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Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 14
Moreover, since for the preservation of pure doctrine and for thorough, permanent, godly unity in the Church it is necessary, not only that the pure, wholesome doctrine be rightly presented, but also that the opponents who teach otherwise be reproved, 1 Tim. 3 (2 Tim. 3:16); Titus 1:9, — for faithful shepherds, as Luth
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 15
Therefore we have thoroughly and clearly declared ourselves to one another, also regarding these matters, as follows: that a distinction should and must by all means be observed between unnecessary and useless wrangling, on the one hand, whereby the Church ought not to be disturbed, since it destroys more than it build
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 16
Now, although the aforesaid writings afford the Christian reader, who delights in and has a love for the divine truth, clear and correct information concerning each and every controverted article of our Christian religion, as to what he should regard and receive as right and true according to God’s Word of the Propheti
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 17
1. First, that we reject and condemn all heresies and errors which were rejected and condemned in the primitive, ancient, orthodox Church, upon the true, firm ground of the holy divine Scriptures.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 18
2. Secondly, we reject and condemn all sects and heresies which are rejected in the writings, just mentioned, of the comprehensive summary of the Confession of our churches.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 19
3. Thirdly, since within thirty years some divisions arose among some theologians of the Augsburg Confession on account of the Interim and otherwise, it has been our purpose to state and declare plainly [categorically], purely, and clearly our faith and confession concerning each and every one of these in thesis and an
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 20
so that every one may be faithfully warned against the errors, which are spread here and there in the writings of some theologians, and no one be misled in this matter by the reputation [authority] of any man. From this declaration the Christian reader will inform himself in every emergency, and compare it with the wri
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 9
Namely, for instance, the erroneous, heretical doctrines of the Anabaptists, which are to be tolerated and allowed neither in the Church, nor in the commonwealth, nor in domestic life, when they teach:
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 10
1. That our righteousness before God consists not only in the sole obedience and merit of Christ, but in our renewal and our own piety in which we walk before God; which they, for the most part, base upon their own peculiar ordinances and self-chosen spirituality, as upon a new sort of monkery.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 11
2. That children who are not baptized are not sinners before God, but righteous and innocent, and thus are saved in their innocency without Baptism, which they do not need. Accordingly, they deny and reject the entire doctrine concerning original sin and what belongs to it.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 12
3. That children are not to be baptized until they have attained the use of reason and can confess their faith themselves.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 13
4. That the children of Christians, since they have been born of Christian and believing parents, are holy and the children of God even without and before Baptism; and for this reason they neither attach much importance to the baptism of children nor encourage it, contrary to the express words of the promise, which ext
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 14
5. That a congregation [church] in which sinners are still found is no true Christian assembly.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 15
6. That no sermon should be heard or attended in those churches in which the papal masses have previously been said.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 16
7. That no one should have anything to do with those ministers of the Church who preach the holy Gospel according to the Confession, and rebuke the errors of baptists; also, that no one should serve or in any way labor for them, but should flee from and shun them as perverters of God’s Word.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 17
8. That under the New Testament the magistracy is not a godly estate.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 18
9. That a Christian cannot with a good, inviolate conscience hold the office of magistrate.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 19
10. That a Christian cannot without injury to conscience use the office of the magistracy in matters that may occur [when the matter so demands] against the wicked, neither can its subjects appeal to its power.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 20
11. That a Christian cannot with a good conscience take an oath before a court, nor with an oath do homage to his prince or hereditary sovereign.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 21
12. That magistrates cannot without injury to conscience inflict capital punishment upon evil-doers.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 22
13. That a Christian cannot with a good conscience hold or possess any property, but is in duty bound to devote it to the common treasury.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 23
14. That a Christian cannot with a good conscience be an inn-keeper, merchant, or cutler.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 24
