Confessional Lutheranism is a name used byLutherans to designate those who believe in thedoctrines taught in theBook of Concord of 1580 (the Lutheranconfessional documents) in their entirety. Confessional Lutherans maintain that faithfulness to theBook of Concord, which is a summary of the teachings found inChristian scripture, requires attention to how that faith is actually beingpreached,taught, andput into practice. Confessional Lutherans believe that this is a vital part of their identity as Lutherans.
The term "Confessional Lutheran" is generally used among moreconservative churches found in organizations like theInternational Lutheran Council (ILC),Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC), and theGlobal Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum, though other Confessional Lutheran denominations are independent of the same. Confessional denominationssubscribe to theBook of Concord because(quia) it agrees with the Bible. In contrast, churches of the largerLutheran World Federation subscribe to theBook of Concord as an exposition of faith insofar as (quatenus) it agrees with the Christian Bible.[1]
Two main confessional movements arose during the 19th century: theOld Lutherans and theNeo-Lutherans.[2] The Old Lutherans originated from theSchism of the Old Lutherans, while Neo-Lutheranism arose in Germany in the 1830s from thePietist-drivenErweckung ("Awakening"). Neo-Lutheranism itself containeddiffering camps. It gave rise later to those calling themselves confessional Lutherans.
Neo-Lutheranism developed in reaction to Pietism on the one side andRationalism on the other, both of which had arisen in the previous century. German clergymen such asMartin Stephan,C. F. W. Walther,F. C. D. Wyneken, andWilhelm Loehe became a part of the movement as they studied the works ofMartin Luther and theBook of Concord.
The Old Lutheran and Neo-Lutheran movements spread to the United States with the Neo-Lutheran Loehe and the Old Lutheranfree church leaderFriedrich August Brünn,[3] both sending missionaries to newly arrived German immigrants in theMidwest, and with the immigration of groups including the Saxons who settled inMissouri under Stephan and Walther, the Germans who settled inIndiana under Wyneken, and the Prussians underJ. A. A. Grabau in WesternNew York and southeasternWisconsin (theBuffalo Synod).
In Scandinavia, whereHigh Church Lutheranism and Pietist Lutheranism has been highly influential, theEvangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland,Mission Province of the Church of Sweden, and theEvangelical Lutheran Diocese of Norway entered into schism with theirnational churches due to "the secularization of the national/state churches in their respective countries involving matters of both Christian doctrine and ethics"; these are members of the International Lutheran Council with their bishops having secured their lines ofapostolic succession from other traditional Lutheran Churches, such as theEvangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya.[4][5][6]
Contemporary Lutheran church bodies that identify themselves as confessional tend to be either members of the International Lutheran Council, the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum, or certain other independent Lutheran bodies. Among the members of the ILC are theLutheran Church – Missouri Synod, theLutheran Church–Canada, theIndependent Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Germany, theLutheran Church of Australia, and theEvangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil. Among the CELC are theWisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and theEvangelical Lutheran Synod. Other confessional Lutherans include theChurch of the Lutheran Confession, theAmerican Association of Lutheran Churches, theConcordia Lutheran Conference, theEvangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America, member congregations of theProtes'tant Conference, and member congregations of theOrthodox Lutheran Confessional Conference of Independent Congregations,[8] the United Lutheran Mission Association,[9] and theEvangelical Lutheran Conference & Ministerium of North America[10] (all of North America).
In the Nordic countries, members of theCommunion of Nordic Lutheran Dioceses are a part of the International Lutheran Council: these include the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, the Mission Province of the Church of Sweden, and the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of Norway.[4] These dioceses entered into schism with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Church of Sweden, and Church of Norway, respectively, due to "the secularization of the national/state churches in their respective countries involving matters of both Christian doctrine and ethics".[6][4]Apostolic succession of the Mission Province is derived fromWalter Obare Omwanza, the presiding bishop of theEvangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya, who, assisted by bishops Leonid Zviki from Belarus, David Tswaedi fromSouth Africa, andBørre Knudsen and Ulf Asp from Norway, consecratedArne Olsson as bishop of the diocese.[4][5] The Concordia Lutheran Church and theEvangelical Lutheran Church in Sweden are other bodies that identify as Confessional Lutherans in the region of Scandinavia.
