Whereby All Dogmas should be Judged according to God's Word, and the Controversies that have Occurred should be Explained and Decided in a Christian Manner.
1] Since for
thorough, permanent unity in the Church it is, above all things, necessary that
we have a comprehensive, unanimously approved summary and form wherein is
brought together from God's Word the common doctrine, reduced to a brief
compass, which the churches that are of the true Christian religion confess,
just as the ancient Church always had for this use its fixed symbols; 2] moreover, since this [comprehensive form of doctrine] should not be based on
private writings, but on such books as have been composed, approved, and
received in the name of the churches which pledge themselves to one doctrine and
religion, we have declared to one another with heart and mouth that we will not
make or receive a separate or new confession of our faith, but confess the
public common writings which always and everywhere were held and used as such
symbols or common confessions in all the churches of the Augsburg Confession
before the dissensions arose among those who accept the Augsburg Confession, and
as long as in all articles there was on all sides a unanimous adherence to [and
maintenance and use of] the pure doctrine of the divine Word, as the sainted Dr.
Luther explained it.3] 1. First [,
then, we receive and embrace with our whole heart] the Prophetic and
Apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the pure, clear
fountain of Israel, which is the only true standard by which all teachers and
doctrines are to be judged.4] 2. And since
of old the true Christian doctrine, in a pure, sound sense, was collected from
God's Word into brief articles or chapters against the corruption of heretics,
we confess, in the second place, the three Ecumenical Creeds, namely, the
Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian, as glorious
confessions of the faith, brief, devout, and founded upon God's Word, in which
all the heresies which at that time had arisen in the Christian Church are
clearly and unanswerably refuted.5] 3. In the
third place, since in these last times God, out of especial grace, has brought
the truth of His Word to light again from the darkness of the Papacy through the
faithful service of the precious man of God, Dr. Luther, and since this doctrine
has been collected from, and according to, God's Word into the articles and
chapters of the Augsburg Confession against the corruptions of the Papacy and
also of other sects, we confess also the First, Unaltered Augsburg
Confession as our symbol for this time, not because it was composed by our
theologians, but because it has been taken from God's Word and is founded firmly
and well therein, precisely in the form in which it was committed to writing, in
the year 1530, and presented to the Emperor Charles V at Augsburg by some
Christian Electors, Princes, and Estates of the Roman Empire as a common
confession of the reformed churches, whereby our reformed churches are
distinguished from the Papists and other repudiated and condemned sects and
heresies, after the custom and usage of the early Church, whereby succeeding
councils, Christian bishops and teachers appealed to the Nicene Creed, and
confessed it [publicly declared that they embraced it].6] 4. In the
fourth place, as regards the proper and true sense of the oft-quoted Augsburg
Confession, an extensive Apology was composed and published in print in 1531,
after the presentation of the Confession, in order that we might explain
ourselves at greater length and guard against the [slanders of the] Papists, and
that condemned errors might not steal into the Church of God under the name of
the Augsburg Confession, or dare to seek cover under the same. We unanimously
confess this also, because not only is the said Augsburg Confession explained as
much as is necessary and guarded [against the slanders of the adversaries], hut
also proven [confirmed] by clear, irrefutable testimonies of Holy Scripture.7] 5. In the
fifth place, we also confess the Articles composed, approved, and
received at Smalcald in the large assembly of theologians, in the year
1537, as they were first framed and printed in order to be delivered in the
council at Mantua, or wherever it would be held, in the name of the Estates,
Electors, and Princes, as an explanation of the above-mentioned Augsburg
Confession, wherein by God's grace they were resolved to abide. In them the
doctrine of the Augsburg Confession is repeated, and some articles are explained
at greater length from God's Word, and, besides, the cause and grounds are
indicated, as far as necessary, why we have abandoned the papistical errors and
idolatries, and can have no fellowship with them, and also why we know, and can
think of, no way for coming to any agreement with the Pope concerning them.8] 6. And now,
in the sixth place, because these highly important matters [the business of
religion] concern also the common people and laymen [as they are called], who,
inasmuch as they are Christians, must for their salvation distinguish between
pure and false doctrine, we confess also the Small and the Large Catechisms
of Dr. Luther, as they were written by him and incorporated in his works,
because they have been unanimously approved and received by all churches
adhering to the Augsburg Confession, and have been publicly used in churches,
schools, and in [private] houses, and, moreover, because the Christian doctrine
from God's Word is comprised in them in the most correct and simple way, and, in
like manner, is explained, as far as necessary [for simple laymen].9] In the pure
churches and schools these public common writings have been always regarded as
the sum and model of the doctrine which Dr. Luther, of blessed memory, has
admirably deduced from God's Word, and firmly established against the Papacy and
other sects; and to his full explanations in his doctrinal and polemical
writings we wish to appeal, in the manner and as far as Dr. Luther himself in
the Latin preface to his published works has given necessary and Christian
admonition concerning his writings, and has expressly drawn this distinction
namely, that the Word of God alone should be and remain the only standard and
rule of doctrine, to which the writings of no man should be regarded as equal,
but to which everything should be subjected.10] But [this
