of the
Adopted in 1932
Of the Holy Scriptures
1. We teach that the Holy Scriptures differ from all other
books in the world in that they are the Word of God. They are the
Word of God because the holy men of God who wrote the Scriptures
wrote only that which the Holy Ghost communicated to them by
inspiration, 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1: 21. We teach also that the verbal
inspiration of the Scriptures is not a so-called “theological
deduction,” but that it is taught by direct statements of the
Scriptures, 2 Tim. 3:16; John 10:35;
2. We furthermore teach regarding the Holy Scriptures that
they are given by God to the Christian Church for the foundation of
faith, Eph. 2:20. Hence the Holy Scriptures are the sole source from
which all doctrines proclaimed in the Christian Church must be taken
and therefore, too, the sole rule and norm by which all teachers and
doctrines must be examined and judged. - With the Confessions of our
Church we teach also that the “rule of faith” (analogia
fidei) according to which the Holy Scriptures are to be understood
are the clear passages of the Scriptures themselves which set
forth the individual doctrines. (Apology. Triglot, p. 441, @_
60; Mueller, p. 284). The rule of faith is not the man-made so-called
“totality of Scripture” (“Ganzes der
Schrift”).
3. We reject the doctrine which under the name of science has gained wide popularity in the Church of our day that Holy Scripture is not in all its parts the Word of God, but in part the Word of God and in part the word of man and hence does, or at least, might, contain error. We reject this erroneous doctrine as horrible and blasphemous, since it flatly contradicts Christ and His holy apostles, sets up men as judges over the Word of God, and thus overthrows the foundation of the Christian Church and its faith.
4. On the basis of the Holy Scriptures we teach the sublime article of the Holy Trinity; that is, we teach that the one true God, Deut 6:4; 1 Cor. 8:4, is the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, three distinct persons, but of one and the same divine essence, equal in power, equal in eternity, equal in majesty, because each person possesses the one divine essence entire, Col. 2:9; Matt. 28:19. We hold that all teachers and communions that deny the doctrine of the Holy Trinity are outside the pale of the Christian Church. The Triune God is the God who is gracious to man, John 3:16-18; 1 Cor. 12:3. Since the Fall no man can believe in the “fatherhood” of God except he believe in the eternal Son of God, who became man and reconciled us to God by His vicarious satisfaction, 1 John 2:23; John 14:6. Hence we warn against Unitarianism, which in our country has to a great extent impenetrated the sects and is spread particularly also through the influence of the lodges.
5. We teach that God has created heaven and earth, and that in the manner and in the space of time recorded in the Holy Scriptures, especially Gen 1 and 2, namely, by His almighty creative word, and in six days. We reject every doctrine which denies or limits the work of creation as taught in Scripture. In our days it is denied or limited by those who assert, ostensibly in deference to science, that the world came into existence through a process of evolution; that is, that it has, in immense periods of time, developed more or less out of itself. Since no man was present when it pleased God to create the world, we must look for a reliable account of creation to God’s own record, found in God’s own book, the Bible. We accept God’s own record with full confidence and confess with Luther’s Catechism: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures.”
6. We teach that the first man was not brute like nor merely
capable of intellectual development, but that God created man in His
own image, Gen. 1: 26, 27; Eph. 4: 24; Col. 3: 10, that is, in true
knowledge of God and in true righteousness and holiness and endowed
with a truly scientific knowledge of nature, Gen. 2:19-23.
7. We furthermore teach that sin came into the world by the fall of the first man, as described Gen. 3. By this Fall not only he himself, but also all his natural offspring have lost the original knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and thus all men are sinners already by birth, dead in sins, inclined to all evil, and subject to the wrath of God, Rom. 5:12,18; Eph. 2:1-3. We teach also that men are unable, through any efforts of their own or by the aid of culture and science,” to reconcile themselves to God and thus to conquer death and damnation.
