(5) Interview Questions, Follow Up Questions

Q1. Follow-up — What is the difference between quia and quatenus subscription?

Quia means “because” and quatenus means “insofar as.” Lutherans subscribe quia: we confess the Book of Concord because it faithfully agrees with Scripture, not merely insofar as each individual decides that it does.

Q2. Follow-up — Are the Lutheran Confessions inspired like Scripture?

No. Scripture alone is inspired and is the norma normans, the norming norm; the Confessions are the norma normata, a normed norm whose authority comes from faithfully confessing Scripture.

Q3. Follow-up — Why does AC V come after justification in AC IV?

AC IV tells us that sinners are justified through faith, while AC V answers how that faith is created. God instituted the ministry of Gospel and Sacraments so that the Holy Spirit would give the faith that receives justification.

Q4. Follow-up — Does an unbeliever receive Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper?

Yes. Christ’s Word, not the communicant’s faith, establishes His true presence; the unbeliever truly receives Christ’s body and blood but receives them to judgment rather than blessing.

Q5. Follow-up — Can an infant really have faith?

Yes, because faith is created by the Holy Spirit rather than produced by human intellectual ability or decision. Jesus says that even little children receive the kingdom of God, and Baptism is one of the means through which God gives His saving promise.

Q6. Follow-up — Does God predestine anyone to hell?

No. Scripture teaches election unto salvation in Christ and also that God desires all people to be saved; those who are lost are lost through their own unbelief and rejection of God’s grace.

Q7. Follow-up — Does the Gospel ever command anything?

In the strict sense, no. Commands belong to the Law, while the Gospel is God’s unconditional promise and gift of forgiveness and salvation in Christ.

Q8. Follow-up — Is faith itself a good work that earns justification?

No. Faith justifies not because it has merit but because it receives Christ and His righteousness; it is the empty hand that receives God’s gift.

Q9. Follow-up — Can sanctification contribute anything to justification?

No. Sanctification necessarily follows justification as its fruit, but neither renewal nor good works become part of the basis on which God declares a sinner righteous.

Q10. Follow-up — Does restricting the pastoral office to men mean women are spiritually inferior?

No. Men and women are equally created by God, equally redeemed by Christ, and equally heirs of salvation; the distinction concerns God’s ordering of the pastoral office, not worth or dignity.

Q11. Follow-up — Does closed Communion mean Christians outside our fellowship are not Christians?

No. Closed Communion is a statement about altar fellowship and doctrinal unity, not a declaration that everyone outside Lutheran fellowship lacks saving faith.

Q12. Follow-up — What is the difference between God’s righteousness and our own righteousness?

Our own righteousness consists in our works and can never justify us before God. The righteousness of God in the Gospel is Christ’s righteousness given and imputed to us through faith.

Q13. Follow-up — What is the hypostatic union?

The hypostatic union is the permanent union of Christ’s complete divine and human natures in one person. The two natures remain distinct without separation or confusion.

Q14. Follow-up — What is a modern example of Arianism?

A modern parallel is any teaching that makes Jesus a created or lesser divine being rather than true eternal God; Jehovah’s Witness teaching is a clear example. The Nicene Creed answers this with “begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father.”

Q15. Follow-up — Is creation merely a doctrine about how the universe began?

No. Creation also means that our bodies, human life, male and female, marriage, family, vocation, and the physical world are gifts and orders received from God.

Q16. Follow-up — Why should you avoid common Trinity analogies like water, an egg, or a shamrock?

They usually distort the doctrine by either collapsing the three Persons into modes or dividing God into parts. It is safer to confess the biblical language: one divine essence in three distinct Persons.

Q17. Follow-up — What did Luther regard as the non-negotiable chief article in the Smalcald Articles?

Justification through Christ alone. Luther says that nothing can be surrendered in the article that Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification because everything the Church teaches depends upon it.

Q18. Follow-up — Is the Gospel simply everything in the New Testament?

No. In the strict theological sense, Gospel means the promise of forgiveness and salvation in Christ, while the New Testament also contains Law that commands and condemns.

