From the songs we sing to how we open God’s Word, everything we do at Hope is informed by what we believe about the Bible and the person of Jesus Christ.
That starts with the gospel, sometimes called the Good News. This is where we find the core beliefs foundational to the structural integrity of our church. We’d love to share them with you.
God is the all-powerful Creator of the universe and everything in it, who fashioned man and woman in His image for His glory.
Human beings were made in God’s image to love and worship Him forever. But ever since Adam first rebelled against God, we have all been lost in sin, found guilty under God’s judgement, and unable to save ourselves.
Out of undeserved love and grace, God sent His only Son, to save us from sin and reconcile us to Himself through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
God offers us His gift of salvation by grace, which we receive through faith in Jesus. He makes us new, calls us to leave sin behind, and invites us to join His work in the world.
We believe the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments to be the full record of God’s self disclosure to mankind. Different men, while writing according to their own styles and personalities, were supernaturally moved along by the Holy Spirit to record God’s very words, inerrant in the original writings, infallible in their instruction, eternal in duration, and fully trustworthy as our final and sufficient authority for the standard for faith and practice and sufficient for counsel in every issue of life. Those applying themselves to study the Bible in its literal, historical-grammatical context can accurately understand God’s Word.
(Psalm 19:7-11; Psalm 119; Isaiah 40:8; Matthew 5:18; John 5:46-47; John 10:35; 2 Timothy 3:15-16; 1 Peter 1:23-25, 2 Peter 1:20-21).
There is one God and He created the heavens and the earth, out of nothing, by the Word of His power, and declared His creation to be good. God is the maker, sustainer, and sovereign ruler of all things.
We believe in the one living and true God, eternally existing in perfect unity as three equally and fully divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each member of the Godhead, while executing distinct but complementary roles in redemptive history, has precisely the same deity, nature, and attributes, and is equally worthy of the same glory, honor and obedience.
(Genesis 1:1, Psalm 24:1-2; Matthew 3:16-17; Matthew 28:19-20; John 1:1-3; John 17:24; Acts 5:3-4; Ephesians 4:4-6; Hebrews 1:2).
We believe in God the Father, the eternal Father almighty and fully God, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. He exercises sovereign headship over all creation, providence and redemption. As Father, He relates to His people with intimacy and care assuring them of His providential care of all circumstances.
(Matthew 23:9; Luke 10:21-22; John 3:16; John 6:27; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 8:5-6; Ephesians 1:3-12; 1 Timothy 1:1-2; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; 1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:6; Revelation 4:11).
We believe in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son and fully God, moved by love in accordance with the will of the Father, took on human flesh. Conceived through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the virgin Mary. He, being fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life and sacrificially shed His blood and died on the cross in our place accomplishing redemption for all who place their faith in Him. He arose visibly and bodily from the dead three days later and ascended into heaven, where, at the Father’s right hand, He is the Head of His Body the Church, the only Saviour and Mediator between God and man, and will return to earth in power and glory to consummate His redemptive mission.
(John 1:1-3,14,18; John 14:8-9; Colossians 1:15-18; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:3).
We believe the Holy Spirit is fully God and in all He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ during this age. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgement. He draws the unredeemed to repentance and faith, and at salvation imparts new spiritual life to the believer, bringing that person into union with Christ and the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit sanctifies, seals, fills, guides, instructs, comforts, equips, empowers, permanently indwells at salvation, and bestows spiritual gifts to the believer for Christ-like living and service.
(John 16:8; 13:15; Ephesians 1:22; 4:11–12; Romans 8:9-17; 12:4–8; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 12:4-5, 11–13, 19; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Galatians 5:25; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 2:1–4).
We believe that God created humanity – male and female – in His own image and likeness. We believe that God directly created Adam from the dust of the ground and Eve from his side. We believe that Adam and Eve were the historical parents of the entire human race and that they were created male and female equally in the image of God, without sin. We believe that they were created to glorify God and that they were appointed differing and complementary roles in marriage as a type of Christ and the Church.
We believe in the God-given sanctity and worth of all human life, from conception to natural death.
We believe that marriage is created by God to be shared between one biological man and one biological woman, in a lifelong holy covenant, for the purpose of companionship, sexual intimacy, and procreation. Our created gender, sexuality and sexual fulfillment are gifts from God that are to be embraced with gratitude.
(Genesis 1:27-28; Genesis 2:7; Genesis 2:18; Genesis 2:24; Psalm 139:13-16; Jeremiah 1:4-5; Luke 1:41; Matthew 19:4-6; Ephesians 5:22-33).
We believe that Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan, but in the sovereign plan of God, freely chose to disobey God, bringing sin, death and condemnation to all mankind. All human beings, therefore, are totally depraved by nature and by choice. Alienated from God without defense or excuse, and subject to God’s righteous wrath, all of mankind is in desperate need of the Saviour.
(Genesis 3:1–6; Romans 1:18; Romans 3:10–19; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23).
We believe the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as the substitutionary atonement in our place, and that salvation is found in none other than Jesus Christ. Before creation, God chose those who would be saved and granted this unearned grace solely based on His sovereign plan. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was the sole and complete payment for sins, fully satisfying God’s righteous wrath, for each person that turns from sin in repentance and places their faith in Christ alone by grace alone. Upon salvation each person is made a new creation by the Holy Spirit, declared righteous before God, and secured as an adopted child of God forever. Genuine faith continues in obedience and love for Jesus Christ with a life eager to glorify God and persevere to the end.
(John 6:44; Romans 8:37–39; Rom 9:21-29; 1 Corinthians 12:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 1:3-14).
Upon placing one’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, the believer is made part of the Body of Christ, the one universal Church, of which Jesus Christ is the Head. Scripture commands believers to gather locally in order to devote themselves to worship, prayer, teaching of the Word, fellowship, the ordinances of Baptism and Communion, service to the local body through the development and use of talents and spiritual gifts, and outreach to the world to make disciples.
We believe that the Spirit of God has given all believers spiritual gifts for the building up of the body of Christ. We believe that the Great Commission that has been given to the Church by the Lord Jesus to make disciples of all nations, locally and globally, is binding His Church to the end of the age. Wherever God’s people meet regularly in obedience to this command, there is the local expression of the Church under the watchful care of a plurality of Elders. We believe that each local church should recognize and affirm the divine calling of spiritually qualified men to give leadership to the church through the role of elder.
(Matthew 16:18; Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:42-46; Acts 20:28; Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 14:26; Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Peter 5:1).
We believe Christian baptism is a public declaration of the believer’s salvation in Christ, identifying with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection symbolized by immersion in water. The Lord’s Supper (Communion) is the united commemoration by believers of Christ’s death until He comes and should be preceded by a careful self-examination.
(Acts 2:41; Romans 6:3–6; 1 Corinthians 11:20–29).
We believe in and expectantly await the glorious, visible, and personal, return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessed hope of His return has vital bearing on the personal life, service, and mission of the believer. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost. The lost will be raised to judgement and experience eternal wrath in hell. The saved will be raised to eternal joy in the new heaven and new earth in the manifested presence of God.
(Luke 16:19-31; Acts 1:3, 9; 2 Corinthians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; 2 Peter 2:4; Hebrews 7:25-26; Revelation 20:14; Revelation 21 and 22).