is not to be understood as if] hereby other good, useful, pure books,
expositions of the Holy Scriptures, refutations of errors, explanations of
doctrinal articles, are not rejected; for as far as they are consistent with the
above-mentioned type of doctrine, these are regarded as useful expositions and
explanations, and can be used with advantage. But what has thus far been said
concerning the summary of our Christian doctrine is intended to mean only this,
that we should have a unanimously accepted, definite, common form of doctrine,
which all our evangelical churches together and in common confess, from and
according to which, because it has been derived from God's Word, all other
writings should be judged and adjusted as to how far they are to be approved and
accepted.11] For that we
embodied the above-mentioned writing, namely, the Augsburg Confession, Apology, Smalcald Articles, Luther's Large and Small Catechisms, in
the oft-mentioned Sum of our Christian doctrine, was done for the reason that
these have always and everywhere been regarded as the common, unanimously
accepted meaning of our churches, and, moreover, have been subscribed at that
time by the chief and most enlightened theologians, and have held sway in all
evangelical churches and schools. 12] So also, as before mentioned, they
were all written and sent forth before the divisions among the theologians of
the Augsburg Confession arose; therefore, since they are held to be impartial,
and neither can nor should be rejected by either part of those who have entered
into controversy, and no one who without guile is an adherent of the Augsburg
Confession will complain of these writings, but will cheerfully accept and
tolerate them as witnesses [of the truth], no one can think ill of [blame] us
that we derive from them an explanation and decision of the articles in
controversy, 13] and that, as we lay down God's Word, the eternal truth,
as the foundation, so we introduce and quote also these writings as a witness of
the truth and as the unanimously received correct understanding of our
predecessors who have steadfastly held to the pure doctrine.Articles
in Controversy
with Respect to the Antithesis, or Opposite Doctrine.14] Moreover,
since for the preservation of pure doctrine and for thorough, permanent, godly
unity in the Church it is necessary, not only that the pure, wholesome doctrine
be rightly presented, but also that the opponents who teach otherwise be
reproved, 1 Tim. 3 (2 Tim. 3, 16); Titus 1, 9,—for faithful shepherds, as
Luther says, should do both, namely, feed or nourish the lambs and resist the
wolves, so that the sheep may flee from strange voices, John 10, 12, and may
separate the precious from the vile, Jer. 15, 19,—15] Therefore
we have thoroughly and clearly declared ourselves to one another, also regarding
these matters, as follows: that a distinction should and must by all means be
observed between unnecessary and useless wrangling, on the one hand, whereby the
Church ought not to be disturbed, since it destroys more than it builds up, and
necessary controversy, on the other hand, as, when such a controversy occurs as
involves the articles of faith or the chief heads of the Christian doctrine,
where for the defense of the truth the false opposite doctrine must be reproved.16] Now,
although the aforesaid writings afford the Christian reader, who delights in and
has a love for the divine truth, clear and correct information concerning each
and every controverted article of our Christian religion, as to what he should
regard and receive as right and true according to God's Word of the Prophetic
and Apostolic Scriptures, and what he should reject, shun, and avoid as false
and wrong; yet, in order that the truth may be preserved the more distinctly and
clearly, and be distinguished from all errors, and that nothing be hidden and
concealed under ordinary terms [rather general words and phrases], we have
clearly and expressly declared ourselves to one another concerning the chief and
most important articles taken one by one, which at the present time have come
into controversy, so that there might be a, public, definite testimony, not only
for those now living, but also for our posterity, what is and should remain the
unanimous understanding and judgment [decision] of our churches in reference to
the articles in controversy, namely:17] 1. First,
that we reject and condemn all heresies and errors which were rejected and
condemned in the primitive, ancient, orthodox Church, upon the true, firm ground
of the holy divine Scriptures.18] 2.
Secondly, we reject and condemn all sects and heresies which are rejected in the
writings, just mentioned, of the comprehensive summary of the Confession of our
churches.
19] 3. Thirdly, since within thirty years some divisions arose among some theologians of the Augsburg Confession on account of the Interim and otherwise, it has been our purpose to state and declare plainly [categorically], purely, and clearly our faith and confession concerning each and every one of these in thesis and antithesis, i. e., the true doctrine and its opposite, in order that the foundation of divine truth might be manifest in all articles, and that all unlawful, doubtful, auspicious, and condemned doctrines, whereever and in whatever books they may be found, and whoever may have written them, or even now may be disposed to defend them, might be exposed [distinctly repudiated], 20] so that every one may be faithfully warned against the errors, which are spread here and there in the writings of some theologians, and no one be misled in this matter by the reputation [authority] of any man. From this declaration the Christian reader will inform himself in every emergency, and compare it with the writings enumerated above, and he will find out exactly that what was confessed in the beginning concerning each article in the comprehensive summary of our religion and faith, and what was afterward restated at various times, and is repeated by us in this document, is in no way contradictory, but the simple, immutable, permanent truth, and that we, therefore, do not change from one doctrine to another, as our adversaries falsely assert, but earnestly desire to be found loyal to the once delivered Augsburg Confession and its unanimously accepted Christian sense, and through God's grace to abide thereby firmly and constantly in opposition to all corruptions which have entered.