THE DEERFIELD STATEMENT ON THE LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS

The pastors and congregations of the Lutheran Ministerium and Synod - USA, without reservation, believe, teach, and confess, that the Lutheran Confessions, i.e. the symbolical books contained in the Book of Concord of 1580, namely:

• the Unaltered Augsburg Confession (1530),

• the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1531),

• the Smalcald Articles (1537),

• the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (1537),

• the Small Catechism (1529),

• the Large Catechism (1529), and

• the Formula of Concord (1577),

are to be accepted, not insofar as [quatenus], but because they are [quia] the presentation and explanation of the pure doctrine of the Word of God and a valid summary of the faith of the Lutheran Church, and recognizes them as normative for its theology.