Luther Classical College has published its Theological Confession and Confessional Subscription in its Academic Catalog.
THEOLOGICAL CONFESSION
Luther Classical College holds all regents, administrators, faculty, and students to the following statement of faith:
We believe that the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the pure Word of God, clear and without error of any kind, inspired by the Holy Spirit and preserved by His grace to be the only source and standard of teaching and godly life in the Church of God (John 10:35; 2 Timothy 3:16–17). Scripture has been written so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in His name (John 20:31).
We confess one God in three persons, the eternal Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).
We confess that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, created out of nothing all that exists in six days, without the aid of evolutionary processes or enormous spans of time (Genesis 1).
God made man in His image, to know and love Him perfectly (Genesis 1:26). He created them male and female for different and beautifully complementary roles and has instituted marriage as the union of one man and one woman for life (Matthew 19:4–6). He condemns all other sexual unions, whether casual (fornication) or perverse (homosexual), as contrary to human nature and destructive of human happiness (1 Corinthians 6:9). God gave marriage for the mutual companionship of husband and wife, the procreation of children, and the raising of these children in the fear and instruction of God (Genesis 1:28, 2:18; Ephesians 6:4). Since all human life, born and unborn, young and old, has been created in God’s image and redeemed by the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, every form of ending innocent human life (abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, suicide, murder) is an assault on God as the Creator and Redeemer of mankind (Genesis 9:6; John 3:16).
All men since the fall of Adam have been conceived and born in sin, without fear, love, or trust in God, and turned inward to their own selfish inclinations (John 3:6; Ephesians 2:1–3). They would be condemned not only to temporal death but also to eternal separation from God in hell unless saved by His grace (Romans 3:23).
To carry out His undeserved kindness toward the human race, the Father sent His Son to take on human flesh in the womb of the virgin Mary, live under the law, suffer, die, and rise again from the dead (Galatians 4:4–5). Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God made flesh, equal to the Father as respects His divinity and inferior as respects His humanity, perfect God and perfect man, satisfied the wrath of God against sinners by His perfect life and innocent death, by which He offered to His own justice the payment for all sins of all sinners and reconciled the entire world to God (Philippians 2:5–11; 2 Corinthians 5:19).
God’s grace extends also to His distributing this salvation to sinful man through the ministry of His Spirit, who works in Christ’s Church through the preaching of the Gospel, confession and absolution, and the administration of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (John 20:21–23; 1 Corinthians 4:1; Romans 10:16). To this end, Christ established the pastoral office for the New Testament church (Matthew 28:18–20).
Baptism is a saving work of God, the washing of water with the word, by which God forgives sins, unites believers with Christ’s death and resurrection, makes children of God out of children of the devil, and sends His Holy Spirit to rule and govern the hearts of those who believe in Him (Romans 6:4; Titus 3:5; Acts 2:38). Christ’s command and promise concerning baptism apply also to infants, since babies, too, are sinners in need of salvation and can have faith in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 18:6, 28:19; Acts 2:39).
Absolution is the forgiveness of sins spoken by the pastor, as by God himself, on those who confess their sins and want to do better. This word of forgiveness, won by the Lord Jesus, is powerful when spoken by anyone, but God orders pastors to speak it for the particular comfort of His Church (John 20:21–23).
The Lord’s Supper is the true body and blood of Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink (Matthew 26:26–28; 1 Corinthians 11:23–25).
God’s grace also includes the creation of faith in the human heart by the power of the Holy Spirit working through His Word (Romans 10:17). By this faith we receive the promises of the Gospel, of Baptism, and of the Lord’s Supper, and so cling to the forgiveness and life won by Christ and offered to us in His Word (Mark 16:16; Hebrews 11:1).
The Lord Jesus calls all who believe in Him to a holy life, daily repenting of sin and striving to live according to His commandments (Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:16). These commandments remain the eternal will of God and are therefore the norm according to which Christians live their lives, especially as they have been fulfilled in the life and suffering of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:1). Though Christians remain sinners and so sin daily out of weakness, they at the same time flee deliberate and persistent sin, fight against the evil inclinations of their flesh, and do not let sin rule in their lives (Romans 6:14). God has called us to holiness and to the joyful expectation of living in perfection in His glorious presence.
The Lord Jesus will come again visibly upon the earth for judgment and will on the Last Day raise up all the dead. Those who have done evil and rejected Him He will send to everlasting punishment. Those who have trusted in Him and so done good according to His will He will welcome to everlasting life (John 5:29).
CONFESSIONAL SUBSCRIPTION
The College, the Regents, the President, all clergymen, and all faculty accept without reservation:
1. The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament as the written Word of God and the only rule and norm of faith and of practice;
2. All the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as a true and unadulterated statement and exposition of the Word of God, to wit: the three Ecumenical Creeds (the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, 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 Large Catechism of Luther, the Small Catechism of Luther, and the Formula of Concord.