Believe, teach, confess
What a church teaches is as important as Christ Himself, because the Christian faith is a teaching faith. Clearly not all churches teach the same things. As historic and confessional Lutherans, we believe what we teach and confess is faithful to Scripture, so much so, we will go to great lengths to defend it.
Catholic
(but not Roman Catholic), that is, we believe, teach, and confess that the faith once delivered to the saints, the faith taught by the prophets and apostles, and the faith confessed by the one, holy catholic (Christian) and apostolic church throughout the ages.
Evangelical
that our faith and life is centered on the Good News (evangel or Gospel) that Christ Jesus is the only Savior of the world who saves the world for sin, death, and the devil, and we declare this Gospel to the world, for He (Jesus) is the only way to receive this salvation.
Confessional
that we not only believe with our hearts that Christ is risen from the dead, but we confess with our mouths the unchanging truth of salvation by faith alone. And we confess this one true Christian faith in written statements of belief called creeds or confessions.
Sacramental
that we confess that God not only came to us 2,000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ, but that He continues to come to us even now, washing us in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, forgiving us in the Holy Absolution, and feeding us the bread of heaven in His Holy Supper. By these means, God works faith in the hearts of His people, saves them, forgives them, and strengthens them for lives of good works toward the neighbor.
Are we really Catholic?
Yes! And in fact, all believers in Jesus as Savior are catholic. Catholic simply means “Universal” or “Christian.” Some get tied up in knots over the word catholic because they’ve been trained, since childhood, to despise the Roman Catholic church.
But we Lutherans draw a distinction between Roman Catholicism, the largest church body in the world, and the catholic church which is an invisible, universal church of all believers of all time and space.
We also want to keep distinct the differing ideas behind the phrase “Evangelical Catholic.” There is a movement, mainly in a different Lutheran church body (the ELCA) called the “evangelical catholic” movement where the work of Martin Luther to reform the church and return it to how it was prior to Roman Catholicism (maybe around 700 AD) supersedes the Lutheran Confessions. Among such “evangelical catholics,” there is a watering down of the Lutheran Confessions “for the sake of the Gospel,” which true, confessional Lutherans would never do.
Even so, we are evangelical catholic in the sense that we strive to be the catholic church as taught by Christ and the Apostles, keeping false doctrine at bay and promoting good doctrine in our churches. Our Lutheran Confessions help us accomplish this, because they keep straight what so many have bent and twisted. To be Evangelical Catholic in the truest sense means to be Confessional.
In true Confessional Lutheranism, the Holy Scripture is the norma normas (the norming norm) and the Book of Concord (Lutheran Confessions) are the norma normatas (normed norm). We believe the Lutheran Confessions are faithful to Scripture and provide for us a clear, unashamed confession of what we believe, teach, and confess. We know the Holy Scripture is so easily and commonly misinterpreted and reinterpreted to fit individual desires and passions, so like the three Ecumenical Creeds, the Book of Concord prevents us from such sinful twisting and reinterpreting.
So, yes, we are most certainly catholic. We are also evangelical. And we are also confessional.
Confessionally Evangelical
The term “evangelical” is often misused, abused, and very confused among Christians, especially in the USA where there’s a church denomination for every individual and every individual believes as he pleases about just about everything Christian. In American Evangelicalism, which is a movement built out of the non-denominational movement and some other Protestant church bodies, there is often a misunderstood idea that evangelism (being evangelical) involves emotionally stirring worship and music, “low-church” liturgy, altar calls, stirring prayers, and then having people go out into the streets with Chick Tracts or pamphlets following the Ray Comfort model (Lordship Salvation). At best it’s moralistic, therapeutic, deism, and at worst it’s idolatry of human emotion and overtly anthropocentric (self-centered).
But for we Confessional Lutherans, being evangelical means none of this. Being evangelical first means that our lives, our churches, our families, and our worship is centered on Jesus and what He did for us on the cross, the “good news” (evangel) of salvation given to all who believe. And we “confess” or declare this message to the world. We don’t employ tricks or bait and switch; we don’t use fancy gimmicks or market-tested antics; we don’t try to scare people into believing, and we certainly don’t “God is love” people into a false security absent of repentance. Instead, we bring the full council of God and we use our stations in life (our vocations or callings) to help our neighbors and bring them the hope of the Gospel.
