THE ASSOCIATION OF FREE LUTHERAN CONGREGATIONS
What We Believe
It seems good to us as we join together for common work and fellowship to state our beliefs in regard to the following matters.
1. We accept and believe in the Holy Bible as the complete written Word of God, preserved to us by the Holy Spirit for our salvation and instruction.
2. We endorse the statement on the Word as found in the United Testimony on Faith and Life and would quote here the following:
"We bear witness that the Bible is our only authentic and infallible source of God's revelation to us and all men, and that it is the only inerrant and completely adequate source and norm of Christian doctrine and life. We hold that the Bible, as a whole and in all its parts, is the Word of God under all circumstances regardless of man's attitude toward it."
3. We accept the ancient ecumenical symbols, namely, the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds; Luther's Small Catechism and the unaltered Augsburg Confession as the true expression of the Christian faith and life.
4. We reject any affiliations or associations which do not accept the Bible alone as definitive for the life and practice of man and the church.
5. We endorse no one version or revision of the Bible to the exclusion of others. We recommend all which are reverent and true translations.
6. He who believes in and accepts the sufficient work of Jesus for his salvation and is baptized, is a child of God.
7. The Christian is united by the strongest bonds to those who share this faith with him whether they come from his own denomination or another.
8. We accept the Guiding Principles of the Lutheran Free Church as a true statement of our belief in regard to church polity.
9. The Holy Christian Church consists of those who in their hearts truly believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
10. A free congregation selects and calls its own pastors, conducts its own program of worship, fellowship and service and owns and maintains its own property.
11. The Christian seeks to refrain from those acts, thoughts, and words which are against a stated law of God. Where actions and practices are neither forbidden nor encouraged in Scripture by name, the earnest believer will search in the Scriptures for principles to guide his decisions and conduct.
(Submitted to the Special Conference of Lutheran Congregations at Thief River Falls, October 25-28, 1962).
Last revision on January 11, 1997.