The more religious one considers oneself, the more that one has made a commitment to become closer to God, and to declare oneself a member of a specific community. Today's churches are the result of centuries of development. Bastions of tradition, most creeds hearken back to an earlier day. Their ways and general beliefs were largely fixed in another time and place, one that was often quite different from the world in which we now live. Christianity is only one of many world religions whose origin goes back to Ancient Times. Indeed, there are faiths still practiced today the origins of which pre-date Christianity by some considerable period of time. The earliest Hindu Scriptures were being recited even as the Pharaohs of Egypt thought themselves the greatest rulers in the world. Judaism, the faith that is most directly ancestral to Christianity, traces its history back nearly as far. Ancient Egypt was the setting of many a Biblical episode. Other forms of worship go far back. Zoroastrianism extended its influence over much of the Middle East and the Roman Empire. Mithraism is a direct descendant, and Manichaeanism and Gnosticism were both affected to a greater or lesser extent. The home of Christianity was a melting pot. Ancient Palestine was traversed by the followers of almost every Western religion. Worshipers of Isis and Mazda, Aphrodite and Mithra, and Baal and Osiris communicated with one another, and influenced one another. The Christianity that began as an outgrowth of Judaism was also a product of all of these influences. And, if you were a True Believer - it was taught and preached by the Son of God. The Christianity that developed in those distant days was a product of its time.

             In a similar fashion, the Lutheran Church developed out of Roman Catholicism in the Sixteenth Century. The issues and concerns of that age shaped the new church. For millions of people the Lutheran Creed offered answers to existing problems.