8. We teach that in the fullness of time the eternal Son of
God was made man by assuming, from the Virgin Mary through the
operation of the Holy Ghost, a human nature like unto ours, yet
without sin, and receiving it unto His divine person. Jesus Christ is
therefore “true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and
also true man, born of the Virgin Mary,” true God and true man
in one undivided and indivisible person The purpose of this
miraculous incarnation of the Son of God was that He might become the
Mediator between God and men, both fulfilling the divine Law and
suffering and dying in the place of mankind. In this manner God has
reconciled the whole sinful world unto Himself, Gal. 4:4,5;
9. Since God has reconciled the whole world unto Himself through the vicarious life and death of His Son and has commanded that the reconciliation effected by Christ be proclaimed to men in the Gospel, to the end that they may believe it, 2 Cor. 5:18, 19; Rom 1:5, therefore faith in Christ is the only way for men to obtain Personal reconciliation with God, that is, forgiveness of sins, as both the Old and the New Testament Scriptures testify, Acts 10: 43; John 3:16-18,36. By this faith in Christ, through which men obtain the forgiveness of sins, is not meant any human effort to fulfill the Law of God after the example of Christ, but faith in the Gospel, that is, in the forgiveness of sins, or justification, which was fully earned for us by Christ and is offered in the Gospel. This faith justifies, not inasmuch as it is a work of man, but inasmuch as it lays hold of the grace offered, the forgiveness of sins, Rom. 4:16.
10. We teach that conversion consists in this, that a
man, having learned from the Law of God that he is a lost and
condemned sinner, is brought to faith in the Gospel, which
offers him forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation for the sake of
Christ’s vicarious satisfaction, Acts 11: 21; Luke 24: 46,47;
Acts 26:18.
11. All men, since the Fall, are dead in sins, Eph.
2:1-3, and inclined only to evil, Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Rom. 8:7. For this
reason, and particularly because men regard the Gospel of Christ,
crucified for the sins of the world, as foolishness, I Cor. 2:14,
faith in the Gospel, or conversion to God, is neither wholly nor in
the least part the work of man, but the work of God’s grace and
almighty power alone, Phil. 1:29; Eph. 2:8; 1:19;-Jer. 31:18. Hence
Scripture calls the faith of man, or his conversion, a raising from
the dead, Eph.
12. On the basis of these clear statements of the Holy
Scriptures we reject every kind of synergism, that is, the doctrine
that conversion is wrought not by the grace and power of God alone,
but in part also by the co-operation of man himself, by man’s
right conduct, his right attitude, his right self-determination, his
lesser guilt or less evil conduct as compared with others, his
refraining from willful resistance, or anything else whereby
man’s conversion and salvation is taken out of the gracious
hands of God and made to depend on what man does or leaves undone.
For this refraining from willful resistance or from any kind of
resistance is also solely a work of grace, which “changes
unwilling into willing men,” Ezek- 36:26; Phil. 2:13. We reject
also the doctrine that man is able to decide for conversion through
“powers imparted by grace,” since this doctrine presupposes
that before conversion man still possesses spiritual powers by which
he can make the right use of such “powers imparted by
grace.”
13. On the other hand, we reject also the Calvinistic
perversion of the doctrine of conversion, that is, the doctrine that
God does not desire to convert and save all hearers of the Word, but
only a portion of them. Many hearers of the Word indeed remain
unconverted and are not saved, not because God does not earnestly
desire their conversion and salvation, but solely because they
stubbornly resist the gracious operation of the Holy Ghost, as
Scripture teaches, Acts 7:51; Matt 23:37; Acts 13:46.
14. As to the question why not all men are converted
and saved, seeing that God’s grace is universal and all men are
equally and utterly corrupt, we confess that we cannot answer it.
From Scripture we know only this: A man owes his conversion and
salvation, not to any lesser guilt or better conduct on his part, but
solely to the grace of God. But any man’s non-conversion is due
to himself alone: it is the result of his obstinate resistance
against the converting operation of the Holy Ghost, Hos. 13:9.