TheLutheran Church - International, which has an Evangelical Catholic churchmanship, describes itself as adhering to Confessional Lutheranism as it holds that it "preaches, teaches, and confesses the Gospel of Jesus Christ as faithfully witnessed by theAugsburg Confession of 1530 and the Book of Concord."[11][12]
Additionally, theAssociation of Free Lutheran Congregations (AFLC) describes themselves as confessional. The autonomous congregations within the AFLC are only required to officially subscribe to the unaltered Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism,[13] but many member congregations officially subscribe to more, or all, of the Book of Concord, while others do so unofficially in matters of doctrine and practice. All internally trained AFLC pastors are taught aquia subscription of the Book of Concord, leaving the denomination as a whole "unofficially" confessional in matters of preaching and teaching.[citation needed]
Though there are some congregations in theEvangelical Lutheran Church in America which would call themselves "confessional", many of those congregations have decided to leave the ELCA due to theliberal leanings of the denomination, most notably their stances expressed in the 2009 ELCA convention.[14] The ELCA as a whole does not use the title "confessional" to describe itself, but it and the other member churches of the Lutheran World Federation do ascribe to the unaltered Augsburg Confession and the other confessional documents in theBook of Concord as true interpretations of the Christian faith.[15] Additionally, theEvangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil uses the title "confessional" on its name, but it instead has a "Quatenus" subscription to the Book of Concord and it is a member of theLutheran World Federation.
Lutheran church bodies and Lutheran individuals that identify themselves as confessional generally hold to a "quia" (Latin for "because") rather than a "quatenus" (Latin for "insofar as")subscription to theBook of Concord, which contains theApostles' Creed,Nicene Creed,Athanasian Creed,Luther's Small Catechism,Luther's Large Catechism, theAugsburg Confession, theApology of the Augsburg Confession, theSmalcald Articles, theTreatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and theFormula of Concord.
Quia subscription (theBook of Concord is adhered tobecause it is faithful to theScriptures) implies that the subscriber believes that there is no contradiction between theBook of Concord and theScriptures.Quatenus subscription (theBook of Concord is adhered toinsofar as it is faithful to the Scriptures) implies that the subscriber leaves room for the possibility that there might be a contradiction of the Scriptures in theBook of Concord in which case the subscriber may hold to the Scriptures against theBook of Concord.[16] Some Confessional Lutherans[who?] maintain that this distinguishes them from other ("mainline") Lutheran bodies and Lutherans, who, they believe, hold to aquatenus subscription.
C. F. W. Walther explained the meaning of confessional subscription:
An unconditional subscription is the solemn declaration which the individual who wants to serve the church makes under oath (1) that he accepts the doctrinal content of our Lutheran Confessions, because he recognizes the fact that they are in full agreement with Scripture and do not militate against Scripture in any point, whether the point be of major or minor importance; and (2) that he therefore heartily believes in this divine truth and is determined to preach this doctrine.[17]
Confessional Lutherans,[18] including the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and Church of the Lutheran Confession officially maintain that theearly apostolic Church had been led into theGreat Apostasy by theRoman Catholic Church and that thePope is the Antichrist;[19][20][21] the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod affirms that "Antichrist" refers to the office, and not to the person,[22] while the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod states that the reference is to the office, but not to the exclusion of the current office holder:
There are two principles that mark the papacy as the Antichrist. One is thatthe pope takes to himself the right to rule the church that belongs only toChrist. He can make lawsforbidding the marriage of priests, eating ornot eating meat on Friday,birth control,divorce and remarriage, even where there are not such laws in the Bible. The second is that he teaches thatsalvation is not byfaith alone but by faith andworks. The present pope upholds and practices these principles. This marks his rule asantichristian rule in the church. All popes hold the same office over the church and promote the same antichristian belief so they all are part of the reign of the Antichrist. The Bible does not present the Antichrist as one man for one short time, but as an office held by a man through successive generations. It is a title like King of England.[23]
We do not want to provide reasons for those outside of our church body to be confused as to where we stand and for what we stand as a confessional Christian Lutheran church body in the evangelical catholic understanding.
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