Grace Ev. Lutheran Church is a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. A thorough summary of our beliefs is at our Synod’s website: https://www.lcms.org/about/beliefs. We recognize the confessions found in the Small Catechism and the entire Book of Concord: https://bookofconcord.org.
We believe in one God eternally revealed in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinitarian God created and sustains all things in heaven and on earth. The Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds are our confessions and summarize our understanding of the Trinity. Genesis 1-2; Psalm 146:5-6; Matthew 28:20.
Jesus Christ is true God from eternity and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary. By His perfect life, profound teachings, vicarious death, bodily resurrection, and reign at God’s right hand, He is the only Savior from sin and the only Mediator between God and humanity. There is salvation in no one else. John 1:1-3,14; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 John 5:20; Acts 4:12.
We believe in an inaugurated eschatology, generally called amillennialism. Our Lord Jesus Christ will return visibly on the Last Day to raise the bodies of all the dead, to condemn those who reject Him in unbelief to eternal punishment, and to give eternal life to all who trust in Him for forgiveness, life, and salvation. His return will bring about a New Jerusalem and a new creation. We reject the typical dispensational or premillennial theory of a secret rapture before Christ’s final return. Matthew 25:31-46; John 5:28-29, 2 Peter 3:11-13; Revelation 1:7.
This Triune God has created all that is and continues to do so. He loves His creation and desires to live in relationship with what He has made (Genesis 1 and 2).
The church belongs to Christ and is present in the world until the end. We find the church wherever believers are gathered around the Word of God purely taught and the Sacraments rightly administered. Matthew 13:47-48; 18:20; Acts 2:42.
Christian Baptism is an application of water by pouring, sprinkling or immersion in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We baptize infants, children, and adults at Christ’s institution and with His Word. We affirm the biblical teaching of baptismal regeneration. The work in Baptism belongs to the Lord alone. Matthew 28:19-20; John 3:5; Acts 2:38-39; Titus 3:5; Romans 6:4; 1 Peter 3:21.
Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ sacramentally and mysteriously present in bread and wine. We receive the Sacrament as a confession of the faith of our altar and as a true communion with Christ. In the Sacrament we receive the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of our faith. We receive the Sacrament every Sunday and on many of the feast days of the church. We practice closed Communion. Please make an appointment with the pastor before you commune if you do not share the confession of faith of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Matthew 26:26-29; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 11:23-26.
The Bible is God’s Word to us. It is everything that God wants us to know about Him and His way of salvation, but does not contain everything there is to know about God. No book could. God speaks to us through His Word since He wrote the words on the page, simply using men to pen the words He intended (2 Timothy 3:15-17).