W H A T W E B E L I E V E
The Apostles’ Teaching,
Received and Confessed.
"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."
Acts 2:42Trinity Ithaca did not write its own statement of faith. We received one — worked out over twenty centuries of the Church's life, tested in controversy, and confessed publicly before emperors and councils. The question is not what do we believe? It is: what has the Church always believed and taught from Scripture?
Before anything else, Trinity Ithaca confesses the ancient creeds — spoken by Christians in every age, every language, and every continent. These are not historical artifacts. They are living words we speak together every Sunday. In them we receive, not invent, the faith.
What We Share With
All Christians
The Apostles' Creed
The oldest summary of the Christian faith, used in baptism from the earliest centuries. It confesses the Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and the saving work of Jesus Christ: born, crucified, risen, and coming again.
The Nicene Creed
Formulated against those who denied Christ's full divinity. Affirmed that Jesus is "of one substance with the Father" — not a lesser being, not a created spirit, but God himself entering human history. Chanted or spoken at the Lord's Supper.
The Athanasian Creed
The most expansive of the three, guarding against confusion of the Trinity's persons or division of God's nature. A bulwark of precision: the Son is neither the Father nor the Spirit; yet there are not three gods but one.
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What Distinguishes
Lutheran Christianity
The LCMS subscribes to the Book of Concord (1580) quia — "because" — these documents faithfully teach Scripture. Not insofar as they agree with the Bible, as though we are the judges. Because they do. That Latin distinction is everything: the confessions are not suggestions, not approximations, but the church's binding doctrinal standard — answerable to Scripture alone. The complete Book of Concord is available to read freely. Each document below links directly to the LCMS's own PDF. These texts are in the public domain. View all Lutheran Confessions on lcms.org →
The Small Catechism
Luther wrote it for households — for fathers teaching children, for the newly baptized, for anyone asking: what does this mean? The Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, Baptism, Confession, the Lord's Supper. The most-memorized Lutheran document. It is not a summary of Christianity from above; it is Christianity held in the hand.
Core FormationRead the Small Catechism →
The Augsburg Confession
The foundational Lutheran confession — presented to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg. It is not a protest document. It is a claim of continuity: we are not a new church. We teach what the Church has always taught, now liberated from additions that obscure the Gospel. Grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone — against every form of human merit.
FoundationalRead the Augsburg Confession →
The Formula of Concord
After Luther's death, fierce controversies erupted among Lutherans: about free will, about the Lord's Supper, about the role of the Law. The Formula resolved them. It is precise, sometimes technical, always pastoral in aim: so that preachers and congregations could know what they were bound to confess, and what they were free to set aside.
Settling ControversyRead the Formula (Epitome) →
The Smalcald Articles
Luther wrote these expecting to die. They are his most personal confession — what he would not yield, not even to a council. At their center: justification by grace through faith is the article on which the church stands or falls. Everything else follows from this. If this is lost, nothing else is saved.
Article of StandingRead the Smalcald Articles →
"We believe, teach, and confess that the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments are the only rule and norm according to which all doctrines and teachers alike must be appraised and judged."
— Formula of Concord, Epitome
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Five Words That
Changed Everything
These are not slogans or bumper stickers. They are distinctions won at enormous cost against systems that told people their salvation depended partly on themselves. Each one is a liberation.
The Bible is the only norm that norms all other norms — the norma normans. The creeds and confessions carry authority because they accurately teach Scripture, not the reverse. No tradition, no council, no theologian stands above the Word. Every doctrine must be tested here, and here alone.
Salvation originates entirely in God's will and action — not ours. Before we could choose, seek, or respond, God chose us in Christ. There is no human contribution to salvation, not even our decision to believe. Faith itself is a gift. Grace is not God's assistance added to our effort; it is God's rescue of those who had no effort left.
We are justified — declared righteous before God — through faith alone, not by works. This is not a license for indifference but a foundation for freedom: the Christian does good works because they are already loved, not in order to be loved. Faith receives Christ's righteousness as a gift. Works flow from that gift; they do not earn it.
There is no other mediator between God and humanity. Not Mary, not the saints, not a priest, not a pastor. Christ alone lived the life we could not live, died the death we deserved, and rose as the firstfruits of the new creation. To add another mediator is not humility — it is to misunderstand what Christ accomplished.
If salvation is entirely by grace, through faith, in Christ, according to Scripture — then no human being may claim credit for it. All the glory returns to the one who gave everything. This final principle organizes Lutheran worship, Lutheran ethics, Lutheran life: we exist not to display ourselves but to reflect and announce the God who saved us.
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The Shape of the
Devoted Life
Doctrine is not only believed, it is lived. The early Church shows us the form that belief takes in community. Trinity Ithaca is organized around these five commitments drawn from Acts 2:42, each one a way the Gospel takes root in daily life.
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Grace Delivered Through Physical Means
This is perhaps the most distinctive Lutheran conviction, and the one most surprising to evangelical visitors. The sacraments are not symbols or memorials of what Christ did. They are means of grace: channels through which God actually delivers forgiveness, life, and salvation to particular people, in particular moments, through physical elements joined to the Word.
Water and the Word
Baptism is not a public declaration of faith we make to God. It is an act of God toward us. In the water combined with his Word, God grants forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation. This is why Lutherans baptize infants: grace does not wait for the recipient to be ready. It comes to those who cannot yet respond.
Baptismal grace is not a one-time event that fades. The Lutheran life is a daily return to baptism — dying to sin and rising to new life in Christ — a rhythm Luther described as the shape of the entire Christian existence.
Body and Blood, Truly Present
Lutherans confess the Real Presence: Christ's true body and blood are present in, with, and under the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper. This is not transubstantiation (the bread and wine do not become something else), nor is it a mere memorial (the bread and wine are not empty symbols). It is the mystery Christ himself declared: "This is my body. This is my blood."
The Supper delivers what the sermon announces: forgiveness of sins. This is why we celebrate it frequently, reverently, and with careful preparation. Guests are invited to speak with a pastor before communing for the first time.
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W O R S H I P W I T H U S
Come and Hear
Jesus proclaimed
No matter where you are in your faith journey, Trinity Ithaca is a place where honest questions are welcomed, Scripture is faithfully proclaimed, and real friendship is formed. Come on a Sunday. We would love to introduce you to the faith we have received.