Our Position...

In brief summary, we believe, teach, and confess on the basis of Scripture...

    …that the only true God is the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;

    …that the Bible is His verbally-inspired, inerrant, self-interpreting, perfectly clear, and all-sufficient
    revelation to man;

    …that Holy Scripture is the only source and standard of Christian doctrine, faith, and life;

    …that man is not the product of a chance evolution but the deliberate creation of God Himself on the
    sixth of the 24-hour days during which He made all things;

    …that the disobedience of Adam brought sin and total depravity upon all men by inheritance, as well
    as death, “the wages of sin” (Romans 6:23a);

    …that God in eternity purposed to save fallen mankind by the redemptive work of His only-begotten
    Son, who would be “manifest in the flesh”  (I Timothy 3:16);

    …that His Son, Jesus Christ, took upon Himself man’s human nature, was made under the Law, kept
    it perfectly in man’s place, and suffered in His own sinless soul and body, as their substitute, the
    sinners’ guilt and the punishment of sin that they justly deserve to suffer;

    …that, in view of Christ’s all-sufficient vicarious atonement which satisfied His justice, God graciously
    forgave the sins of the whole world and declared all men righteous in His sight;

    …that this unilateral reconciliation of the world unto Himself God has published to all men in the
    Gospel, the “good news” of salvation, in which He offers His gracious forgiveness freely and sincerely
    to all mankind;

    …that this justification or forgiveness is received alone by faith, that is, by confidence in God’s
    undeserved mercy to poor sinners for Christ’s sake, totally apart from man’s own worthiness, merit
    and works of the Law;

    …that, without any cooperation on the sinner’s part, active or passive, the Holy Ghost works this
    saving faith in man’s heart through the Means of Grace, the Gospel and the Sacraments, and
    strengthens and preserves that faith only through those very same means;

    …that the Communion of Saints, the invisible Holy Christian Church, is made up of such believers
    and of believers only, and that the only God-ordained outward fellowship is the local Christian
    congregation;

    …that the Pastoral Office of the local congregation is the only divinely-instituted office in the church,
    all other offices of help being of human origin and thus able to be established or discontinued by local
    churches in Christian liberty;

    …that the washing of Holy Baptism is a Means of Grace whereby the Holy Ghost works saving faith
    in the hearts of infants who are unable to understand the Gospel, washes away their sins, and gives
    forgiveness, life, and eternal salvation to all who believe Christ’s promise concerning its benefits;

    …that in the Lord’s Supper all communicants receive in, with, and under bread and wine the true
    body and blood of Christ —believers to their blessing and salvation, unbelievers to their guilt and
    condemnation. Since partaking of the Lord’s Supper is also a testimony of Christian unity, only those
    who are one in faith and confession should commune together.

    …that Christian fellowship is the sharing of that God-given unity of the Spirit which is publicly
    acknowledged by joint church work and worship among those who are “perfectly joined together in
    the same mind and in the same judgment” (I Corinthians 1:10);

    …that Christian prayer is not a Means of Grace but is the privilege granted by God to His children by
    adoption to talk to their heavenly Father and to be heard by Him for Jesus’ sake, and that joint prayer
    is an exercise of Christian fellowship (Amos 3:3; Acts 2:42);

    …that, at the moment of death, the believer’s soul is at once in the presence of Christ, experiencing
    fullness of joy and pleasures at God’s right hand forevermore, while the body returns to the ground to
    await its resurrection in glory;

    …that, on the Last Day, Christ will return visibly and in glory, NOT to establish an earthly kingdom, but
    to judge the world in righteousness by His Word, to receive His believers, soul and body, into the
    mansions of heaven, and to consign all unbelievers, soul and body, to everlasting punishment in the
    torment of hell.

(A more detailed statement of the doctrinal position of our congregation and of our wider fellowship, the
Concordia Lutheran Conference, can be had free of charge upon request.  Please ask for a copy of the
“Sketch of the Scriptural Position of the Concordia Lutheran Conference”  –or pull a copy from the web
site of our Conference and its publishing house, Scriptural Publications.)