Calvary Lutheran Church :: Verona, NJ :: About The Lutheran Church

Lutheran Beliefs

What do we believe? That’s a big question. We believe a lot! Every one of our members is growing in his or her Christian faith and that means we have a lot of beliefs and convictions in play at our congregation. So, we have to answer the question in a couple of ways.

First, as a congregation, Calvary Lutheran is affiliated with a group of roughly 6000 other Lutheran churches in America and some 30 groupings of Lutheran churches in other countries that hold to a common set of beliefs regarding what the Bible teaches. These commonly held beliefs or convictions are drawn directly from the literal teachings of the Bible and further clarified in a collection of writings from the 16th century called, “The Book of Concord.” To get the full set of details, visit the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod website – www.lcms.org which gives you all you could possibly want to know.

Second, as we gather as individual Christians, we expect of one another a certain basic understanding of all the beliefs held in the Bible and The Book of Concord. Folks who affiliate with our congregation and call it their spiritual home publicly acknowledge:

The Bible is the Word of God and is without error regarding matters of faith.
Jesus is the Son of God and true man.
That His death was a sacrifice for our sin and moral failure.
That He in fact rose with His body after being dead three days.
That our hope of heaven and the renewal of our lives here and now begins with a simple faith that Jesus is who He said He is and what He did really accomplished what He said it would – our sins are forgiven and our life with God is restored. In other words, no work or goodness or power of ours could set us right with God. God set us right with Him when we were powerless to anything.
Jesus will return and history as we know it will end.
There is an eternal punishment for those who reject God without repenting of that rejection.
God created everything there is.
The Christian Church is the place where God speaks and His beloved human creations hears His voice.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist/Holy Communion are very special means by which God imparts to each of us this forgiveness we so desperately need but so completely cannot obtain by ourselves.