be actively pursued in order to help cultivate not only the idea, but in this earthly prison of ours, *a visage* of Christ.

Protestantism seems nice, it seems good, and to a large degree it is within the traditions of northern Europeans, as well as Americans to partake in it. However we have seen the subsequent death of our own spirituality,

and protestants themselves have fallen to chaos,

and they have become mild.

There was a poem written by a man where Christ comes back, and is in a Victorian era city,

and he was so overcome with woe at the lack of spirituality,

that he longed to die and suffer again.

I think we're there today.

And I think the Catholic faith is the only means of saving us from such a miserable existence.

I am going to a Wels Lutheran church because they are traditional. They don't even allow women preachers or women in any authority at all, LOL. The preachers have to go to 8 years of college and learn Hebrew and Greek. They work to stay true to the word. I grew up in the Southern Baptist and that is literally like a pop up church - the worst of protestantism. I don't think they even have to be formally educated to start a baptist church.

Yes that sounds significantly better than most.

There are 4 types of Lutheran, from traditional, to totally gay.

I am in the most traditional (and smallest) group.

That is mildly depressing.

What're their views on contraception?

Yes, everyone goes to the gay one.

That's a good question. I don't know as it is not relevant to me. I am old 😃 I will look it up though.

I appreciate it.

https://wels.net/faq/birth-control-sinful/

http://www.christianliferesources.com/category/beginning-of-life/birth-control-6