What We Believe

Lutheran Mission – Australia accepts without reservation the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as a whole and in all their parts, as the divinely inspired, written and inerrant Word of God, and as the only infallible source and norm for all matters of faith; acknowledges and accepts as true expositions of the Word of God and as its own confession all the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church contained in the Book of Concord of 1580; and continues to hold to the Theses of Agreement of 1965.

For the sake of clarity, Lutheran Mission – Australia also confesses the following Confessional Statement

Confessional Statement

Lutheran Mission – Australia, together with its congregations, pastors, people, and institutions, commits itself without reservation to the following articles of faith:

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

  1. Lutheran Mission - Australia submits to the authority of the Holy Scriptures as the voice of God himself.
    1. We accept without reservation the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as a whole and in all their parts, as the divinely inspired, written and inerrant Word of God, and as the only infallible source and norm for all matters of faith, doctrine, and life.
    2. We confess that the Bible is without qualification God’s Word.
    3. We strive to believe, teach, and confess the whole counsel of God as it is revealed in Holy Scripture.1
    4. We confess through our words and actions that the Bible is sufficient to instruct us in all matters pertaining to the Christian faith, since it is capable of making us wise unto salvation and thoroughly equipping us for every good work,2 and therefore needs no supplementation from any human authority.
    5. We believe that the Bible speaks clearly, since it is “a lamp shining in a dark place.”3
    6. We confess that if in places the Bible appears obscure to us as the interpreters, the problem lies not in the biblical text itself but in the darkness of our own hearts and our failure to thoroughly know and be in tune with the divine Word.4
    7. We espouse the use of human reason, including the best human scholarship, when it is used as a humble servant that submits to the unerring Word of God.
    8. We reject all approaches to the study of the Bible that treat any part of it as merely a fallible human word, or elevate autonomous human reason as judge over it.5

THE LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS

  1. Lutheran Mission - Australia rejoices in the clear, biblical, and evangelical teachings of the Lutheran Confessions.
    1. We acknowledge and accept as true expositions of the Word of God and as our own confession all the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church contained in the Book of Concord of 1580, namely, the three Ecumenical Creeds: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed; the Unaltered Augsburg Confession; the Apology of the Augsburg Confession; the Smalcald Articles; the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope; the Small Catechism of Luther; the Large Catechism of Luther; and the Formula of Concord.

THE HOLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

  1. Lutheran Mission - Australia confesses that the true Christian Church consists of “holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd.”6
    1. We recognise that the true holiness and unity of the Church flow from the Lord Jesus Christ, who speaks through his Word and works through his Sacraments to create true faith in us, to impart the Holy Spirit to us, and in this way to sanctify us and draw us together.7
    2. We dare not replace this holiness and deep spiritual unity with a false holiness or superficial unity that is grounded in human good-works, in human good-will, or in ceremonies, rules, traditions, or institutions established by human beings.8
    3. We welcome into altar and pulpit fellowship sister churches “among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity” and the holy sacraments are “administered in accordance with the divine Word.”9
    4. We rejoice that Christ has instituted the pastoral office and provides pastors for his Church, to share in his work of shepherding the flock by bringing his Word and Sacraments to us.10
    5. We reserve the pastoral office for men who fulfil the biblical requirements for the office.11

CREATION

  1. Lutheran Mission - Australia honours our Creator for his work in creation.
    1. We confess that in the beginning God created this world and its creatures ex nihilo (out of nothing) according to his good designs and purposes, not through a natural process but through the supernatural power of his Word.12
    2. We confess that the sickness, pain, death, and ongoing struggle to survive that we now experience in our world is not the result of God’s original design for his creation, but is instead the result of human sin and the curse of the fall.13
    3. We reject all attempts to modify biblical teaching on creation to fit with human theories about this world and its origins.
    4. We strive to treat every human life as a precious gift that God has created in his own image.14 This means:
      1. treating all human beings with dignity and respect;
      2. rejecting abortion,15 euthanasia and slavery;
      3. rejecting medical experimentation and treatment without informed consent; and
      4. rejecting all attempts to demean or exploit any person, race, caste, class, or group of people.
    5. We trust in the Triune God as the one who continues to uphold his creation,16 who provides us with our earthly needs,17 and who is at work to remake his redeemed people as his new creation.18
    6. We honour marriage as a gift of God, who has:
      1. created human beings as male and female;19
      2. created marriage as the life-long union of one man and one woman;
      3. ordained marriage as the means through which he gives his blessing of children;20 and
      4. reserved his gifts of sexual intimacy and procreation for the context of marriage.
    7. We honour God’s good design for human life and work in this world by striving to live in harmony with what he teaches us about human vocations.21

THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST

  1. Lutheran Mission - Australia is built on the foundation of Christ and the Good News.
    1. We proclaim a message of repentance and forgiveness in the name of Jesus.22
    2. We confess that we must be justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
    3. We trust in Christ’s atoning death and resurrection as both necessary and sufficient for our salvation from sin, death, and the devil.23
    4. We are committed to sharing with others this Good News of forgiveness and salvation through Christ, and allowing it to predominate in our thoughts, words, and actions.
    5. We regard God’s Law as holy and good,24 and as essential for the Christian life, since it:
      1. reveals to us God’s will for us as his creatures; and
      2. exposes our sin, and thereby reveals our need for Christ as our Saviour.
    6. We reject all forms of self-justification as contrary to the Good News, including:
      1. attempting to use God’s Law as a path to salvation;
      2. perverting the Good News into a message of human good works;
      3. replacing God’s Law with human laws through which we attempt to justify ourselves; and
      4. suppressing or undermining God’s Law so that we can deny our sin, presume a false innocence, and thereby minimise or deny our need for repentance and forgiveness through Christ.

THE MISSION OF GOD

  1. Lutheran Mission - Australia relies on the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission of God.
    1. We trust in the Triune God as the only one who has the power to build the Church by opening eyes that have been blinded by sin to the light of salvation.
    2. We commit ourselves to pray for the Church and the salvation of the lost.
    3. We strive to speak, teach, disseminate, and enact God’s Word, and particularly its central message, the Good News of Jesus Christ,25 trusting that this Word will not return to God empty,26 but that his Spirit will use it to build his Church by drawing people to Jesus Christ in faith.27
    4. We commit ourselves to actively engage both locally and internationally in God’s mission of bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to all people.

Footnotes

Please note: Some finer details in the footnotes of this statement are still under review and a revised version will be uploaded when the review process is complete. The body of our Confessional Statement stands as it is presented here.

  1. Acts 20:27; Matthew 28:20.

  2. 2 Timothy 3:14-17; John 20:31.

  3. 2 Peter 1:19.

  4. Luther’s Works, American Edition 33:27, 94-95.

  5. 1 Corinthians 1:25; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Colossians 2:8.

  6. Smalcald Articles III, XII, 2; cf. John 10:1-30; Augsburg Confession VII.

  7. John 7:37-39; 10:16; 17:17-23; Ephesians 2:13-22; 4:1-16.

  8. Matthew 15:9; Augsburg Confession VII; Large Catechism I, 91; Apology of the Augsburg Confession XV, 20-22; Smalcald Articles III, XII, 1-3; Solid Declaration X, 8.

  9. Augsburg Confession VII.

  10. 1 Peter 5:1-4; Acts 20:17-32.

  11. 1 Corinthians 14:33b-38; 1 Timothy 2:11 – 3:7; Titus 1:5-9.

  12. Genesis 1 and 2; Romans 4:17.

  13. Genesis 3; Romans 5:12.

  14. Genesis 9:5-7; James 3:9-10.

  15. [footnote removed]

  16. Hebrews 1:3.

  17. Matthew 6:25-34.

  18. Colossians 3:9-10.

  19. This means that our identity as male and female is given by God and embedded in our biology; it is not something that we chose or define for ourselves.

  20. Genesis 1:27-28; Matthew 19:4-6.

  21. e.g. Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Acts 4:19-20; 5:29; Romans 12-13; Ephesians 5:22 – 6:20; Colossians 3:1 – 4:6;

  22. 1 Peter 2:13 – 3:12; Table of Duties in Luther’s Small Catechism.

  23. Luke 24:47.

  24. Romans 3:21-28; 4:25; Ephesians 2:8-9; Hebrews 2:14-15.

  25. Romans 7:12.

  26. Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-47.

  27. Isaiah 55:11.

  28. Romans 10:17.