We Believe:

• In one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• God is an omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, infinite, perfect, and all-powerful spirit.
• The 66 canonical books of the Bible are the divinely inspired, infallible Word of God.
• Jesus Christ is God the Son.
• God created the heavens and earth and all things that exist therein in six literal days.
• God created man in his own image.
• The first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, fell into sin when they disobeyed God.
• All people born since are guilty of sin against God and deserve to be condemned by him.
• Jesus Christ, because of God’s great love, came to save sinners.
• Jesus, though he is God, also became a man by being conceived by the Holy Spirit in a virgin named Mary.
• Jesus, as God and man, suffered and died on a Roman cross to pay for the sins of the whole world.
• Jesus rose from the dead three days later, and by it, proved that God had accepted his sacrifice for our sin.
• Jesus ascended visibly to heaven, where he intercedes for his people before the throne of God.
• All people have access to the salvation that Jesus earned for sinners. This access is by faith alone; that is, not by anything they do, but simply by believing in him and trusting in what he did.
• Having this faith is not a choice a person can make to accept or to refuse. It is a gift of God’s Holy Spirit who works faith, according to God’s own pleasure and purpose, in the hearts of those who hear his Word.
• Christ Jesus is the only way to salvation, eternal life, and heaven.
• Jesus Christ is coming again visibly on the Last Day.
• When he comes, the dead will be raised, and all people will stand before him in judgment. Those who trust in his Gospel will be received into eternal life in heaven, and those who do not will be condemned to an eternity in hell.
• Jesus Christ is present with his people today, and makes his presence known in his Word, his Sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper), and in his spiritual indwelling of those who trust in him.
• Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are true means of grace; that is, Christ Jesus is present in them, and through them he conveys to us forgiveness of sins, life, faith, and salvation.

The Christian life is characterized primarily by faith in the Gospel. Such faith includes sorrow for sin and the genuine desire to lead a godly life. Living an amended life and doing good works are fruit of the Gospel, but they are always the result not the cause of salvation.

We also confess with all Christians our faith as it is expressed in the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.

And with all Lutheran churches, we further confess our faith as it is expounded in the Lutheran Symbols contained in the Book of Concord of 1580; namely, the Augsburg Confession, the Apology to the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, the Small and Large Catechisms of Luther, and the Formula of Concord.