The Bible
God has decided to Personally engage us through the Bible. Therefore, everything Lutherans believe comes from the Bible, God’s message of love, grace, and hope for all people. The Bible is the written Word of God, handed down to us in order to point us to the truth that Jesus died and rose again from the dead to save all people from sin and eternal death. The Bible engages us with God Himself. The Bible strengthens our faith in Him through the many promises found in the Bible to encourage and enrich our lives and the lives around us. We believe that the Bible is completely reliable and without error. In it we learn everything we, the Church, need to know about God and His Mission to Engage, Encourage and Enrich this world with Jesus.
God
God’s Word reveals God to be three distinct Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of the three Persons of the Trinity are coequal in power and coeternal. Together, they are one God, yet three distinct Persons. The Father creates everything and sent His Son to earth. The Son lived and died to restore all people from the eternal damage brought through sin. The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, empowers to have faith in God’s salvation story and enables us to make known God’s love, peace, and grace to all people.
Humankind
The Bible clearly reveals that we have a very selfish problem in our loving of God and our loving of others. All humans are born with three major flaws which the Bible calls sin. God’s Scripture tells us that we are by nature rebellious sinners who are born as blind, dead, enemies of God. God made us, sin By nature, God’s Word describes our sin as harmful here and harmful to our eternal future following our deaths.
Death
Death is a result of sin’s entry into the world. We believe that we have immortal souls that will either go to God’s Heaven or Satan’s Hell. Jesus will return on Judgment Day, a time known and determined only by God. On that day, all people from all time will encounter God’s final judgment. Those who did not believe in Jesus face eternal damnation and all those who believe in Jesus as Savior enjoy eternal salvation.
Faith
It is through faith in Jesus that we receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The Holy Spirit equips us with the ability to believe in Jesus as Lord and King. God gives us faith through the spoken and written Word of God found in the Bible. Because of our sinful nature, as blind, dead, enemies of God we can never achieve faith on our own. Therefore, God gives us faith, the ability to believe, and also gives us the ability to live in that faith as He continues to engage us through His Word and Sacraments.
Salvation
Our sin disables us from doing anything for our own salvation. God graciously and lovingly gives us the gift of Salvation through the work of His Son on this earth so that we might be forgiven and live with Him forever in Heaven. The Holy Spirit gives us and assures us of our salvation through God’s Word and His Sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper).
Sacraments
We have two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These are God’s ways of communicating His loving presence to our lives. Sacraments (1) were established by Christ, (2) use a visible sign, (3) and forgive sins. God saves us, gives us faith, and strengthens our faith through the Sacraments. God calls us by Name and claims us to be His forgiven and saved children through Baptism. And God assures us of both, our forgiveness and His Presence in the Lord’s Supper.
Epiphany Lutheran Church’s Purpose
God has called us and gifted us so that we might engage, encourage and enrich our community with eternal salvation found only in Christ Jesus.