What We Believe

The following is the Statement of Faith of St. Paul's Lutheran Church - NE based on the foundational truths taught in the doctrinal position of our synod.  All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.

The Bible is the only book of its kind. It is God’s special revelation of himself to us. The Holy Spirit inspired the authors who wrote it to do so in such a way that its words are God’s own. The Bible, in all its parts, is God’s Word. It contains no errors or contradictions and is wholly true. It is our foundation of faith and is our sole source and guide for all that we believe, teach, and confess.

We believe in the Holy Trinity, that there is one and only one true God, but within the Godhead there are three distinct persons, the Father, God’s Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Though there are three distinct persons, there is only one divine essence, so that the three persons of the Holy Trinity are equal in power, eternity, majesty, etc. No one believes in the true God unless he believes in Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who became human and came to live on earth and reconciled us to God by His death on the cross and through His perfect obedience.

God created all that is in heaven and earth by His almighty, creative word in six days, as it describes in the first two chapters of Genesis. God has made us and all creatures. The only way to know what happened in the beginning is to know that which God has told us in His Word.

Sin came into the world when Satan tempted the first humans, Adam and Eve, and when they fell into sin, they and their descendants lost the image of God. No longer did we have true knowledge of God or of the created world, and no longer did we have true righteousness and holiness. So, all people are sinners from birth, unable through any efforts of their own to reconcile themselves to God or to conquer death and damnation.

God in His grace has reconciled the whole world to Himself through His Son, Jesus, and He has commanded that the Gospel (Good News) be proclaimed to all people everywhere, so that all may believe it. Therefore, faith in Jesus is the only way for a person to be reconciled to God, that is, to have the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins was earned by Jesus and is offered to us in the Gospel as it is presented in both the Old and New Testaments. Through faith we are justified, or declared righteous, by God. Faith is not a good work that we do. Rather, it takes hold of the forgiveness of sins won for us by Jesus. We are not reconciled to God through any human effort to fulfill the Law of God or to follow the example of Christ.

Through the Law, we learn that we are lost and condemned sinners. In the Gospel, God offers us the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation for the sake of Christ’s death on the cross. Ever since Adam and Eve fell into sin, all people are dead in their sins and inclined only to evil. Apart from God, the Gospel seems like foolishness to us. So, faith is not our own doing. It is completely the work of God in us, brought about by the Gospel. That is why Scripture calls being brought to faith (conversion) a raising of the dead and being given new birth. Faith is a miracle, worked by God. We do not “meet God part way” on the basis of good deeds, a right attitude, a personal decision, or by a power of our own will. God creates faith within our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Justification means that God has declared the world to be righteous in and for the sake of Jesus Christ, not for the sake of our own good works. God justifies, or counts as righteous, all those who believe, accept, and rely on Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Through this teaching alone, Christ is properly honored, as we confess, that through His holy life and innocent suffering and death, He is our Savior. Through this teaching alone can we poor sinners have the abiding comfort that God is assuredly gracious toward us. The Christian religion is the faith that we have the forgiveness of sins and salvation through Jesus.

The only works that are truly good are those which are done for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor, according to God’s Law. Such works are impossible for us unless we first believe that God has forgiven us our sins and has given us eternal life by grace (undeserved love) for the sake of Jesus Christ. Good works never precede faith, but they are always the result of faith in the Gospel.

God offers and communicates to us the spiritual blessings purchased by Christ, namely the forgiveness of sins and all the blessings that flow from forgiveness, only through the external means of grace ordained by Him, that is, through the Gospel and through the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion (the Lord’s Supper). In Baptism, through the simple means of water and God’s Word, God gives us forgiveness and faith by the power of the Holy Spirit and joins us to himself in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Baptism a washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. In the Lord’s Supper, in, with, and under the bread and the wine, we receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ, that were once given and shed for us upon the cross. In the Lord’s Supper we receive forgiveness and the strengthening of our faith. It is also an opportunity to express our fellowship with one another and our unity in faith.

Jesus is the head of the church, and in this church, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus gathers us and preserves us in faith through the Gospel and governs us according to His Word. The members of the one holy Christian church on earth are all those who have despaired of their own righteousness before God and who believe that God forgives their sins for Christ’s sake. In short, we become members of the Christian church by faith in the Gospel. Since this faith cannot be seen with human eyes, but is known to God alone, the Christian church on earth is invisible until Judgment Day. Christians are called by God to seek out and cling to those churches that avoid false doctrine and that faithfully preach and teach God’s Word.

The public ministry (the office of the pastoral ministry) is divinely ordained. Christians in a given locality must apply the means of grace not only privately and within the circle of their families or within groups of fellow Christians, but we are also required to make provision that the Word of God be publicly preached in our midst and the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ by persons who meet the Scriptural qualifications for the public ministry.

Scripture clearly teaches that the kingdom of Christ on earth will remain under the cross until the end of the world. The second, visible coming of the Lord will be His final advent, His coming to judge the living and the dead. There will be but one resurrection of the dead. The time of the Last Day is, and will remain, unknown. At the judgement, Christ will welcome all who have had faith to be with him for eternity, while those who have rejected him until their dying day (or the coming of judgment day, if they are still alive come that day) will suffer in hell for eternity, separated from God.

(These topics are drawn from A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod)