Doctrinal Statement (condensed version)
The full version of our doctrinal statement is available at our downloads page and is also available to read here on this page at the end of the condensed version. Our condensed version is organized under six headings: God, revelation, gospel, humans, Jesus, and the church. Each section begins with a simple, precise statement, describing what we believe. Each section is supported with Scriptural references, and concludes with a brief sentence surveying ideas our beliefs exclude us from (technical terminology is used for short-hand and definitions can be found here on this page at the end of these documents).
God
We believe God is a Trinity, one unified being existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Deut 6:4; 2 Cor 13:14). We believe God is wholly sovereign (Acts 17:26). As such He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good, all-present, all-beautiful and holds all other greatest attributes (Ps 139). Thus, we are not polytheists, pantheists, pluralists, or open theists which excludes us from other world religions, eastern philosophies and cults.
Revelation
We believe God makes himself and his will known in two ways, through creation and through the Bible. Creation reflects God's beauty and existence as designer and uncaused source of all things including matter and morality (Rom 1:19-20). The Bible reflects God's history of revelation to humans of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe the Bible is inerrant as the verbally inspired word of God in the original writings and as such is the final and supreme authority for Christians (2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:16-21). Thus, we are not relativists, demythologists, or papists.
Gospel
We believe God is chiefly about his in the gospel, creating and saving a people for himself (Is 43:7) through the person and work of his son, Jesus Christ (Lk 24:27). Thus, we are not humanists, nihilists, naturalists, or theological postmodernists.
Humans
We believe humans were created in the image and likeness of God but through the sin of the first human, Adam, the race fell (Rom 5:12) and ever since individually and collectively sins which offends and alienates humans from God (Rom 1:21-25). The result is total moral depravity and inability of humans (Rom 3:1-12) to rectify their condition and the just response from the all-good God is the eternal wrath of hell (Rom 2:15; Mt 10:21; 24:51). Thus, we are not Pelagians, libertarians, or annhilationists.
Jesus
We believe God created space and time and entered into it in the person of Jesus Christ at the beginning of the first century as the eternal son of God in order to save humans. We believe Jesus is fully God and fully man, never was not so, and yet took on humanity without ever subtracting from his divinity (Jn 1:1-3,14; Phil 2:6-8). He was born of the virgin Mary (Mt 1:18-21), lived a sinless life (1 Pet 2:22) perfectly fulfilling the law (Mt 5:17), preached the gospel, died on a cross when he was 33 and rose again three days later and began appearing to hundreds of people for forty days (1 Cor 15:3-8). Thus, we are not monarchians or Arians, or revisionists who merely follow Jesus as a good teacher.
We believe on the cross Jesus satisfied God's just demands of eternal payment for sin since he was the eternal son of God (Rom 3:25). We believe on the cross Jesus substituted himself for all humans who believe in his person and work since he was a human who never sinned (2 Cor 5:21). We believe all humans who put faith in Jesus are justified before God because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus and are therefore saved from the eternal wrath of hell (Rom 4:24-25). Thus, we are not moralists, universalists, diabolic ransomists, or new perspectivists.
We believe this salvation for humans is a gift from God planned before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4; 2:8-9; Jn 15:16). We believe the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and unrighteousness (Jn 16:8), draws people to hear the gospel (Jn 6:44), and grants faith in Jesus' person and work to all types of peoples (Jn 3:16). After justification, we believe personal faith in Jesus is kept by the Holy Spirit through sanctification (Jn 10:29; 1 Pet 2:9; 1 Jn 2:19) until the time we die or Jesus returns to consumate the eternal glory of God (1 Thess 4:16-17; Rev 22:16-17). We believe Jesus is currently sitting on the throne of God and is the head pastor of his church (Heb 12:2; Eph 5:23). Thus, we are not Arminians, hyper-Calvinists, dispensationalists, perfectionists, or eschatological nationalists or theonimists.
