Everyone has a statement of faith. Whether or not one writes it down is another matter. We understand there to be many advantages in clearly stating our beliefs about the doctrines of our faith. When they are written down, it allows for our set of beliefs to be tested over time to see if they line up with what is written down in the Word of God. This also allows for clarity amongst the body and breaks down the walls of potential confusion.
This statement of faith is arranged in the classical way: we begin with Scripture, since it is the basis for all the other things we believe. We then move to God; then to man; then to the Redeemer of mankind, Jesus; then to the salvation that is brought to us by Jesus; then to the Spirit who applies this salvation to us; then to the church built by Jesus and the Spirit; and, finally, to the issues dealing with the end of time.
The issues spelled out here are considered by us to be fundamental, non-negotiable, and, above all, biblical. We all agree on these and teach in accordance with them.
We believe and confess that every word of the Scriptures is God-breathed, being from first to last the very word of God in such a way that when Scripture speaks, God Himself speaks. Because they are God’s own words, they are without error, nor are they capable of erring. We, therefore, believe all things contained in Holy Scripture, not simply because the church has sworn and testified to them for millennia, or because of the great many scientific and historical proofs of biblical testimony, but because, ultimately, we have heard the voice of our Lord speaking to us in them.
All claims to truth are to be judged by the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures, for God gave them as our only authoritative rule for the regulation, foundation, and confirmation of our faith and conduct. The word of God is entirely and wholly sufficient in and of itself for us to know the things necessary for salvation and walking with Christ, for everything which God requires from us is contained in the canon of Holy Scripture. Without its teaching, it is impossible to come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
Though there are difficult portions, the whole of Scripture, and the main message therein of salvation by grace through faith, is propounded so clearly that any and all alike, whether learned or unlearned, may understand it. This being true, we confess that we stand in need of the further, inward work of the Spirit in convincing us of their authority, illuminating our minds to understand them spiritually, and strengthening our wills to be obedient to them. The rule of the interpretation of Holy Scripture is Scripture itself, comparing the unclear with the clear, so that we discern only one Mind in these sixty-six books. The center, point, and goal of all Scripture is Jesus Christ, the Old Testament looking forward to His advent, the New Testament reflecting on it.
We, the church of the living God, are born of, abide in, and long for the goodness and correction of the word of truth, and we will not listen to the voice of a stranger; the ground of our union with one another is none other than the truth of the word of God.
We believe and confess that there is but one God and none other, having only one divine essence, yet existing in three persons, each of whom are called God and partake of the fullness of deity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We, therefore, teach the profound, biblical mystery that the one true God exists as a Trinity: one God and three persons within the Godhead, all of whom are fully God.
The Triune God is infinitely holy, just, and righteous, a God who hates all sin and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yet He is also equally gracious, merciful, and patient, abounding in lovingkindness and truth and forgiving the sins of many. Our Lord is unchanging and unchangeable, being throughout all ages the same, eternal Spirit: all-powerful, all-sufficient, all-knowing, and independent, having all life, glory, goodness, wisdom, and blessedness in Himself. To Him is due all worship, honor, service, and obedience, for from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things.
Without need or necessity, and according to His own wise and holy reasons, God created in six days all that is, whether things visible or invisible, in heaven or on earth, calling it all very good and resting on the seventh day. Our God did not leave His creation to the forces of chance or fortune, but He continues to exercise His gracious and just providence, by which He works all things to His own glory according to the wise counsel of His own free will, so that we might not fear the storm, sickness, affliction, or even death, for our God holds us and all His creation up, as it were, by His very own fatherly hand. In Him alone we put our confidence and hope of that blessed day.
We believe and confess that God, in order to crown His creation with a suitable steward, made man in His own image. He created humanity as male and female, giving to them true knowledge of Himself, perfect righteousness and holiness, a true free will, and the gift of communion with Himself, in order to fulfill man’s created purpose: to glorify the God who made him.
From this state of incomprehensible blessing, man willfully fell into sin by disobeying the direct command of God. In this one act of rebellion, man lost his original righteousness and holiness; forsook his ability to comprehend the true knowledge of God, which then became woefully marred; renounced the privilege of communion with his God; and made himself liable to physical and spiritual death. Our first parents, who enjoyed this state and fell from it, did not sin of themselves only, but dragged the entirety of the human race into sin and death with them, all those born after them in the natural way having the curse of the first sin upon them.
This first sin has brought forth in consequence every other sin, for man in the state of nature is now wholly defiled, unable to do any good, incapable of seeking after God, and impaired by a will bound to the evil, with the terrifying result that every act of the natural man is a sinful act, springing forth, as it does, not from faith or a desire to glorify God. Such iniquity is deserving of eternal punishment, for rebellion against God, which is what sin is, is an intolerable offense against an infinite and eternal God. Man’s own abilities can in no way break the bonds that hold him captive to sin nor can they commend him to God; he must be freed by and restored to God through Christ and Him alone.
