faith

TNARS Statement of Faith*

1. We believe that God, since the creation of His world, has plainly revealed through the things He has made His eternal power and divine nature, and the requirements of His law, so that there is no excuse for unbelief or disobedience on the part of any man; yet however glorious this revelation, it is not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary for salvation because of the fall of man and the sin tainted eyes that we see His natural revelation through.

2. We believe that our one aim in life and death should be to glorify God and enjoy Him forever; and that God teaches us how to glorify and enjoy Him in His infallible Word, that is, the Bible, which He has given by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit in order that we may certainly know what we are to believe concerning Him and what duty He requires of us.

3. We believe that the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture; unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by alleged new revelations of the Spirit or by traditions of men.

4. We believe that God authenticated His prophets and apostles as agents of revelation by mighty acts of His power employed by Him as signs whereby all men should confess, concerning those who are gifted with such power, "We know you are a teacher sent from God, for no one could do the things you do lest God were with Him"; and we believe that the great outpouring of such miracles displayed in the ministry of Christ and His Apostles signified the breaking into history of God's promised kingdom, which kingdom, when established in its fullness, will issue in the miraculous renewal of all creation; and that until such time, God is at work bringing men and women into that kingdom through the supernatural work of regeneration.

5. We believe that because God has completed His revelation in Jesus Christ, the former ways of revealing His will are now ceased. So that in the past God used prophets, but in these last days He uses His Son (Heb 1:1-2).

6. We believe that God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth; incomparable in all that He is; one God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier; in whose power, wisdom, righteousness, goodness, and truth we may safely put our trust. The word "person" may be theologically understood as the combination of characteristics that make up an individual personality. Scripture presents separate personalities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as distinguished from the "essence" of the Godhead that unites them. The three persons of the Trinity co-indwell each other; for instance, the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father.

7. We believe that God has all life, glory, goodness, and blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of us, or deriving any glory from us, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon us in Christ Jesus; and that He has most sovereign dominion over us, to do by us, for us, or upon us whatsoever He pleases.

8. We believe that God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence done to the will of the creature; and trusting in the decree of God, we who are called according to His purpose, we may be assured that all things will work together for our good. We do not believe that mankind’s free choice is in opposition to God’s sovereign ordination of events, but rather that God has ordained the means as well as the ends, and that He has ordained us to freely choose what He has ordained for us.

9. We believe that the heavens and the earth, and all that in them are the works of God's hands; and that all that He has made He directs and governs in all their actions, so that they fulfill the end for which they were created, and we who trust in Him shall not be put to shame, but may rest securely in the protection of His almighty love.

10.We believe that God created man after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and that all men owe their Creator obedience and worship. God condescended, making a covenant with man, that men might know God, not just as Creator, but as their blessedness and reward. And we believe that while the requirement of this covenant, originating under Adam, was obedience, God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit him to disobey, having purposed to order it to His own glory; so that it was by willfully sinning against God that we, in Adam, lost the rewards of a covenant keeper, and suffer the curses due a covenant breaker. Therefore our only hope of salvation is that Christ the second Adam, has kept the covenant, securing its rewards for the elect, among whom by grace we are numbered.

11. We believe that, being fallen in Adam, our first father, we are by nature children of wrath, under the condemnation of God and corrupted in body and soul, prone to evil and liable to eternal death; from which dreadful state we cannot be delivered except through the unmerited grace of God our Savior.

12. We believe that God has not left the world to perish in its sin, but out of the great love wherewith He has loved it, has from all eternity graciously chosen unto Himself a multitude, to deliver them out of their sin and misery, and through them to build up again in the world His kingdom of righteousness; in which kingdom we may be assured that we have our part, if we hold fast to Christ the Lord.

13. We believe that God has redeemed His people unto Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord; who, though He was and ever continues to be the eternal Son of God, yet was born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them that are under the law; we believe that He bore the penalty due to our sins in His own body on the tree, and fulfilled in His own person the obedience we owe to the righteousness of God, and now presents us to His Father as His purchased possession, to the praise of the glory of His grace forever; wherefore renouncing all merit of our own, put all our trust only in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ our redeemer.

14. We believe that Jesus Christ our redeemer, who died for our offenses was raised again for our justification, and ascended into the heavens, where He sits at the right hand of the Father Almighty continually making intercession for his people, and governing the whole world as head over all things for His Church; so that we need fear no evil and may surely know that nothing can snatch us out of His hands and nothing can separate us from His love.

