What We Believe
What We Believe
The longing and yearning in your heart is an indication there is a personal God and it is from the depths of that longing and yearning that comes all the evidence your natural relationship with Him is broken. At Trinity Lutheran Church you will not receive moralistic “how to” lessons to fix your natural broken relationship with God because God’s Word says that is impossible for you to do. Nor will you receive therapeutic “be happy” affirmations that it is okay to go on living in a broken relationship with God because God’s Word says that will be eternal condemnation for you. Instead, in this church, you will be given the Gospel - the Good News that Jesus Christ is true God who became a true human also and who historically lived, suffered, died, and rose from death to life to forgive your sins. Here, you will hear that you are a sinner, that in Christ your sins are forgiven, and in Christ your life is transformed - even through suffering. For by God’s Word, we believe only the forgiveness of sins can fix our natural broken relationship with God and transform how we live.
WHAT DOES TRINITY TEACH ABOUT GOD?
With the universal Christian Church, God's family at Trinity 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 Biblical 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.
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 Biblical 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 His own 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.