What We Believe, Teach and Confess

Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, and Sola Fide, merely translated are Through Scripture Alone, Through Grace Alone, Through Faith Alone.  What do these words mean?  Confessional Lutherans believe, teach and confess these words that we are saved by God's Grace alone.  We believe this to be true through our Faith, based on what Scripture tells us to be true.

As orthodox, confessional Lutherans, we embrace as our primary confessions of faith the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church contained in the Book of Concord of 1580, namely, the Apostle's, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds; the Augsburg Confession and its Apology; the Smalcald Articles (including the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope); Luther's Small and Large Catechisms and the Formula of Concord (Epitome and Solid Declaration).  We accept these Confessions, not in so far as but because they agree with Scripture, and we believe that they are a correct exposition of the teaching of God's Word.

We confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean, but only through God's Means of Grace are we saved.  Through these Means of Grace, God announces and bestows the forgiveness of sins and the blessings of life and salvation, through which the Holy Spirit works faith in the individual sinner to receive these blessings.  These Means of Grace are His Word of the Gospel, which offers us free salvation through faith in Christ; Holy Baptism, which is described in Scripture as a "washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit;" and the Lord's Supper, in which the true body and blood of Christ are distributed to the communicants.

As orthodox, confessional Lutherans, Peace Lutheran Church practices "Close" Communion.  All who receive the Lord's Supper at that altar believe and confess the same thing.  As one, in total agreement of faith, they all have come, confessing their own sin and unworthiness, trusting alone in Jesus for forgiveness, to receive from him his very body and blood as full assurance of their forgiveness.