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What does the Lutheran Church Teach?
The Bible
- The Bible is the Word of God
- It is without error
- Facts in it are absolutely true
- The Bible interprets itself
- It is the only divine truth known on earth
- It should be diligently heard and studied
Triune God
Note: See the Athanasian Creed
- God is "triune", meaning only ONE God who reveals Himself in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
- No person of the Holy Trinity is greater or lesser than another
- Ignoring, minimizing, or denying one is to disavow all
Man
- Directly created by God
- Not the product of an alleged evolution
- Given a soul that continues after physical death
- Created in perfect holiness and created to live forever
- Man sinned and broke fellowship with God
- Sin resulted in Man becoming dead to the love of God and an enemy of God
- Thus Man in this fallen state cannot by his own power come into a right relationship with God
God's Law
- Though impossible for Man in his fallen state, God demands absolutely perfect obedience to His law
- God's law condems everyone who does not keep it perfectly in all aspects
- The law is unable to save sinners
- Its chief function is to show that Man is unable to live up to God's law
- The law shows Christians how and how not to please God
The Gospel
- Not a new or higher Law
- Is the good news that God has saved us through the birth, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ
- Everyone who believes that Jesus died for them, God forgives each and every sin ever committed
- Gospel demands nothing of sinners, it only gives
The Savior, Jesus Christ
- Jesus Christ is the Son of God
- Equal to the Father in every respect
- Is the son of the Virgin Mary
- Made man that he might redeem the world
- Kept every one of God's commandments perfectly that sinful man might receive the benefits of his perfect righteousness
- Jesus took the punishment for all sins for all time for all people by suffering and dying on the cross
- He rose with his physical body from the dead
- He lives today and will return visibly and will return for final judgment of the living and the dead at the world's end
Justification
- Jesus Christ has done everything needed to appease God's anger toward sinful man
- God for the sake of Jesus has declared all people free from the debt and guilt of sin
- This unmerited favor of God (grace) is acquired simply by believing in Jesus Christ as the Savior
- God views those who believe in Jesus Christ as righteous, not through any merit of their own but solely by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith
Repentance
- Repentance is acknowledgement of sin and sincere regret for it, coupled with a trustful appeal to God for forgiveness in Christ's name
- Repentance is a condition of the heart and without it no one can hope to be saved
- Every repentant sinner is assured of God's absolutely free and absolutely full pardon.
Faith
- Is a repentant sinner's personal trust in Jesus Christ as the real and only Savior
- Relies completely on the merits of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and for salvation
- Puts ZERO trust in any good that a person does to make them right with God
- Is not a personal achievement or act of human will or merit
- Is completely and only a work of God the Holy Spirit
- Persons having faith in Christ at their death will be fully and eternally saved
Conversion
- Not a mere changing of habits
- Is a real change of heart
- Spiritual rebirth caused by hearing the word of God
- Not accomplished by the will of the individual
- Takes place when a person trusts in Jesus Christ for their salvation
Sanctification
- Follows conversion, people not believing in Jesus Christ are not sanctified
- Is the fruit of faith
- True Christians must be (and are) active in good works
- Sanctification is not completely attainable on earth, but only full when the believer enters eternal life
The Church
- The true church is invisible
- Those in this invisible church are known only to God since only God sees the heart
- In this invisible church are all who trust in Jesus Christ as their only Savior
- Jesus Christ is the sole head of this invisible church
- This invisible church is found where the Word of God is preached in all its purity and the Sacraments are rightly administered
- This invisible church will endure forever
Baptism
- Is divinely instituted
- Intended for everyone including infants and the very old
- May be administered by sprinkling, pouring, or immersing
- Saves the soul: Works faith in the heart and the forgiveness of sins
The Lord's Supper (Holy Communion)
- The Lord's supper was instituted by Jesus for the forgiveness of sins
- The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are truly present in, with, and under the bread and wine
- Should be given to those who have professed faith in Christ alone for full forgiveness of sins
Prayer
- Is a conversation with God
- Not done to win reward or merit with God
- Is divinely commanded
- God promises to hear prayer, but answers in his own time and in his own way
Devil and Hell
- There is a great number of powerful evil spirits
- They are the bitter enemies of God and his Church
- These devils are eternally condemned to hell
- Unbelievers on the last day will be sent to hell
Death
- At death, the body and soul are separated
- Souls of believers in Christ go immediately to Heaven and not to any intermediate place
- Souls of those who do not believe in Christ go immediately to the pain and torment of everlasting hell
- Souls do not cross over between Heaven and Hell
- On the last day, all bodies will be resurrected; both believers and nonbelievers and rejoined with their soul
Creeds
- A creed is simply a statement of what a person believes (From Latin "credo" = "I believe")
- Therefore, every professing Christian has a creed whether they admit it or not
- A true creed is not an addition to Biblical teachings but a statement of them
- Is a necessary statement against those who twist the meanings of Biblical statements (Example: The Athanasian Creed (written in the fifth century, 435 to 535 A.D.) was a statement against the Arians who denied the deity of Jesus.)
Religion and Science
- God has revealed Himself in the grandeur and complexity of the universe that He created
- This same God has revealed his mercy toward sinful man by the love and mercy of Christ in his life, death, and resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins.
- God is not divided; thus there is no conflict between true science and Biblical truth.
- Theories denying the creation of the universe by this God are rejected
- Science is a way of knowing and discovering truth, and is but one of God's many blessings
Church Union
- The divided state of the Christian church is a deplorable condition
- Teachers of false doctrine are responsible for this division
- Those upholding divine truth preserve what unity remains
- No outward union between denominations can exist without inward union of faith
- Christianity will be united when all professing Christians are one in rejecting all error and in accepting every doctrine set forth in God's word
Religious Education
- Religious education of the young is the job of the home and the church; not the State
- It is proper for the church to organize schools and other agencies that will assist parents in bringing up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
- Christian parents owe it to themselves, their children, the church, and their country to cooperate in activities supporting Christian training of children and young people.
Church and State
- The American principle providing for separation of church and state is in harmony with the spirit and letter of the Bible
- Enforcing civil laws is the responsibility of the State
- The church does not enforce civil laws but concerns itself with the human heart
- The church operates through persuasion, not by compulsion
- Mingling church and state will result in religious persecution and the destruction of free government
Marriage and Divorce
- The marriage bond must be kept inviolate
- Before God no divorce is valid except in cases of fornication or malicious desertion
- Society's light attitude toward engagement and marriage results in very great harm to the home, children, church, state, and the whole structure of human society
Abortion and Euthanasia
- Life is a sacred gift from God
- Life and soul are created at the instant of conception
- God intends that children are conceived through the union of a man and woman in the bonds of marriage
- Taking life except in war and in capital punishment is sin
- Abortion and euthanasia take life and are therefore sin
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