The redeemed man, who has tasted the heavenly gift and known the saving merits of Jesus Christ, yet struggles with sin, for it will not be until the great day of the revelation of Christ that we cease our fight against the flesh.
Believing and confessing these things, we marvel at the grace of God shown to such creatures as we.
We believe and confess that the beginning of all our righteousness and redemption proceeds from the mercy of God, for salvation is of the Lord: it has in no way to do with who we are or what we have done nor would anyone come to a saving knowledge of Christ apart from the prior revelatory work of the Lord. The sum of the gospel we hold dear is: God has acted in Christ to redeem His people from their sins on the basis of His grace working through faith. We believe the several aspects of this salvation to be: regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification.
Regeneration
Regeneration is a gracious act of the sovereign Holy Spirit of God whereby He causes us to be born again, removing from us our heart of stone and giving to us a heart of flesh with His law written on it, accompanied by a new desire to walk in faith after Christ. He thereby renews our will to reject that which is evil and contrary to His command and embrace the good and seek after it.
Justification
Justification is an act of the divine will in which the Lord imputes to us the righteousness of Christ and imputes to Christ our iniquity, thereby forgiving us of all our sins, declaring us to be righteous and just in His sight, and granting us acceptance in the beloved. The merit of justification does not reside in the creature, but in the Savior, who, through His perfect life and death, secured it for all time; thus, the hope of the justified is not in themselves but in Jesus, in whom and through whom God showed His justice in condemning and punishing sin as well as His grace in redeeming those who sinned against Him.
Faith and Repentance
Justification before God remains foreign to all people until the Holy Spirit applies it to the heart through faith, which is a pure gift of God by which a sinner comes to fully accept, receive, and rest on Christ for salvation, seeking nothing else whatsoever outside of Him, and believing all that He says in His word. This faith is the sole instrument of justification, for it alone provides the entrance into and continuance in the great treasures and goodness of God. Inseparable from faith is the grace of repentance, which is a whole-hearted turning from and confession of sin, resulting not simply from of a fear of punishment or embarrassment at getting caught, but from of a profound grief over and hatred of one’s offense to God. Repentance is as necessary for salvation as faith, for no one can continue loving one’s sin while clinging to Christ, for to sojourn with the Savior is to journey away from iniquity.
Adoption
All those who have been justified by God’s free grace through faith in the Lord Jesus are given the Spirit of adoption, whereby they may call upon God as their loving heavenly Father and enjoy the privileges and liberties of the children of God. Having had God’s name put upon them, the adopted children of God have bold access to His throne of grace and indeed are called heirs of salvation and inheritors of the promises.
Sanctification and Glorification
Sanctification is the ongoing transformation by which God makes His children holy and fit for heaven. Through the life-long process of sanctification, sin is destroyed, grace is strengthened, and the faith we were given by God evidences itself to be a lively and active faith, working itself out in love and good deeds. These good deeds in no way merit salvation nor are they evidence of any good intrinsic to the individual, but they are the external outworkings of the work of grace wrought in the heart by God. In a profound sense, when God promises to reward His people for good works, He is, in fact, promising to graciously crown His own gracious gifts.
The goal of sanctification is conformation to the image of Christ, which conformation is always incomplete on this side of eternity, as we always carry with us remnants of our former corruption. In this life, a continual war between the flesh and the Spirit is waged, but, for the believer, the ultimate victory of the Spirit is certain and infallible, for God has promised that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Salvation is at no point dependent upon the creature, but always rests upon the unchangeableness of God’s promise and choice, the worthiness of the sacrifice of Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit, who will usher us finally into glory and give to us new, glorified bodies, which are not susceptible to the weakness, sin, and decay that mars our earthly bodies.
We believe and confess that the Holy Spirit is fully and truly God, being the third Person of the Holy Trinity and sharing in all the excellencies, perfections, and glory of the Father and the Son. The Spirit was an agent in the creation and continues to exercise a merciful providence over the created order. Through His inspiration the biblical books were written; it is, therefore, right and proper to say that the same Spirit who spoke long ago still speaks today in the words of Holy Scripture.
The ministry of the Spirit is a Christ-centered ministry. It was He who empowered the Lord Jesus in His earthly ministry, and it is He who draws sinners unto Christ, convicting us of our sin, convincing us of our need of the righteousness of Christ, and making us to see the reality and certainty of divine judgment. The Holy Spirit of God graciously works in us to illumine our minds to understand divine truth, renew our hearts to delight in heavenly things, change our wills to embrace godliness and righteousness, and baptize us into the body of Christ.
