What we believe
shapes everything.

God and revelation

Our eternal, transcendent, all-glorious God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is by nature a communicative being. He has revealed himself through creation and providence, and through specific words, so we might know what is necessary for salvation and life. In Holy Scripture, God has preserved the only authoritative and complete revelation for all humanity.

Origin, attributes, reception

All Scripture is breathed out by God through human authors by the Spirit's inspiration. We receive the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as the perfect, infallible, authoritative Word of God — necessary, sufficient, clear, and our supreme and final authority. As the Scriptures are preached and read, the Spirit delights to illuminate our minds so we understand, cherish, and obey his Word.

There is only one true and living God — infinite, eternal, independent, spirit, transcendent, immutable, everywhere present, exhaustive in knowledge, entirely holy, loving, wise, just, good, merciful, gracious, and truthful. The one true God eternally exists as three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — each fully God, sharing the same deity and nature, yet one God. Within this unity, the persons fulfill roles consistent with their eternal relations: the Father originates, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit completes.

From all eternity, God sovereignly ordained all that exists and all that occurs, to display the fullness of his glory — yet he is not the author of sin, nor do his decrees negate the will of his creatures. Before the foundation of the world, God chose those he would save in Christ — entirely by grace, not conditioned on foreseen faith or merit. Those he predestined are redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by God's power to the end.

In the beginning the triune God freely created everything out of nothing for his pleasure and glory, and he sustains and governs all things by his holy, loving will. God created man, male and female, in his own image as the crown of creation — made to know and glorify him. Men and women are equal in dignity and worth; gender, designated by God through our biological sex, is essential to our identity. God instituted marriage as the union of one man and one woman — the only normative pattern of sexual relations — while single men and women no less glorify God and serve his purposes.

Adam and Eve were led astray by Satan and willfully sinned against their Creator, incurring enmity with God and the curse of death. Because Adam was the representative head of humanity, his sin is imputed to all his descendants. All people are now by nature enemies of God, dead in sin, incapable of pleasing God or freeing themselves from bondage to sin — without hope apart from salvation in Jesus Christ. The curse corrupted not only mankind but the entire created order, which groans for redemption.

In the fullness of time the Father sent his eternal Son into the world as Jesus the Christ — conceived by the Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, fully God and fully man, without sin. He inaugurated the kingdom of God, perfectly revealed the Father's character, and lived in complete obedience. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, dying a substitutionary death; was buried; arose bodily on the third day; ascended to the Father's right hand where he reigns and intercedes; and will return to judge all people and dwell with his people forever.

As the second Adam, Christ's sinless life obtained perfect righteousness and eternal life for God's elect; in his substitutionary death he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice, bearing our sins, satisfying God's law, propitiating God's wrath, and purchasing our reconciliation. God accepted this sacrifice as complete atonement — no further sacrifice for sin remains, nor any human merit to add. Raised by God's power, Christ triumphed over sin, death, and Satan, pours out the Spirit, intercedes as Great High Priest, and will consummate his kingdom when he returns.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, equal in deity with the Father and Son. Present at creation and active throughout the Old Testament, his new-covenant work centers on Christ and the church: by the Spirit Jesus was conceived, anointed, offered, and raised; at Pentecost the Spirit descended to indwell believers and empower them for life and witness. He convicts the world, regenerates hearts, illuminates God's Word, assures, comforts, intercedes, sanctifies, seals our salvation, and guarantees our inheritance.

The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ and all he accomplished — an objective, historical, divine achievement, the power of God for salvation to all who believe. Spiritually dead people cannot respond to it, so God graciously and effectually calls his elect: through gospel proclamation the Spirit regenerates, granting faith and repentance. Those called are justified — forgiven and declared righteous by Christ's imputed righteousness, received by faith alone — and adopted as beloved sons. Christ also sanctifies his people, breaking sin's bondage and conforming them to his image; believers persevere because God preserves them, unto final glorification.

When Christ ascended, he poured out the Spirit, ushering in a greater experience of God's presence and power. All Christians must continually seek to be filled with the Spirit — more fully under his influence, more aware of his presence, more effective in his service. The Spirit sovereignly bestows gifts on every believer for the glory of Christ and the building up of the church; the full range of spiritual gifts remains at work today, to be exercised with faith, love, order, and submission to Scripture.

All believers are progressively transformed into Christ's image as the Spirit empowers them to abide in Christ and strive for holiness — growing through the Word, prayer, and fellowship. The Christian life also involves longing for Christ's return: though new creations, believers still live in mortal bodies in a fallen world, facing suffering and opposition. The gospel enables us to rejoice in tribulation, endure in faith, and abound in hope that sin and sorrow will one day be no more.

Universal and local

The universal church is the true worshipping community of all God's elect, purchased by Christ's blood. The local church is the focal point of God's plan to mature his people and save sinners — marked by faithful preaching, right administration of the sacraments, and proper church discipline. Christ has given the offices of elder (sole office of governance, reserved for qualified men) and deacon to serve and equip the saints.

Sacraments and mission

Christ instituted two sacraments: baptism — immersion picturing remission of sins and union with Christ — and the Lord's Supper, in which the gathered church remembers and proclaims Christ's death, communes with him, and looks to his return. As the body of Christ, the church exists to worship God, edify his people, and bear witness to Christ by making disciples of all nations — proclaiming the gospel, planting churches, and adorning the gospel through love and good works.

Death for the Christian has become a doorway to paradise — souls entering immediately into God's presence to await bodily resurrection. At the appointed time, Jesus will return in power and glory; the just and unjust will be raised, and all will appear before Christ in judgment. Those who did not obey the gospel will suffer eternal, conscious punishment; those saved by Christ will inherit the kingdom — sin, sorrow, suffering, and death banished — enjoying unhindered communion with our triune God forever. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!