Therefore, Resolved, That this Synod hereby avows its belief in the following doctrinal Basis, namely, the so-called Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the American Recension of the Augsburg Confession, as a more definite expression of the doctrinal pledge prescribed by the General Synod’s Constitution for District Synods, and as a correct exhibition of the Scripture doctrines discussed in it:  and that we regard agreement among brethren on these subjects as a sufficient basis for harmonious co-operation in the same church.

DOCTRINAL BASIS OR CREED.

The Old and New Testaments the only Infallible Rule of Faith and Practice

1.  “We believe, teach, and confess, that the only rule and standard, according to which all doctrines and teachers alike ought to be tried and judged, are the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments alone, as it is written, Psalm cxix. 105:  ’Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light upon my path.’  And St. Paul, Gal. i.8, says ’Though an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.’

2.  “But all human writings and symbols, are not authorities like the Holy Scriptures; but they are only a testimony and explanation of our faith, showing the manner in which at any time the Holy Scriptures were understood and explained by those who then lived, in respect to articles that had been controverted in the church of God, and also the grounds on which doctrines that were opposed to the Holy Scriptures, had been rejected and condemned.”—­Form of Concord, pp. 551, 552.

THE APOSTLES’ CREED

I believe in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth: 

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. —­ The third day he rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy universal church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

THE NICENO-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED.

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of light, true God of the true God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.  He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.