What We Believe

Statement of Faith

Article 1: The Triune God

We believe that there is one and only one living and true God, Who eternally exists in three equally divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and He rules all things in holiness, wisdom, and love to bring about His eternal good purposes to redeem a people for Himself and restore His fallen creation, to the praise of His glorious grace.

 

Article 2: Revelation

We believe that this God has graciously disclosed His existence in the created order, and has supremely revealed Himself in His Son, the incarnate Word. Moreover, He has revealed Himself in human words, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God. The Scripture is without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of His will to us, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do, and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks. As we hear, believe, and do the Word, we are equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel.

 

Article 3: Creation of Humanity

We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in His own image. Men and women equally bear the image of God, but are not simply interchangeable. God designed marriage to be an exclusive, lifelong covenant relationship between one man and one woman in which the husband reflects the self-sacrificing love of Christ for His church and the wife reflects the loving submission of the church to Christ. Any sexual activity outside of this relationship is forbidden by our Creator. In the church, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their full potential in the manifold ministries of the people of God.

 

Article 4: The Fall

We believe that Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden distorted the image of God in humanity and forfeited his original blessedness for himself and all his progeny. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being, and condemned finally and irrevocably to death. The supreme need of all human beings is to be reconciled to God, under Whose just and holy wrath we stand. The only hope of all human beings is the undeserved love of God, Who alone can rescue us and restore us to Himself.

 

Article 5: The Plan of God

We believe that from all eternity God determined to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation to the praise of His glorious grace. To this end He chose them before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him. In love God commands all people to repent and believe, having set His saving love on those He has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their Redeemer.

 

Article 6: The Gospel

We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ, Who lived the life we failed to live, died the death we deserved to die, and rose again to give us new life in Him. All who turn from their sin and believe Christ are saved.

 

Article 7: The Redemption of Christ

We believe that, moved by love and in obedience to His Father, the eternal Son became fully human without ceasing to be fully divine. For us and for our salvation, Jesus came down from heaven, became incarnate of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was buried. On the cross He canceled sin, satisfied God’s anger, and reconciled to God all who believe in Him. He arose bodily from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures, thus proving His innocence, breaking the power of death, and bringing everlasting life to all His people. He ascended into heaven, where He sits on the right hand of the Father to rule as King over all God’s creation and to serve God’s people as their High Priest and Advocate. He shall come again to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom shall have no end.

 

Article 8: The Justification of Sinners

We believe that Christ, by His obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all those who are justified. By His perfect obedience He satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf. By His sacrificial death, He bore in our place the punishment due us for our sins, thus satisfying God’s justice on our behalf. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. We believe that a zeal for personal and public obedience flows from this free justification.

 

Article 9: The Power of the Holy Spirit

We believe that this salvation is applied to His people by the Holy Spirit, Who gives life to spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith. In Him they are baptized into union with the Lord Jesus and adopted into God’s family. The Spirit gives believers gifts to build up the body of Christ, to bring the gospel to the lost, and to magnify the glory of God. The Holy Spirit is Himself the down payment of the promised inheritance, and in this age indwells, seals, guides, instructs, equips, revives, and empowers believers for Christlike living and service.

 

Article 10: The Kingdom of God

We believe that God rules as King over His creation. His kingdom is present since He rules everywhere at all times, but it is not yet fully realized, since fallen humanity still rejects His authority. But at redemption believers enter the kingdom of God and delight in the blessings of the new covenant. Since Christ calls us to be salt and light in the world, believers should neither withdraw into seclusion from the world, nor become indistinguishable from it. Rather, we are to do good to the city and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Through our witness God plunders Satan’s dark kingdom, and regenerates and renovates the lives of individuals rescued through repentance and faith.

 

Article 11: God’s New People

We believe that Jesus brings peace between alienated peoples through the gospel, creating in Himself one new humanity—the church. This universal church is manifest in local churches where the gospel is put on display by the power of the Spirit. A true church is marked by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her love for God and by her members’ love for one another and for the world.

 

Article 12: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

We believe that the Lord Jesus ordained baptism and the Lord’s Supper for the assurance of His people. We believe that baptism is for believers, serving as a visible sign of our participation with Jesus in His death and resurrection, an entrance into the new covenant community, and a pledge of future obedience to the Lordship of Christ. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is an ongoing covenant renewal for the people of God in which we affirm our unity as the redeemed, commemorate the covenant of redemption, and enjoy the presence of the Redeemer.

 

Article 13: The Restoration of All Things

We believe in the personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ with His holy angels, when He will exercise His role as final Judge, and His kingdom will be consummated. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust—the unjust to judgment and eternal, conscious punishment in hell and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of God. The church will be presented faultless before God by the redemptive work of Christ, all sin will be purged and its wretched effects will forever be banished. God will be all in all and His people will be enthralled by the immediacy of His ineffable holiness, and everything will be to the praise of His glorious grace.