THE BELIEFS
As we have stated on our homepage, we are a Particular Baptist congregation. Another way to express this could be that we are a "Reformed Baptist" church. These terms mean something, they describe a church that believes and practices certain doctrines that were held and articulated by saints that have come before us - we stand on their shoulders.
There are many today that claim the badge of “Reformed” and yet they do not practice or even hold to all the doctrines of the Reformed faith. The implications are far reaching and a church needs to be clear about what they believe. Of course, we believe the Bible, but there are even false and heretical religions and institutions that claim to believe the Bible. We must go further, we must explain what we believe the Bible teaches about a triune God, man, sin, judgement, salvation, the church, judgement, etc.
We have decided to express our foundational beliefs in the following four categories: We are Baptist, We are Calvinistic & Reformed, We are Confessional, and We are Covenantal.
BAPTIST
It almost goes without saying, but most in the Reformed camp are paedo-Baptist, meaning that they administer the ordinance of Baptism to the infants of believers. They also practice the mode of sprinkling. As Baptist’s, we reject any mode other than immersion. It is the only mode that properly signifies the union with Christ in his burial and resurrection (going down into the water and coming up out of the water), and it perfectly signifies our life being hid/immersed/baptized into Christ. We also reject the administration of the ordinance to any except those that rightly profess their faith in Christ. When the Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip what prevented him from being baptized, Philip answered,
"And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Acts 8:37
As Reformed believers, we rely upon the finely articulated historical confessions. We hold with ancient Israel to their first confession about God, “The LORD our God is one!” We also echo the early churches in their confession of the Nicene Creed, Athanasius Creed, the Chalcedonian Creed, and the good catechisms of the faith. The distinctiveness of being Baptist, however, force us to articulate further the differences in our theology from the Paedobaptist reformed believers in primarily matters of the covenants and the church. These are expressed so well and with such concise precision in the 1689 2nd London Baptist Confession.
Calvinistic really refers to what is known as the Five Points of Calvinism (Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Application of Redemption also known as Particular Redemption where we get “Particular” Baptist, Irresistible Grace also known as Effectual Calling, and Perseverance of the Saints) also referred to as the Doctrines of Grace. These doctrines, however, only refer to salvation, and Reformed theology is much broader than simply the doctrines of salvation.
Reformed Theology really is simply Covenantal Theology. God made relationships with man through covenants and all the promises of redemption and hope revealed to us in Scripture are embodied and expressed through covenants. It is the hermeneutic of Scripture contained within Scripture itself. It provides the framework from which the fundamental doctrines of soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology are developed and harmonized throughout God’s revealed Word. It is antithetical and incompatible with Dispensationalism. Scripture and the doctrines espoused therein become a beautiful tapestry woven throughout every book, and the glory of God in Christ shines with splendor and majesty from Genesis to Revelation.