What We Believe

St. Thomas Church Beliefs

Apostles' Creed

We believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy, universal Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Lutheran Connection

St. Thomas focuses on being a community of people who follow Jesus. We learn from the Bible. We seek to grow in Christ and be led by the Spirit. St. Thomas also relates to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is a connection to a wider community of Christians world-wide.

This denomination has its roots in the Protestant Reformation. Here are some things about the Protestant Reformation that we like:

Grace alone: We are made right with God by God's grace or mercy alone, not by our works or our achievement but by what God has achieved for us through Jesus Christ. That is, not by God's grace and our good works, but by God's grace alone.

Since it is by grace alone, it is also by faith alone. We come to know God by faith alone. Nothing we do can bring God's grace to us. Faith alone appropriates grace for us. By faith God's mercy becomes real in our lives. We trust in what God has done through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Scripture bears witness to God's grace received by faith. Scripture is the original and prime witness to God's actions. It measures all other witnesses. Therefore it is not scripture and tradition. It is scripture alone that measures and directs our lives. This does not mean other traditions are unimportant in the life of the church any more than works are unimportant. But works come from faith and not the other way around. Traditions are measured by scripture and not the other way around.

At the heart and core of the Reformation of the church is the teaching of justification. We believe it is still the center of all reform in the church. The Scriptures bear witness that we are justified, that is, made right with God not by what we do, but by what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. We are made right with God by what God has accomplished through Jesus Christ, and this is not something we can earn, lest we boast. It is a gift from God to us and is to be received as a gift by putting our trust not in ourselves and what we can do but in this gift and in what God has done.

Lutherans are African, Asian, European, Hispanic, Native American. The Lutheran church is the largest Protestant church in the world, a church of all peoples, found on every continent. Some of the largest Lutheran churches in the world are African. For example, sixty percent of the people of Namibia are Lutheran.

Lutherans are part of the one church of Christ that reaches out to all people. We look forward to that day when the many denominations will realize in a visible way their true unity in Christ. We work for that day, seeking to witness to the unity that belongs to all through Jesus Christ.

We are saved by grace through faith.