Comments on: We Do Not Stand Alone https://chnetwork.org/story/todd-von-kampen-we-do-not-stand-alone/ A network of inquirers, converts, and reverts to the Catholic Church, as well as life-long Catholics, all on a journey of continual conversion to Jesus Christ. Tue, 08 Mar 2022 16:42:54 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 By: Todd von Kampen https://chnetwork.org/story/todd-von-kampen-we-do-not-stand-alone/#comment-27386 Mon, 23 Jun 2014 22:12:00 +0000 http://test.wp.chnetwork.org/?p=2055#comment-27386 In reply to Mike Hwang.

Thanks for your comments, Michael. Indeed it’s good that Missouri and Rome are on the same side on most of the life issues (though not on contraception). I’m grateful that my conversion story has helped you and continues to help other confessional Lutherans who seek to follow God’s will in their lives no matter where it takes them! God bless you as we all continue on our journey toward our true home.

]]> By: Mike Hwang https://chnetwork.org/story/todd-von-kampen-we-do-not-stand-alone/#comment-27385 Mon, 23 Jun 2014 21:03:00 +0000 http://test.wp.chnetwork.org/?p=2055#comment-27385 Hello I really enjoyed reading what you wrote and I am also a convert from the LCMS.
First of all, like you, I still love my brothers and sisters in Christ who are members of the LCMS. I am grateful to my pastor who taught my Luther’s small cathechism, my Sunday school teachers, and the many good examples of Christian living I had growing up LCMS. I loved going to church in the LCMS, I loved singing all the good Lutheran hymns I grew up with. I still do miss it some-I still go to services from time to time. I still wish Catholics could sing like my old LCMS parish and I loved the hymns in Lutheran Worship much more than the Catholic contemporary stuff that I still don’t care for.
I also think that the LCMS and Catholics have much more in common than we think we done. When I was raised LCMS, I was taught that Catholics believe that salvation is something earned, not a free gift. I was taught that by merit, Catholics meant you had some sort of an invisible point system with God, where you got points for doing good works and lost points for sin. I remember reading Here I Stand by Roland Bainton for confirmation class and reading about how Luther as a monk kept doing these extreme penances to try to earn enough points. So, we were taught that Catholics believe you earn your salvation because Luther thought he had to accumulate points with God by doing all these works and then he realized that salvation was a gift, not something you earned, because he (correctly) concluded that we cannot get to heaven by earning favor with God. I think he himself did not understand the correct teaching of the church. Of course, the corruption and selling of indulgences in the 16th century Roman church did much I think to lead him to this misunderstanding.
So it was like you needed 500 points to go directly to heaven, if you had at least 100 points you would go to purgatory and each year in purgatory was 20 points and you stayed in purgatory until you earned enough points to reach 500 to get to heaven. If you had fewer than 100 points you went to Hell. That would lead to uncertainity because you would never know whether you had enough points to earn heaven. When you went to Confession, the priest would give you a pennance to earn your forgiveness and earn back the points you lost through sins. Like you, I was shocked to learn that Catholics believe salvation is a free gift by the grace of God. I was also shocked to learn that the priest actually absolved your sins in the Sacrement of Penance, I thought it was “tell me your sins and I’ll tell you what you have to do to earn your forgiveness and earn back the points you lost.”
One very important lesson I learned in Lutheran confirmation class was the definition of what faith actually is. Our pastor said “Does the devil believe everything in the Nicene Creed?” The answer is yes, the devil believes in the existence of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, etc. Then he asked “Does the devil have faith?” We all said no. So what he said faith really is-it’s not just believing in God’s existence. It’s having a personal relationship with God, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us to put to death the old Adam and raise the new Christ in doing good works, it’s being truly sorry for our sins and repenting and doing our best to do better. He told us that God can also see in your heart and he knows if you’re really sorry for your sins or if you’re just saying you’re sorry. He told us that if you are not trying to do better, you’re not really sorry and you’re not really forgiven. I also remember my small catechism saying that not all men are saved because the men who are not saved are the ones who resist the will of God and don’t allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify them and bring them to faith. So my Lutheran pastor defined faith as an entire way of life, not just intellectual agreement which even the devil has. So this definition of faith seems pretty close to what Catholic teaching is. I still remember memorizing the Lutheran Catchism saying about the Holy Spirit that I am unable by my own ability to believe in God and to live as a Christian but the Holy Sprit sanctifies me and gives me grace to do that. I don’t have my Catechism in front of me but I remember that.
I had a good Catholic friend in college who was able to explain to me that the Catholic church didn’t really teach what I thought it did-that it also taught that salvation is a free gift and many of the things you mentioned that I won’t repeat here. He was very gracious and said many good things about the LCMS and how close it is to Catholics and how good it is that the LCMS is staunchly pro-life.
Like you, when I was Lutheran, I also saw that many Catholics think that all Protestants are like Evangelicals-they believe in once saved always saved, the sinners’ prayer, etc. I was able to educate my Catholic friend and tell him that Lutherans don’t really consider themselves Protestants-they consider themselves the “true Catholics” who restored the ancient true teachings from Middle Ages Catholic error. Like you, as as Lutheran-I was never taught once saved always saved-I was taught it is possible to lose your salvation. I was taught baptismal regeneration, true presence in Communion, and the concept of sacrements as means of grace.
There are so many good things about the LCMS that it breaks my heart that these good Christians are separated from Catholics. We agree on so much-especially in today’s culture-we both teach that life is sacred from conception to natural death and we both teach that marriage is sacred and meant to be a lifelong union of one man and one woman. I(and probably you) was happy to see the cooperation and good will between LCMS and Catholic christians in opposing Obama’s abortifacent mandate. I really pray for unity between LCMS and Rome-it was not really that big a change for me to switch over.

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