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THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST

We believe that Jesus Christ alone is King of Kings and Lord Of Lords. He is before all things, the King of Creation, the one Lord over the church, and the only way to the Father.

Jesus Christ is not one Lord among many. Nor is He one way among others by which we may come to God. He is the center of God’s redemptive-historical purposes. He made exclusive claims to those who would enter into relationship with God the Father.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.   John 14:6

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.  Acts 4:12

…He raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.   Ephesians 1:19-23

BIBLICAL AUTHORITY

We believe that the Bible - in its particulars as well as in its principles - is the uniquely authoritative witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the life which God calls us. It is trustworthy in its entirety.

The Bible is not subject to the spirit of the age. Nor is it reducible to a series of adaptable faith principles for each new day. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are divinely inspired and therefore authoritative across time.

Our own PC (USA) Book of Confessions states:

We believe and confess the canonical Scriptures of the holy prophets and apostles of both Testaments to be the true Word of God, and to have sufficient authority of themselves, not of men. For God himself spoke to the fathers, prophets, apostles, and still speaks to us through the Holy Scriptures. The Second Helvetic Confession; Chapter 1; and

As we believe and confess the Scriptures of God sufficient to instruct and make perfect the man of God, so do we affirm and avow their authority to be from God, and not to depend on men or angels. The Scots Confession; Chapter XIX

Further we believe and profess that we should ordain or install as Minister of the Word and Sacrament, Elder or Deacon, only a person who believes the Bible is God’s unique and authoritative word for us.

Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” Matthew 22:29

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. II Timothy 3:16

He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.  II Peter 3:15-17 (speaking about Paul)

The PC (USA) Book of Order has stated:

(7) That all Church power, whether exercised by the body in general or in the way of representation by delegated authority, is only ministerial and declarative; that is to say, that the Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and manners; that no Church governing body ought to pretend to make laws to bind the conscience in virtue of their own authority; and that all their decisions should be founded upon the revealed will of God.

Now though it will easily be admitted that all synods and councils may err, through the frailty inseparable from humanity, yet there is much greater danger from the usurped claim of making laws than from the right of judging upon laws already made, and common to all who profess the gospel, although this right, as necessity requires in the present state, be lodged with fallible men.  G-1.0307 Church Power

THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

We believe the Church is the visible embodiment of the reign of God. It is the worldwide fellowship of Christian believers, gathered into local congregations, among whom God is glorified, over whom God rules, and through whom God makes Himself known.

The denomination is not the Church. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is a human structure created to serve God’s purpose to redeem all people into an everlasting relationship with himself, and is beneficial only insofar as it remains faithful and subject to this end. The peace, unity, and purity to which Jesus calls the Church is not to be understood nominally or structurally, but at the level of its most central and deeply-held shared faith convictions.

“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."  John 17:17-23

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.  Philippians 2:1-2

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…all the believers were one in heart and mind. Acts 2:42, 32.

We believe that sexuality is a gift from God, and that sexual union was designed for and permitted Biblically within the marriage relationship between a man and a woman.

Christian marriage is an institution ordained of God, blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ, established and sanctified for the happiness and welfare of mankind, into which spiritual and physical union one man and one woman enter, cherishing a mutual esteem and love, bearing with each other’s infirmities and weaknesses, comforting each other in trouble, providing in honesty and industry for each other and for their household, praying for each other and living together the length of their days as heirs of the grace of life.  (The Westminster Confession of Faith; Chapter XXIV)

Sexual union outside of the covenant of marriage or between persons of the same sex is sin.

All people involved in sexual sin can be forgiven through Jesus, and renewed and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Sexual sin is no greater or lesser than other acts of disobedience identified in the Scriptures. It and all other sins are outward expressions of inward brokenness, the brokenness for which Jesus died.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  I Corinthians 6:9-11

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.  Romans 1:24-32

IMPLICATIONS

In the light of these central theological commitments, we call the PC (USA) denomination, and the Church universal of which it is a part, to seek and uphold:

Doctrinal purity, affirming Biblical teaching concerning the exclusive Lordship of Jesus Christ and the final authority of the Scriptures as our faithful rule for all matter of faith and practice; and

Physical purity, affirming Biblical patterns for governing and expressing our sexuality, whether through chastity in singleness or through fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman.

IN CONCLUSION

We hereby make this confession, not so that people will leave or be removed from positions of leadership within the church, for it is our desire, a longing in our hearts, that people engaged in sin, sexual or otherwise, would turn away from all disobedience, and receive Jesus’ forgiveness. We call on all of us to examine our own lives, confessing our sins to God and receiving the forgiveness that has been offered to us through Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. Through his grace and by his power may we live publicly and privately in obedience to God’s will.

These things we do humbly confess and uphold this 17th day of December 2001.

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Reaffirmed on the 17th day of July, 2006