HPC is a local expression of the universal body of Christ. Nationally we are affiliated with the New Wineskins Presbytery of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. As a part of this national movement, we affirm the following Essential Tenets of the Reformed Faith:
The Essential Tenets of the Reformed Faith
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our
God!”
Revelation 19:1
“In
his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living
hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead.”
I Peter 1:3
Joyfully
and humbly, as undeserving recipients of the gracious work
of God through Jesus Christ, we confess these essentials of
our shared faith:
1. God is majestic, compassionate, and lovingly desires to
be known. Therefore we worship Him. God is revealed
generally through creation, specifically through the Holy
Scriptures, and finally in the living Word who became
flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.
2. The Bible is the only infallible rule of faith and
practice. The Holy Spirit spoke through its authors and
witnesses to us today that it is indeed and in truth the
very Word of God, God’s gift to the world and guide for His
people.
3. In the beginning, the sovereign God created all things
good. Humanity, bearing God’s likeness, crowns creation.
Through the disobedience of those made in the image of God,
the whole of creation fell into the darkness of sin and
rebellion. In love, God initiated the plan of redemption,
which stands upon the historic events of the crucifixion,
resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus the Messiah. God’s
gracious redemptive work results in the Church and
culminates in the new creation.
4. The LORD our God, the LORD is one. The one true God
exists in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We
believe that each Person of the Trinity is engaged in all
that God has done, does now, and will yet do. The LORD our
God is the One who is, who was, and who is to come, the
Almighty.
5. We believe in God the Father, who created all things in,
through, and for His Son. The Father adopts as children all
who are drawn by the Holy Spirit to believe in His Son,
giving to them all the riches of God’s glorious Kingdom.
The loving heart of our Father is poured out in eternal
redemption through Jesus Christ and in the ongoing
discipline that shapes God’s children into the image of
Christ.
6. Jesus Christ is the living Word, the promised Messiah,
and the eternal Son of the Father, sent in mission to the
earth. Incarnated in the womb of the virgin Mary, He is
fully God and fully human, come to reconcile God and
humanity. During His earthly ministry Jesus lived a sinless
life, healed the sick, raised the dead, drove out demons,
befriended sinners, preached the gospel to the poor, and
died as our substitute on the cross. He rose bodily from
the dead, ascended to the Father, and remains our faithful
Mediator and High Priest. He is the Way, the Truth, and the
Life; no one comes to the Father but by faith in Him. He is
the only Head of the Church, our Lord and Savior.
7. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Jesus Christ and to
apply His saving work to our lives. By the Spirit, the
redeemed cry “Abba” as God’s adopted children. The Spirit
awakens from spiritual death those whom God has chosen,
convicting them of sin, comforting their hearts with the
hope of the Gospel, uniting them to Christ, making Christ
real to them, gathering them into a people of His own
possession, and sealing their salvation. Indwelling their
hearts, the Spirit sanctifies them for lives of holiness,
and empowers them for ministry in the Church and mission to
the world.
8. From the beginning God has sovereignly elected and
called a people who are the true Church, the Body of
Christ. The Church is the fruit of God’s redemptive work; a
covenanted community of worship, prayer, and service,
called to love God and neighbor and to live out the ethical
and moral imperatives revealed in Holy Scripture. All
believers are baptized in one Spirit into this Body, which
finds expression in local congregations. In these believing
communities the loving presence of God is embodied, the
Gospel is preached in truth, the sacraments of Baptism and
the Lord’s Supper are rightly administered, compassionate
and godly discipline is exercised, and Kingdom mission is
faithfully carried out. The Church is a connectional and
confessional community in which theological, ethical, and
moral accountability is demonstrated.
9. The Church is called to make disciples of all nations,
proclaiming the Gospel to the spiritually lost and
equipping believers so that they may be presented mature in
Christ. The Lord calls all believers to be ministers and
witnesses to God’s amazing grace and readily to participate
in the task of making disciples, for which God gives the
Church powers, gifts, and talents. It is the responsibility
of the Church and its leaders to develop, equip, and
release people into their God-given ministries in the
Church and the world.
10. In death, the believer is made whole, and enters
eternally the loving presence of the Father and the Son.
Finally, in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ will leave
the Father’s side to return to earth in glory. Christ will
liberate creation from its bondage to corruption, judge the
living and the dead, usher in a new heaven and earth, and
establish God’s everlasting Kingdom. “Even so, come Lord
Jesus!”