15. Our refusal to go beyond what is revealed in these
two Scriptural truths is not ‘masked Calvinism”
(“Cryptocalvinism”) but precisely the Scriptural teaching
of the Lutheran Church as it is presented in detail in the Formula of
Concord (Triglot, P. 1081, @57-59, 60 b, 62, 63; M., P. 716 f.):
“That one is hardened, blinded, given over to a reprobate mind,
while another, who is indeed in the same guilt, is converted again,
etc. - in these and similar questions Paul fixes a certain limit to
us how far we should go, namely, that in the one part we should
recognize God’s judgment. For they are well-deserved penalties
of sins when God so punished a land or nation for despising His Word
that the Punishment extends also to their posterity, as is to be seen
in the Jews. And thereby God in some lands and persons exhibits His
severity to those that are His in order to indicate what we all would
have well deserved and would be worthy and worth, since we act
wickedly in opposition to God’s Word and often grieve the Holy
Ghost sorely; in order that we may live in the fear of God and
acknowledge and praise God’s goodness, to the exclusion of, and
contrary to, our merit in and with us, to whom He gives His Word and
with whom He leaves it and whom He does not harden and reject.... And
this His righteous, well-deserved judgment He displays in some
countries, nations, and persons in order that, when we are placed
alongside of them and compared with them (quam simillimi illis
deprehensi, i. e., and found to be most similar to them), we may
learn the more diligently to recognize and praise God’s pure,
unmerited grace in the vessels of mercy. . . . When we proceed thus
far in this article, we remain on the right way, as it is written,
Hos. 13:9: ‘O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is
thy help.’ However, as regards these things in this disputation
which would soar too high and beyond these limits, we should with
Paul place the finger upon our lips and remember and say,
16. Calvinists solve this mystery, which God has not revealed in His Word, by denying the universality of grace; synergists, by denying that salvation is by grace alone. Both solutions are utterly vicious, since they contradict Scripture and since every Poor sinner stands in need of, and must cling to, both the unrestricted universal grace and the unrestricted “by grace alone,” lest he despair and perish.
17. Holy Scripture sums up all its teachings regarding
the love of God to the world of sinners, regarding the salvation
wrought by Christ, and regarding faith in Christ as the only way to
obtain salvation, in the article of justification. Scripture teaches
that God has already declared the whole world to be righteous in
Christ, Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:18-21; Rom. 4:25; that therefore not for
the sake of their good works, but without the works of the Law, by
grace, for Christ’s sake, He justifies, that is, accounts as
righteous, all those who believe in Christ, that is,
believe, accept, and rely on, the fact that for
Christ’s sake their sins are forgiven. Thus the Holy Ghost
testifies through St. Paul: “There is no difference; for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus,” Rom. 3: 23,24. And again: “Therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the Law,”
Rom.
18. Through this doctrine alone Christ is given the honor
due Him, namely, that through His holy life and innocent suffering
and death He is our Savior. And through this doctrine alone can poor
sinners have the abiding comfort that God is assuredly gracious to
them. We reject as apostasy from the Christian religion all doctrines
whereby man’s own works and merit are mingled into the article
of justification before God. For the Christian religion is the faith
that we have forgiveness of sins and salvation through faith in
Christ Jesus, Acts 10:43.
19. We reject as apostasy from the Christian religion not only the doctrine of the Unitarians, who promise the grace of God to men on the basis of their moral efforts; not only the gross work-doctrine of the papists, who expressly teach that good works are necessary to obtain justification; but also the doctrine of the synergists, who indeed use the terminology of the Christian Church and say that man is justified “by faith,” “by faith alone,” but again mix human works into the article of justification by ascribing to man a co-operation with God in the kindling of faith and thus stray into papistic territory.
20. Before God only those works are good which are done for the glory of God and the good of man, according to the rule of the divine Law. Such works, however, no man performs unless he first believes that God has forgiven him his sins and has given him eternal life by grace, for Christ’s sake, without any works of his own, John 15:4,5. We reject as a great folly the assertion, frequently made in our day, that works must be placed in the fore, and “faith in dogmas” -meaning the Gospel of Christ Crucified for the sins of the world - must be relegated to the rear. Since good works never precede faith, but are always and in every instance the result of faith in the Gospel, it is evident that the only means by which we Christians can become rich in good works (and God would have us to be rich in good works, Titus 2:14) is unceasingly to remember the grace of God which we have received in Christ, Rom.12:1; 2 Cor. 8:9. Hence we reject as unchristian and foolish any attempt to produce good works by the compulsion of the Law or through carnal motives.
