What We Believe

Messiah Lutheran Church is a congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) (www.lcms.org).  The LCMS is a church body full of sinners in need of God's grace.  We are only able to do anything because of God's forgiveness, life, and salvation.  In this forgiveness for Christ's sake and standing on the Word of God, we believe, teach and confess the following:

  • All humankind is sinful from conception (Psalm 51:5) and unable to reconcile themselves to God by any human efforts (Ephesians 2:1; Romans 3:9-18).
  • All humankind is saved only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, who has atoned for all sins on the cross (Ephesians 2:8-9).
  • Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is the only Savior of the world, as it is written: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12)   
  • The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the inspired, inerrant, infallible, written Word of God and the only rule and norm of faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:16, Psalm 119:105).
  • The waters of Holy Baptism work forgiveness of sins, deliver from death and the devil, and give eternal salvation to all who receive this mark in the name of the Triune God (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38).
  • The body and blood is truly present in, with and under the bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar. This Sacrament brings forgiveness, life and salvation to all who faithfully partake. We also affirm that in order to partake in this Sacrament one must be baptized, able to examine themselves and share in a common confession (Matthew 26:28, Acts 2:42).
  • All the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (the Lutheran Confessions) are a true and unadulterated statement and exposition of the Word of God.
  • There is only one God – the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit – “one God in three persons and three persons in one God.”
  • God created the world in six 24-hour days (Genesis 1).
  • The stories of creation, the flood, Moses, Jonah and all figures described in Holy Scripture were real historical events and people.
  • God created the institution of marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman (Genesis 2:2-24; Matthew 19:5-6).
  • All sexual activity outside of biblical marriage of a husband and wife is sinful and counter to the will of God (Romans 1:24–27; I Corinthians 6:9-20; I Timothy 1:10). We lovingly respond to such behavior with the same love and concern as all other sins, calling for repentance and offering forgiveness in the Good News of Jesus Christ.
  • We uphold the sanctity of human life from conception until natural death (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:4).
  • We believe that Jesus shall return one day visibly and bodily to judge all people. Those who believe in Jesus will live forever, while unbelievers will be condemned to an eternity in damnation (Mark 13:26; John 5:27-29).

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