We never compromise or marginalize God’s Law, or any of His Word, for the sake of the Gospel (as they do in that other Lutheran church body, the ELCA with their Gospel Reductionism) but we trust God’s living and active Word to do what it says, even when uncomfortable or contrary to culture.
Thus, we are evangelical but we remain confessional and wholly committed to the Word of God in its entirety.
Faithfully Sacramental
Most protestant churches in the west have rejected the sacraments. They view everything in Scripture, everything that the Lord says and does, through a rationalistic lens. They insist that if it is not reasonable, not comprehendible, it cannot be real; that it must be symbolic or metaphor for something else.
Further, protestants unknowingly accept in the principle of Dualism, a subtle heresy which states, among other things, that the physical and the spiritual cannot touch.
Protestants also look at a thing, such as pouring water on someone or eating bread or drinking wine, as a “work” and thus reject the sacraments because they are “works.”
There is still a contingency of modern protestants who insist that, if it is taught in Roman Catholicism, it is to be rejected in the protestant church. The Radical Reformation was built on this premise.
Thus, most protestant churches in the west reject the sacraments for one or all of these four reasons.
For Confessional Lutherans, we do not care one iota about these matters. We are not rationalists; we do not insist that everything Scripture teaches must make sense or be reasonable. We are not Dualists; we believe that the spiritual and the physical do certainly touch, especially and most evidently in the person of Christ Jesus who is fully God and fully man, both divine and human all in one. We acknowledge things that appear as works in our eyes may not actually be works. And we do not go out of our way to reject everything taught in Roman Catholicism — but only the things that are clearly contrary to Scripture.
As is consistent with the history of the Christian church (up until the Enlightenment and the Protestant Reformation), we believe, teach, and confess that God uses means or physical things to deliver His eternal gifts and promises. Just think of creation. God created physical things (trees, water, food, etc.) to sustain eternally His people. Sadly, His people corrupted it all when they went into their heads and thought they knew more than God, when sin entered the world. God also continued to use means throughout the Old Testament and into the new, when He sent His greatest means, the incarnation of Christ, the means by which the world was saved.
And while He walked upon the earth, Jesus established three means for the church. He established Holy Baptism (Matthew 28:16-20); He established the Office of The Keys (John 20:22-23, Matthew 16:17-20, Matthew 18:17-20); and He established the Sacrament of the Altar (Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:14-23, 1 Corinthians 11 :17-34). These three Sacraments are means through which God gives His good and gracious gifts (see Acts 2:38-41 as an example of the means of Baptism and the means of Absolution).
These Means of Grace, along with the Word of God, are the things by which God offers His gifts of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. For example, when a person attends church and hears the Word of God preached by the mouth of a pastor, it is not the pastor’s work of preaching which brings consolation and forgiveness, but the Word of God. Yes, the pastor is preaching, but it is still God doing the work, the pastor merely His instrument, to bring life and salvation to all who hear and receive.
The same is true concerning the Sacraments. God binds His name to Baptism, promising that it saves and washes away sins, and so it does. He binds His name to the Absolution, promising that when it is used in the church, that sins forgiven on earth are also forgiven in heaven. He binds His name to the bread and wine, calling it His true body and blood, and promising forgiveness and strengthened faith for all who receive it aright.
He also warns us concerning the wrong use of His sacraments, and particularly the Lord’s Supper, that those who receive it with wrong intent do so to their harm (1 Corinthians 11:30). This is why St. Paul’s Lutheran Church continues with the historic practice of Closed Communion.
Are we really Catholic?
