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About Trinity's Beliefs
We have specific spiritual beliefs
and they are all based on God's Word as recorded in the
Bible. While society and our culture changes, we believe
God's Word continues to be true and relevant to each of our lives
today.
Below you will find what we believe concerning
some key faith areas. For further information on what we
believe, we invite you to contact us or search the
Lutheran
Church Missouri Synod
website.
We believe and teach that the Sacrament of Holy
Baptism was ordained by Jesus Christ as a means of Grace through which
the Holy Spirit offers forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal
life. It is God’s action; a washing of regeneration through which we
die to sin, are born again in grace, and are bound by God to himself in
a covenant relationship. Baptism is the beginning of spiritual rebirth,
which will be completed on the Last Day as we are raised from the dead.
Through Baptism, we participate in Christ’s death and in Christ’s
rising. Having been born anew, a change of identity takes place and we
are called to daily affirm our Baptism in our lives by reflecting our
faith in Christ, continually resisting sin, and rising to a Christ-like
life of sacrificial love.
However a failure to believe, that is rejecting
Christ, will result in our eternal damnation. By rejecting Christ, we
are rejecting our Baptism along with the associated promises and
blessings.
We believe that Baptism may be administered by
sprinkling, pouring, or immersing so long as water is applied in the
name of the Triune God according to Christ’s command. We believe in
the Baptism of infants as it is God’s action in the water through the
power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: Matthew 28:18,20, John
3:5,8, Acts, 22:16, Eph 2:8, Titus 3:3,8, Rom 6:1, 8:39, Mark 16:16, Col
2:9,14, Heb 12:1,3, Heb 3:7,4:14, Ps 51:5, Acts 2:36,39
We believe and teach that the Holy Bible, both
the Old and the New Testament is, in all its words, the inspired Word of
God and consequently true and trustworthy. We believe it is the only
source for the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through which
the Holy Spirit creates faith in Jesus Christ. We believe that it is so
clear in its denunciation of sin and in its offer of salvation that any
believer in Christ may read it and understand it.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: 2 Pet. 1:21; 2 Tim.
3:15-17; 1 Cor. 2:13; Gal. 1:7-9; John 20:31; 2 Pet. 1:19; Ps. 119:105,
130
We believe and teach that the church is not an
outward earthly organization, but the communion of saints, made up of
people, regardless of denomination, language, or color, who in their
hearts accept Jesus as their God and Savior. This church, found wherever
the Gospel of Christ is preached, is known to God but invisible to men
since it is impossible for men to determine which of those who profess
Christianity have true faith
in their hearts. With this in mind, no church-body can rightfully claim
to be the “only saving Church”; outside of which there is no
salvation.
We also believe and teach that there is a
visible Christian Church consisting of all those who profess the
Christian faith and use God's Word. Among the visible Christian Church
are hypocrites and teachers of unscriptural doctrine and it is the duty
of every discerning believer to join a church-body which preaches the
Bible fully and purely and to avoid spiritual fellowship with such who
depart from the Divine Word.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: John 18:36; Eph. 1:22-23;
Is. 55:10-11; Luke 17:20-21; 2 Tim. 2:19; Matt. 13:47-48; Matt. 15:9;
Rom. 16:17; 2 Thess. 3:6, 14; 2 Cor. 6:14-18.
We believe and teach that conversion is
contrition and faith. It is not merely moral reformation or the solemn
resolution to improve one's life, but it is a complete change of heart,
a spiritual rebirth of the sinner, a miraculous recreation affected by
the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel. In conversion,
God creates faith in the penitent heart.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: Ex. 11:19; Jer. 31:18;
John 1:12-13; Romans 10:17; Acts 11:21
We believe and teach that Jesus will return
again on the Last Day and the bodies of all people, separated from their
souls in death, will be raised and reunited with their souls. In the
subsequent judgment by Christ of all men, the determining factor will
not be morality of people while they lived on earth but rather whether
they had faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin. All believers
will rise like Christ with glorified bodies to live with God forever in
heaven, while all unbelievers will be sent to eternal punishment in
hell.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: John 5:28-29; Acts 10:42;
1 Cor. 15:51-52; Rom. 8:18; Matt. 10:28; Is. 66:24.
We believe and teach that the faith which saves
is not merely intellectual assent to Scriptural propositions but is
alone the penitent sinner's trust in God's forgiveness offered in
Christ's name. Faith is not an act of obedience or a self-induced
achievement of the human will but is entirely God's act of grace by the
Holy Spirit through the Gospel and that if an individual does not have
this simple trust in Christ, he cannot be saved.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: Jas. 2:19; Is. 55:6-7;
Mark 1:15; John 1:12, 16; 1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 10:17; Acts 16:31; John
3:36.
