What We Believe, in Short

Trinity Lutheran Church shares and confesses the faith of the one holy, Christian, and apostolic Church of all ages and places. This faith is revealed in God's inerrant Word, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. This Christian faith is summarized in the statements of faith contained in the Christian Book of Concord of 1580.

1. We believe and confess that the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- one God in three Persons, the Holy Trinity -- created the world and everything in it in seven ordinary days out of nothing .

2. We believe and confess that man was created very good by God on the sixth day.

3. We believe and confess that our first parents, Adam and Eve, fell into sin and thereby brought God's wrath upon themselves, their descendants, and the entire world. Ever since the fall, all men are conceived dead in trespasses and sins, utterly unable to save themselves. Out of their sinful nature all sinful acts (thoughts, words, and deeds) proceed. Every sin is a violation of God unchanging law, the Ten Commandments.

4. We believe and confess that God promised a Savior to our first parents who would be born of a woman to destroy the devil and all his works; and that all who would believe in this Savior would be saved from God's final judgment.

5. We believe and confess that God's natural Son became man; and that Jesus of Nazareth is this man. Jesus is the Son of God the Father and Mary the Virgin, that is, he is both God and man in one Person.

6. We believe and confess that Jesus voluntarily lived a life of humility in perfect obedience to God's will for us; and that Jesus freely died on the cross in our place and thereby satisfied the wrath of God over all human sin. Through his life and death, the God-man Jesus Christ became the one Savior of the entire world, of Jews and Gentiles alike.

7. We believe and confess that Jesus Christ instituted the preaching of God's Word; Holy Baptism; and the Lord's Supper. Through all these means Christ bestows on all the fruit of his life and death: forgiveness of sins, life, and eternal salvation. Faith in Christ as Savior is created by the Holy Spirit working through these means where and when it pleases him. This faith simply trusts Christ's word of forgiveness and is accredited to righteousness before God. Faith, therefore, receives what the means give.

8. We believe and confess that all who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ are members of Christ's body, the one holy Christian Church; and that all Christians are duty-bound to join such local congregations where all teaching takes place according to God's inspired Word, the Bible, and where God's Sacraments -- Baptism and the Lord's Supper -- are given according to Christ's institution.

9. We believe and confess that Baptism is a water "combined with God's Word" and therefore a "water rich in grace" through which the Holy Spirit gives spiritual rebirth to all who are by nature dead in trespasses and sins, regardless of their age. It is also an identifying sign of the Christian Church which is why instruction in the Christian faith goes hand in hand with Baptism, for infants after Baptism, for adults before.

10. We believe and confess that the Lord's Supper is the true body and blood of Jesus Christ under real bread and wine. It is a "sacrament" through which God forgives our sins (and seals this forgiveness by giving Christ's body and blood into the mouths of all who eat and drink the bread and wine). Yet it too is a sign of the Christian Church which is why unrepentant sinners are excluded and instruction in the faith takes place before partaking of this holy food.

11. We believe and confess that Christ will return visibly on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead. Those who have not believed in him during their lives will be condemned to hell. Those who have believed in him will be saved and enjoy heaven in their glorified bodies.

Here's an extended version of our beliefs.