“Loyalty to the person of Christ requires loyalty to that sum of doctrine as he has given it to us” – Jaroslav Pelikan
Our Beliefs
To promote unity and transparency, Redeemer Community Church affirms three levels of doctrine:
Foundational doctrines identify us with the one, holy, universal, and apostolic church that exists in all places and ages. Agreement with the foundational doctrines is required to volunteer at RCC.
Fundamental doctrines associate us with the Protestant evangelical tradition. Agreement with the fundamental doctrines is required for membership at RCC.
Distinctive doctrines situate us theologically among Protestant evangelicals. Agreement with the distinctive doctrines is required for all officers and pastoral staff at RCC.
Foundational Doctrines
In unity with the historic, universal church we affirm the foundational doctrines confessed in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.
The Apostles’ Creed
“The Apostles’ Creed is one of the earliest and most important statements of belief produced by the Christian Church.” – Ligonier Ministries
I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary,
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From there He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.
The Nicene Creed (A.D. 381)
“The Nicene Creed is the most universally accepted Christian Creed” – Justo L. González
We believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven;
He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and was made human.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered and was buried.
The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.
He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will never end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.
He proceeds from the Father and the Son,
and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
He spoke through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and to life in the world to come.
Amen.
Fundamental Doctrines
“There are two things which all treatment of the Scriptures is aiming at:
a way to discover what needs to be understood,
and a way to put across to others what has been understood” – St. Augustine
In unity with Protestant, evangelical churches we affirm the five Solas of the Protestant Reformation and the following fundamental doctrines.
1. The Bible. The Bible is the inspired, infallible Word of God whose sixty-six books are the primary source and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.
2. God. The one true God exists as a Trinity of three distinct persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—each of whom is fully divine, yet there is only one God. The Triune God is eternal and immutable, omnipotent and omniscient, transcendent and immanent, compassionate and gracious, holy and loving. He is the sovereign creator, the gracious redeemer, and the righteous judge. God’s natural and moral perfections as well as His creative and redemptive works make Him alone worthy of our wholehearted adoration, allegiance, and obedience.
3. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary to be fully human while remaining fully divine. He was the promised Messiah and the second Adam who lived a perfect life as humanity’s representative and died an atoning death as sinners’ substitute. He was resurrected bodily from the grave and ascended into heaven where He reigns as Lord and intercedes as high priest. When Christ returns, He will defeat God’s enemies, judge the living and the dead, hand over the kingdom to God the Father, and then dwell with the redeemed forever.
4. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity who regenerates, baptizes, seals, sanctifies, gifts, guides, illumines, empowers, comforts, helps, and produces fruit in believers. He indwells both the church as a whole and every individual believer, who are commanded to live and walk and to be led and filled by the Spirit.
5. Humanity. Humans are made in God’s image and therefore possess inherent dignity and worth from conception until death. God makes humans either male or female at conception and confines sexual activity to a monogamous marriage between a man (a biological male) and a woman (a biological female). Humanity’s purpose is to glorify God by loving Him wholeheartedly and serving Him faithfully. Adam’s disobedience resulted in humanity’s condemnation and corruption, so that every person is born spiritually dead, alienated from God, subject to sin, and unable to save themselves.
6. Salvation. In love God the Father accomplished salvation through the virgin birth, representative life, substitutionary death, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is God the Son. Salvation involves union with Christ, propitiation, justification, forgiveness, redemption, regeneration, adoption, and reconciliation. Salvation is applied by the Holy Spirit to those who repent of their sins and embrace Jesus as their Savior and Lord by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Christ alone. Salvation is confirmed by an orthodox gospel confession, the internal witness of the Spirit, and the testimony of a transformed life evidenced by increasing holiness and love.
7. Sanctification. Christians are sanctified positionally, progressively, and perfectly. Positionally, God consecrates believers by identifying them with Himself and setting them apart for Himself. In this sense, every Christian is a saint—someone set apart by God as holy to live a holy life and fulfill a holy purpose. Progressively, God calls and causes Christians to grow in holiness, conforming them to the image of Christ and producing in them the fruit of the Spirit. Ultimately, God will perfect His children in holiness and resurrect them in glorified bodies. Christians are expected to live in Christlike holiness, obedience, and love through the Holy Spirit and to confess and repent of their sins when they do not. Scripture summarizes sanctification as wholehearted love for God, Christ-like love for Christians, and selfless love for others.
