What We Believe

We are Christians

We gladly confess, along with the Christian church throughout the world and the ages, the essentialness of the truths espoused by the Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds.

We are Protestant

Protestantism is a branch of Christianity originating in the 16th century during the time of the Reformation. The key figure of this movement, aside from the sovereign work of the Lord, was Martin Luther (1483-1546). On October 31st, 1517, Luther famously posted his 95 Theses in an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church from its errant practices. Therefore, to be Protestant is to “protest” against the heretical deviation from the Scriptures befitting the practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

We are Reformed

Reformed theology is the systematic treatment of biblical doctrines found in the Scriptures that finds its origins in the 16th century. The principle elements of the Reformed faith include the Five Solas and the Doctrines of Grace.

The Five “Solas” (meaning “alone” in Latin) of the Reformation rightly place an emphasis upon the sovereignty of God being based upon the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments which clearly articulate that man is saved by grace, through faith (Eph. 2:8-9), based solely upon the perfect work of Jesus Christ in declaring sinful man as righteous. The Five Solas of the Reformation can be summarized as follows:

Sola Scriptura
We reaffirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured.
We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian’s conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.¹

Solus Christus
We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father.
We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ’s substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.²

Sola Gratia
We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God’s wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.
We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques, or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerate human nature.³

Sola Fide
We reaffirm that justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. In justification Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God’s perfect justice.
We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ’s righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.⁴

Soli Deo Gloria
We reaffirm that because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God’s glory and that we must glorify him always. We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone.
We deny that we can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with entertainment, if we neglect either Law or Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem or self-fulfillment is allowed to become alternatives to the Gospel.⁵

Not only are the Five Solas foundational building blocks to the Reformed faith but also the Doctrines of Grace as well. These are famously unknown in the acrostic TULIP, which finds its source in an ecclesiastical assembly held in the Dordrecht, Netherlands. The primary aim of the Synod of Dort, was disputations against the teachings of Jacobus Arminius and those who followed him, known as Arminians. The Canons of Dort outlined five points in response to Arminianism’s five points, which are defined as follows:

Total Depravity: Man is completely dead in his sins and trespasses and unable to save himself.⁶

Unconditional Election: God elects, or predestines, a particular people for salvation based upon His will and not based upon any foreseen merit.⁷

Limited Atonement: Jesus Christ laid down His own life for His sheep, a particular people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.⁸

Irresistible Grace: The grace God gifts to His elect cannot be resisted; rather, by God’s grace man is enabled to repent and believe.⁹

Perseverance of the Saints: Those whom God has elected will persevere in their faith until glory.¹⁰

Taken holistically, these core doctrines undergird what is known as the Reformed faith.

We are Presbyterian

We subscribe to the Westminster Standards, consisting of the Westminster Confession, Westminster Larger Catechism, and Westminster Shorter Catechism, and hold them to be subordinate standards to, yet faithful and reliable summaries of, the theological doctrines contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. These standards are binding for all of our pastors, elders, and deacons.

We also, by virtue of being a part of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), have a Presbyterian form of church government. This means that our pastor and our ruling elders make decisions regarding the life of the church together in regular meetings as a “Session” (known in other traditions as a “Consistory” or “Elder board”), where they all have an equal vote. Our church and others in Ministry to the Military and Internationals, our mission organization, and in southeast Alabama, are a part of the Southeast Alabama Presbytery, where elders from the member churches come together to hold the member churches accountable and make decisions regarding the Presbytery and the churches within it. Lastly, the elders from the Southeast Alabama Presbytery, and the other presbyteries of the PCA, gather together for a yearly meeting called “General Assembly”, which holds the presbyteries accountable and makes decisions for the denomination as a whole.

1. Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Ps. 19:7-11; 119; Isa. 8:20; Mat. 4:1-11); 15:1-9; Mark 7:5-13; Acts 17:10-11; 1 Cor 4:6; Gal. 1:6-17; Eph. 2:20; 2 Tim. 3:14-17; Heb. 6:13; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; Rev. 22:18-19 ↩︎
2. John 3; 14:6; 17; Acts 4:12; 17:16-31; Rom. 10:9-15; Col. 1:15-23; 2:1-15; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; Heb. 7:25; 9:11-15, 23-38; Rev. 22:13 and also, related to penal substitutionary atonement, see, Exodus 12; Leviticus 16; Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Mark 10:45; 15:33-34; John 3:14-18, 35-36; 11:47-52; Rom. 1:16-18; 3:21-26; 5:8-10; Gal. 3:10-13; 1 Pet. 2:21-25; 3:18) ↩︎
3. Psalm 51; Isa. 64:6; Mat. 20:1-16; Luke 5:27-32; 15:11-32; John 3:1-9; Acts 15:6-11; Rom. 3:9-26; 4:4-5; 5:12-21; 6:23; 8:7-8; 11:5-6; 1 Cor. 15:10; Gal. 2:21; 5:4; Eph 2:1-10; Titus 3:5-7 ↩︎
4. Gen. 15:6; Mat. 5:20, 48; 9:22, 29; 15:28; Mark 5:34; 10:52; Luke 7:29, 50; 8:48; 17:19; 18:9-14, 42; 23:39-43; John 1:12, 3:14-16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:40, 47; 11:25-26; 20:31; Acts 16:31; Rom. 1:16-17; 3:21-31; 4:1-12; 5:1; 10:4-3, 10; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 2:15-16; 3:1-14; Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 3:1-9 ↩︎
5. Gen. 1:1 (cf. Heb 11:3); Ps. 19:1-3; Isa. 42:8; 43:6-7; 48:9-11; Dan 4 (esp. vv. 30-32); Luke 2:14; John 17:1-5; Acts 12:23; 17:24-25; Rom. 1:18-23; 9:21-24; 11:33-36; 1 Cor. 8:6; 10:31; 2 Cor. 4:4-6; Eph. 1:3-14; Col. 1:16; 1 Tim. 1:11, 17; James 1:17; Rev. 4:11 ↩︎
6. Gen. 6:5; Isa. 64:6; Ezek. 36:26; John 3:1-8, 19-21; 6:44, 64-65; Rom. 1:18-32; 3:9-18; 5:12; 6:16-19; 8:7-8; 14:23; 1 Cor. 2:14-16; Eph. 2:1-10 ↩︎
7. Gen. 25:23 (cf. Mal. 1:2-3); Deut. 7:7-8; John 3:3; 6:37, 44, 64-65; 10:24-26; 17:12 (cf. 1 Pet. 2:7-8); Acts 11:18; 13:48; Rom. 8:29-30; 9:1-24; Eph. 1:3-14; 2:8-9; Phi. 1:29; 1 Thess 5:9; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 John 5:1 ↩︎
8. Lev. 16:16, 21, 24, 33-34; Mat. 1:21; Mark 10:45; John 10:11, 15; John 17:1-26; Acts 20:28; Rom. 3:25-26; 5:6-11; 8:28-39; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 5:25; 1 Thess. 5:9-10; Heb. 7:22-28; 9:11-28 ↩︎
9. Deut. 30:6 (cf. Rom. 2:29); Ezek. 36:26-27; 37:1-14; Mat. 22:1-14; John 6:22-65; Acts 16:14-15; Rom. 8:28-30; 9:22-26; 11:28-29; 1 Cor. 1:18-31; 2 Thess. 2:13-14; 2 Pet. 1:10 ↩︎
10. Jer. 32:38-40; John 3:36; 5:24; 6:22-65; 10:27-30; Rom. 8:28-30, 35-39; 11:29; 2 Cor. 5:17; Phil. 1:6; 1 Pet. 5:10; 1 John 2:18-20; Jude 24-25 ↩︎