Proclaiming the Good News

We Believe

STATEMENT OF FAITH

The Trinity

We believe in one God 1, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one another 2. This one true and living God is infinitely perfect both in His love and in His holiness. He is the Creator of all things 3, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and adoration 4. Immortal and eternal 5. He perfectly knows the end from the beginning, sustains and sovereignly 6 rules over all things, and providentially brings about His eternal good purposes 7 to redeem a people for Himself and restore His fallen creation, to the praise of His glorious grace 8.

  1. Deuteronomy 6:4
  2. 2 Corinthians 13:1
  3. Genesis 1:1
  4. Revelation 4:11, Colossians 1:16
  5. Revelation 1:8, 18
  6. Psalm 93:1
  7. Romans 8:28
  8. Revelation 15:3-4

Scripture

We believe God has graciously disclosed His existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed Himself to fallen human beings in the person of His Son, the incarnate Word 1. Moreover, this God is a speaking God 2 who by His Spirit has graciously disclosed Himself in human words: we believe that God has inspired the words preserved in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which are both record and means of His saving work in the world. These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God 3, which is utterly authoritative, and without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of His will for salvation, 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 4. We confess that both our finitude and our sinfulness preclude the possibility of knowing God’s truth exhaustively, but we affirm that, enlightened by the Spirit of God, we can know God’s revealed truth truly. The Bible is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises. As God’s people hear, believe 5, and obey the Word 6, they are equipped 7 as Disciples of Christ and witnesses 8 to the gospel.

  1. John 1:1-18
  2. Genesis 3:9ff, Leviticus 1:1-2
  3. 2 Timothy 3:14-17
  4. Psalm 33:9, 119:89, Jeremiah 23:29, Matthew 5:18, 24:35, John 10:35, 17:17, Hebrews 4:12, 2 Peter 1:20-21, Jude 3
  5. Romans 10:17
  6. Matthew 7:24-27, James 1:22
  7. Hebrews 13: 20-21
  8. Acts 1:8

Creation of Humanity

We believe God created human beings, male and female, in His own image 1. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God Himself declared to be very good, serving as God’s agents to care for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker 2. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus 3 and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union 4 that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, such that marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and His church. In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways. God ordains that they assume distinctive roles 5 which reflect the loving relationship between Christ and the church, the husband exercising headship in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to her husband in a way that models the love of the church for her Lord 6. In the ministry of 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. The distinctive leadership role within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption and must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments.

  1. Genesis 1:26-30, 2:7-8, 15-25
  2. Genesis 3:8
  3. Galatians 3:28
  4. Genesis 2:23
  5. 1 Corinthians 11:3-16, 1 Timothy 2:8-15
  6. Ephesians 5:22-33

The Fall

We believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness – for himself and all his progeny – by falling into sin through Satan’s temptation 1. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God 2, corrupted in every aspect of their being (e.g., physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually) 3 and condemned finally and irrevocably to death – apart from God’s own gracious intervention 4. The supreme need of all human beings is to be reconciled to the God under whose just and holy wrath we stand 5; the only hope of all human beings is the undeserved love of this same God, who alone can rescue us and restore us to Himself 6.

  1. Genesis 3:1-24, 1 Corinthians 15:22
  2. Isaiah 59:2, Romans 3:23
  3. Romans 3:10-18
  4. Romans 6:23
  5. Ephesians 2:1-3
  6. Acts 4:12, Ephesians 1:7-12

The Plan of God

We believe that from all eternity God determined in grace to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation 1, and to this end foreknew them and chose them. We believe that God justifies and sanctifies those who by grace have faith in Jesus, and that He will one day glorify them 2 – all to the praise of His glorious grace 3. In love, God commands and implores all people to repent 4 and believe, having set His saving love on those He has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their Redeemer.

  1. Revelation 7:9-10
  2. Romans 8:29-30
  3. Ephesians 1:6
  4. Matthew 3:2, 4:17, Acts 2:38, 17:30

The Gospel

We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ – God’s very wisdom 1. Utter folly to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved, this good news is Christological, centering on the cross and resurrection: the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if His death and resurrection are not central (the message is “Christ died for our sins . . . [and] was raised”) 2. This good news is biblical (His death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others) 3, apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events) 4, and intensely personal 5 (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved).

  1. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
  2. 1 Corinthians 15:1-8
  3. 1 Corinthians 15:12-19
  4. Luke 1:2, 2 Peter 1:16
  5. Ephesians 2:8-9, Acts 2:21, 37-38, 8:35-37, 16:30-31

The Redemption of Sinners

We believe that, moved by love and in obedience to His Father, the eternal Son became human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being, two natures in one Person 1. The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the miraculous agency of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the Virgin Mary 2. He perfectly obeyed His heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven 3. As the mediatorial King, He is seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising in heaven and on earth all of God’s sovereignty, and is our High Priest and righteous Advocate 4. We believe that by His incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute 5. He did this so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God 6: on the cross He became our propitiation 7, satisfying God’s justice, and, by bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all those who believe 8. By His resurrection, Christ Jesus was vindicated by His Father, broke the power of death and defeated Satan who once had power over death 9, and brought everlasting life to all His people; by His ascension He has been forever exalted as Lord 10 and has prepared a place for us to be with Him 11. We believe that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved 12. Because God chose the lowly things of this world, the despised things, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, no human being can ever boast before Him – Christ Jesus has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption 13.

  1. John 1:1,14, Hebrews 10:5-9, Philippians 2:6-7
  2. Luke 1:30-38
  3. Luke 23:24, Acts 2:22-24
  4. Hebrews 1:3, 8:1-2, 10:12-13
  5. Hebrews 9:28
  6. 2 Corinthians 5:21
  7. Hebrews 2:17
  8. Ephesians 2:13
  9. Hebrews 2:14
  10. Mark 16:19
  11. John 14:1-2
  12. Acts 4:12
  13. 1 Corinthians 1:27-31

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 sacrifice, He bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins, making a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf 1. By His perfect obedience He satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. Inasmuch as Christ was given by the Father for us, and His obedience and punishment were accepted in place of our own, freely and not for anything in us, this justification is solely of free grace, in order that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners 2. We believe that a zeal for personal and public obedience flows from this free justification 3.

  1. Isaiah 53:5-6, 11, John 1:29
  2. Romans 3:21-26, 5:1-5
  3. John 6:37-40, 10:27-30, Romans 8:1, 38-39, Ephesians 1:13-14, 2:10, Titus 2:11-14, 3:5-8, I Peter 1:5, Jude 24-25

The Power of the Holy Spirit

We believe that this salvation, attested in all Scripture and secured by Jesus Christ, is applied to His people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son 1, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ 2, and, as the “other” Paraclete, is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment 3, and by His powerful and mysterious work regenerates spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith, baptizing them into union with the Lord Jesus, such that they are justified before God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. By the Spirit’s agency, believers are renewed, sanctified 4, and adopted 5 into God’s family; they participate in the divine nature and receive his sovereignly distributed gifts. The Holy Spirit is Himself the down payment of the promised inheritance 6 and in this age indwells, guides, instructs, equips, revives, and empowers all believers for Christ-like living and service 7.

  1. John 14:16
  2. John 16:14
  3. John 16:8-11
  4. Romans 15:16
  5. Romans 8:15-16
  6. Ephesians 1:13-14
  7. John 15:26-27, 16:12-15, Acts 1:8

The Kingdom of God

We believe that those who have been saved by the grace of God through union with Christ by faith and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit enter the kingdom of God and delight in the blessings of the new covenant: the forgiveness of sins, the inward transformation that awakens a desire to glorify, trust, and obey God, and the prospect of the glory yet to be revealed 1. Good works constitute indispensable evidence of saving grace 2. Living as salt in a world that is decaying and light in a world that is dark 3, believers should neither withdraw into seclusion from the world, nor become indistinguishable from it 4. Rather, we are to love our neighbours as ourselves 5, doing good to all, especially to those who belong to the household of Faith 6. The kingdom of God, already present but not fully realized, is the exercise of God’s sovereignty in the world with Jesus Christ ruling as King of kings and Lord of lords 7 to which we owe full allegiance and submission 8. The kingdom of God is an invasive power that plunders Satan’s dark kingdom 9 and regenerates and renovates through repentance and faith the lives of individuals rescued from Satan’s kingdom 10.

