To The Reader

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Christians need Biblical knowledge concerning the foundations of the Christian faith. To satisfy this need, we now publish the Reformer Martin Luther’s Small Catechism and an Explanation of Christian Doctrine based on it.

The Small Catechism presents the basic doctrines of the Christian faith in a brief form. The Explanation of Christian Doctrine explains them in more detail and applies them to the present time in an easily understood way. The explanations are confirmed with passages from the Bible. For the English translation we have used the King James version of the Bible.

The revised work is based on the earlier work. The quotations from Luther, if the source is not indicated, are generally from the Large Catechism. Many of the timely doctrinal questions are confirmed also with other quotations from Luther and the Lutheran Confessions. They indicate that the teaching of the Confessional Lutheran Church has a reliable, Biblically Lutheran basis. Much help has been received from Dr. Johann Conrad Dietrich’s (1575-1639) trailblazing explanation of the Catechism. The explanations of the Lord’s Blessing and the Gifts of Grace appear for the first time in this revised version of the Explanation of Christian Doctrine. There is also a section on the Public Ministry in connection with the Office of the Keys, which was not included in the earlier work. Our hope is that the Assignments will be a motivation for further study and discussion.

We pray that this site may serve the cause of the Chief Shepherd of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, for the eternal salvation of souls.