15. That married persons may be divorced on account of faith [diversity of religion], and that the one may abandon the other, and be married to another of his own faith.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 25
16. That Christ did not assume His flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, but brought them with Him from heaven.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 26
17. That He is not true, essential God either, but only has more and higher gifts and glory than other men.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 27
And still more articles of like kind; for they are divided among themselves into many bands [sects], and one has more and another fewer errors, and thus their entire sect is in reality nothing but a new kind of monkery.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 37
1. Also, when some Anti-Trinitarians reject and condemn the ancient approved symbola, Nicaenum et Athanasianum (the Nicene and Athanasian creeds), as regards both their sense and words, and teach that there is not only one eternal divine essence of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but as there are three distinct person
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 38
2. That the Father alone is true God.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 39
These and like articles, one and all, with what pertains to them and follows from them, we reject and condemn as wrong, false, heretical, and contrary to the Word of God, the three Creeds, the Augsburg, Confession and Apology, the Smalcald Articles, and the Catechisms of Luther. Of these articles all godly Christians s
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 40
Since now, in the sight of God and of all Christendom [the entire Church of Christ], we wish to testify to those now living and those who shall come after us that this declaration herewith presented concerning all the controverted articles aforementioned and explained, and no other, is our faith, doctrine, and confessi
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 36
Also, when the New Arians teach that Christ is not a true, essential, natural God, of one eternal divine essence with God the Father, but is only adorned with divine majesty inferior to, and beside, God the Father.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 28
Likewise, when the Schwenckfeldians assert:
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 29
1. First, that all those have no knowledge of the reigning King of heaven, Christ, who regard Christ according to the flesh, or His assumed humanity, as a creature, and that the flesh of Christ has by exaltation so assumed all divine properties that in might, power, majesty, and glory He is in every respect, in degree
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 30
2. That the ministry of the Church, the Word preached and heard, is not a means whereby God the Holy Ghost teaches men, and works in them saving knowledge of Christ, conversion, repentance, faith, and new obedience.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 31
3. That the water of Baptism is not a means by which God the Lord seals adoption and works regeneration.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 32
4. That bread and wine in the Holy Supper are not means by which Christ distributes His body and blood.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 33
5. That a Christian man who is truly regenerated by God’s Spirit can in this life keep and fulfil the Law of God perfectly.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 34
6. That a congregation in which no public excommunication or regular process of the ban is observed, is no true Christian congregation [church].
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 35
7. That the minister of the Church who is not on his part truly renewed, righteous, and godly cannot teach other men with profit or administer real, true sacraments.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 1
And, to begin with, a controversy has occurred among some theologians of the Augsburg Confession concerning Original Sin, what it properly [and really] is. For one side contended that, since through the fall of Adam man’s nature, and essence are entirely corrupt, the nature, substance, and essence of the corrupt, man,
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 2
But the other side taught, in opposition, that original sin is not properly the nature, substance, or essence of man, that is, man’s body or soul, which even now, since the Fall, are and remain the creation and creatures of God in us, but that it is something in the nature, body, and soul of man, and in all his powers,
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 3
Now this controversy concerning original sin is not unnecessary wrangling, but if this doctrine is rightly presented from, and according to, God’s Word, and separated from all Pelagian and Manichean errors, then (as the Apology says) the benefits of the Lord Christ and His precious merit, also the gracious operation of
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 4
In order, therefore, to explain this controversy in the Christian way and according to God’s Word, and to maintain the correct, pure doctrine of original sin, we shall collect from the above-mentioned writings the thesis and antithesis, that is, the correct doctrine and its opposite, into brief chapters.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 5
1. And first, it is true that Christians should regard and recognize as sin not only the actual transgression of God’s commandments; but also that the horrible, dreadful hereditary malady by which the entire nature is corrupted should above all things be regarded and recognized as sin indeed, yea, as the chief sin, whi
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 6