The Church
We believe the Church is the invisible spiritual body of believers in Jesus throughout all time (Eph 5:4-16). We believe the Church has many local expressions and is not a business or a building but a viceroy of the kingdom of God (Rev 1:4-6). We believe in the autonomy of local churches and in a government of male plurality for the leadership of local churches (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet 5:1-5; 1 Tim 3:2). Thus, we are not ecumenicists, egalitarians, or mono-episcopists.
We believe the Holy Spirit gives different spiritual gifts to different individuals for the mutal edification of the person, the Church and the city (Rom 12:3-8; 1 Cor 12:4-11). We believe no gifts other than the Bible are essential (2 Pet 1:3-4), no gifts have expired (Jn 16:7-14) and individuals are responsible to exercise their gifts and moral liberties according to the instruction of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:16). Thus, we are not Pentecostals, cessationists, or moral fundamentalists.
We believe water baptism (Mt 28:19), the Lord's supper (1 Cor 11:23-26), and missional evangelism (Mk 16:15; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor 9:19-23) are the means of confession and expression for those who believe in Jesus. (Rom 10:9) We believe those who believe in Jesus will be actively involved in the ministry of his Church (1 Pet 4:10-11; Heb 10:24-25). Thus, we are not sacramentalists, isolationists, or individualists.
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Doctrinal Statement (full version)
three parts: God, Humans, and the Church
I. God
God - this word often used much but rarely defined. here is what we mean when we use it.
according to reason alone. God is the uncaused cause of all things. He is the source of all life and breath. all is upheld or sustained by Him. He is the source of all things in the universe including universal morality. He is personal, one, and unchanging. He is that of which none greater can be conceived. He is the only true God and thereby is worthy to receive all glory from all things.
according to Scripture. God is one. undivided in substance. He is creator of all things out of nothing. He is properly referred to as a He. God is sovereign: the only free being. free in His power, free in His knowledge, free in His presence, and free in His morality. as the only sovereign He reigns over all things upholding them and controlling them for His good purposes. He does this in a way that keeps Him distinct from his creation (He is not a pantheos) and He does this without sinning (He is holy) and He never changes. as the only free being He is infinite and perfect in all His attributes. God, the one being and exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. this is a trinity. each of the persons are distinct and yet one. this is a profound and wonderful mystery. God is. specific revelation has several names for God and several descriptions. all names and characteristics (including anthropomorphisms, anthropopathisms, and animorphisms) fall short of detailing God. God simply is. God exists for himself and does all things to enjoy Himself. all things reflect His glory and are to bring him glory.
A. God the Father
as Father He is the supreme leader and Lord of all things and all peoples. He is a perfect Father in his care and discipline of all His creations. He is particularly the Father of His only uniquely divine-human son, Jesus Christ. He is the chief example of what it is to be a Father.
B. God the Son
as the Son, Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. as God all things were made by Him and for Him. at the beginning of the first century God the son entered space and time to take on human form on earth by being conceived by the Holy Spirit to the virgin Mary, of the daughters of Aaron and who was engaged to Joseph son of Eli. Jesus is the Christ, meaning He is the messiah or saviour of all peoples. as a human Jesus felt and experienced all the weaknesses of having a human nature yet He lived without ever sinning and fulfilled all the Law despite such weakness. when He was thirty he began teaching and perfoming miracles proclaiming that He was the Christ. when He was approximently thirty-three He was crucified on a cross. three days later Jesus rose up from the dead with a perfected human body and appeared to over five-hundred witnesses before returning to heaven. when the son of God took on human form He veiled his glory as God of God without ever surrending His divine attributes. how Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man at the same time is a mystery. Jesus Christ will return to earth one day in pure unveiled glory to gather His elect and to judge the unrighteous.
C. God the Holy Spirit
as the Holy Spirit, God acts. from creation to consummation the Holy Spirit is God exerting His power. the Holy Spirit is a distinct person of the Godhead and proceeds from the Father and the Son, He is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Jesus Christ. God the Holy Spirit exerts power in creation and empowering acts and also acts of conviction and judgment. the Holy Spirit enables humans to come to a first love God, to continue loving God, to do works that please God, and to become more like God. the Holy Spirit is the unique divine author of Scripture. the Holy Spirit established and upholds the church.
II. Humans
humans - in our day it is often assumed, without question, that each individual is the center of all things including truth, happiness, morality, purpose and many other things. our estimation of mankind is much different. here is what we conclude about mankind.
A. the essential nature of humanity
mankind includes all humans beings, male and female. mankind consists as one class of beings created by God among others. human beings are distinct in that they are created in the image of God, meaning they uniquely have a moral capacity to exercise creativity, possess individual gifts, and to be saved to a intimate relationship with God. all human beings have a soul. the soul is an immaterial and eternal part of each being where personality, thoughts, emotions, and morality resides. thus human beings are two-parted. yet, these two parts are combined together in a unified person. how exactly is a mystery. makind was created in the forms of male and female. every male and female is created with a distinct purpose and role to exercise. male is made to exemplify God's leadership characteristics in varying capacities including those in the home and the church. female is made to exemplify God's nurting and helping characteristics in varying capacities including those in the home and the church. the chief purpose of all mankind in all their respective roles is to make much of God by enjoying Him and pursuing the knowledge of Him.
B. the sinfulness of humanity
sin is not giving God glory. it is not so much a violation against some abstract set of rules but a personal offense to God. all creation intends to propel us to give God glory. to give God glory is to make much of Him, to recognize that He is great and give Him thanks and praise. sin is a relational attack against an infinite God. the ten commandments are universal moral law written on the hearts of all men. sin is not limited to the perfoming of a sinful action but first begins in the inclination of the heart. the Torah or the written Jewish law of special revelation is intended to teach that mankind is sinful inside and incapable performing enough right actions to fix this internal problem. adam, the first human to live was also the first human to sin. when adam sinned, he not only sinned individually but as a collective representative of a chain of all humanity yet to be born. in addition, all humanity has followed his example of sinning. since adam every human being is born sinful from the time of conception in the womb. this sinfulness is transmitted through human race. how is a mystery. the sinfulness of mankind is a total depravity of the heart and mind. mankind is completely unable to comprehend the truth of God and completely deplete of any ability to love God unless God does something in Him. mankind has a bound will so that humans are naturally unanable to do that which they were made to do, they lack a free will.
C. the judgment of humanity
mankind is in need of being saved from coming judgment. God as the source and upholder of morality, the supreme judge of all, could not be called good if he did not properly administer justice. the offense of sin against an infinite God properly requires an infinite, eternal response. thus all who sin, all human beings, deserve the infinite response of God's right justice. when the physical part of a human dies the eternal part of human, the soul, lives on and will, at one point, receive an unperishable material body. humans will then suffer the eternal outpouring of God's wrath. this wrath will be the experience of the utter presence of God's in all his fierceness of anger. this anger will no longer be accompanied by any of the loving compassion of God's mercy by which he exerts his anger in our time. in this eternal state of hell His anger will be expressed in the creation of a spiritual and material furnace of fire where its victims are exquitsitly tortured in their minds and in their bodies. these damned humans will forever be agonized by the pure unleashing of the raging unsatisfied lust of their fellow humans and by demons and by the sad and regretful memories of loved ones and most of all, being completely cut off from God's love. mankind is in need of salvation from this impending doom.
D. the salvation of humanity
1. election
mankind is completely unable to do anything to prevent the impending doom of the coming judgment. no matter how many good works are performed they could never amount to paying off the infinite debt every individual owes for violating an infinitely holy God. furthermore, the attempt to merit one's own salvation in any one work further incurs debt for its false confidence that mankind can do any good thing apart from God's doing in and through him. to put it simply, mankind is stuck and if God were not to do anything about it we are hopeless and life is meaningless and empty. yet God has chosen from before the creation of the world to create humans and to create a certain number of them to be recipients of a gift of salvation. these are known as the elect or the predestined. these are a special select group of people are who destined to forever experience the unending pleasure of God. since all humans are equally deserving of the eternal wrath of God, the reason God chose the ones He has is a mystery. only God knows exactly who these are.
