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For more about what Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church teaches, you can read the confessions of faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as contained in the Book of Concord, which contains the three Ecumenical Creeds (Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian), the Augsburg Confession, the Apology to the Augsburg Confession, the Small Catechism, the Large Catechism, the Smalcald Articles, and the Formula of Concord.
“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!” — Genesis 28:17
These words were spoken by the Bibical patriarch, Jacob. He was describing the place where God had visited him during the night. Jacob gave a name to this “house of God;” he called it “Bethel.”
Bethel Lutheran Church and School is a place where God does indeed dwell–through his Word and Sacraments. It is in his Word, the Bible that we find the inspired and inerrant Word of God through which God himself speaks to us and works within us by his Spirit. It is in his Word that we find the message of a God who loves us so much that he sent his son, Jesus, to die for our sins. It is in his Word that we hear of the forgiveness of sins that brings true peace for our lives. It is through this Word that the Holy Spirit creates, sustains, and strengthens faith in Jesus that is freely rewarded with an eternity with our loving Father in heaven.
At Bethel we see God do this as He preaches to us about Jesus, as He washes us in the blood of Christ in Baptism, and as He feeds us upon the very body and blood of His Son, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins! House of God indeed! The very gate of heaven!
This is the Word that is preached in Bethel Lutheran Church and taught in Bethel Lutheran School. It holds power to transform lives from uncertainty, guilt, and fear to peace, joy, and love. Please, join us as we grow in this Word at Bethel–“the house of God.”