We believe and teach that the knowledge of God,
which man has by nature, is defective and insufficient for salvation.
Sure and saving knowledge of God can be gained only from the Holy
Scriptures in which God has clearly revealed Himself as the Holy
Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, three equal Persons in one Being;
and that every other god worshiped by men is an idol.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: Rom. 1:19-20; 2:14-15;
Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19; John 5:23:1; 1 Cor. 8:4-6.
We believe and teach that God in His infinite
love did not abandon men in their doom but resolved to save them through
the sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the special
revelation in which God offers to all people forgiveness of sins and
salvation through Jesus Christ. Those who penitently embrace this Gospel
of reconciliation through Christ are declared righteous before God and
saved--not through their own merit or works, but for Christ's sake, by
grace and through faith.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: John 3:16-17; 1 Tim. 2:4;
Rom. 3:22-24; 28; Eph. 2:8-10.
We believe and teach that Jesus Christ is the
both true God and true man. As the Son of God He existed from eternity
and is equal in every respect to the Father and the Holy Spirit. As the
Son of Man, He was born of a virgin mother and perfectly sinless but
in every respect a true man. He fulfilled the Law of God for all men and
then paid the penalty for the guilt of all men by His suffering and
death on the Cross. Through this sacrifice the world was redeemed and
reconciled to God. By His descent into hell He showed His triumph over
His enemies and by His resurrection from the dead was declared the
all-sufficient Redeemer for all people. He will return visibly to the
earth on the Last Day to judge all men, living and dead.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: John 1:1; Matt. 1:18-25; 1
Pet. 2:22; 2 Cor. 5:19; 1 John 2:2; Col 2:15; Rom. 1:14; Acts 10:42.
We believe that God has revealed His law in the
commandments and that we are unable to keep the law because of our
sinful nature. Through the law God reveals how He expects people to live
in relationship with Him, with other people and use the gifts He has
blessed us with. The Law acts in three ways in our lives. First as a
guide to how we should live, second as a curb to help us from sinning
and third as a mirror and shows us the blinding reflection of our sin
and our need for a savior; Jesus Christ.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: Ex
20:1-17, Duet 5:6-21, Duet 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Lev 19:18, Romans 6:23
We believe and teach that in Holy Communion,
the Lord Jesus Christ, according to His own plain Word, gives us His
body and blood for the remission of sins. The Lutheran belief, called
the “Real Presence”, does not imply, either by transubstantiation or
consubstantiation, or any kind of change in the visible elements. The bread
remains bread and the wine remains wine, but by virtue of Jesus' word of
institution, this bread is His Body and this wine is His blood. All who
eat and drink at the Lord's Table receive His body and blood in and with
the bread and wine. Those who believe strengthen their faith, those who
reject, drink to their condemnation. Because of the double action of the
Holy Communion, it is withheld from those who are unable to examine
themselves in the Christian faith.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: Matt. 26:26-28; Mark
l4:24; l Cor. ll:24-25, 26-28; Matt. 7:6; l Cor. ll:29
We believe and teach that man was created by
God in His own image. This image of God, consisting in man's perfection
and holiness, was lost when man fell into sin. Through this fall into
sin all men have become sinners, wholly depraved and helpless through
any power of their own to save themselves from sin and its eternal
consequence – hell.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: Gen. 2:7; 3:1-16;; 1:27;
Gen. 1:27 compared with Gen. 5:3; Ps. 53; 1 Rom. 5:12; Ps. 143:2; Is.
64:6
We believe and teach that right and wrong can
be determined only in relation to God's holy Law. Every thought, word,
or deed contrary to God’s will is wrong and is sin. Every sin,
original or actual, is rebellion against God and sin is the root of all
misery in the world. Every person is by nature sinful from birth and
subject to death and eternal damnation because of sin.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES: Ez. 18:30; Rom. 8:7; 1
John 3, 4; Gen. 8:21; Zech. 8:17; Rom. 6:23.
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