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We believe in one
God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created man in His own image with
the responsibility to reflect His holiness through obedience to His
commandments. In the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden, all mankind
entered a state of moral corruption called "original sin," by which
(though God preserved their humanity in the faculties of mind, will and
affections) mankind became estranged from God, enslaved to sin and morally
unable to incline themselves toward the things of God without the
regenerative work of the Holy Spirit.
For His own glory and
because of a profound love for His creation, God initiated and executed
His eternal plan of redemption, which He accomplished in history by the
person and work of His only Son, Jesus Christ, applying it to His people
by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We confess Jesus, both truly God and
truly man, to be the promised Messiah of Old Testament prophecy. Through
His life of perfect active obedience and His substitutionary, atoning
death and bodily resurrection, Jesus Christ provided the meritorious
ground of our justification, which merit God graciously imputes to His
people by faith alone.
Before the foundation of
the world, God elected unconditionally a portion of the human race to be
redeemed by Christ, leaving others to themselves and to the just
recompense of their sin. The Holy Spirit applies the work of Christ to
these elect by sovereignly effecting their regeneration and by working in
them for their sanctification. God gathers His people together into a
community of believers, thus establishing a visible church, which He calls
to live in the power of the Spirit under the authority of Holy Scripture,
exercising discipline, administering the sacraments and proclaiming the
Gospel of Christ.
We believe that the Bible
in its entirety is divine revelation, and we submit to the authority of
Holy Scripture, receiving it as inerrantly inspired by God and carrying
the full weight of His authority. We believe that God reveals Himself
also in nature and that He calls us to study it, as well as Scripture, to
learn the full scope of divine revelation.
We support the work of
orthodox and evangelical Christian institutions and organizations and are
committed to the implementation of the social and cultural implications of
God's Law for the well being of man and the created order. We believe
that our faith should be visible in our actions as we seek to be faithful
disciples of Christ, enduring in love and obedience until He returns to
consummate His Kingdom.
Summarily, we embrace and
adopt both the essential truths of orthodox Christianity, as articulated
in the ecumenical councils of
Nicea,
Constantinople and
Chalcedon,
and the system of doctrine expressed in the creeds of the Protestant
Reformation, including the
Belgic
Confession, the
Heidelberg
Catechism, the
Second London Confession of 1689, the
Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England and the
Westminster Confession of Faith.
(Click on the links to read the documents referred
to in the Statement of Faith)
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