What We Believe

With the universal Christian Church, Immanuel Lutheran Church and The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod teaches and responds to the love of the Triune God:

the Father, creator of all that exists;

Jesus Christ, the Son, who became human to suffer and die for the sins of all human beings and to rise to life again in the ultimate victory over death and Satan; and

the Holy Spirit, who creates faith through God’s Word and Sacraments.

The three persons of the Trinity are coequal and coeternal, one God.

Our congregation accepts and preaches the Bible-based teachings of Martin Luther that inspired the reformation of the Christian Church in the 16th century. The teaching of Luther and the reformers can be summarized in three phrases: Grace alone, Faith alone, Scripture alone.
GRACE ALONE – FAITH ALONE – SCRIPTURE ALONE

God loves the people of the world, even though they are sinful, rebel against Him and do not deserve His love. He sent Jesus, His Son, to love the unlovable and save the ungodly.

By His suffering and death as the substitute for all people of all time, Jesus purchased and won forgiveness and eternal life for them. Those who hear this Good News and believe it have the eternal life that it offers. God creates faith in Christ and gives people forgiveness through Him.

The Bible is God’s inerrant and infallible Word, in which He reveals His Law and His Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. It is the sole rule and norm for Christian doctrine.

There is only one true God. He is the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We agree with the ancient creeds of the Christian Church, which profess the Trinity.

The presence of sin did not change God’s love for humanity. To save humanity from the guilt, the power and the punishment of sin, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ into the world. Jesus is true God as well as true man. He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father and then died on the cross. Jesus died to suffer the punishment of all the sins of all people.

John 3:16, 17 (NIV) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”.

The Holy Spirit is truly God. He reveals and brings to us everything that Jesus accomplished in his life, death and resurrection. He makes it possible for us to believe, obey and love. He fills us with joy and the fruit of his ongoing presence within. The Holy Spirit fills the believer with the presence, the power and the gifts of God.

2 Cor 3:18 (NIV) And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

God is the creator of all that exists. He not only made all things, but He also owns all and continues to sustain and provide for all living creatures.

Humanity is the crown of God’s creation. God made humans to have a capacity to know and fellowship with Him. Originally people were pure, innocent, holy, and righteous, living according to the perfect will of God and intimately, knowing Him.

But Adam and Eve turned against God and brought sin into the world. Since then, all people are born sinners and cannot save themselves. Sin is an attitude of selfish disobedience against God and manifests itself in individual thoughts, words, and deeds of wrong.

Psalm 51:5 (NIV) Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Psalm 130:3,4 (NIV) If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

Rom 3:23 (NIV) All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Rom 6:23 (NIV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus boldly rose from the dead in complete victory over the power of sin and evil so that we might have eternal life. He ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Father. He will come again at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. He will take believers with him to heaven and the unbelievers will be separated forever from him.

John 14:6 (NIV) Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 11:25, 26 (NIV) Jesus said “…I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will never die."

The Holy Spirit not only calls people into a faith relationship with the Triune God, but He also gathers them together into the supernatural community called the Church. The true Christian church is made up of all true believers in Christ in every place and time. The church seeks to obey and follow Christ and diligently search out and teach only the truth of the Scriptures.

The church has also been given the means of grace, the Word, and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. We believe that the sacraments are more than symbols and reminders of God’s love, but that they offer and deliver spiritual blessings to those who partake of them in faith. Lutherans accept all modes of baptism as correct when water is applied in the name of the Triune God. Even little children and infants can receive the benefits God has placed into baptism.

Mat 28:19 (NIV) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38 (NIV) Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

1 Cor 11:23-27 (NIV) The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper, he took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.