The World is Reconciled in Jesus
This Confession was ratified as a faithful summary of what the Bible teaches at a meeting in Manchester Lutheran Church on 1st March 2026. It will next be reviewed in two years time.
Our Confessional Standards
Our Confession, The World is Reconciled in Jesus, does not teach anything that has not already been part of the Church’s preaching of Scripture since the time of Christ. It summarises the teaching of many prior documents that already faithfully expound and defend the doctrine revealed in the Bible. A list of these confessional standards that we confess to be pure expositions of God’s Word are given in article 31 of our Confession.
Since the Reformation, Lutherans have traditionally described the three Creeds as “symbols” of our faith, the Augsburg Confession as our “confession”, and further words for other documents that also summarise God’s Word purely for different contexts.
Whatever language is used, our faith is revealed only in God’s Word, the Bible. The Bible is perfect. In contrast, no human document can ever be perfect or exhaustive — but, they can be pure summaries of what the doctrine that the Bible teaches. All the documents below are such pure summaries of biblical doctrine.
They are therefore useful to us as standards of biblical teaching to which we can appeal for help when confusion arises, and resources we can draw on for teaching and explaining the Bible. It is in this sense we may say of all these documents that we believe, teach and confess them.
The Three Ecumenical Creeds
The three ecumenical Creeds are ancient summaries of the Gospel. The Apostles’ Creed (4th c.) was a formalised version of the oldest instructions given to people being prepared for Baptism or Confirmation. The Nicene Creed (325, 381) was adopted by a church council to correct errors that had arisen in the church. The Athanasian Creed (5th-6th c.) was used to help train pastors in the essentials of the Gospel.
The Creeds have been recognised by Christians all over the world for many centuries as pure summaries of the Gospel revealed in the Bible.
The Chalcedonian Definition
The Chalcedonian Definition (451) was adopted by a church council to clarify the Bible’s teaching about Jesus Christ after persistent errors about his divine and human natures caused division in the church following the Nicene Creed.
The Book of Concord
The Book of Concord was compiled in 1580 as a compendium of documents. The Small and Large Catechisms (1529) are Martin Luther’s expositions of biblical passages that teach foundational doctrines for the Christian faith. The Augsburg Confession (1530), Apology (1531) and Treatise (1537) were composed by Philip Melanchthon in response to Roman Catholic errors. The Smalcald Articles (1537) were written by Luther for a council with the Catholic Church when he believed he was about to die, and so are in some ways his “last will and testament”. The Formula of Concord (1577) was largely composed and edited by Martin Chemnitz to correct various errors that had arisen after Luther’s death and the encroachment of Reformed theology within Lutheran churches.
The Book of Concord has been recognised by Lutherans all over the world since its publication as a pure exposition of the Bible’s doctrine in response to these errors.
- The Book of Concord
- The Augsburg Confession
- The Apology of the Augsburg Confession
- The Smalcald Articles
- The Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope
- The Small Catechism
- The Large Catechism
- The Formula of Concord
The Saxon Visitation Articles
The Saxon Visitation Articles (1592), compiled under Johann Bugenhagen, guided pastors in checking doctrine and practice on Lutheran teaching and the Sacraments, to specifically counter Reformed errors that were creeping into the Lutheran church.
They were used widely as a practical doctrinal guide, to support orthodox Lutheran teaching.
Walther’s Theses
In response to a pastoral crisis in the immigrant German Lutheran Church in America, C.F.W. Walther wrote the Altenburg Theses (1841) to clarify what constitutes a true Church and emphasise the authority of Word and Sacraments against false teachings. He later expanded these into his theses on Church and Ministry (1848-1852), which explained the divine institution of the Church and the pastoral office. Later in his ministry, Walther gave a series of lectures expounding 28 theses on Law and Gospel, teaching pastors how to apply Scripture correctly in preaching and pastoral care.
Walther’s theses on Church and Ministry were formally adopted by the Lutheran Synod in Missouri, and his theses on Law and Gospel became a standard, authoritative guide for teaching and practice within the Missouri Synod and other churches.
The WELS This We Believe Statements
The This We Believe Statements (1967, 1980, 1999) were published and revised by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod to publicly confess the faith of the WELS and to serve as a basis for doctrinal discussions with other church bodies and informed individuals.
The Statements serve as an authoritative summary of WELS doctrine.
The CELC Ninety-Five Theses for the 21st Century
As part of the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference published the Ninety-Five Theses for the 21st Century as a summary of biblical teaching in light of issues faced in our era. They are organised according to the outline of Luther’s Small Catechism.
The document serves as a contemporary summary of Lutheran doctrine, reflecting the teachings of the Lutheran Confessions, and is actively used by many CELC churches today.