  1. Romans 8:18
  2. James 2:14-17
  3. Matthew 5:13-16
  4. John 17:11-16
  5. Mark 12:31
  6. Galatians 6:10
  7. Revelation 19:16
  8. Philippians 2:9-11
  9. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
  10. 1 Corinthians 6:11

God’s New People

We believe that God’s new covenant people have already come to the heavenly Jerusalem; they are already seated with Christ in the heavenlies 1. This universal church is manifest in local churches of which Christ is the Head 2; thus each “local church” is, in fact, the church, the household of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and foundation of the truth 3. The church is the body of Christ 4, and He has pledged Himself to her forever 5. The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her obedience and love for God, and by her members’ love for one another and for the world 6. Crucially, this gospel we cherish has both personal and corporate dimensions, neither of which may properly be overlooked. Christ Jesus is our peace: He has not only brought about peace with God, but also peace between alienated peoples 7. His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both Jew and Gentile to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility 8. The church serves as a sign of God’s future new world when its members live for the service of one another 9 and their neighbours, rather than for self-focus 10. The church is the corporate dwelling place of God’s Spirit, and the continuing witness to God in the world.

  1. Ephesians 2:6
  2. Ephesians 1:22, Colossians 1:18
  3. 1 Timothy 3:15
  4. Ephesians 1:23
  5. Ephesians 5:25-27
  6. John 13:35
  7. Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:11-14
  8. Ephesians 2:16
  9. Romans 12:10
  10. Romans 14:7, 1 Corinthians 9:19, 10:24

Believer’s Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

We believe baptism is intended only for an individual who has received the saving benefits of Christ’s atoning work and has become His disciple 1. Therefore, in obedience to Christ’s command and as a testimony to God, the church, oneself and the world, a believer is instructed to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit 2. Believer’s Baptism is a visual demonstration of a person’s union with Christ in the likeness of His death, burial and resurrection. It signifies that his former way of life has been put to death and vividly depicts a person’s release from the mastery of sin 3. Our mode of baptism is immersion. As with Believer’s Baptism, the Lord’s Supper is to be observed only by those who have become a genuine disciple of Christ 4. This ordinance symbolizes the breaking of Christ’s body and the shedding of His blood on our behalf 5, and is to be observed repeatedly throughout the Christian life as a sign of continued participation in the atoning benefits of Christ’s death 6. As we partake of the Lord’s Supper with an attitude of faith and self-examination, we remember and proclaim the death of Christ receive spiritual nourishment for our souls, and signify our unity with other members of Christ’s body.

  1. Acts 2:41, 8:12, 35-38
  2. Matthew 28:19
  3. Romans 6:1-7
  4. 1 Corinthians 11:27-29
  5. Luke 22:19-20
  6. 1 Corinthians 11:24-26

The Restoration of All Things

We believe in the imminent Rapture of the saints 1, followed by a seven year Tribulation, the Millennial Kingdom 2 of Christ, a satanic rebellion 3 and the final judgment when our Lord Jesus Christ will exercise His role as Judge, and His kingdom will be consummated 4. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust – the unjust to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in hell, as our Lord Himself taught 5, and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of Him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb, in the new heaven and the new earth 6, the home of righteousness. On that day the church will be presented faultless before God by the obedience, suffering and triumph of Christ, all sin purged and its wretched effects forever 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 7.

  1. 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 4:13-18, 5:1-11, Titus 2:13, Revelation 3:10
  2. Zechariah 14:4-11, Revelation 19:11-16, 20:1-6
  3. Revelation 20:7-10
  4. Revelation 20:11-15
  5. Matthew 25:31-46
  6. Revelation 5:13, 19:4-6, 21:1
  7. Revelation 21:1-9, 22:27

Marriage & Family

We believe the Bible teaches that marriage refers to the covenant relationship between one man and one woman, as instituted by God in the beginning, to the exclusion of all others 1. We affirm the family as the basic unit of society, and seek to preserve the integrity of the family and its stability 2.

  1. Genesis 2:20b-24
  2. Genesis 2:21-25, Ephesians 6:1-4