21. Although God is present and operates everywhere
throughout all creation and the whole earth is therefore full of the
temporal bounties and blessings of God, Col. 1:17; Acts 17:28, 14:17,
still we hold with Scripture that God offers and communicates to men
the spiritual blessings purchased by Christ, namely, the forgiveness
of sins and the treasures and gifts connected therewith, only through
the external means of grace ordained by Him. These means of grace are
the Word of the Gospel, in every form in which it is brought to man,
and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and of the Lord’s Supper. The
Word of the Gospel promises and applies the grace of God, works faith
and thus regenerates man, and gives the Holy Ghost, Acts 20:24; Rom.
10:17; 1 Pet. 1:23; Gal. 3:2. Baptism, too, is applied for the
remission of sins and is therefore a washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, Acts 2:38;
22. Since it is only through the external means
ordained by Him that God has promised to communicate the grace and
salvation purchased by Christ, the Christian Church must not remain
at home with the means of grace entrusted to it, but go into the
whole world with the preaching of the Gospel and the administration
of the Sacraments, Matt. 28: 19, 20; Mark 16:15, 16. For the same
reason also the churches at home should never forget that there is no
other way of winning souls for the Church and keeping them with it
than the faithful and diligent use of the divinely ordained means of
grace. Whatever activities do not either directly apply the Word of
God or subserve such application we condemn as “new
methods,” unchurchly activities, which do not build, but harm,
the Church.
23. We reject as a dangerous error the doctrine, which disrupted the Church of the Reformation, that the grace and the Spirit of God are communicated not through the external means ordained by Him, but by an immediate operation of grace. This erroneous doctrine bases the forgiveness of sins, or justification, upon a fictitious “infused grace,” that is, upon a quality of man, and thus again establishes the work-doctrine of the papists.
24. We believe that there is one holy Christian Church
on earth, the Head of which is Christ and which is gathered,
preserved, and governed by Christ through the Gospel.
The members of the Christian Church are the Christians, that
is, all those who have despaired of their own righteousness before
God and believe that God forgives their sins for Christ’s sake.
The Christian Church, in the proper sense of the term, is composed of
believers only, Acts 5:14; 26:18; which means that no person in whom
the Holy Ghost has wrought faith in the Gospel, or - which is the
same thing - in the doctrine of justification, can be divested of his
membership in the Christian Church; and, on the other hand, that no
person in whose heart this faith does not dwell can be invested with
such membership. All unbelievers, though they be in external
communion with the Church and even hold the office of teacher or any
other office in the Church, are not members of the Church, but, on
the contrary, dwelling-places and instruments of Satan, Eph. 2:2.
This is also the teaching of our Lutheran Confessions: “It is
certain, however, that the wicked are in the power of the devil and
members of the kingdom of the devil, as Paul teaches, Eph. 2:2, when
he says that ‘the devil now worketh in the children of
disobedience,”‘ etc. (Apology. Triglot, p. 231, @_
16; M., p. 154.)
25. Since it is by faith in the Gospel alone that men
become members of the Christian Church, and since this faith cannot
be seen by men, but is known to God alone, 1 Kings 8:39; Acts 1: 24;
2 Tim. 2:19, therefore the Christian Church on earth is invisible,
Luke 17:20, and will remain invisible till Judgment Day, Col. 3:3, 4.
In our day some Lutherans speak of two sides of the Church, taking
the means of grace to be its “visible side.” It is true,
the means of grace are necessarily related to the Church, seeing that
the Church is created and preserved through them. But the means of
grace are not for that reason a part of the Church; for the Church,
in the proper sense of the word, consists only of believers, Eph.
2:19,20; Acts 5:14. Lest we abet the notion that the Christian Church
in the proper sense of the term is an external institution, we shall
continue to call the means of grace the “marks” of the
Church. Just as wheat is to be found only where it has been sown, so
the Church can be found only where the Word of God is in use.
