Scripture Alone The Foundation of Faith

“We believe, teach, and confess that the sole rule and standard according to which all dogmas together with [all] teachers should be estimated and judged are the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and of the New Testament alone…”

— Formula of Concord, Epitome, 1

“If we, too, are holy and have the Holy Spirit, we may boast of being catechumens and pupils of the prophets, inasmuch as we repeat and preach what we have heard and learned from the prophets and apostles and are sure that the prophets have taught it. In the Old Testament those are called ‘the children of the prophets’ who did not teach anything of their own or anything new, as did the prophets, but taught what they had received from the prophets.”

— Luther, St. Louis Ed., III, 1890

“By adhering to Holy Scripture as the sole source and norm of faith, the true visible Church of Christ on earth proves its orthodox character… As soon as a church, either in theory or in practice, rejects the authority of Scripture, it ceases to be orthodox and becomes heterodox, that is to say, an erring church, or a sect.”

— Mueller, Christian Dogmatics, p. 127;
Cf. Brief Statement of 1932, ¶29