I. The Bible

 

• The Bible is infallible, inerrant, and sufficient (Sola Scriptura).

• The full inspiration (theopnuestos) of God's Word.

• The Word of God is the ultimate standard of all standards.

• The Bible is the only rule of faith and practice for Christians.

 

II. The Trinity

 

• The one true God of the Bible exists in a plurality of distinct and consubstantial persons, i.e., the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

• Regarding the Tri-personality of God, the Father is not ontologically greater than the Son, the Son is not eternally subordinate to the Father, the Spirit is not inferior to the Father or Son, nor is one person more glorious than the others. Since all three persons share the same undivided essence, they are co-equal, co-glorious, and co-eternal with each other. Therefore, the Trinity of persons in the Godhead are to be equally worshiped and served.

• In the Triunity of God, there is one divine nature, not three different beings. So one divine nature in the Godhead indicates one ad intra will. For example, Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law" (emphasis mine). This text means God has revealed some things to His people in His Word (preceptive), and there are some things God has not revealed (decretive), which doesn't indicate two wills but one.

• There is no hierarchy, superiority, subordination, derivation, begetting, or processions in the immanent Trinity. So all texts referring to the submission of the Son to the Father or the procession of the Spirit point to the economy of redemption, not the ontological Trinity.

• Because the persons in the Godhead share the same divine essence, the external works or operations of the Trinity are undivided.

• There is perfect unity in the operation of the Godhead: God chose the elect, Christ died for the elect, and the Spirit seals the elect.

 

III. God the Father

 

• God, the Father is the first person of the Trinity.

• God ordained, rules, governs, controls, and sustains all things whatsoever shall come to pass.

• God is absolutely sovereign, uncaused, superlatively Holy, immutable, self-existent, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, righteous, and the ultimate cause of all things.

• God does as He pleases in the salvation and condemnation of sinners. Therefore, God actively and unconditionally chose the elect for heaven and reprobated the wicked for hell (everlasting conscious torment) per His absolute sovereignty.

• God’s grace is not universal, resistible, or common but is sovereign, discriminative, eternal, free, absolute, immutable, efficacious, irresistible, and reserved exclusively for the elect of God for whom Christ died.

 

IV. God the Son

 

• Christ, the monogenes Theos, is the second person of the Trinity.

• The preexistent Christ is fully God, but distinct from the Father.

• Christ is the begotten [mono: only + genes: kind or class] Son, not made or created.

• With respect to His humanity (virgin birth), Christ became flesh (without sin), and He possessed and exercised the plentitude or pleroma of deity (before, during, and after the incarnation).

• Christ is wholly God and wholly man, with two distinct, unmingled, and inseparable natures.

• Christ, God the Logos, is one person (hypostasis), not two (Nestorian heresy), and He has two wills, not one [Monothelitism heresy: monos (single) + thelo (will)].

• Christ died a substitutionary and propitiatory death on a cursed cross. Christ died for only the elect, and He redeemed them from the curse of the law and the power of Satan, sin, and death.

• Christ’s death was efficacious, particular, and sufficient for the elect, not all men, without exception.

• Christ loves the elect, not reprobate, and He died for the sheep, not goats. Therefore, God imputed the righteousness of Christ to the invisible church, not those outside of it.

• Concerning His divinity, Christ resurrected from the dead to justify the elect and is thus the Lord of the dead and the living. The resurrection of Christ is a declaration of His full divinity and efficacious gospel. Because of Christ's resurrection, the elect will also rise. This gospel truth proves the Son exhausted the Father's wrath on their behalf; death has no dominion over Him, and the defeat of Satan, who had the power of death. Apart from the incarnate Christ, whom God raised in the same body before His death, everything is in vain.

• Because of the resurrection of Christ, the saints will be resurrected, and God will one day reunite their souls with their bodies.

• God's Word explicitly teaches about the visible, personal and future second coming of Christ (Parousia) and the final judgment.

