 What
do Lutherans Believe???
God reveals himself to us in many and
various ways. The beautiful complexity of nature is but one
evidence of His existence. Also, God has revealed himself to us
through prophets, priests and writers of the Old and New Testament books in
the Bible.
Lutheran faith, (named after the 16th
century monk Dr. Martin Luther, who led the reformation against the Roman
Catholic church) is based on God's revelation in His Word and finds its
truths therein.
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We believe that God created this world and
it was good (Genesis 1). Unfortunately, as humans, we abused the freedom God
gave us and broke our right and eternal relationship with him (Gen. 3).
Since that time we have experienced a
deathly existence without true peace in any relationships because of our
separation from God (Rom. 3:23).
Nevertheless, our creator loved us and sent
his one and only son Jesus into this world to fix our damaged relationships.
He taught his followers many doctrines including the importance of baptism
and provided in his last supper, the fellowship of communion with him.
When it was time, Jesus - God's son - took
the punishment for our guilt (Acts 3:18).
That punishment was death (Rom. 6:23). And
through his innocent human death, Jesus purchased eternal life for all
mankind (Rom. 5:8; Jn 3:16).
As God, Jesus conquered death and three days
later was raised from the grave to proclaim his victory to all. (Lk. 24:46-47).
After Jesus' resurrection, he commissioned
his followers to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matt.
28:19) and then went to be with his Father in heaven. He left to prepare a
place for us but he did not leave us as orphans (John 14:18).
He asked His Father to give us another
counselor, a helper during this difficult life. This counselor is the Spirit
of Truth, the Holy Spirit, and the rest of the world cannot accept him
because it neither sees him nor knows him. But we know him for he lives in us
(John 14:16-17).
And the "weapon" or
"sword" with which he protects us is God's Word (Eph. 6:17).
And so we turn away from our broken life, we
repent and cling to new life in Christ (Acts 3:19).
We summarize our beliefs with similar words
to those of St. Paul when he wrote his letter to fellow Christians in
Ephesus:
"For it is by grace we have been saved,
through faith - it is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works,
so that none of us can boast. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to o" (Eph.
2:8-10). (Return to Main Page)
Look here for a detailed explanation of our beliefs and
practices
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Belief and Practice
Essays and
pamphlets explaining Lutheran Beliefs on various subjects
What About?
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