RBC Core Doctrines & Beliefs:
What a person believes is important, as this impacts how we all choose to live out our life. At Reformata, our faith and the living out of our faith is all founded on what the Bible teaches us as believers in Christ Jesus.
Here are our principle beliefs:
*We as a church body identify primarily with The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. We also recognize The 1658 Savoy Declaration & 1646 Westminster Confession*
God
There is only true God; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He created all things and upholds all things by the Word of His power. In Him we live and move and have our being. He is the God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He and He shall judge the world. To Him is owed all love, worship, reverence and obedience from all His creation.
The Trinity
The Godhead eternally exists in three persons. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and are worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience.
Our Mediator
We believe in the total deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe He is the manifestation of God in the flesh. We believe He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. We believe Him to be true God and true man. He perfectly fulfilled the Law, suffered and died for the salvation of sinners. He was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended to His Father, at whose hand He ever lives to make intercession for His people.
The Scriptures
The Old Testament and New Testament were verbally inspired by God and are inerrant. The 66 books of the Old Testament and the New Testament are God’s complete and sufficient revelation and therefore carry God’s authority for the total well-being of mankind.
The Fall Of Man
We believe that man, originally created in the image and after the likeness of God, fell from his sinless and happy state when he ate the forbidden fruit. As a result of his disobedience, all are born into this world as sinners, totally depraved and in need of a Savior.
Election
Election is God’s eternal choice of some persons into everlasting life. Not because of any foreseen merit within a person but purely of His divine mercy through Christ Jesus of which one is called, justified and glorified.
Regeneration
Regeneration is a spiritual awakening to the spiritually dead sinner whereby The Holy Spirit convicts, brings to life and regenerates the spiritually dead, enabling them to believe on Christ, baptizing the believer into one body of which Christ is the head.
Repentance
Repentance is a gift offered by the Holy Spirit, wherein a person is made known of their abhorrent sin, humbles themselves with godly sorrow, is filled with grief of their sinfulness and turns from their wickedness for the purpose to walk before God so as to please Him in all things.
Justification/Salvation
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice. We believe that all who by faith believe in Him as their personal Savior are justified on the basis of His blood shed on Calvary. They are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become eternally secure as children of God. We believe the Holy Spirit baptizes a person who believes into the body of Christ at the moment of salvation.
Sanctification
All regenerate believers are in a state of sanctification whereby The Word of God and the indwelling of The Holy Spirit continually strengthen the desire of the believer to obtain a fullness of obedience to the commands of Christ our Lord until the day of completion wherein we have obtained glorified bodies.
Faith
Saving faith is the belief of all God’s authority and all that is revealed in His Word concerning Christ. This faith brings about the fullness of relying on Him alone for justification unto eternal life and all accompanying saving graces.
Baptism
We believe that Christian baptism is a public declaration of and identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection signified by varying modes of baptism by water.
Perseverance Of The Saints:
Those by whom God has called to Himself in The Spirit and has justified by the cross of Jesus Christ, will by no means permanently fall away from the state of grace but will persevere to the end.
The Church
Upon believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, all believers have therefore become part of His body, the church. There is one church universal (invisible), composed of all those who are born again by the Spirit of God. The Scriptures command believers to gather together to devote themselves to worship, prayer, teaching of the Word, observance of the ordinances (baptism and communion), fellowship, service to the body through the development and use of talents and gifts, and outreach to the world in fulfillment of the command of Christ to make disciples of all believers. Wherever God’s people meet regularly in obedience to this command there is the local expression of the church (visible) – under the watch-care of Elders and other supportive leadership. Its members are to work together in love and unity, intent on the one ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ.
The Lords Day
The Lord’s Day is a weekly day, set apart day in observance to the purpose of worship and devotion to God alone.
The Lords Supper
The Lord’s Supper is the commemoration by believers of Christ’s death until He comes and should be preceded by a careful self-examination. We as a church body participate in The Lords Supper the first Lords Day of each month.
The Resurrection
We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord Jesus Christ, His ascension into heaven, and His present life for us as High Priest and Advocate.
The Return of Christ, The Judgment, Heaven & Hell
We believe in the “blessed hope”: the personal, imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ, to earth, to establish His Kingdom’s reign of peace and righteousness. His return has a vital bearing on the personal life and service of the believer. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost. The saved are raised to eternal, conscious bliss in heaven the lost are raised to eternal torment in hell in conscious separation from God.
You may view Reformata’s Church Constitution for a more in depth understanding of our core beliefs.