The first confession of the Christian faith was the Apostle’s Creed. Later disagreements caused the Nicene Creed (325 A.D) and the Athanasian Creed (451 A.D.) to be formulated. These three confessions are known as Ecumenical or Universal Creeds. 

However, as time went by, the church began to deviate from the biblical truth. Voices which spoke up against error were silenced. Dr. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, doctor of Theology and professor of Bible at the University of Wittenberg, Germany, realized that the church had deviated from the biblical truth. We see in Luther an instrument God used to bring the church back to the biblical truth. God prepared other faithful men who participated in the Reformation. 

The following documents make up the Lutheran Confessions:

-          Small Catechism (1529), a summary of the main biblical truths, written for the people.

-          Large Catechism (1529), the same truths, explained in detail for adults.

-          The Augsburg Confession (1530), the main Lutheran confession.

-          The Apology (1531), a defense of the Augsburg Confession.

-          The Smalcald Articles (1537) reaffirm the teachings of the Augsburg Confession and explain in more detail the doctrine of the Holy Supper.

-          The Formula of Concord (1577), which, among other topics, defines original sin, the impossibility for man to save himself by his own power, and the person and work of Christ.

The Confessions were gathered in the Book of Concord in 1580, which is accepted today by many Lutheran churches in the world. These churches affirm: “We accept all the books of the cannon of the Sacred Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, as the infallible Word of God and, as a correct explanation of the Sacred Scripture, we accept the symbolic books gathered in the Book of Concord.” The Scripture or Holy Bible is the only norm for doctrine and praxis in the church.