Q19. Follow-up — What is the Lutheran alternative to millennialism?

Lutherans confess that Christ reigns now through the Gospel in His Kingdom of Grace and will return once in glory for the resurrection and final judgment. We do not expect an intervening earthly thousand-year kingdom.

Q20. Follow-up — When must a Christian disobey civil government?

When government commands what God forbids or forbids what God commands. Acts 5:29 gives the limit: “We must obey God rather than men.”

Q21. Follow-up — Is the visible Lutheran Church identical with the one holy Christian Church?

No. The one holy Christian Church consists of all true believers in Christ, while visible church bodies contain both believers and hypocrites; nevertheless, the Church is recognized outwardly by the Gospel and Sacraments.

Q22. Follow-up — Is original sin simply the bad example we inherit from Adam?

No. Original sin is an actual inherited guilt and corruption of human nature, not merely imitation; we are born without true fear and trust in God and spiritually dead in sin.

Q23. Follow-up — Do human beings have any free will at all?

Yes, in external civil matters people can make real choices and exercise a measure of outward righteousness. In spiritual matters concerning conversion and faith, however, fallen man cannot choose Christ or cooperate in becoming spiritually alive.

Q24. Follow-up — Who possesses the Office of the Keys: the Church or the pastor?

Christ gives the Keys to His Church, and the Church publicly exercises them through the called pastoral office. The pastor therefore exercises Christ’s authority on behalf of the Church rather than possessing the Keys as private power.

Q25. Follow-up — Are bishops superior to pastors by divine right?

No. The Treatise teaches that bishops and pastors possess the same spiritual ministry by divine right; differences in rank or jurisdiction may exist by human arrangement for good order.

Q26. Follow-up — Why does the Catechism begin with the Ten Commandments rather than the Gospel?

The Commandments first expose our sin and need, preparing us to hear the Creed’s confession of what God has done to save us. The order therefore reflects the proper distinction and movement from Law to Gospel.

Q27. Follow-up — Must a person confess every individual sin before receiving absolution?

No. Luther rejects the impossible demand to enumerate every sin; private confession exists for the sake of hearing Christ’s absolution, especially concerning sins that trouble the conscience.

Q28. Follow-up — Are good works a third part of repentance?

Good works are properly the fruits of repentance rather than the cause of forgiveness. Repentance in the strict sense consists chiefly of contrition and faith, with amendment of life following from faith.

Q29. Follow-up — What is the difference between faith and mere historical knowledge?

Mere historical knowledge knows facts about Christ and can even be possessed by unbelievers. Saving faith personally trusts God’s promise that Christ’s forgiveness is for me.

Q30. Follow-up — When does an adiaphoron cease to be indifferent?

When an otherwise free practice is imposed as necessary or when yielding in that practice would compromise the confession of the Gospel. In a time of confession, even an indifferent ceremony may have to be resisted.

Q31. Follow-up — Are the immanent Trinity and economic Trinity two different Trinities?

No. They describe the same one Triune God from two perspectives: God as He eternally exists in Himself and God as He reveals Himself and works toward us in creation and salvation.

Q32. Follow-up — Does the third use mean Christians are put back under the Law for salvation?

No. Christians remain free from the Law’s condemnation because they are justified in Christ; the Law serves them as a guide showing what God’s will looks like in the new life.

Q33. Follow-up — Can the Church have correct doctrine but consistently contrary practice?

Inconsistency is possible for a time, but practice that contradicts doctrine eventually undermines the doctrine being confessed. Faithful practice should embody and confess what the Church teaches from Scripture.

Q34. Follow-up — What is the difference between monergism and synergism?

Monergism says conversion is God’s work alone through the Holy Spirit and Gospel. Synergism adds some human contribution or cooperation to conversion and therefore weakens sola gratia.

Q35. Follow-up — Can the Lord’s Supper be called a sacrifice in any sense?

Yes, only in the sense that Christians respond with sacrifices of praise, thanksgiving, prayer, and themselves. It is not a propitiatory sacrifice offered to God for forgiveness; sacramentally, Christ is giving His gifts to us.

