Dennis;
You seem to really down-play the severity of the baptism error in the Lutheran church:
What does Baptism give or profit? - Answer.
It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.
How can the LCMS profess justification by faith alone and then put forth what sounds to me like a position of baptismal regeneration. Am I understanding their view on baptism correctly? And if so, how can they be compared to the PCA? Am I judging them to harshly here?
What Bruce said. Luther believed that the Holy Spirit creates faith in the infant and that he was consistent in saying that all are saved by grace through faith. Indeed, the antipod of Lutheranism is not Reformed Calvinism, per se, but the derivative churches that teach decisional regeneration. To claim that a person can "decide" to become a Christian strikes the LCMS as Pelagian (or at least semi-Pelagian). Monergism requires that salvation be a "work" of God alone, not a cooperative effort between God and my "deciding" to accept Jesus.
Pergy, I am painfully aware of my special status on this board as a confirmed member of a LCMS church. My answers were intended to be descriptive in a way that would not incite a full throated debate by me that would put me off the board.
Thanks for the info, Dennis. I'll back off....I value your presence on the board and don't want to jeopardize that.