Why do Lutherans Make the Sign of the Cross? 

I’ve never been to a confessional Lutheran church that doesn’t make the sign across. Confessional Lutherans make the sign across all the time, it’s taught in their small catechism. Your mileage may vary when you get outside the non-confessional Lutheran churches.

​@@P-el4zdI've never been to a confessional Lutheran Church where the laity crossed themselves in the church service.

@@danbratten3103 Read your Catechism.

@@danbratten3103 Read the Catechism.

@@danbratten3103 How the head of the family should teach his household to pray morning and evening. In the morning when you get up, make the sign of the holy cross and say: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. … Luther’s small catechism

Which would be great if they were correcting Roman Catholic errors. But it seems to me that most of the Radical denominations (Puritans, etc) threw out the GOOD things from RC, and KEPT THE BAD THINGS (like works salvation).

@@Didymus20X6 you have an incorrect understanding of Catholics. Works don’t earn our way in just like your faith without works don’t earn your way in.

Precisely. "Das ist Katolisch." Cultural Protestantism has led especially American Lutheranism to compromise many of its traditional customs.

@@tonyfisher9961 The difference is that while Luther never taught that faith that is without works can be justifying faith (James uses the word "faith" differently from Paul and the rest of Scripture), Trent explicitly condemns the notion that true faith (which is never without works) justifies without works being not only an inevitable consequence of such faith but a contributing cause of justification along with it. I think Rome would like to revisit that wording, but that would mean admitting that one of its councils erred, if only in its choice of words.

@@RobertEWaters what exactly are you telling me? Personally I don’t pay much attention to Luther and what he said. As far as differences between Paul and James, Paul writes mostly about initial faith where James writes about lived out faith. What you say about Trent I can’t figure out. Is your sentence a quote and if it is could you tell me where it is from? Lastly, you mentioned “Rome”. Are you referring to the Catholics church and do you say that in a mean spirited way? Can I call Protestants “Prots”?

Not at all. While Lutherans respect tradition and uphold it when it is edifying, we do not hold to traditions that contradict what Holy Scripture teaches no matter how ancient they may be.

Your logic is bad. The tradition of married clergy is much more ancient, and the antiquity of a bad practice is not a reason to engage in it. In any case, an unmarried clergy is a purely human custom. Paul calls the forbidding of marriage "a doctrine of devils." It was not the apostolic custom, and there is no theologically sound reason for it.

The Catholic Church has 22 rites and many of them make the sign of the cross right to left. Roman Catholics generally make it left to right but if one chooses to make it the other way, they are free to do so. While I am Roman Catholic, my ancestors were Byzantine Catholic; so to honor my heritage I will alternate both. There is no rule in the Catholic church to prohibit one over the other.

I've ran into both RC and EO priests that have been strict about the direction when making the sign of the cross. As for a hard rule by either church bodies on direction that requires more research. Though I would not put it past people stuck in tradition to think that doing the sign in "wrong" would cancel it out.

@@joshd3502 what would it cancel out? Would it be like not doing it at all or would it be some kind of satinism? What exactly would happen if you did it the wrong way? I think this might be just an attack on tradition. Maybe we are just trying to create a synchronized effect by doing it in the same direction.

The sign of the cross made in the Latin/roman Catholic Church is due to a medieval change (reason unclear). But I don't think it matters how you do it.

I was raised around a large number of Catholics and Orthodox of many different rites. I crossed myself very often both ways all the time even when my family told me not to (they are reformed Protestant)

Exactly, it is the Holy Spirit that protects not a made up tradition of the sign of the cross.

You mean like diced onions, celery and bell peppers plus a clove of garlic (looks like a miter)??

@@brinkmannfilms I see you're off your meds again?

@@theodosios2615 hahaha the trinity is what they call that combination of ingredients in Cajun cooking ;) plus garlic for the pope.

@@brinkmannfilms Oh. Now how am I supposed to know that?