What We Believe

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Salvation

Peace Lutheran Church believes that we are saved:

+ BY GRACE ALONE

Our salvation is entirely a gift from God. We are by nature blind, dead, enemies of God (Psalm 51:5). On our own, we are lost forever with no hope of eternal life in heaven. But God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life for us and suffer the punishment that sin deserves in our place. Jesus Christ died for us and on Easter morning rose from the dead and defeated sin, death and hell. This is entirely a gift from God.

+ BY FAITH ALONE

This gift from God, namely the forgiveness of sins, becomes ours when the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts through the gospel in Word and Sacrament. Faith is not a decision that we can make on our own, but faith too is a gift from God (Ephesians 1:4).

+ BY SCRIPTURE ALONE

God's Word, the Bible, is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, from beginning to end. It is not a book that changes with the passing of time, but is and always will remain the way God speaks to us. The Bible says, "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). God's Word is not simply words on a page, but it is a faith-creating and faith-sustaining life source.

Why Lutheran?

There are literally hundreds of Christian denominations throughout the world. So what makes Lutherans different?

In brief: To be a confessional Lutheran is to say what the Bible says--no more and no less.

The Lutheran church was founded upon the work of Dr. Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic monk who lived in Germany in the early 1500s. Luther held a very high view of Scripture and searched it daily to see what God had to say in his Word. Throughout his study, he found that the things he had been taught were not Biblical. He found that salvation is not based on anything that we do, but it is based entirely on the work of Jesus Christ. The historic Lutheran church, therefore, believes and confesses that we are saved by Christ alone.

We are a confessional Lutheran church. We use 3 creeds and 6 Lutheran confessions that explain how our teaching and practices agree with the Bible. We hold to these confessions because they faithfully set forth the Bible's teaching.

Many people or churches try to interpret the Bible. Confessional Lutherans simply say what the Bible says. The confessions they use show how Lutherans aren't interpreting the Bible, but are only teaching what the Bible says. These confessions show how the teachings of other denominations are different from the Lutheran faith and from the Bible's teachings.

"I believed; therefore, I have spoken." (2 Corinthians 4:13)

Creeds/Confessions

3 Christian Creeds

6 Lutheran Confessions

  • Luther's Small Catechism
  • Luther's Large Catechism
  • The Augsburg Confession
  • The Apology of the Augsburg Confession
  • The Smalcald Articles
  • The Formula of Concord