15. We believe that the redemption wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ is effectually applied to all His people by the Holy Spirit, who works faith in us and thereby unites us to Christ, renews us in the whole man after the image of God, and enables us more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness; until His gracious work having been completed in us, we shall be received into glory; in which great hope abiding, we must ever strive to perfect holiness in the fear of God.

16. We believe that God requires of us, under the gospel, first of all, that, out of a true sense of our sin and misery and apprehension of His mercy in Christ, we should turn with grief and hatred away from sin and receive and rest upon Jesus Christ alone for salvation; that, so being united to Him, we may receive pardon for our sins and be accepted as righteous in God's sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone; thus, and thus only, do we believe we may be received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.

17. We believe that Christians are required to walk in obedience to God’s will as they are by definition in Christ. This obedience does not merit salvation, for it is Christ’s obedience that secures our salvation. But this obedience is evidence of true faith in Christ and a truly converted soul. Christ did not sacrifice Himself for the elect so that they would be free to sin, but so that they would be free from sin.

18. We believe that God has established His Church in the world, one and the same in all ages, and now, under the Gospel, has endowed it with the ministry of the Word and the holy ordinances of Baptism, the Lord's Supper and prayer; in order that through these means, the riches of His grace in the gospel may be known to the world, and by the blessing of Christ and the working of His Spirit in them that by faith receive them, the benefits of redemption may be communicated to His people; wherefore also it is required of us that we attend on these means of grace with diligence, preparation, and prayer, so that through them we may be instructed and strengthened in faith, and in holiness of life and in love; and that we use by best endeavors to carry this gospel and convey these means of grace to the whole world.

19. We believe that the visible Church consists of all those who are united to Christ, the Head of the Church; and that the visible unity of the body of Christ, though obscured, is not destroyed by its division into different denominations of professing Christians. Therefore we believe that all of these which maintain the Word, Sacraments, and discipline in their fundamental integrity are to be recognized as true branches of the Church of Jesus Christ.

20. We believe that the Church is God's spiritual minister for the purpose of redemption and the state is God's providential minister for the purpose of this worldly order. The power of the Church is exclusively spiritual; that of the State includes the exercise of force. We believe therefore that the Church has no right to construct or modify a government for the State, and the State has no right to frame a creed or polity for the Church.

21. We believe that disciples of Jesus Christ are called to be His witnesses in the world, proclaiming the justice and mercy of God to all men, and making evident His wise and righteous rule over every aspect of human culture. Therefore it is our obligation to search the Scriptures with all the skills God has allotted us, and to seek, within the bounds of our calling, to apply our understanding of His Word to the entire created order, and to all the outworkings of His most wise providence. And we believe that it is our privilege and duty to pursue a vocation in this world that employs our gifts to the glory of God, and for the good of our family, our congregation, our community, and, as God brings opportunity, to any who may be in need.

22. We believe that as Jesus Christ has once come in grace, so also is He to come a second time in glory, to judge the world in righteousness and assign to each his eternal reward; the wicked shall have the fearful but just sentence of condemnation pronounced against them, wherein their consciences shall fully concur, and they shall be cast into hell, to be punished with unspeakable torments, both in body and soul, with the devil and his angels in the presence of Christ forever (Rev 14:10). The righteous in Christ shall be caught up with Christ and there openly acquitted and counted righteous due to the work of Christ; they shall be received into heaven, where they shall fully and forever be freed from all sin and misery; filled with inconceivable joys, made perfectly holy and happy in both body and soul, in the great company of all God's saints and holy angels, but especially in the immediate vision of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity.

23. We believe that if we die in Christ, our soul shall be at death made perfect in holiness and go home to the Lord, and when He shall return in His majesty we shall be raised in glory and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity; encouraged by which blessed hope, it is required of us willingly to take our part in suffering hardships here as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, being assured that if we die with Him we shall also live with Him, if we endure, we shall also reign with Him.

* Our statement of faith is taken from: B.B. Warfield’s, “A Brief and Untechnical Statement of the Reformed Faith”

More specifically, TNARS adheres to the Westminster Standards (Confession and Catechisms).
Westminster Confession of Faith
Shorter Catechism
Larger Catechism