To Judge Practice by Word Alone

WHEREAS, The Word of God is pure, trustworthy, altogether righteous, and endures forever (Psalm 19, Isaiah 6:8); and

WHEREAS, Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ (Rom. 10:17); and

WHEREAS, Faith, drawn from the Word of God, directs our practice as well as our doctrine; and

WHEREAS, Martin Luther promoted the embraced understanding of Sola Scriptura, that is our Lutheran heritage and Scriptural foundation; and

WHEREAS, Jesus declared, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life,” (John 6:63); therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod be encouraged to continue to search the Scriptures, to continue to abide in the Word (John 8:31–32) and to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” (Collect for the Word, The Lutheran Hymnal [CPH, 1941], p. 14) the Word as both clergy and laity; and be it further

Resolved, That we review and scrutinize our practice of the faith according to the Word of God so as not to prescribe or reject practices of faith and/or church life based on tradition or popes and councils, but on the Word alone and, as it rightly expos its the Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, so as not to promote legalistic restrictions or limitations based on human reason but maintain the liberty for which Jesus set us free, with a conscientious permission of variation in the areas of adiaphora.