26. We teach that this Church, which is the invisible
communion of all believers, is to be found not only in those external
church communions which teach the Word of God purely in every part,
but also where, along with error, so much of the Word of God still
remains that men may be brought to the knowledge of their sins and to
faith in the forgiveness of sins, which Christ has gained for all
men, Mark 16:16; Samaritans: Luke 17:16; John 4:25.
27.
28. On Church-Fellowship –
Since God ordained that His Word only, without
the admixture of human doctrine, be taught and believed in the
Christian Church, 1 Pet. 4: 11; John 8:31,32; 1 Tim. 6:3,4, all
Christians are required by God to discriminate between orthodox and
heterodox church-bodies, Matt. 7:15, to have church-fellowship only
with orthodox church-bodies, and, in case they have strayed into
heterodox church-bodies, to leave them, Rom. 16:17. We repudiate
unionism, that is, church-fellowship with the adherents of false
doctrine, as disobedience to God’s command, as causing divisions
in the Church, Rom. 16:17; 2 John 9,10, and as involving the constant
danger of losing the Word of God entirely, 2 Tim. 2:17-21.
29. The orthodox character of a church is established
not by its mere name nor by its outward acceptance of, and
subscription to, an orthodox creed, but by the doctrine which is
actually taught in its pulpits, in its theological seminaries, and in
its Publications. On the other hand, a church does not forfeit its
orthodox character through the casual intrusion of errors, provided
these are combated and eventually removed by means of doctrinal
discipline, Acts 20:30; 1 Tim. 1: 3.
30. The Original and True Possessors of All Christian Rights and Privileges. - Since the Christians are the Church, it is self-evident that they alone originally possess the spiritual gifts and rights which Christ has gained for, and given to, I-!is Church. Thus St. Paul reminds all believers: “All things are yours,” 1 Cor. 3: 21, 22, and Christ Himself commits to all believers the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Matt. 16:13-19; 18:17-20; John 20:22, 23, and commissions all believers to preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments, Matt. 28:19,20; 1 Cor. 11:23-25. Accordingly, we reject all doctrines by which this spiritual power or any part thereof is adjudged as originally vested in certain individuals or bodies, such as the Pope, or the bishops, or the order of the ministry, or the secular lords, or councils, or synods, etc. The officers of the Church publicly administer their offices only by virtue of delegated powers, conferred on them by the original possessors of such powers, and such administration remains under the supervision of the latter, Col. 4:17. Naturally all Christians have also the right and the duty to judge and decide matters of doctrine, not according to their own notions, of course, but according to the Word of God, 1 John 4: 1; I Pet. 4:11.
31. By the public ministry we mean the office by which
the Word of God is preached and the Sacraments are administered by
order and in the name of a Christian congregation. Concerning this
office we teach that it is a divine ordinance; that is, the
Christians of a certain locality must apply the means of grace not
only privately and within the circle of their families nor merely in
their common intercourse with fellow-Christians, John 5:39; Eph. 6:4;
Col. 3:16, but they are also required, by the divine order, to make
provision that the Word of God be publicly preached in their midst,
and the Sacraments administered according to the institution of
Christ, by persons qualified for such work, whose qualifications and
official functions are exactly defined in Scripture, Titus 1:5; Acts
14:23; 20:28; 2 Tim. 2:2.
32. Although the office of the ministry is a divine
ordinance, it possesses no other power than the power of the Word of
God, 1 Pet. 4: 11; that is to say, it is the duty of Christians to yield unconditional
obedience to the office of the ministry whenever, and as long as, the
minister proclaims to them the Word of God, Heb. 13:17; Luke 10:
16If, however, the minister, in his teachings and injunctions, were
to go beyond the Word of God, it would be the duty of Christians not
to obey, but to disobey him, so as to remain faithful to Christ,
Matt. 23:8. Accordingly, we reject the false doctrine ascribing to
the office of the ministry the right to demand obedience and
submission in matters which Christ has not commanded.
33. Regarding ordination we teach that it is not a divine, but a commendable ecclesiastical ordinance. (Smalcald Articles. Triglot, p. 525, @70; M., p. 342.)
