What do we believe?
At Mt. Rose, we embrace the historic Christian faith that has been confessed by God’s people throughout the centuries in the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed. We also believe the doctrines of the Protestant and Reformed faith are the most faithful expression of the teaching of Scripture. Accordingly, the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms make up our doctrinal standards. What follows is a brief summary of what we believe.
(“WCF” is a citation from the Westminster Confession of Faith).
We believe that the Bible is the inerrant and trustworthy Word of God; as such, it is God’s revealed will for what we are to believe about Him and how we are to serve and worship Him (WCF 1.1; WCF 21.1).
We believe in the one, living, and true God, infinite in being, power, wisdom, and goodness (WCF 2.1). In the unity of the one Godhead, there are three distinct persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – each of whom is fully God (WCF 2.3).
We believe God is the sovereign Creator, who made all things out of nothing by the Word of His power (WCF 4.1). And, He is the sovereign Lord of His creation: He governs, directs, and disposes all things according to His eternal decree and perfect wisdom (WCF 5.1).
We believe God created Adam from the dust of the earth, and Eve from Adam (WCF 4.2). When our first parents disobeyed the Lord in the Garden of Eden, they brought the guilt of sin upon themselves and the entire human race that came from them (WCF 6.1, 3). Therefore by nature we are sinful, subject to death, deserving of God’s just condemnation, and utterly unable to deliver ourselves from our guilt and misery (WCF 6.4, 6).
We believe that God in His unfathomable mercy sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners, so that all who trust in Him receive the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life (WCF 8.1, 5; WCF 14.2).
We believe that Christ is God incarnate, was born of the virgin Mary, and thus is both true God and true man (WCF 8.2). We believe He accomplished salvation for sinners by His obedient life, suffering and death on the cross, and resurrection from the grave (WCF 8.4, 5). We believe Christ rules at the right hand of the Father in heaven, as Lord over all (WCF 8.4).
We believe that salvation from sin and death is by faith alone, in Christ alone, and by grace alone. We are justified (made right with God) by faith apart from good works (WCF 10.4; WCF 11.1 – 3).
We believe this gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ is to be proclaimed to all people as the manifestation of God’s love for the world, and as the one and only way of salvation. At the same time, we believe that God has chosen whom He will save, and that by His Spirit and sovereign grace He brings his own to faith in Christ (WCF 3.3, 6).
We believe that the means by which God unites us to Christ for our salvation, and builds us up in His grace, are His Word, the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper), and prayer (WCF 1.1; WCF 21.3, 5; WCF 27.1, 4). We believe that Christians ought to make use of these means of grace in fellowship with other believers in the Church, which is the Body of Christ (WCF 25.1, 3).
We believe in the physical return to earth of our Lord Jesus Christ, on which Day He will raise all from the grave, to consign the unrighteous (those who did not know Christ in this life) to eternal damnation, and to reward the righteous (those who by grace believed in Christ in this life) with eternal glory and blessedness in the new heavens and earth (WCF 33.1, 2).
We believe that true life, joy, and peace are found only in communion with the Father through faith in His Son Jesus. And we believe that God will never cast away any who entrust themselves to Christ for their redemption (WCF 27.1).
For all of these reasons, we believe God is be worshiped, loved, and adored. To Him be the glory forevermore!