And by Dr. Luther it is called a nature-sin or person-sin, thereby to indicate that, even though a person would think, speak, or do nothing evil (which, however, is impossible in this life, since the fall of our first parents), his nature and person are nevertheless sinful, that is, thoroughly and utterly infected and
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 7
2. In the second place, this, too, is clear and true, as the Nineteenth Article of the Augsburg Confession teaches, that God is not a creator, author, or cause of sin, but by the instigation of the devil through one man sin (which is a work of the devil) has entered the world, Rom. 5, 12; 1 John 3, 7. And even at the p
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 8
3. In the third place, what [and how great] this hereditary evil is no reason knows and understands, but, as the Smalcald Articles say, it must be learned and believed from the revelation of Scripture. And in the Apology this is briefly comprehended under the following main heads:
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 9
1. That this hereditary evil is the guilt [by which it comes to pass] that, by reason of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, we are all in God’s displeasure, and by nature children of wrath, as the apostle shows Rom. 5:12ff ; Eph. 2:3.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 10
2. Secondly, that it is an entire want or lack of the concreated hereditary righteousness in Paradise, or of God’s image, according to which man was originally created in truth, holiness, and righteousness; and at the same time an inability and unfitness for all the things of God, or, as the Latin words read: Desciptio
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 11
3. That original sin (in human nature) is not only this entire absence of all good in spiritual, divine things, but that, instead of the lost image of God in man, it is at the same time also a deep, wicked, horrible, fathomless, inscrutable, and unspeakable corruption of the entire nature and all its powers, especially
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 12
that we all by disposition and nature inherit from Adam such a heart, feeling, and thought as are, according to their highest powers and the light of reason, naturally inclined and disposed directly contrary to God and His chief commandments, yea, that they are enmity against God, especially as regards divine and spiri
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 13
4. The punishment and penalty of original sin, which God has imposed upon the children of Adam and upon original sin, are death, eternal damnation, and also other bodily and spiritual, temporal and eternal miseries, and the tyranny and dominion of the devil, so that human nature is subject to the kingdom of the devil a
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 14
5. Fifthly, this hereditary evil is so great and horrible that only for the sake of the Lord Christ it can be covered and forgiven before God in the baptized and believing. Moreover, human nature, which is perverted and corrupted thereby, must and can be healed only by the regeneration and renewal of the Holy Ghost, wh
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 15
These points, which have been quoted here only in a summary way, are set forth more fully in the above-mentioned writings of the common confession of our Christian doctrine.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 16
Now this doctrine must be so maintained and guarded that it may not deflect either to the Pelagian or the Manichean side. For this reason the contrary doctrine concerning this article, which is censured and rejected in our churches, should also be briefly stated.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 17
1. And first, in opposition to the old and the new Pelagians, the following false opinions and dogmas are censured and rejected, namely, that original sin is only a reatus or guilt, on account of what has been committed by another, without any corruption of our nature.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 18
2. Also, that sinful, evil lusts are not sins, but conditiones, or concreated and essential properties of the nature.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 19
3. Or as though the above-mentioned defect and evil were not properly and truly sin before God, on account of which man without Christ [unless he be grafted into Christ and be delivered through Him] must be a child of wrath and damnation, also in the dominion and beneath the power of Satan.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 20
4. The following and similar Pelagian errors are also censured and rejected, namely: that nature, even since the Fall, is said to be incorrupt, and that especially with respect to spiritual things entirely good and pure, and in naturalibus, that is, in its natural powers, it is said to be perfect.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 21
5. Or that original sin is only external, a slight, insignificant spot sprinkled or a stain dashed upon the nature of man, or corruptio tantum accidentium aut qualitatum, i. e., a corruption only in some accidental things, along with and beneath which the nature nevertheless possesses and retains its integrity and powe
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 22
6. Or that original sin is not a despoliation or deficiency, but only an external impediment to these spiritual good powers, as when a magnet is smeared with garlic-juice, whereby its natural power is not removed, but only hindered; or that this stain can be easily washed away, as a spot from the face or pigment from t
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 23
7. They are rebuked and rejected likewise who teach that the nature has indeed been greatly weakened and corrupted through the Fall, but that nevertheless it has not entirely lost all good with respect to divine, spiritual things, and that what is sung in our churches, Through Adam’s fall is all corrupt, Nature and ess