Having drawn us to Jesus in faith, the Holy Spirit continues His work of sanctifying us, making us more like our Savior in all that we are and do. He graciously abides with believers and indwells us as His temple, assuring us of our status as children of the King, comforting and aiding us in our trials, cultivating within us a Christian character, and bestowing upon us gifts for ministry and power for service. The Spirit, along with the Lord Jesus, serves as an intercessor for us with the Father, making supplication for us with inexpressible groanings. He, the Spirit of truth and grace, is the seal of our redemption, the advanced payment of our inheritance, who keeps us in Christ until the day of salvation, when we will finally be raised up to glory.
We believe and confess that Jesus Christ is at work in the world making for Himself a people, which is the Church. The invisible or universal Church consists of all those who have ever, do now, or will ever be joined to Christ in faith. The Church is the bride of Christ, her Head, who gave Himself up for her salvation, with whom she is eternally united and without whom she can do nothing. She is the pillar and ground of the truth who will remain until the end of the age and against whom not even the gates of hell will prevail.
The invisible or universal Church finds expression in the visible or local Church, which is where the saints, the company of those who profess true religion, are gathered and perfected, being united together in a bond of love and a common faith to serve one another with the gifts granted unto them by the Spirit of Christ. An indelible mark of the true Church of Christ is the pure and faithful proclamation of the holy gospel, which issues forth an obedient community of constant prayer and worship shaped by the Word. It is a duty incumbent upon everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus to unite with a faithful congregation of saints, to involve themselves in its life, and to join with them in worshiping and serving the Lord in their generation. Christ has granted unto the visible Church the power to discipline those joined to it, promising His presence to those who seek to establish and maintain its purity, which, in this age, will ever remain mixed, with true believers alongside false professors, who, on the day of judgment, will finally be separated by Christ.
The Lord Jesus has bestowed two offices upon His Church: elder and deacon. Elders are a gift unto the Church for spiritual leadership and direction, under the guiding authority of Christ, while deacons are His gift for service, those elected to the office of deacon being, as it were, the leaders in serving the faithful.
Our Lord has entrusted two solemn ordinances to His Church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is the initiatory rite of the Christian Church, administered in the name of the Triune God as a sign of God’s promise and grace as well as a symbol of our identification with Christ. The Lord’s Supper is the continuing rite of the Church, administered only to those who profess faith in Christ, whereby we unite together to remember our Lord’s work on the cross and proclaim His death until He comes. Neither ordinance confers the grace of salvation, nor is either ordinance necessary for the saving knowledge of Christ.
We believe and confess that God has appointed that all men shall die and their bodies see corruption. The souls of those dying in Christ proceed directly into His presence, while the souls of those outside of Christ are cast immediately into hell.
Furthermore, we believe and confess that, at a time unknown to men, Jesus Christ will return in bodily form and visible to all, in great glory and majesty, to judge mankind and consummate and cleanse His kingdom forever. At this time, the dead, both the righteous and the wicked, will be raised, their souls being reunited with their bodies forever, while those alive will not die but will be changed, in the twinkling of an eye.
All will be made to stand before the Lord and give an account of themselves. The righteous, those in Christ, who were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, will be raised to eternal life and honor in the presence of God, who will thereby vindicate His people and conform them finally to the image of Christ, showing forth in their ultimate salvation the glory of His mercy and grace. The wicked, those who have rejected the gospel and despised God’s law, will be raised to eternal punishment and dishonor, forever banished from the presence of God, who will show the glory of His justice in their condemnation.
The revelation of this great day is our most ardent expectation and hope, for which we are always watchful, always ready, and always willing to say with all the saints, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”
We believe and confess that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. These are two distinct sexes created for complementary purposes, and together reflect the image and nature of God.1 Rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person. The term “marriage” has only one meaning: the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. 2 Furthermore, marriage showcases the Gospel, and the relationship between Christ and His Bride the Church, 3 and therefore any attempt to give the term “marriage” additional meanings is sinful and offensive to God.
1 Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 2:18-25
2 Genesis 2:18-25; Matthew 19:4-6
3 Ephesians 5:22-33
God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.4 Any form of sexual immorality (including but not limited to lust, adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, and use of pornography) is sinful and offensive to God.5 God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.6
4 1 Corinthians 6:18; 1 Corinthians 7:2-4; Hebrews 13:4
5 Matthew 5:27-29; Matthew 15:18-20, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19
6 Acts 3:19-21; Romans 10:9-10; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
We believe and confess that all human life is sacred and created by God in His image.1 Human life is of inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception through natural death. 2 We are therefore called to defend, protect, and value all human life.3 This does not preclude the just use of capital punishment by the civil government, 4 or the action of lawful and just self-defense.5
1 Genesis 1:26-28
2 Exodus 4:11; Psalm 139:13-16
3 Genesis 9:5-7; Exodus 20:13
4 Genesis 9:6; Romans 13:3-4
5 Exodus 22:2-3