Beliefs

What we believe at St John Evangelical Lutheran Church about Jesus, the Bible, and the Church

Our Beliefs

JESUS CHRIST

Jesus Christ is at the center of everything. We believe that Jesus is the only one who can reconcile us to God. He lived a sinless and perfect life, died on the cross in our place, and rose again to prove His victory and empower us for life. We believe that Jesus Christ is coming back again as He promised.

THE TRINITY

 With the universal Christian Church, St John Lutheran 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. .

The bible- Scripture alone

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.

Being "Lutheran" our congregation accepts and teaches the Bible as the inspired Word of God. We are called Lutheran because we accept the teaching 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 short phrases: Grace alone, Faith alone, Scripture alone

Grace 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.

Faith Alone

  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 CHURCH

We believe in the power and significance of the Church and the necessity of believers to meet regularly together.

Baptism

 Baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word. What’s so special about a handful of simple water? Nothing, until God connects His Word to it! In Baptism, that is exactly what God is doing. He combines His life-creating and life-giving Word with the waters of Holy Baptism, and thereby we are born again of water and the Spirit (John 3:5).



Holy communion

In Holy Communion our Lord and Savior is continually distributing to us the body and blood of the sacrifice He made for us, the sacrifice by which He paid for the sins of the entire world. Thus, receiving His body and blood, we receive forgiveness, life and salvation. Flowing from these tremendous treasures of God’s mercy are the love, peace and hope that He gives us in His Supper, and the ability and desire to do God’s will, living in love and harmony with others.