What We Believe

1. God

We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.

2. Bible

We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.

3. The Human Condition

We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God's saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.

4. Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel's promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.

5. The Work of Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.

6. The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christlike living and service.

7. The Church

We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God's grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.

8. Christian Living

We believe that God's justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God's Word, the Spirit's power, and fervent prayer in Christ's name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ's commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.

9. Christ's Return

We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.

10. Response and Eternal Destiny

We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.

Where this house stands

The Articles above are held in common with the wider church. What follows is narrower: convictions that govern what is taught here. They bind what we teach, not whom we welcome to read. Nothing on this page is a condition of entry, and the door of the Cathedral is open to anyone.

Eternal security

All true believers are kept by God's power and are secure in Christ forever.

John 10:28; Romans 8:38-39; Philippians 1:6

The miraculous sign gifts have ceased

Tongues, prophecy as new revelation, and the sign-miracles that authenticated the apostles belonged to the founding of the church. We do not teach ongoing revelation equal to Scripture.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 2 Corinthians 12:12

Marriage and sexuality

Humanity is created man and woman, and marriage is the covenantal union of one man and one woman. We welcome any reader who comes to this house of study; we do not affirm same-sex marriage or LGBTQ sexual ethics as biblical.

Genesis 1:27; 2:18, 21-24; 1 Corinthians 7:7

Sex belongs to marriage

Sexual union is reserved for lifelong, monogamous marriage between one man and one woman.

Genesis 2:24; 1 Corinthians 7:3-5

Church leadership

The office of elder and pastor is ordered as the pastoral epistles order it. This does not limit how women use their gifts in the body of Christ; it concerns that office alone.

1 Timothy 2:12-13; 3:1-2; Titus 1:5-6

The end times

That Christ will return personally, bodily and gloriously is closed. The timetable is not. This house holds no position on a pre-, mid- or post-tribulational rapture, or on a pre-, post- or amillennial scheme. Where a passage raises the question, we present the leading views fairly and leave the reader to decide.

The age of the earth

We lean toward a young earth, and recognize that faithful Christians differ on chronology. We reject unguided macro-evolution as an account of human origins. That Adam and Eve were real people, created by God, is closed.