 

V. God the Spirit

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• The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity.

• The Holy Spirit is fully God, but distinct from the Father and the Son.

• The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force but is a moral, self-aware, and rational person.

• The Holy Spirit regenerates, indwells, convicts, intercedes, etc.

• The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (oikonomia).

 

VI. Justification

 

• The author of justification is God the Father.

• The source of justification is God’s particular grace (Sola Gratia). 

• The ground of justification is the righteousness of Christ (Solus Christus).  

• The instrument of justification is the gift of faith (Sola Fide).

• As a disclaimer, faith is not meritorious, or the cause of justification, and faith does not precede regeneration. Instead, the elect are given faith after regeneration. Thus, faith is a work of God, not man, a gift of God, not of works, and faith is the assurance of the things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith alone or Sola Fide is the means or the alone instrument whereby God’s particular people receive the gift of faith and are united to their vicarious Savior.

• God ordained the justification of the elect before the foundation of the world. But the elect were not justified (legally or forensically) in eternity or at the cross.

• The elect of God for whom Christ died are justified in time when their hearts are spiritually circumcised or regenerated by the Holy Spirit. After the elect are regenerated, they are given the gift of faith (sole instrument of justification) because of the merits of Christ alone (ground of justification) and are thus justified.

 

VII. Imputation

 

• Adam transgressed God’s law, and his sin was imputed to all men. But since God loves the elect, He imputed their sin to Christ, and He imputes the righteousness of Christ to the elect.

• The imputed righteousness of Christ refers to His perfect obedience to the law and His substitutionary death, which is the whole work of the righteousness of Christ in its compact unity, commonly referred to as His preceptive and penal obedience.

• Per 2 Corinthians 5:21 ("For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," emphasis mine), "sin" refers to an alien sin, inherently belonging to sinners [elect], not the Savior, even though God imputed the sins of the elect to Christ. And the "righteousness" points to the alien righteousness, inherently belonging to the Master, not men, even though God imputes the perfect righteousness of Christ to the elect. Many will twist the words "sin" and "righteousness" in 2 Corinthians 5:21 because they believe Christ's nature became sinful or think they are inherently righteous, which is blasphemous and not biblical.

• The righteousness of Christ is the only ground of justification and assurance of salvation.

• The gospel of Christ is not a well-meant offer of salvation; it's a declaration of His completed and saving work.

 

VIII. The Doctrines of Grace

 

• Total Depravity: All men are born into this world totally depraved or desperately wicked as can be. Therefore, all men are born into this world, unable and unwilling to save themselves. As a disclaimer, when the elect of God are regenerated, they are no longer totally depraved.

• Unconditional Election: God unconditionally loved and chose the elect, not based on foreseen faith or disbelief (prescience view), but per His eternal and immutable will, to the praise of His glorious grace.

• Particular Redemption: The Savior, Christ Jesus, died for the elect, not reprobate, He died for the sheep, not goats, and He died for all without distinction, not all without exception.

• Irresistible Grace: God chose the elect before the foundation of the world. Therefore, the Lord will effectually call the elect in His appointed time and irresistibly bring them to saving faith in their great God and Savior.

• Perseverance of the Saints: The Father chose the elect, the Son died for the sheep, and the Spirit seals the invisible church. As a result, the Triune God infallibly secured the salvation of the elect, and they can never lose their salvation.

 

IX. Additional Distinctives

 

• Received Text

• Plurality of elders

• Regulative principles of worship

• Exclusive psalmody - a cappella

• Family integrated worship

• Expository/exegetical preaching

• Baptism of believers

• The priesthood of all believers

• Discipleship

• Church discipline

• Evangelism/street preaching

• Biblical separation

• Preaching the gospel to all men,
  promiscuously and without distinction

• Cessationism

• Amillennialism

Contact us with any questions you have about our doctrine.

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Soli Deo Gloria

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