Confessional

All Christians acknowledge God as the Holy Trinity, and the authority of the Bible.  But sadly, because of our limitations as sinners, many different teachings have arisen among Christians, teachings which all to often contradict the Bible and endanger faith.  For this reason, through the centuries the Church has found it necessary to develop statements of the orthodox (correct) faith.  The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed are two ancient documents that confess the one true faith.  Facing the conflict of their day, Luther and other reformers of the 16th century composed documents that have been collected in the Book of Concord of 1580, which we say (confess) is a true exposition of the Biblical Christian faith.  We hold to the Bible first, and to these confessions because they faithfully express what the Bible says, in response to a variety of false teachings.  The confessional document most Lutherans are familiar with is Luther's Small Catechism.