Menu“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” – 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Some of you have asked why it is important for the pastor and the congregation that I, your pastor, have vowed to teach and preach God’s Word according to the Lutheran Confessions. After all, isn’t pledging to “preach from the Bible” enough?
It is wise for you to inquire about this. Correct preaching and teaching illumines the glory of Christ. The eternal fate of souls in our congregation depends on it.
So what is “correct” preaching and teaching? How do you know the pastor isn’t reading his own interpretation into the text when he preaches?
The Lutheran Reformation, which started when Martin Luther offered to debate 95 points of faith on October 31, 1517, became concerned with this question: what is the true faith, and what is our authority for saying what it is? Our faith is based on God has revealed to us in Holy Scripture alone, not what other people tell us to believe.
So what are the “Lutheran Confessions?” The Lutheran Confessions are orthodox expressions of the Christian faith, anchored by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, drawn from the Holy Scriptures. This is the same Christian faith that has been confessed through the centuries ever since the time of the Apostles – just as the Apostle Paul says when he “delivered to you… what I also received.…” Ours is a faith centered (i.e., “of first importance”) on the gospel message “that Christ died for our sins…, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day.”
All that Jesus did was “ in accordance with the Scriptures.” The Old Testament pointed ahead towards Christ. So just like St. Paul, we believe God does precisely what He says He is going to do. For our benefit, exactly what God reveals to us is written down in the Bible.
As C.F.W. Walther, the founder of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod wrote, when a pastor pledges to teach and preach according to the Lutheran Confessions, the congregation can be assured that:
1. The content of the Christian faith that I am preaching and teaching your family and your brothers and sisters in Christ, even if you are not present at every sermons or Bible study, is centered on Jesus Christ;
2. Your pastor has a guide for interpreting the Scriptures, and you know what it is;
3. Your pastor preaches and teaches the pure doctrine of the orthodox Christian faith, in conformity with Scripture, as expressed in the Lutheran Confessions;
4. You have a clear, written standard of the Christian faith by which to judge your pastor’s preaching and teaching; and
5. I, as your pastor, have a clear, written standard by which the content of my preaching and teaching will be judged by you, a standard to which I have pledged myself, and the same standard by which I expect to be judged by our Lord Jesus Christ.
May our Lord Jesus Christ keep you and me in the one true faith now and forever,
– Pastor Nickel
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A Very Brief History of the Lutheran Confessions
The “Lutheran” Confessions include the three great, universal statements of the apostolic faith – the faith passed down from the Apostles (Paul, John, Peter, etc.). We know them as the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. These statements of faith are drawn from the Holy Scriptures and are confessed by all Christians of both the Western Church and Eastern (“Orthodox”) Church, not just Lutherans. Beginning in the 100s A.D., not long after the death of the last Apostle (John), these creeds developed in the early centuries of the Christian Church. They identified the Church’s public message to the world and offered believers guidance for public instruction and witness. And they served to defend “the faith of the Apostles” in response to errors that attacked both the faith and biblical truth.
When the Reformation occurred, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, called upon the “Lutheran” princes and cities to identify their public teaching in 1530 at Augsburg, Germany. They answered with a document they called their “confession of faith.” This became known as the Augsburg Confession, the reforming movement’s public statement centered on the Gospel teaching that our salvation is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, and that the source of authority for what we believe, teach and confess is Holy Scripture alone.
After 25 years of conflict, at the Religious Peace of Augsburg in 1555 (yes, at the same place!), a certain level of political toleration of the reforming movement was allowed. The Augsburg Confession became the definition of the faith that was “legally permitted” in territories that did not otherwise remain Roman Catholic. In the meantime, Martin Luther and his colleagues had further described and explained what they sought to reform in:
– the Defense of the Augsburg Confession – a document written in response to the opposition of the Augsburg Confession,
– the Smalcald Articles – a clear summary of doctrine that Luther wrote in 1537 for the allied princes gathered at Smalcald, Germany, in expectation of being summoned to a Council of the Western Church that Pope Paul III had convoked in Mantua, Italy, but never convened,
– Luther’s Small Catechism – a short booklet to be used by parents in instructing their children in the Christian faith, which we still use in confirmation classes,
– Luther’s Large Catechism, which explains the chief articles of the faith in greater depth for adults, teachers of the faith, and pastors, and
– the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope – a statement on papal authority (as contrasted with “Scripture alone”) that also was written in 1537 for the Council that was convoked but not convened.
Certain doctrinal controversies that arose after Martin Luther’s death were resolved, in unity, with greater definition of particular points of the Christian faith in the Formula of Concord, which was subscribed to by 8,188 theologians by 1580. Together with all of the above-mentioned documents, the Formula of Concord was published in the Book of Concord on June 25, 1580, the 50th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession. All of these statements of faith, from the Apostles Creed through the Formula of Concord, comprise the “Lutheran Confessions.” As stated in the Constitution of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, these statements of faith, “taken from and in full agreement with the Holy Scriptures,” express the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at large, and what we believe, teach and confess to the world.
