The 1968 Convention of the Church of the Lutheran Confession asked that a statement be prepared and published that would supply a simple but definitive expression of our faith in the basic doctrines of Holy Scripture.
The "Statement of Faith and Purpose" was prepared and then published in 1969. It has served well as a public confession of the Church of the Lutheran Confession and experience has shown that it has spoken to the hearts of readers in an inspirational rather than dogmatic fashion.
In 1990 the Church of the Lutheran Confession celebrated the 30th anniversary of its organization. By the grace of God its confessional position remained unchanged and therefore this third edition of its "Statement of Faith and Purpose" was published.
It is our single purpose to be a Christian church which strives to proclaim the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, by which alone man can know the true God and the way to eternal life. This our purpose and commitment rests upon the following statements of the Bible:
We disavow the position that the church as a body is to promote social and political causes and opinions of men. The individual Christian will indeed show the fruits of faith by his concern for social and political causes wherever they present themselves. Our right of existence as a church, however, is limited by our readiness to say with St. Paul that we are "determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." (I Corinthians 2:2)
In our teaching and preaching we rely wholly upon the Bible, the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We regard this Book of Books as the Word of God, verbally inspired and wholly without error as written by holy men of God. We consider our mission to be that of communicating the words and message of this Book to those who will hear them; and we know of no other divine source of true doctrine and instruction in the way of salvation and in God-pleasing living.
We therefore reject as sacrilegious and destructive every effort by which the intellect or science of man would modify or set aside a single inspired word. We deplore the wide-spread apostasy, now common even in former "conservative" church bodies, which reduces the Bible to the status of a human document containing errors and myths.
Our purpose is fixed also by the knowledge and conviction that man is what the Bible says he is: Not a product of an evolutionary process which has brought him from brutish beginnings to more advanced stages of development, but a being distinct from the beasts. Created originally in the image of God, he is now without spiritual goodness, utterly depraved by reason of sin into which Adam fell. He is spiritually blind, dead, an enemy of God and doomed to eternal damnation, being incapable of redeeming himself by any means whatsoever.
Indeed, the God of grace Himself is unknown and hidden to this human race, and can be found by man only in and through the revelation graciously provided in the Bible. Without exception the gods of the nations are idols that cannot hear, see or save. In the darkness of their wicked hearts men, left to themselves, have "worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator." "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." (Romans 1:23.25.) This describes not only the gods of the pagans, but those professed by all unchristian organizations and in many churches as well, some of which have abandoned the tenets of their historic faith.
We confess and worship the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, revealed in His Word and in the Person of the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In this Triune God we find and declare the source and promise of salvation:
We teach that the Holy Ghost gathers the Holy Christian Church, which in its ultimate fulness consists of all who by God's mercy, and according to His own purpose and grace, were from eternity ordained unto eternal life.
The Church's unifying factor is "the one true faith;" but human eyes cannot discern faith, which is in the heart, and for us the very existence of the Church is thus an article of faith. The Church, therefore, cannot be identified with any specific organization or church body, nor can we recognize or identify its individual members by their faith. For this reason we have historically spoken of the Church as "invisible."
Nevertheless the presence of the Church can be determined by its marks. For since the Holy Spirit gathers its members by the Gospel, we must and may assume that true believers are present wherever the Gospel in Word and Sacrament is in use.
We are confident that there are many who, though they do not now openly share with us the profession of the true faith, being yet partly uninformed or weak in understanding, are nevertheless at heart members of the flock of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. (John 10:14-16.)
We are also fully aware that in our own visible fellowship there may be such who, despite their outward profession, are not of Christ, but are hypocrites and unbelievers. Jesus said to His disciples: "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" (John 6:70.) It will not be otherwise in our day.
Yet in our exercise of external, visible fellowship of worship and joint church work we are guided by clear and sure directives of God's holy Word. We cannot recognize our brethren on earth by the faith of their hearts; for these are not open to our view. Instead, by the mercy and grace of God we are permitted to fellowship with those, but those only, who in their confession and life bow to the rule of the divine Word.
