Our Beliefs

God is Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer

God the Father is the creator of all things, visible and invisible, sustaining and providentially ruling over creation in an active relationship of love. Through God the Son, whom we know as Jesus Christ, God redeems a people for himself and restores his creation. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, God is present to us, making us more into the image of Jesus Christ. All of this is done “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6)

The Bible is the Word of God

We believe the Bible—the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments—was not composed “by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21). Because God is their true author, the words of Scripture are holy and divine. One of the defining characteristics of the Reformation was its insistence on sola Scriptura, or the belief that everything we need for salvation and a life of faith is available in Scripture. One way to describe this is that the Bible is “the only rule of faith and life.”

God created all things and called them good.

We believe that “God created heaven and earth and all other creatures from nothing” and gave “all creatures their being, form, and appearance” (Belgic Confession, Article 12). The book of Genesis affirms the original goodness of God’s creation; after each piece of creation, the narrative notes that “God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1). 

Human beings are broken and sinful

Human beings started out with the ability to follow God’s will perfectly (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 9). God sculpted us in God's own image, as mirrors of God’s goodness, justice, and holiness.  But we chose to turn away from God. Our disobedience “so poisoned our nature” that all of us are wired from birth to be sinners (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 7). And the sin of humans caused all of creation to be “subjected to futility” and put “in bondage to decay” (Romans 8:20, 21). All of the perfection of God’s original creation has been undone as a result of humanity’s rebellion against God. We’re broken, and it’s impossible for us to fix ourselves. No matter how hard we try to do the right thing, “sin constantly boils forth as though from a contaminated spring” (Belgic Confession, Article 15). Without God’s grace, we “are neither willing nor able to return to God” (Canons of Dort, Main Points 3 and 4, Article 3). 

Jesus died to atone for our sins

Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, came to earth to reconcile us with God. Jesus became human and lived a life without sin. Then he sacrificed his life in our name. By suffering death on the cross, Jesus took the punishment our sins deserved. Three days after Jesus died, he rose from the dead. Through his resurrection, Jesus conquered death so that anyone who believes in him can join him in everlasting life.

Faith in Jesus is all we need to be saved

Even in our best moments, our actions are stained with sin. Yet out of sheer grace, God gives us the righteousness of Christ. Christ wipes our record clean. It’s as if we have never sinned. All we have to do is accept his gift of salvation “with a believing heart” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 60). In other words, we are justified by faith alone, not by anything we’ve done.

God gives us the faith to receive salvation

Humanity is so trapped in sin that we cannot find our way back to God on our own. As Christ says, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me” (John 6:44).  God gives us the faith to accept salvation as an act of undeserved grace (Canons of Dort, Main Point 1, Article 7). We receive this gift without any consideration of the things we’ve done. Our merits and strength have nothing to do with it.

The Holy Spirit makes us more like Jesus over time

Christ’s blood doesn’t just redeem us for what we’ve done in the past. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, true faith in Jesus reshapes our hearts to better match the heart of Jesus. This continual process of being made more holy is called sanctification. It is impossible for holy faith to be unfruitful. After all, we aren’t talking about an empty faith. We’re talking about what Scripture calls “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). This faith moves people to do by themselves the works that God has commanded in the Word.

The Body of Christ

The Christian church is a gathering of persons who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in order to embody God’s intentions for the whole world. Scripture calls the church “the body of Christ’ and calls Christ our head. The church is faithful in its call when it participates in mission, in calling all persons to life in Christ, and in proclaiming God’s promise and commands to all the world. The church is under the authority of Jesus Christ, who unites believers to himself and to each other.

The church is one body drawn together from the entire human family

In Jesus Christ, the church has a twofold unity: with God and with each other. All Christians, regardless of theological stripe, belong to the same body. “We believe in one holy, universal, Christian church, the communion of saints called from the entire human family” (Belhar Confession, Point 2). Our unity in Christ is “both a gift and an obligation for the church.” It “must become visible” so that the world can see that “separation, enmity and hatred between people and groups is sin which Christ has already conquered” (Belhar Confession, Point 2).

The Restoration of All Things