RESOLUTION 15-06
Overture 15-01 (TB, p. 186)
WHEREAS, October 31, 2017 will commemorate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting the Ninety-Five Theses on the castle church door in Wittenberg; and
WHEREAS, It was not Luther's intent to create a new church but to debate questions that arose from the selling of indulgences and the theology supporting it; and
WHEREAS, The posting of the theses set off debates within Western Christianity over many biblical doctrines, such as justification, the sacraments, the church and her authority, among others; and
WHEREAS, The teachings of Luther were outlawed by the Holy Roman Empire in the May 1521 Edict of Worms; and
WHEREAS, Repeated efforts to enforce the Edict of Worms in the following decade were suspended, allowing early Lutherans to reform congregations, teach theology, publish their writings, and correct misconceptions about their thought, while many came to embrace their teachings; and
WHEREAS, At the behest of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, the Augsburg Confession was presented to the emperor as a clear articulation of the teachings of the Wittenberg reformers, composed by Philipp Melanchthon and approved by Luther himself; and
WHEREAS, The Augsburg Confession unequivocally affirmed many doctrines that are fundamental to orthodox Christianity and rejected others as contrary to the Scriptures; and
WHEREAS, In an age of religious pluralism and moral relativism, knowledge of Lutheran teachings as contained in the Augsburg Confession and the biblical and historical basis for those teachings has waned or has been deemed irrelevant to contemporary religious concern within the broader culture; and
WHEREAS, The issues addressed by the Augsburg Confession are as important today as they were then; therefore be it
Resolved, That The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in convention recognize the 500th anniversary of the Reformation by encouraging the study of the Augsburg Confession individually and corporately, formally and informally, among clergy and laity alike; and be it further
Resolved, That these efforts take place especially during the next decade between the 500th anniversaries of the posting of the Ninety-Five Theses (1517) and the presentation of the Augsburg Confession (1530).