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What We Believe
A Brief Statement of Faith - Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
In life and death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God. Jesus proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives, teaching by word and deed and blessing the children, healing the sick and binding up the brokenhearted. eating with outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling to all to repent and believe the gospel. Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was crucified, suffering the depths of human pain and giving his life for the sins of the world. God raised this Jesus from the dead, vindicating his sinless life, breaking the power of sin and evil, delivering us form death to life eternal.
We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father. In sovereign love God created the world good and makes everyone equally in God's image, male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community. But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator. Ignoring God's commandments, we violate the image of God and in others and ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care. We deserve God's condemnation.
Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation. In everlasting love, the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people to bless all families of the earth. Hearing their cry, God delivered the children of Israel from the house of . Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant. Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still.
We trust in God the Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the Church. The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed, claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the Church. In a broken and fearful world the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all people to Christ as Lord and
Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace. In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks and to live holy and joyful lives, even as we watch for God's new heaven and new earth, praying, "Come, Lord Jesus!"
With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Section Links
Presbyterians are part of the Reformed movement, which broke away from the Catholic Church in the 15th century. Much of what we believe, we have in common with other Christian churches. So, when you ask what Presbyterians believe, we tell you what Christians believe. Of course, we have some beliefs that we emphasize more than other churches might and some distinctives. We talk about these things in our Exploration Class. (See Adult Ministries)
Here are a few websites from our denomination's webpage that may be of interest to you:
History of the Presbyterian Church
What We Believe
Presbyterian Distinctives
These are the Presbyterian Creeds - all contained in the Book of Order:
1. The Nicene Creed
2. The Apostles’ Creed
3. The Scots Confession
4. The Heidelberg Catechism
5. The Second Helvetic Confession
6. The Westminster Confession of Faith
7. The Shorter Catechism
8. The Larger Catechism
9. The Theological Declaration of Barmen
10. The Confession of 1967
11. A Brief Statement of Faith (see left column)
Our creeds (statements of faith) are contained in our Book of Confessions, which is available online.
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