34. Although both Church and State are ordinances of God, yet they must not be commingled. Church and State have entirely different aims. By the Church, God would save men, for which reason the Church is called the “mother” of believers, Gal. 4:26. By the State, God would maintain external order among men, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty,” 1 Tim. 2:2. It follows that the means which Church and State employ to gain their ends are entirely different. The Church may not employ any other means than the preaching of the Word of God, John 18:11,36; 2 Cor. 10: 4. The State, on the other hand, makes laws bearing on civil matters and is empowered to employ for their execution also the sword and other corporal punishments, Rom. 13:4. Accordingly we condemn the policy of those who would have the power of the State employed “in the interest of the Church” and who thus turn the Church into a secular dominion; as also of those who, aiming to govern the State by the Word of God, seek to turn the State into a Church.
35. By election of grace we mean this truth, that all
those who by the grace of God alone, for Christ’s sake, through
the means of grace, are brought to faith, are justified, sanctified,
and preserved in faith here in time, that all these have already from
eternity been endowed by God with faith, justification,
sanctification, and preservation in faith, and this for the same
reason, namely, by grace alone, for Christ’s sake, and by way of
the means of grace. That this is the doctrine of Holy Scripture is
evident from Eph. 1:3-7; 2 Thess. 2:13,14; Acts 13:48; Rom. 8:28-30;
2 Tim. 1:9; Matt. 24:22-24 (cp. Form. of Conc. Triglot, p. 1065, @ 5,
8, 23; M., p. 705).
36. Accordingly we reject as an anti-Scriptural error
the doctrine that not alone the grace of God and the merit of Christ
are the cause of the election of grace, but that God has, in
addition, found or regarded something good in us which prompted or
caused Him to elect us, this being variously designated as “good
works right conduct,” “proper self-determination refraining
from willful resistance,” etc. Nor does Holy Scripture know of
an election “by foreseen faith in view of faith,” as though
the faith of the elect were to be placed before their election; but
according to Scripture the faith which the elect have in time belongs
to the spiritual blessings with which God has endowed them by His
eternal election. For Scripture teaches, Acts
37. But as earnestly as we maintain that there is an
election of grace, or a predestination to salvation, so decidedly do
we teach, on the other hand, that there is no election of wrath, or
predestination to damnation. Scripture plainly reveals the truth that
the love of God for the world of lost sinners is universal, that is,
that it embraces all men without exception, that Christ has fully
reconciled all men unto God, and that God earnestly desires to bring
all men to faith, to preserve them therein, and thus to save them, as
Scripture testifies, 1 Tim. 2:4: “God will have all men to be
saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” No man is lost
because God has predestinated him to eternal damnation.-Eternal
election is a cause why the elect are brought to faith in time, Acts
38. To be sure, it is necessary to observe the Scriptural
distinction between the election of grace and the universal will of
grace. This universal gracious will of God embraces all men; the
election of grace, however, does not embrace all, but only a definite
number, whom “God hath from the beginning chosen to
salvation,” 2 Thess. 2:13, the 9 4 remnant,” the
“seed” which “the Lord left,” Rom. 9:27-29, the
“election,” Rom. 11: 7; and while the universal will of
grace is frustrated in the case of most men, Matt 22:14; Luke 7:30,
the election of grace attains its end with all whom it embraces, Rom.
8:28-30. Scripture, however, while distinguishing between the
universal will of grace and the election of grace, does not place the
two in opposition to each other. On the contrary, it teaches that the
grace dealing with those who are lost is altogether earnest and fully
efficacious for conversion. Blind reason indeed declares these two
truths to be contradictory; but we impose silence on our reason. The
seeming disharmony will disappear in the light of heaven, I Cor.
13:12.
39. Furthermore, by election of grace, Scripture does
not mean that one part of God’s counsel of salvation according
to which He will receive into heaven those who persevere in faith
unto the end, but, on the contrary, Scripture means this, that God,
before the foundation of the world, from Pure grace, because of the
redemption of Christ, has chosen for His own a definite number of
persons Out of the corrupt mass and has determined to bring them,
through Word and Sacrament. to faith and salvation.