In our practice, therefore:
That men might attain to His salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the glorious ministry of the Gospel by which the Holy Ghost is pleased to call, gather, enlighten and keep the whole Christian Church on earth. To this ministry He has called everyone who truly believes in Christ, and for its purposes enables Christians to establish congregations as well as other groups, sometimes called synods, on the basis of a Scriptural confession.
Within such groups, large or small, believers are privileged to set up the public proclamation and teaching of the saving Word by human instruments which God himself supplies. These instruments are those Christians chosen and prepared by Him to act in His behalf as well as in behalf of their brethren as administrators of the Grace of God.
Their function we call the Public Ministry. It is staffed by those whom Christ gives to His Church and who are properly called by the Church for the work. Pastors and teachers of the Word are thus occupying a divinely insitituted office and their specific area of work is determined and defined by their respective Calls in which the assignment given to each by the calling assembly is spelled out. In this service there is no distinction of rank and power. But there is a diversity of gifts and responsibilities. Eligibility for a Call to the Public Ministry is determined by the directives of God's Word (I Timothy 3:1-13; I Timothy 2:11-12).
We further believe that, when such called ministers of Christ, in accordance with their respective Call, deal with us by Christ's command, He speaks through them, and in them we obey Him.
The Sacrament of Holy Baptism which is administered among us as a part of the Gospel ministry we regard as a washing of regeneration, having power by means of the Word connected therewith to work faith and thus to confer all the blessings of Christ upon young or old. We regard infant baptism as clearly implied, both in the Savior's command to baptize all nations and in the promise of Peter that baptism has power to save all who are lost by reason of inherited and actual sin (" ...baptism doth also now save us ..." I Peter 3:21).
While the mode of baptism is nowhere prescribed, we regard baptism as valid only when performed in accordance with Christ's institution.
The Sacrament of the Altar, or Holy Communion, is administered in our churches as it was instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ, with the body and blood of Christ being really present in the eating and drinking. We believe that this Sacrament, like Baptism, is a Means of Grace, imparting, as Scripture teaches, the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.
We seek to administer this Sacrament to those only for whom it was intended, namely, to penitent sinners who desire to confess and live according to God's Word. We therefore practice what is known as close communion, with attendance at the Lord's Table restricted to such who have properly signified their intention to commune and are able to examine themselves. In observing these procedures we indicate our respect for the Holy Supper as a precious gift for our souls, worthy of frequent and sanctified use by all communicants. In this we are governed by the inspired counsel of the Apostle in I Corinthians 11:23-24.
We know, believe and teach that the world as it now exists will not endure. The ills of man and his civilization are rooted in unbelief and sin, because of which things "cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience" (Ephesians 5:6). There is no hope of cure save in a turning to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Way. The world as such has consistently rejected this course, and always will.
Therefore, while as individual Christans and citizens we must be actively concerned with serving as a salt and a light in the affairs of men, and while as a church we shall lift up holy hands in prayer for the good of all men, we have no illusions as to the final outcome of events and preach no false, millennialistic hopes. Rather, we direct men to the future city of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and bid them wait for, and look to, the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ in His second Coming to judge the quick and the dead.
These things, together with all other truths of Holy Scripture as set forth also in the Lutheran symbols of the Book of Concord of 1580 A.D., we believe and desire to confess by word and deed before the Triune God and all men. We earnestly desire to share our rich blessings, and thus extend a welcome to
ALL who are in distress of mind and heart because of their guilt and condemnation in the sight of Almighty God and seek the pardon and comfort which only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can confer;
ALL who are bewildered by the confusion of many voices offering the theories of human wisdom in the name of religion, and who desire to hear the Voice of the Good Shepherd whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses;
ALL who, though members of Christian churches, have come to fear or to know that their churches have departed from the truth of Holy Scripture, who therefore long for the old paths and the good way (Jeremiah 6:16);
ALL who have strayed from the blessed pledge of their Baptism and desire to be restored to the Bishop of their souls.
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24-25).