What We Believe

Saint Barnabas Lutheran Church is a member of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.  For more information about our church body, please see the link to the LCMS on the side.  We believe, teach and confess that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and that it is the source and norm of our faith.  We are “confessional” because we believe that the Lutheran Confessions are the correct interpretation and presentation of the Bible. Contained in The Book of Concord, the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church are documents in which Christians from the fourth to the 16th century A.D. explained what they believed and taught on the basis of the Holy Scriptures. It includes, firstly, the three creeds which originated in the ancient church, the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. It contains, secondly, the Reformation era writings of the Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms, and the Formula of Concord.

As part of the historic Christian Church, we continue to express the 5 solae of the Reformation, namely that:

We are saved by grace alone (sola gratia)

through faith alone (sola fide)

in Christ alone (solus Christus)

according to Scripture alone (sola scriptura)

to the glory of God alone (soli Deo gloria)

For a simple explanation of the Christian faith confessed here at Saint Barnabas, see the Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther here (view the menu in the top right hand corner to navigate the table of contents).

(“What We Believe” page adapted from http://www.zionlutherannampa.com/believe).