Paragraph 1 of the Brief Statement:
Which treats the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures—the article upon which all the other paragraphs stand or fall.
Of the Holy Scriptures
We teach that the Holy Scriptures differ from all other books in the world in that they are the Word of God.They are the Word of God because the holy men of God who wrote the Scriptures wrote only that which the Holy Ghost communicated to them by inspiration, 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21. We teach also that the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures is not a so-called “theological deduction,” but that it is taught by direct statements of the Scriptures, 2 Tim. 3:16, John 10:35, Rom. 3:2; 1 Cor. 2:13. Since the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God, it goes without saying that they contain no errors or contradictions, but that they are in all their parts and words the infallible truth, also in those parts which treat of historical, geographical, and other secular matters, John 10:35.
FROM THE EDITOR:
About the Brief Statement—
In 1960 our CLC founding fathers included among the synod’s confessional articles a document titled the Brief Statement. They did so because the document gave a clear trumpet sound on the doctrines it addresses.
First approved by the “old” Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod at its 1932 synod Convention, the document is comparatively brief with but 48 paragraphs treating 19 key Bible doctrines.
Eighty-two years later, our prayer remains, “Lord, keep us steadfast in Thy Word.”