Confession of Faith
The congregations of CALC find our unity in our common Confession of Faith as set forth in Article Three of our Constitution:
ARTICLE THREE - CONFESSION OF FAITH
The Bible: The Association accepts all the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as a whole and in all the their parts as the divinely inspired, revealed, and inerrant Word of God, and joyfully submits to this as the only infallible authority in all matters of life and faith.
Faith in the Triune God: The Association is built upon faith in the ever-living Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as revealed in the Holy Scriptures to Whom be the glory for ever and ever (see the three Ecumenical Creeds).
God the Father.
3.1. Almighty God, Creator of the universe, Who formed man in His own image, Who from the beginning loved goodness and hated evil, desires that the children of His creation live in eternal fellowship with Him. We hold to the creation and fall of humanity as described in the first chapters of Genesis, not as myth, but as historic facts.
3.2. Therefore, the Creator gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16) to be the Savior of the world, that people might be set free from the bondage of sin, and become joint heirs with Jesus Christ of eternal life.
Jesus Christ, God’s only Son and our Savior.
4.1. At the heart and centre of this faith is confidence in Jesus Christ and love for Him, the Eternal Word of God, true God (only Son of the Father from eternity), and true man (born of the Virgin Mary), and the only Savior of the world.
4.2. The reason for our being the Canadian Association of Lutheran Congregations is to proclaim salvation solely by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Dependence upon the Holy Spirit. We also acknowledge dependence upon the Holy Spirit working solely through the Means of Grace to call unbelievers into saving faith in Jesus Christ, to empower believers to grow in faith, to bestow His gifts for the ministry of the Church locally and universally, to inspire love for one another, and to bring glory to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Head of the Church.
Symbols: Basic and Required: As brief and true statements of the doctrines of the Word of God, this Association accepts and confesses the following Symbols, subscription to which shall be required of all its members, both congregations and individuals:
6.1. The ancient Ecumenical Creeds: The Apostolic, the Nicene, and the Athanasian;
6.2. The Unaltered Augsburg Confession and Luther’s Small Catechism.
Book of Concord: Normative: As further elaboration of and in accordance with these Lutheran Symbols, this Association also receives the other documents in the Book of Concord of 1580: the Apology, Luther’s Large Catechism, the Smalcald Articles (including the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope) and the Formula of Concord; and recognizes them as normative for its theology.
Pure Doctrine: The Association accepts without reservation these symbolic books of the Lutheran Church not insofar as but because they are the presentation and explanation of the pure doctrine of the Word of God and a summary of the faith of the evangelical Lutheran Church.