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, along with the historic church dating back to the time of the Apostles, practices Closed Communion. The essentials of this practice include the following:
- Catechesis Communing only those who have been catechized into the Christian faith, into the teachings of this congregation, and have confessed their faith at a normal Rite of Installation or Confirmation, or
- Membership Communing those who are members of other churches of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod or,
- Fellowship A member of a congregation in altar and pulpit fellowship with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and,
- Self ExaminationSelf Examination That each individual who receives has examined himself using the questions in the weekly bulletin, or the questions in the Small Catechism, is penitent, and is seeking the Lord to help him amend his sinful ways.
Communion is closed to anyone whose sin is publicly known and refuses to repent, refuses God’s help to flee from sin, or who does not confess in common union what we believe as a congregation concerning all matters of the Christian faith, including the Lord’s Supper.
For further reading and insight into this ancient practice, please read, “Eucharist and Church Fellowship in the First Centuries“, by Werner Elert or “Come in We Are Closed“, by Tyrel Bramwell. You may also purchase one of many resources available on our pastor’s Amazon list concerning the Lord’s Supper and the practice of Closed Communion. Pastor Carlson also has books available you may borrow, and there is free materials for you on the Information wall.
Other Beliefs
You can find the exhaustive collection of what we believe, teach, and confess as LCMS Lutherans by visiting the LCMS website. However, the following outlines some of our main teachings.
The Holy ScriptureS
We teach that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God because holy men of God wrote them as the Holy Spirit communicated to them by inspiration (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). The Holy Scriptures contain no errors or contradictions but are the infallible truth of God in every way.
Click here for more information.
Creation
We teach that God has created the heavens and the earth precisely as recorded in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. That by His Word, He spoke all things into existence from nothing in six, 24-hour days. We staunchly reject human ideas of the origins of the universe such as natural evolution, crystal formations, multiverse theories, etc.
Click here for more information.
Man and Sin
We teach that God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10) with a true knowledge of God and a true righteousness and holiness and a true scientific knowledge of nature (Genesis 2:19-23). Because of the first man’s disobedience (Genesis 3) all creation fell into sin, and most especially all humanity. Man is conceived sinful (Psalm 51), by nature sinful and unclean and hostile to God (Ephesians 2) and even His enemy, and that no efforts on the part of man can reconcile his nature, to make himself right with God.
Click here for more information.
Synergism and Calvinism
We reject any doctrine of Synergism, that is to say, any doctrine which asserts that a portion of the work of salvation is from the will or efforts of sinful man, that he must “choose” or “cooperate” with the Holy Spirit. At the same time, we reject any doctrine which asserts that God predestined every person for either eternal life or eternal damnation as determined before creation (also known as double-predestination or Calvinism).
We teach as Scripture plainly states, that, on the one hand, God desires all people (the whole human race) to be saved (John 3:16, 1 Timothy 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9, Matthew 23:37, etc.), but that on the other hand, not all people shall be saved (Romans 9:27-28, Matthew 7:13-14, Luke 13:23-24, John 14:6, Matthew 24:10-13, 1 Timothy 4:1, Revelation 21:8, etc.).
Those who are saved are so because they were chosen by God in Christ from before the foundation of the world (2 Timothy 1:9, Ephesians 1:5, Romans 8:28-30, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, etc.).
Scripture is also clear that the reason men are ultimately not saved and find themselves in hell after the judgment is because of their own rejection of God’s grace and promise of eternal life (Matthew 23:37, Ezekiel 33:11, Proverbs 1:24, etc.).
This exhibits a tension between God’s will and what ultimately happens in the end. This tension is historically called the Crux Theologorum or the cross of the theologian. The question of why some are saved and others not cannot be answered because God does not provide us an answer in the Scripture.
For further study on this difficult matter, click here.
Good Works
We teach that Good Works are not necessary for salvation but only faith in the person and work of Christ Jesus and His life, death, resurrection, and ascension for the forgiveness of the sins. We also teach that outside of this salvation offered freely as a gift and receive by faith alone, that all works are as filthy rags before the Lord (Isaiah 64:6).
More distinctly, we reject any forms of Pietism, that even before faith and right believing, good works or kindness or love or any of the like are more important. This Pietism is what is often at the center of unfaithful practices in the church such as worship practices which are centered on emotions rather than teaching or drawing sinners to repentance and faith.
