Doctrine
What we believe, teach, and confess
Nothing here is our own invention. This is the confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which is the confession of the Lutheran Church, which is what the Scriptures teach.
Holy Scripture
“All Scripture is breathed out by God.”2 Timothy 3:16
The canonical books of the Old and New Testaments are the verbally inspired Word of God, without error in everything they teach. Scripture is the only source and the final judge of all doctrine. We reject the higher-critical methods that treat the Bible as a merely human book, and we take its accounts — including its miracles — as true.
The Triune God
“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”Matthew 28:19
There is one God in three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — of one divine essence, co-equal and co-eternal, as confessed in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. There is no other God, and no other way to know Him than the way He has revealed.
Creation and the Fall
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”Genesis 1:1
God made all things in six natural days. We confess the Genesis account as history and reject evolution, including theistic evolution. Adam and Eve fell, and since that fall every person is conceived in sin — unable to turn to God or to earn His favor by any effort of our own.
Jesus Christ, True God and True Man
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”John 1:14
The eternal Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and is true God and true man in one Person. He kept the Law perfectly in our place, suffered and died as the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world, rose bodily on the third day, ascended, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Justification by Grace Through Faith
“Delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”Romans 4:25
This is the article on which the church stands or falls. For Christ’s sake God has declared the whole world righteous — a full forgiveness won for all people. That forgiveness becomes ours personally through faith, which is itself the Holy Spirit’s gift. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone. Never by our works.
The Means of Grace
“Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”Romans 10:17
God does not deal with us apart from His appointed means. He gives forgiveness through the Gospel preached, through Holy Baptism — which works regeneration, infants included — and through the Lord’s Supper, in which the true body and blood of Christ are given with the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins.
Conversion and Good Works
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”Ephesians 2:10
Conversion is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit; a person dead in sin cannot cooperate in his own rescue. Good works follow living faith as fruit follows a tree. They are pleasing to God — and they contribute nothing whatever to salvation.
The Election of Grace
“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.”Ephesians 1:4
Believers were chosen in Christ before the world began, to be God’s children. We reject any teaching that God elects some to damnation. Those who are saved are saved by grace alone; those who are lost are lost by their own unbelief.
The Church and the Ministry
“The Lord knows those who are his.”2 Timothy 2:19
The holy Christian Church is the assembly of all believers — invisible to us, fully known to God. The public ministry of preaching and administering the Sacraments is instituted by God, and in accordance with Scripture that office is held by men called and ordained to it.
Church Fellowship
“Watch out for those who cause divisions contrary to the doctrine.”Romans 16:17
Joint worship and communion at the same altar express a real agreement in the confession of the faith. We gladly practice fellowship where that agreement exists, and decline it where it does not — which is why we practice close communion. This is not a judgment of anyone’s heart. If you are visiting and would like to commune, please speak with the pastor before the service; he will be glad to talk with you.
Human Life, Marriage, and Sexuality
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.”Genesis 2:24
Human life is God’s gift from conception, and taking it — by abortion, suicide, or euthanasia — is contrary to His will. Marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman, and sexual intimacy belongs within it alone. We confess this plainly, and we confess just as plainly that Christ’s blood covers every sin, and that the repentant are fully forgiven here.
The Last Things
“All who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out.”John 5:28–29
At death the soul goes at once to be with God or to judgment; we reject soul sleep and annihilation. Christ will return visibly, raise all the dead bodily, and judge. Believers enter eternal life; unbelievers eternal separation. We reject every form of millennialism.
The Lutheran Confessions
“Stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught.”2 Thessalonians 2:15
We hold the Book of Concord of 1580 — the three Creeds, the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the Small and Large Catechisms, and the Formula of Concord — as a true and correct exposition of God’s Word. Not in so far as they agree with Scripture, but because they do.
The full statement
Read the synod’s confession in full
The articles above summarize We Believe, Teach and Confess, the doctrinal statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod. If you want the whole thing, with its Scripture proofs, the synod publishes it openly.
Read it at els.org