40. Christians can and should be assured of their
eternal ,election. This is evident from the fact that Scripture
addresses them as the chosen ones and comforts them with their
election, Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13. This assurance of one’s
personal election, however, springs only from faith in the Gospel,
from the assurance that God so loved the world that He gave His
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to
condemn the world; on the contrary, through the life, suffering, and
death of I-Ls Son He fully reconciled the whole world of sinners unto
Himself. Faith in this truth leaves no room for the fear that God
might still harbor thoughts of wrath and damnation concerning us.
Scripture inculcates that in Rom.
41. We teach that in the New Testament God has
abrogated the Sabbath and all the holy-days prescribed for the Church
of the Old Covenant, so that neither “the keeping of the Sabbath
nor of any other day” nor the observance of at least one
specific day of the seven days of the week is ordained or commanded
by God, Col 2:16; Rom. 14:5 (Augsburg Confession. Triglot, p. 91, @_
51-60; M., p. 66).
The observance of Sunday and other church festivals is an
ordinance of the Church, made by virtue of Christian liberty. (
42. With the
Over against this, Scripture clearly teaches, and we teach
accordingly, that the kingdom of Christ on earth will remain under
the cross until the end of the world, Acts 14:22; John 16:33; 18:36;
Luke 9:23; 14:27; 17:20-37; 2 Tim. 4:18; Heb. 12:28; Luke 18:8; that
the second visible coming of the Lord will be His final advent, His
coming to judge the quick and the dead, Matt. 24:29, 30; 25:31; 2
Tim. 4: 1; 2 Thess. 2:8; Heb. 9:26-28; that there will be but one
resurrection of the dead, John 5:28; 6:39, 40; that the time of the
Last Day is, and will remain, unknown, Matt. 24:42; 25:13; Mark 13:
32, 37; Acts 1: 7, which would not be the case if the Last Day were
to come a thousand years after the beginning of a millennium; and
that there will be no general conversion, a conversion en masse, of
the Jewish nation, Rom. 11: 7; 2 Cor. 3:14; Rom. 11: 25; 1 Thess.
2:16.
According to these clear passages of Scripture we reject the whole of Millennialism, since it not only contradicts Scripture, but also engenders a false conception of the kingdom of Christ, turns the hope of Christians upon earthly goals, I Cor. 15:19; Col. 3:2, and leads them to look upon the Bible as an obscure book.
43. As to the Antichrist we teach that the prophecies
of the Holy Scriptures concerning the Antichrist, 2 Thess. 2: 3-12; 1
John
44. Those questions in the domain of Christian doctrine may be termed open questions which Scripture answers either not at all or not clearly. Since neither an individual nor the Church as a whole is permitted to develop or augment the Christian doctrine, but are rather ordered and commanded by God to continue in the doctrine of the apostles, 2 Thess. 2:15; Acts 2:42, open questions must remain open questions. -Not to be included in the number of open questions are the following: the doctrine of the Church and the Ministry, of Sunday, of Chiliasm, and of Antichrist, these doctrines being clearly defined in Scripture.
45. We accept as our confessions all the symbols
contained in the Book of Concord of the year 1580. -The symbols of
the Lutheran Church are not a rule of faith beyond, and supplementary
to, Scripture, but a confession of the doctrines of Scripture over
against those who deny these doctrines.
46. Since the Christian Church cannot make doctrines,
but can and should simply profess the doctrine revealed in Holy
Scripture, the doctrinal decisions of the symbols are binding upon
the conscience not because our Church has made them nor because they
are the outcome of doctrinal controversies, but only because they are
the doctrinal decisions of Holy Scripture itself.
47. Those desiring to be admitted into the public
ministry of the Lutheran Church pledge themselves to teach according
to the symbols not “in so far as,” but “because,”
the symbols agree with Scripture. He who is unable to accept as
Scriptural the doctrine set forth in the Lutheran symbols and their
rejection of the corresponding errors must not be admitted into the
ministry of the Lutheran Church.
48. The confessional obligation covers all doctrines,
not only those that are treated ex professor but also those
that are merely introduced in support of other doctrines.
The obligation does not extend to historical statements, “purely exegetical questions,” and other matters not belonging to the doctrinal content of the symbols. All doctrines of the symbols are based on clear statements of Scripture.