8. The Church. The Church is the family of God, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is comprised of regenerate Christians, who receive spiritual gifts to edify the church in unity and love. Membership in the universal church is enjoyed and expressed through committed, active participation in a local church community. The mission of the church is to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded us.
9. Ordinances. The New Testament establishes two ordinances for the church: the Lord’s Supper and baptism. The Lord’s Supper is to be observed regularly in remembrance of Christ’s atoning death, in celebration of His communion with His Church, and in anticipation of His return. Baptism symbolizes a convert’s repentance, salvation, consecration, and cleansing and indicates his or her identification with the death and resurrection of Jesus and his or her incorporation into the body of Christ, the church. Water baptism is obligatory but not salvific.
10. Eternity. Christ is returning to judge the living and the dead and will righteously consign every soul to either eternal bliss or eternal judgment. The blessed hope of the church is to live forever on the new earth in glorified bodies in the glorious, loving presence of the Triune God.
Distinctive Doctrines
“A non-theological Christianity has simply never endured,
although such has been attempted” – John H. Leith
With regards to doctrines that distinguish Protestant, evangelical Christians, RCC affirms the following distinctive doctrines:
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- The inerrancy of Scripture, which affirms that the entirety of the Bible is inspired by God and therefore completely accurate and without error in what it asserts as true (Psalm 18:30; 119; Matthew 5:17–18; John 10:34–35; 17:17; 2 Timothy 2:13; 3:16–17; Titus 1:2; 1 Peter 1:23–25; 2 Peter 1:20–21).
- A Reformed view of the total depravity of fallen humanity, the sovereign grace of God in salvation, and the eternal security of the redeemed (Psalm 14:2–3; 51:5; 58:3; Jeremiah 13:23; John 6:44, 65; 10:25–30; Acts 2:39, 47; 13:48; 14:27; 16:14; Romans 1:18–3:20; 8:7–8, 31–39; 9; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 1:3–14; 2:1–3).
- An elder-rule church polity, which believes that the church government best fitting Scripture is for each local church to be self-governed by a plurality of biblically qualified elders (Acts 11:30; 14:23; 15:2, 4; 1 Timothy 3:1–7; 5:17–22; Titus 1:5–9; 1 Peter 5:1–4; Hebrews 13:17).
- Believers’ baptism by immersion performed in obedience to Christ but not to affect salvation (Mathew 3:1–17; 28:18–20; John 4:1–2; Acts 8:12, 36–38; 16:32–33; Corinthians 1:17).
- An open but careful view of the sign gifts, which does not deny the possibility that tongues, prophecies, and healings might occur but insists that they be practiced and interpreted biblically as well as be tested to see whether they are indeed from God (1 Corinthians 12–14; Hebrews 2:3–4; 1 John 4:1).
- A complementarian view of gender roles, which affirms the equal value and dignity of men and women but recognizes a divinely ordained distinction in their roles in the church and family as defined by Scripture (Genesis 2:7, 22; 3:16; 1 Corinthians 11:1–16; 14:34–36; Ephesians 5:22–33; Colossians 3:18; 1 Timothy 2:9–15; Titus 2:5; 1 Peter 3:1–7).
- Many Christians learned this line as “He descended into hell.” However, this departs from the official received text (textus receptus) of the Apostles’ Creed, miscommunicates what the early church confessed, and, most importantly, differs from what the Bible actually teaches. The earliest Latin copies of the creed read inferus, a reference to the place of the dead, which in Hebrew was called Sheol and in Greek Hades. In the fourth century, however, a Syrian monk named Rufinus changed inferus to inferna, a reference to the place of eternal perdition and punishment, i.e., hell. Thus, what the Creed affirms is that after Jesus was crucified and died, His body was buried and His soul descended into Sheol/Hades, the place of the dead. On the third day Jesus rose body and soul from the dead, as will those who are in Christ when He returns.
- The word “catholic” here means universal or general (i.e., the whole church of Jesus Christ that exists in every nation where the gospel has spread). The first time this term (καθολικός) occurs in Christian literature is by a second-century apostolic father, Ignatius of Antioch. Here’s how he used it: “wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church” (Smyrn. 8:2).