This is not to say that good works are unimportant or that they are not essential to the Christian life. In fact, good works are necessary, not for meriting grace, but because good works are the will of God (Ephesians 2:8-10, Galatians 5:13-15).
Since Christians are forgiven and set free in Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit, it is only consequential that they perform good works in keeping with the freedom and Spirit that is in them. This is what James means when he writes, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:17).
Good works are not a working of the old sinful flesh, as if salvation is about changing the old nature, by one’s own efforts, to be good. Good works are a working of the new nature, the free nature, the nature of Christ’s covering and killing the old and producing new life and new purpose in one’s entire existence.
For more reading on Good Works, click here.
church & State
Both Church and State serve distinct purposes in the world and in the life of a Christian. It is through the church that the gifts of God are offered, and is why we can right call the church the “mother” of believers (Galatians 4:26). By the State, it is the mechanism by which God maintains external order among men (1 Timothy 2:2, Romans 13:4).
These distinctions show us how each operates, the Church with her roles, and the State with its roles. The two should not be come intermingled making the Church a secular institution or the State a means to govern the Word of God.
For more information, click here.
Sunday
We reject the false teaching of the Adventists who insist that Christian worship must be on Saturday (Colossians 2:16-17, Romans 14:5, Acts 15:19-20, Acts 2:46-47). The observance of specific days and other church festivals is done from Christian liberty (see Augsburg Confession, XVIII, 53ff) since God has abrogated the Sabbath requirement for Christians, as well as all holy days so that neither keeping them is either ordained or commanded.
Even so, it is good and beneficial that Christians worship often and receive the Lord’s Supper often, and Sunday seems to be as good a day as any for this public assembly. Therefore, as was practiced by the ancient Christians who made the “first day of the week” the day of worship, so do we.
Read more here about Sabbath (rest) and holy days.
The Millenium or end times
We reject every type of millennialism, or Chiliasm, that Christ will return visibly to this earth for a thousand years to establish an earthy kingdom over the world; or that, before the end, the church will enjoy a season of special prosperity; or that before the resurrection on the Last Day a certain number of Christians will “depart” in a secret rapture. To point of fact, Lutherans, along with the church historic, and the church majority today, are Amillennial and believe that the 1,000 years referred to in Revelation 20:1-2 is the time of the church from Christ’s resurrection to the Last Day.
Scripture clearly teaches that the kingdom of Christ on earth will remain under the cross until the Last Day (Acts 14:22, John 16:33, John 18:36, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, Luke 17:20-37, 2 Timothy 4:18, Hebrews 12:28, Luke 18:8); that the second visible coming of the Lord will be His final advent, His coming to judge the living and the dead (Mathew 24:29-30, Matthew 25:31, 2 Timothy 4:1, 2 Thessalonians 2:8, Hebrews 9:26-28); that there will be but one resurrection of the dead (John 5:28, John 6:39-40); that the time of the Last Day is, and shall remain, unknown (Matthew 24:42, Matthew 25:13, Mark 13:32-27, Acts 1:7), which would not be the case if the Last Day were to come after the 1,000 years; and that there will be no general conversion en masse of the Jewish nation (Romans 11:7, 2 Corinthians 3:14, Romans 11:25, 1 Thessalonians 2:16).
Thus we reject any teaching related to or coming from Chiliasm or Millennialism, for these teachings strip away the hope of Christ and focus on earthly matters over heaven (1 Corinthians 15:19, Colossians 3:2) and turn Scripture into a book of obscurity.
For further reading, click here or speak to Pastor Carlson.
Open or Unanswered Questions
To put it simply, questions which are of a Christian doctrine nature but are left unanswered in Scripture are called open questions. Of such questions there are many, but of them the following are most certainly not included: Church and Ministry, Sabbaths or worship traditions, Chiliasm, the Antichrist, The Atonement, etc. These doctrines are clearly defined in Scripture.
For more information on this matter, click here.
