GOD
There is only one God—infinite, eternal, and unchanging—who governs all things according to the counsel of his will, for his own glory. This one eternal God is not composed of parts and yet is revealed in Scripture as triune: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; all persons being equally and eternally of the same essence, yet distinct as persons within the one Godhead. This triune God is exclusively worthy of all worship.
Deut 6:4 • Isa 45:5-6 • Matt 3:16-17 • 2 Cor 13:14 • Eph 1:11
SCRIPTURE
Sacred Scripture is God’s revelation of himself to man and is no more and no less than the 66 books which make up the Old and New Testaments. Scripture is uniquely inspired by God, and, as such, it is without error. The Scriptures principally teach us what man is to believe about God and what God requires of man. Since Scripture is divine in origin, and no other written revelation of its kind exists, Scripture alone is our final authority in all matters pertaining to faith and Christian living.
Lk 24:27, 44 • Jn 20:30-31 • Rom 15:4; 1 Cor 10:6 • 2 Tim 3:16-17 • 2 Pet 1:20-21
HUMANITY and SIN
Humanity is created—male and female—in the image of God and was called “very good” at creation. As God’s image-bearers, humanity’s purpose was—and remains—to extend God’s glory throughout his creation. Since Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s command in the Garden, the whole world has been subjected to the curse of sin, fracturing the good fellowship humans once had with their Creator. All humans are under the curse of sin and are conceived into a corrupt and fallen system. Since sin has affected every aspect of our humanity, we are unable to bring ourselves out of this fallen state or to respond to God’s love apart from his mercy and grace.
Gen 1:1-3:22 • Jn 6:37-44 • Rom 3:10-18, 23 • Eph 2:1
SALVATION
Salvation is God’s redemption of humans from their fallen and hopeless state and is made freely available to all who believe in his Son, Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of their sins. Jesus’s very name means “salvation,” and he alone offers salvation through his life, death, and resurrection. In his life, he carried out God’s righteous law in perfect obedience where humanity had failed, falling short of God’s perfect standard. In his death on the cross, he bore the wrath of God in our place for our sins, satisfying the just penalty for humanity’s sin against a righteous and holy God. In his resurrection, he has led the way in victory over sin and death and into life everlasting. In Jesus Christ the fullness of God dwells, and this great salvation is ours by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Isa 43:11 • Jn 14:6 • Acts 4:12 • Rom 3:19-31 • Eph 2:8-10 • Heb 7:1-10:39
The CHURCH
All believers in Jesus Christ—past, present, and future—are saved into a universal, spiritual community called the Church. These believers are called to gather regularly, as Christ’s body, to worship the triune God and to encourage and edify one another through fellowship, prayer, teaching, and song. Every local church is fully equipped under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, by the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, to carry out the great commission on earth as God’s people.
Acts 2:46 • Eph 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:16-19 • Col 1:18 • Heb 10:24-25 • 1 Cor 12:4-7, 12-13 • 1 Cor 14:26; Col 3:16; Eph 5:19
BAPTISM
Unlike the old covenant, entrance into (and thus membership in) the new covenant is through faith, not physical birth. This is one essential aspect of what makes the new covenant new. Thus, the only proper recipients of baptism—a new covenant sign—are those who are members of the new covenant by faith. Baptism, as such, is a symbol of an existing reality (the believer’s real union with Christ) and nowhere spoken of as a symbol of an uncertain, hoped for, or future “possible” reality for the person baptized. The very act and mode of baptism by immersion symbolizes our being buried with Christ in his death and raised to new life in his resurrection.
Jer 31:31-34; Ezek 36:22-27 • Jn 1:12-13 • Rom 4:11-25, 9:8; Gal 3:7-9 • Heb 8:6-13 • Rom 6:3-4
The LORD’S SUPPER
The Lord’s Supper commemorates the death of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for our sins and points forward to the future reality of his return. In taking the Lord’s Supper, we reflect on our union with Christ and our fellowship with one another as his body. The bread and the wine are not the physical body and blood of Jesus Christ, but a memorial of his one perfect and complete sacrifice for sins.
Matt 26:28-29 • Acts 2:42, 46; 20:7 (cf. Acts 27:35) • 1 Cor 10:16-17, 21 • 1 Cor 11:23-28 • Heb 9:25-28
LAST THINGS
The Lord Jesus Christ will physically return one day in the future. His return will be public and glorious, and all believers are called to joyfully await that day. After the Lord’s return, everlasting life awaits all who have believed in God’s Son for the redemption of their souls and judgement for all who remain in their sins, having rejected their Creator in unbelief.
Matt 24:29-31 • Jn 5:25-29 • 1 Cor 15:50-58 • 1 Thess 1:10 • Titus 2:14
* All points of doctrine in this statement are consistent with one or more of the reformed confessions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (e.g., Three Forms of Unity, Westminster Confession, Savoy Declaration, Second London Baptist Confession).