Trinity Lutheran Church

Thank you for visiting the website of Trinity Lutheran Church of Fergus Falls, Minnesota.  

We believe, teach, and confess …

 Trinity is a Confessional Lutheran Church

            All Lutheran doctrine (teaching) is taken from Holy Scripture. Our Lutheran Confessions are very explicit on this point. “. . . the Word of God shall establish articles of faith and no one else, not even an angel.” (S.A. Part II, The Mass, 15, Tappert page 295.) “We receive and embrace with our whole heart the Prophetic and Apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the pure, clear fountain of Israel, which is the only true standard by which teachers and doctrines are to be judged.” (F.C., Th. D., sum., 3, Triglot, p. 851) Holy Scripture is the only source and norm of our faith.

            The Lutheran Confessions, or Symbols, are seen as secondary norms, or as true exposition of the teachings of the Holy Scripture.  All who call themselves Lutheran must confess and teach these truths.  For this reason the confessional Lutheran Church demands of all its public teachers and ministers a bona-fide subscription to all its Confessions as the pure and unadulterated declarations of God’s Word.  This is called a “quia” subscription – that is we subscribe to the Confessions “because” they are Scriptural.  In other words, the Holy Scripture is the deciding norm, it is absolutely necessary.  The Bible decides what is true or false doctrine.  The Confessions are the distinguishing norm, they are only relatively necessary.  They determine whether or not a person has correctly understood the true doctrines of Scripture.

            Thus to be a Confessional Lutheran you must confess the faith taught in Holy Scriptures and found in the Lutheran Confessions, the Book of Concord!  These confessional writings are:

• The Three Chief Symbols – The Ecumenical Creeds (Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian)
• The Small Catechism and The Large Catechism – written by Dr. Martin Luther in 1529
• The Smalcald Articles – written by Luther in 1537
• The Augsburg Confession of 1530 – the principle author being Dr. Philip Melanchthon  
• The Apology of the Augsburg Confession (a defense of the Augsburg Confession) written by Melanchthon in 1531
• The Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (Compiled by the Theologians Assembled at Smalcald in 1537)
• The Formula of Concord (primary authors: Jacob Andreae, Martin Chemnitz, Nicolaus Selnecker, David Chytraeus, Christoph Koerner, and Andreas Musculus)

            To read the Lutheran Confessions follow this link: http://bookofconcord.org

On this website you can find information about our worship and Bible classes, where we are located, and more information about our beliefs and practices, as well as other activities of our congregations.