What We Believe

God

We, the people of St Ansgar, confess the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – as the one true God. We proclaim the Father as Creator and Preserver, His Son Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Lord, and the Holy Spirit as Regenerator and Sanctifier.

God active in the world

We, the people of St Ansgar, confess that the Gospel is the revelation of God’s saving will and grace in Jesus Christ, which God imparts through Word and Sacrament. Through these means of grace the Holy Spirit creates believers and unites them with their Lord and with one another in the fellowship of the Holy Christian Church.

The Word of God

We, the people of St Ansgar, confess the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God, through which God still speaks, and as the only source of the Church’s doctrine and the authoritative standard for the faith and life of the Church.

The Bible is the holy book of Christianity. According to the Catechism, God himself speaks to us in human language in the Bible. The Bible is a collection of books which detail God’s works in our world. The Bible is the word of God written by people. The Bible is thoroughly a human book but, at the same time, it is a completely divine book.

“No prophecy ever came by human will but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:21)

An interpretation of the Word of God

We, the people of St Ansgar, subscribe the documents of the book of Concord of 1580 as witnesses to the way in which the Holy Scriptures have been correctly understood and explained and confessed for the sake of the Gospel, namely:

  • The Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds as the chief confessions of the Christian faith. Christian faith in one God is briefly expressed in these Creeds. This God, who is both one and triune, is known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • The Unaltered Augsburg Confession as its basic formulation of Christian doctrine. The confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church is explained by the Augsburg Confession (1530) and the other Lutheran confessions. The main principle maintained by the Church is that all doctrine must be examined and evaluated according to the Word of God.
  • Luther’s Small Catechism as a clear summary of Christian doctrine. It is a spiritual handbook for every home, a clear-cut explanation of the Christian faith. The Catechism summarizes key teachings of the Bible. The ten commandments, the creed and the Lord’s Prayer form the backbone of the Catechism.
  • The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Luther’s Large Catechism, the Smalcald Articles with the Treatise, and the Formula of Concord as further witnesses to the Unaltered Augsburg Confession.

MARTIN LUTHER (November 10,1483 – February 18, 1546)

Luther was a monk, theologian, and university professor whose ideas inspired the Protestant Reformation.

According to the Lutheran theology, we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith and in Christ Jesus alone.

Luther challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the only infallible source of religious authority. Indeed, Luther translated the Bible in German making it more accessible to ordinary people.

For in the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17 )

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