2. substitutionary propitiation
from before the foundation of the world God determined the way He would save the elect for Himself without compromising His justice for their sin. this is through His son, Jesus Christ. since Jesus Christ is God, He is of an infinite eternal worth. since Jesus Christ is man He is a sufficient representative and substitute for humans. thousands of people were beat up and crucified on crosses in antiquity. what makes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ of any significance is that He was the God-man on the cross. on the cross Jesus Christ suffered the eternal punishment humans incur. it was eternal and therefore sufficient because He was infinite God. on the cross Jesus died in place of humans and could do so because He was fully human and yet never sinned and thus never deserved any punishment. this work of Jesus Christ is unlimited in its divine worth and value because Jesus Christ is of infinite worth, yet this work was purposed for the elect to whom its justifying benefit is imputed at a specific moment in the course of their lives.
3. justification
Jesus died for a particular group of people. the way that elect receive this gift is by a work of the Holy Spirit who first draws them and unblinds their eyes to see the beauty of Christ and how His work on the cross is sufficient for their sin. this seeing, is purely a gift and is called faith. it occurs after the Holy Spirit's drawing when God imputes the work of Christ to the individual. this faith, and it alone, justfies or makes one right so that they may truly know God. through this faith, the elect are not only saved from the coming wrath of God but are also saved to enjoy God's glory forevermore. at a point either after physical death or when Christ returns to earth, the elect will receive a resurrected body of the same kind as Christ. in resurrected bodies, Jesus Christ will gather the people He died for that they might delight in Him forever as He continually shows them more and more wonderful things that are beyond our ability to conceive.
4. glorification
some of the things will include great feasts, a life in a new heavens and new earth that does not decay and where there is no strife among animals. there will be cities and perfect peace with no possiblity of sadness. the elect will rejoice at the supreme justice of God as they witness him unleash it upon His enemies unceasingly. the elect will eternally delight in their salvation never ceasing to be amazed at what Jesus Christ did for them. the glory of God will be their all as He ever introduces them to new sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and things to touch. beyond these things are mysteries in which the imagination of them is pleasing and good.
E. the sanctification of mankind
between the time a person is justified and the time a person either dies or Christ returns, they are in a process of santification. santification is the continual work of saved sinners being made holy or sinless, like Christ. this is a purifying work of the Holy Spirit wherein He progressively conforms our hearts the righteousness of Christ secured for us in heaven. the Holy Spirit does this through a continual filling which convicts us of sin, enables us to fight sin, enlightens us to read the Bible with understanding and delight, compels us to pray with free access to God, moves us to creatively share the good news of Christ's work with people, and continually opens us up to see God and His work causing us to marvel with wonder. when sanctification is complete the elect will have a free will and be able to love and adore God without any sinful hindrances as mankind was created to do.
III. The Church
the church - today church is frequently seen either as a religious institution or as a building. here is what we mean when we call The Resolved a church.
A. the historic church
Jesus Christ came to earth to gather and save a people for Himself that they might forever enjoy glorifying Him in numerous ways. this people is the universal or catholic church and Jesus intended it and began it by pouring out His Spirit on a specific Pentecost celebration in the first century. from that Pentecost on, the church has been growing as numerous groups of people have gathered together in specific places in the world with a common dedication to Jesus Christ.
