We believe...
...The One True God has revealed Himself to be Triune (one God in three persons): the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. We teach and confess the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the words of the Aposltes' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. The Holy Blessed Trinity has created us, redeemed us, and sanctified us.
Originally, the first man and woman were created good. Then they sinned, breaking fellowship with God and bringing death into the world. After the fall into sin, all humanity is by nature in slavery to sin, death, and the devil. Jesus Christ alone is our Redeemer, meaning that He has purchased and won us from the power of sin, death, and the devil. Jesus Christ has redeemed us, meaning that He has bought and purchased us not with gold or silver, but by the shedding of His blood, giving to us forgiveness, life, and salvation.
An individual receives this gift of redemption by God's grace alone. An individual is justified, declared righteous in the sight of God, by faith alone in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. This faith itself is a gift from God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit who creates and strengthens faith in the individual through the hearing of God's Word and in the receiving of baptism and the Lord's Supper. This message of redemption in the name of Jesus is revealed to us in God's written Word of the Old and New Testaments. Only in these writings can we be certain and sure of what God desires for us to believe, teach, and confess.
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