Augsburg Confession I: Of God

The original unaltered Augsburg Confession is, without question, one of the great Confessions of the Church. It also happens to be the chief Confession in the Lutheran Church. With this in mind, we are going to go through the Augsburg part by part here at the blog. Our commentary will be kept to a minimum and the Augsburg will be allowed to speak for itself. We begin:

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Augsburg Confession, Article I: Of God

Our Churches, with common consent, do teach that the decree of the Council of Nicaea concerning the Unity of the Divine Essence and concerning the Three Persons, is true and to be believed without any doubting; that is to say, there is one Divine Essence which is called and which is God: eternal, without body, without parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the Maker and Preserver of all things, visible and invisible; and yet there are three Persons, of the same essence and power, who also are coeternal, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And the term "person" they use as the Fathers have used it, to signify, not a part or quality in another, but that which subsists of itself.
 
They condemn all heresies which have sprung up against this article, as the Manichaeans, who assumed two principles, one Good and the other Evil: also the Valentinians, Arians, Eunomians, Mohammedans, and all such. They condemn also the Samosatenes, old and new, who, contending that there is but one Person, sophistically and impiously argue that the Word and the Holy Ghost are not distinct Persons, but that "Word" signifies a spoken word, and "Spirit" signifies motion created in things.

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The Confession begins with a formal statement about God. What should be abundantly clear to any reader is that the framers of the Augsburg Confession were Catholic. Luther, Melanchthon, and the others who were influential in the Confession were not revolutionaries, despite what some people within Rome would have you believe. They had no desire to split the Western Church, nor did they leave joyfully.

The Augsburg Confession begins with a confessional statement regarding the Trinity. As you can see, the Augsburg is very Catholic in its formulation. To put it bluntly, the Reformers desired to show that they were not creating something new. Lutheranism, as it has come to be known, is not a new religion or sect within (or not within) Christianity. Lutheranism is nothing more (and nothing less) than the Catholic faith once and for all handed down.

Here in AC I, we see nothing less than classical Nicene Orthodoxy. We do not see any new Christology invented, nor do we see any support of any ancient heresies. Of course, the Evangelical Catholic Church (aka Lutheranism) fully affirms the three great ecumenical creeds. In fact, in the Book of Concord, the three ecumenical creeds are the first things in there, even before the Augsburg Confession.

So we begin by seeing the proper starting point, and by seeing that the Evangelical Catholic Church is nothing new, nor is it a sect that split the Church.

And so the framers of the Augsburg begin, rightfully so, with the Triune God.