B. the leadership of the church
the church is a body of people and Jesus Christ is its head. He is the chief pastor and the only one who is to lead alone and have a senior authority. God the Holy Spirit gives spiritual and physical gifts to every individual of the church. some of these gifts are for leading and some are for helping. under the leadership of Jesus Christ are undershepherds or elders. each local expression of the universal church is to have a plurality of elders, never a sole elder. elders must meet the biblical qualifications outlined in the pastoral epistiles before they are accepted as an elder. all church decisions are made by the elders. elders are to prize unity and thus all church decisions must be unanimous among them. underneath the elders are deacons who help the elders lead in various capacities. deacons must also meet the biblical qualifications outlined in the pastoral epistles before they are accepted as a deacon. underneath deacons are the male men of the church who are the leaders of their home. men are to provide material and spiritual leadership in their home. currently duane smets is the sole elder of The Resolved Church while others are in preparation to join the eldership.
C. what the church does
the church exists for God and is to bring Him glory. one of the most important things the church does to do this is to devote itself the Apostle's teaching. thus The Resolved Church gets together on a regular basis to study, teach, and preach the Scriptures. the elders are especially equipped for this task. the elders interpret the Bible according to historical grammatical interpretation and are committed to exegetical expository preaching. in addition to the study of God's word, the church gathers together on a regular basis to sing praise to God and to eat some bread and drink some wine. our primary focus in singing is to declare who God is and what He has done. in the eating of bread and drinking of wine we remember our Lord Jesus Christ's life and death and receive the grace He chooses to impart when we partake. beyond the things the church does together on a regular basis there are numerous things the church may undertake in an effort to bring God glory by expanding His kingdom.
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Brief Definitions of Technical Terminology Used:
annhilationists - those who believe all humans not believing in Jesus, will cease to exist at death.
Arians - those who believe Jesus became God.
Arminians - those who believe saved humans are not predetermined by God.
cessationists - those who believe supernatural gifts and miracles ceased when the apostles died.
demythologists - those who believe the Bible is a combination of myth and history.
diabolic ransomists - those who believe Jesus death payed a debt to the devil.
dispensationalists - those who believe God saves people in different ways at different times.
ecumenicists - those who believe all churches ought to set aside their differnences for the sake of unity and become one big church.
egalitarians - those who believe men are women are the same in every way and therefore either gender may equally occupy any role in life or leadership.
eschatological nationalists or theonimists - those who believe that in the end Christians will take over human governments and institute God's law.
humanists - those who believe humans are the highest beings and can save themselves.
hyper-Calvinists - those who believe God does not use means in saving humans and believe in evangelism is not needed.
individualists - those who believe our individual selves are our chief and primary concern.
isolationists - those who believe Christianity is best lived out in seperation from other people(s).
libertarians - those who believe humans have a will which is free to make uncaused decisions.
monarchians - those who believe Jesus was not fully human.
mono-episcopists - those who believe there should only be one pastor of a local church.
moral fundamentalists - those who believe Christians ought to refrain from practices that could be abused and lead one into sin.
moralists - those who believe doing good deeds earns one salvation.
naturalists - those who those who believe reality is purely sensual (see, feel, hear, taste & touch).
new perspectivists - those who believe Jesus death was not a legal transaction before God satisfying the just demands of God's wrath which is imputed to believers and instead was merely a demonstration of God's faithfulness to his covenant.
nihilists - those who believe in nothing.
open theists - those who believe God is changing and/or evolving with the open future.
pantheists - those who believe everything is god.
papists - those who believe the pope is the final and ultimate spiritual authority.
Pelagians - those who believe humans are essentially good and can earn their salvation.
Pentecostals - those who believe all Christians need to have their own experience of Pentecost where they begin speaking in tongues.
perfectionists - those who believe humans can become perfect before death or Jesus' return.
pluralists - those who believe all ways or religions lead to the same god.
polytheists - those who believe there are many gods.
relativists - those who believe truth is relative to the person, place, or situation.
revisionists who merely follow Jesus as a good teacher - those who believe the only accounts of Jesus we should accept as history are ones not presenting him as deity.
sacramentalists - those who believe partaking of the sacraments saves a person.
theological postmodernists - those who believe there is no objective truth because we are in a post-modern and supposed post-truth era.
universalists - those who believe all humans will be saved in the end.
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