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 24
For concerning external, temporal, worldly things and transactions, which are subject to reason, there will be an explanation in the succeeding article.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 25
These and contrary doctrines of like kind are censured and rejected for the reason that God’s Word teaches that the corrupt nature, of and by itself, has no power for anything good in spiritual, divine things, not even for the least, as good thoughts; and not only this, but that of and by itself it can do nothing in th
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 26
In the same manner this doctrine must also be guarded on the other side against Manichean errors. Accordingly, the following and similar erroneous doctrines are rejected, namely: that now, since the Fall, human nature is in the beginning created pure and good, and that afterwards original sin from without is infused an
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 27
For although in Adam and Eve the nature was originally created pure, good, and holy, nevertheless sin did not enter their nature through the Fall in the way fanatically taught by the Manicheans, as though Satan had created or made some evil substance, and mingled it with their nature. But since man, by the seduction of
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 28
For since the Fall human nature is not at first created pure and good, and only afterward corrupted by original sin, but in the first moment of our conception the seed from which man is formed is sinful and corrupt. Moreover, original sin is not something by itself, existing independently in, or apart from, the nature
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 29
Nor can and should original sin and the nature of man corrupted thereby be so distinguished as though the nature were pure, good, holy, and uncorrupted before God, while original sin alone which dwells therein were evil.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 30
Also, as Augustine writes concerning the Manicheans, as though it were not the corrupt man himself that sins by reason of inborn original sin, but something different and foreign in man, and that God, accordingly, accuses and condemns by the Law, not the nature as corrupt by sin, but only the original sin therein. For,
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 31
Because of this corruption, too, the entire corrupt nature of man is accused and condemned by the Law, unless the sin is forgiven for Christ’s sake.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 32
But the Law accuses and condemns our nature, not because we have been created men by God, but because we are sinful and wicked; not because and so far as nature and its essence, even since the Fall, is a work and creature of God in us, but because and so far as it has been poisoned and corrupted by sin.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 33
But although original sin, like a spiritual poison and leprosy (as Luther says), has poisoned and corrupted the whole human nature, so that we cannot show and point out to the eye the nature apart by itself, and original sin apart by itself, nevertheless the corrupt nature, or essence of the corrupt man, body and soul,
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 34
Moreover, the chief articles of our Christian faith urge and compel us to preserve this distinction. For instance, in the first place, in the article of Creation, Scripture testifies that God has created human nature not only before the Fall, but that it is a creature and work of God also since the Fall, Deut. 32:6; Is
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 35
Thine hands, says Job, have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet Thou dost destroy me. Remember, I beseech Thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt Thou bring me into dust again? Hast Thou not poured me out as milk and curdled me as cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and fenced me
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 36
I will praise Thee, says David, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect, and in Thy book
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 37
In the Ecclesiastes of Solomon it is written: Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God, who gave it, Eccl. 12:7.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 38
These passages clearly testify that God even since the Fall is the Creator of man, and creates his body and soul. Therefore corrupt man cannot, without any distinction, be sin itself, otherwise God would be a creator of sin; as also our Small Catechism confesses in the explanation of the First Article, where it is writ
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 39
And here pious Christian hearts justly ought to consider the unspeakable goodness of God, that God does not immediately cast from Himself into hellfire this corrupt, perverted, sinful mass, but forms and makes from it the present human nature, which is lamentably corrupted by sin, in order that He may cleanse it from a
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 40
From this article, now, the distinction is found indisputably and clearly. For original sin does not come from God. God is not a creator or author of sin. Nor is original sin a creature or work of God, but it is a work of the devil.
Open source textFormula of Concord, Solid Declaration | paragraph 41
Now, if there were to be no difference whatever between the nature or essence of our body and soul, which is corrupted by original sin, and original sin, by which the nature is corrupted, it would follow either that God, because He is the Creator of this our nature, also created and made original sin, which, accordingl
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