We Believe, Teach and Confess:
- That there is one God in three persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- That every person is conceived and born in sin (original sin), and
deserves temporal death and everlasting damnation for both original and
actual sin.
- That Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God, born of the virgin Mary,
was truly crucified, died and was buried, and rose again in His body on
the third day. He ascended into heaven, and will come again on the last
day to be our judge.
- That a person is saved (justified) entirely by God's grace, through faith,
which is created by the Holy Spirit where and when He pleases.
- To obtain this faith, God instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry
(preaching office). Through the means of the Word and the Sacraments the
Holy Spirit creates saving faith.
- Believers must do good works, but they are not to trust in them for their salvation.
- There is one, holy, catholic (Christian) Church, with Jesus Christ as her head.
- The Sacraments of Holy Baptism,
Absolution, and The Lord's Supper
are to be retained in the church.
- That the
Augsburg Confession (of which the above items are a summary of the
first thirteen articles) is a true and faithful exposition of Holy Scripture.
- The books of the Old and New Testaments are the true, inspired, inerrant Word of God.
- The rest of the Book of Concord is,
like the Augsburg Confession, a true and faithful exposition of Holy
Scripture, and we subscribe unreservedly to it.
For a simple understanding of our teachings as drawn from the Scriptures,
we invite you to read Luther’s
Small Catechism. (Anyone seeking to take our catechesis course
will be given a complimentary copy of Luther’s Small Catechism.)
While it can suffice to say that we draw all of our beliefs from Scripture,
for more systematic and detailed presentation of our practices and
beliefs on a number of subjects please visit
this page at the LCMS website.
For more information on our congretations practices please look through the following links.