Q36. Follow-up — What is universalism?

Universalism teaches that eventually everyone will be saved or that eternal condemnation will ultimately come to an end. AC XVII rejects this by confessing endless punishment of the ungodly and eternal life for believers.

Q37. Follow-up — What is a theology of glory?

A theology of glory tries to identify God’s favor through visible success, strength, reason, achievement, or prosperity. The theology of the cross instead receives God where He has revealed Himself—above all in the apparent weakness and shame of Christ crucified.

Q38. Follow-up — Did Christ descend into hell to suffer more for our sins?

No. His atoning suffering was finished on the cross; the descent belongs to His exaltation and is the victorious proclamation of His triumph over Satan and hell.

Q39. Follow-up — Why does the Lutheran understanding of the ascension matter for the Lord’s Supper?

If Christ’s human nature were necessarily confined to one local place in heaven, His bodily presence at many altars would appear impossible. Lutheran Christology confesses that the exalted God-man can be bodily present wherever He promises: “This is My body.”

Q40. Follow-up — What is vicarious satisfaction?

Vicarious satisfaction means Christ acted in our place: He fulfilled the Law we failed to keep and bore the punishment our sins deserved. His obedience and suffering therefore satisfy God’s justice on behalf of sinners.

Q41. Follow-up — How does creation as male and female relate to transgender questions?

Christian theology receives the body and biological sex as part of God’s created gift rather than something the individual creates independently. Pastoral care should hold that truth together with patience, dignity, compassion, and the Gospel toward those who struggle.

Q42. Follow-up — Does biblical headship mean domination by the husband?

No. A husband’s headship is patterned after Christ, who gives Himself sacrificially for His Church; it therefore means responsibility, service, and self-giving love rather than domination.

Q43. Follow-up — Is homosexual sin uniquely unforgivable or worse than every other sexual sin?

No. Scripture places it among other sins from which sinners are called to repentance, and 1 Corinthians 6 immediately proclaims washing, sanctification, and justification in Christ. The same Law and the same Gospel apply to every sinner.

Q44. Follow-up — Why pray if God already knows what we need?

We pray because God commands us, promises to hear us, and invites us to approach Him as our Father. Prayer is not informing God but exercising faith by entrusting our needs to His gracious promise.

Q45. Follow-up — Does Baptism save automatically apart from faith?

Baptism objectively offers and gives God’s saving promise, but its benefits are received through faith. Unbelief can reject what God gives without making Baptism itself empty or false.

Q46. Follow-up — How is sacramental union different from transubstantiation and symbolism?

Transubstantiation tries to explain Christ’s presence by a change in the substance of bread and wine, while symbolism reduces the elements to signs of an absent body and blood. Sacramental union simply confesses that Christ’s true body and blood are present and received with the bread and wine according to His Word.

Q47. Follow-up — Is a particular historical liturgy commanded by Scripture?

No particular order of service is divinely mandated. Lutherans retain historic liturgical forms because they serve good order, teach the faith, center worship on Word and Sacrament, and may be used in Christian freedom.

Q48. Follow-up — What is the danger of treating mission primarily as technique?

It can make conversion appear to depend upon persuasive methods, emotional manipulation, or human strategy rather than the Holy Spirit’s work through the Gospel. The Church faithfully proclaims, baptizes, and teaches while trusting God to create faith.

Q49. Follow-up — What is a modern example of Enthusiasm?

Claiming “God told me” or treating an inner feeling, private revelation, or spiritual experience as divine authority apart from Scripture is a common form of Enthusiasm. Lutheran theology directs Christians instead to God’s external Word and Sacraments.

Q50. Follow-up — What is the difference between the priesthood of all believers and the Office of the Holy Ministry?

All Christians are priests before God and may confess Christ, pray, and serve their neighbors. The Holy Ministry is the distinct divinely instituted public office in which called pastors preach, administer the Sacraments, and exercise the Keys on behalf of the Church.