St. John’s Lutheran Church

Being Lutheran means we are rooted in Christ, Guided by Scripture

We teach and respond to the love of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—coequal, coeternal, one God.

• Grace Alone – God loves sinners and sent Jesus to save us.
• Faith Alone – Jesus won forgiveness; God gives faith through His Word.
• Scripture Alone – The Bible is our only rule for faith and life.

Being Lutheran means holding to the Reformation truths: Bible-based, confessional, and centered on Christ.
The Small Catechism is an excellent way to learn our foundational beliefs.

• God – On the basis of the Holy Scriptures we teach the sublime article of the Holy Trinity; that is, we teach that the one true God, Deut. 6:4; 1 Cor. 8:4, is the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, three distinct persons, but of one and the same divine essence, equal in power, equal in eternity, equal in majesty, because each person possesses the one divine essence entire, Col. 2:9, Matt. 28:19. We hold that all teachers and communions that deny the doctrine of the Holy Trinity are outside the pale of the Christian Church. The Triune God is the God who is gracious to man, John 3:16-18, 1 Cor. 12:3. Since the Fall, no man can believe in the "fatherhood" of God except he believe in the eternal Son of God, who became man and reconciled us to God by His vicarious satisfaction, 1 John 2:23; John 14:6. Hence we warn against Unitarianism, which in our country has to a great extent impenetrated the sects and is being spread particularly also through the influence of the lodges.
• The Bible –The word “Bible”is from a Greek word that means “book.”
  What is this “good book”? That question has a two-part answer.
  
• First,the Bible is actually a collection of books–66 of them to be exact–from the first book,Genesis,to the last,Revelation. These books cover thousands of years and were written in either Hebrew,Aramaic or Greek. There are many different kinds of writing in the Bible: historical narrative, prophecy, poetry, speeches, letters and so on. From a merely human perspective,there is no question that the Bible is a masterpiece of literature.
• Second,the much more important answer to the question, “What is the Bible?”is this: The Bible is the Word of God.The Bible is the collection of the thoughts–even the very words–that God gave to the authors of the Biblical books.The Bible is a gift God has given to His church.It is not a collection of ancient fables and myths.The Bible is the sure and certain means that God the Holy Spirit uses to communicate God’s Word to us today
• Holy Baptism - the Bible teaches that a person is saved by God’s grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The Bible tells us that such “faith comes by hearing” (Rom. 10:17). Jesus Himself commands Baptism and tells us that Baptism is water used together with the Word of God (Matt. 28:19-20). Because of this, we believe that Baptism is one of the miraculous means of grace (another is God’s Word as it is written or spoken), through which God creates and/or strengthens the gift of faith in a person’s heart (see Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21; Gal. 3:26-27; Rom. 6:1-4; Col. 2:11-12; 1 Cor. 12.13).

Being Lutheran means holding to the Reformation truths: Bible-based, confessional, and centered on Christ. (See LCMS Beliefs for more.)

Holy Communion - We receive in, with, and under the bread and wine the true body and blood of Christ shed on the cross, Jesus Christ Who is now risen and ascended and sits at the right hand of God the Father.
• He is the same Christ, and when he gave us the Sacrament, as the Lutheran Confessions affirm, "he was speaking of his true, essential body, which he gave into death for us, and of his true, essential blood, which was poured out for us on the tree of the cross for the forgiveness of sins" (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration VII, 49).
• In the Sacrament, our Confessions further teach the same Jesus who died is present in the Sacrament, although not in exactly the same way he was corporeally present when he walked bodily on earth.
Closed Communion - Closed Communion is the historical practic of taking the Lord's Supper with only those who have been prepared to receive it. This is done out of love for our neighbor to ensure he or she does not "eat and drink judgement upon himself" 1 Corinthians 11:29.
For people who are interested in receiving the Lord's Supper, they simply need to discuss it with the pastor and set up a time for instruction in this.
Creeds - Lutheran’s confess the historic, biblical creeds. The Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene creed, and the Athanasian creed as proper understandings of the Holy Trinity.. These help us stand guard against errant Christian doctrine which seek to steal away our faith
Confessions - During the time of the reformation, Luther and fellow believers were called to stand trial for heresy. These are the statements made in defense of their positions. Augsburg Confession, Apology of the Augsburg confession (apology here means a reasoned justification), and Book of Concord.
Liturgy & The Divine Service - God needs nothing from us. Therefore, we do not go to worship primarily to fulfill some obligation to God. Rather we go to worship because, there, God has promised to deliver his gracious gifts to us.