OUR BELIEFS

At Elevate Hope we seek to be:

Biblical:

We believe that God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures, which are without error and are completely trustworthy. Therefore, the Bible is our ultimate authority. It contains everything we need to know God and faithfully follow Jesus.

We believe the Bible is also necessary to come to saving faith in Christ and clear in all that it intends to teach. Some of the best and clearest biblical texts summarizing the Christian faith include the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Shema (an Old Testament creed in Deuteronomy) and an early New Testament creed Paul received in 1 Corinthians.

The Ten Commandments
The Lord's Prayer
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
1 Corinthians 15:3-8

Historic:

Elevate Hope is committed to the timeless message of the Bible, taught by the ancient church and emphasized in the Protestant Reformation. We belong to the Presbyterian Church in America, a confessional denomination. This means that we have a written confession of faith we believe to be a good and accurate summary of the Bible’s teaching.

At Elevate Hope we value our connection with the global church and the church throughout history. As such, we affirm what are commonly known as the four ecumenical creeds: The Apostles’ Creed, The Nicene Creed, The Athanasian Creed, and The Chalcedonian Definition. These ancient creeds have set the bounds of biblical belief for centuries and have been affirmed by the vast majority of the church throughout history.

The Apostles' Creed
The Nicene Creed
The Athanasian Creed
The Chalcedonian Definition

Elevate Hope is a Protestant, Reformed, Presbyterian and Evangelical church. A complete statement of our church’s and denomination’s belief can be found in the Westminster Standards, consisting of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms. We also affirm the Five Solas of the Reformation. A good summary of our denomination’s beliefs can be found in the Preface of our Book of Church Order. Additionally, we believe God’s Plan of Salvation is an apt summary of the Gospel.

The Westminster Standards
The Five Solas
Preface: Book of Church Order
God's Plan of Salvation

Contextual:

We believe that God’s unchanging message is relevant and life-changing; it is satisfying and fulfilling; and it is living and active. That means that the historic message must be communicated to each generation in contemporary language, forms and styles that they understand. We derive this impulse from the Protestant Reformers, who sought to translate the Bible into the common languages of their churches, often at great personal cost to their lives, so that ordinary people could read and understand Scripture directly.

Two fantastic examples of this contextualization that we have implemented at Elevate Hope are The New City Catechism and The Resurrection Creed:

The New City Catechism is a modern-day catechism aimed at helping Christians learn the core doctrines of the faith. During the Protestant Reformation it was seen as normal, important and necessary for churches to continually produce new catechisms for their own use. While our exposition of gospel doctrine must be in line with older catechisms that are true to the Word, culture changes, and so do the errors, temptations and challenges to the unchanging gospel that people must be equipped to face and answer, necessitating the production of modern-day catechisms for contemporary Christians.

The Resurrection Creed is our compilation of two catechetical liturgies from Keith and Kristyn Getty’s The Sing! Hymnal, which we use on Resurrection Sunday to declare the glorious truths of the resurrection and return of Christ.

The New City Catechism
The Resurrection Creed

Brief Summary of Our Beliefs:

  • We believe that God has generally revealed His existence and power to humanity through creation (Psalm 19:1, Romans 1:19-20).

    We believe that God has also specially revealed Himself in the saving work of His Son, Jesus Christ, and the inspired words of the Bible (Matthew 11:27, John 1:14).

  • We believe the Bible is the written word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error in the original manuscripts. The Bible is authoritative in all matters of faith and practice, necessary to come to saving faith in Christ, sufficient to govern our lives, and clear in all that it intends to teach (2 Timothy 3:14-17, 2 Peter 1:19-21).

  • We believe there is one true God who is infinite, eternal, and unchanging in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth (Exodus 15:11, Exodus 34:5-7, 1 Chronicles 29:11, Job 11:7-9, Job 34:11-12, Psalm 102:26-28, Psalm 103:8-12, Psalm 136:1, Isaiah 40:28, Jeremiah 10:12-13, 1 Corinthians 1:20-25, John 14:6, 1 Timothy 6:15-16, Revelation 1:8).

  • We believe in the Holy Trinity. There is one true God, who exists eternally in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4, Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Ephesians 4:4-6).

  • We believe in God, the Father Almighty, the first person of the Trinity, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible (Genesis 1:1, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Ephesians 4:6, Colossians 1:16).

  • We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, who being born of the Virgin Mary became man. Through His perfect life, His sacrificial death and His resurrection, He atoned for the sins of all who trust in Him alone for salvation. He is also the example of how humankind should live (Isaiah 7:14, John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, Titus 2:13).

  • We believe that the Holy Spirit is truly God, the third person of the Trinity, who dwells within God’s people, gives them spiritual life, assures them of eternal life, and changes them more into the likeness of Jesus (John 14:16-17, Acts 1:8, Acts 2:1-4, Galatians 5:22-23).

  • We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in the image of God. As God’s image bearers, Adam and Eve were created very good, to serve as God’s representatives on earth, and to live in relationship with Him (Genesis 1:26-28).

  • We believe that Adam and Eve, by their sin, distorted God’s image, forfeited their relationship with Him, and now all of humanity is born in sin, subject to death, and under God’s wrath (Genesis 3, Psalm 14:2-3, Romans 5:12-14).

  • We believe that all humankind are sinners and totally unable to save themselves from God’s displeasure, except by His grace. Because of sin we are born spiritually dead, guilty, and enslaved to sin (Romans 3:23, Ephesians 2:1-3).

  • We believe that salvation is from God alone as He sovereignly chooses those He will save for His glory. We believe His choice is based on His grace alone, not on any human individual merit or foreseen faith. Salvation is accomplished in Jesus Christ alone and is received through faith alone (John 3:16, Acts 4:11-12, Ephesians 2:8-9).

  • We believe the Bible is one unified story structured by two covenant relationships: the covenant of works in Adam and the covenant of grace in Christ. The covenant of works was God’s arrangement with Adam and Eve before their fall into sin. The rest of the Bible is the unfolding story of God’s gracious covenant to redeem a people through faith in Jesus Christ (Genesis 2:16-17, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Hebrews 9:15).

  • We believe baptism is a sign of belonging to the covenant community of faith. For adults, this means that an individual has responded to the good news of the Gospel of Jesus and wants to follow Him for the rest of his or her life. For children of Jesus’ followers, baptism signifies a beautiful sense of belonging to the church family and the nurturing hope that one day this child will also profess faith in Jesus. We perform baptism by the sprinkling and pouring of water upon the individual (Ezekiel 36:25-27, Matthew 28:19, Acts 22:16, Colossians 2:11-12, Titus 3:4-7, Hebrews 10:19-22).

  • We believe in the Lord’s Table, commonly called Communion or the Lord’s Supper, for professing believers, wherein those who partake both remember Christ’s coming in the flesh and sacrificial death (bread and wine), and have communion with Him and the Church in a spiritual yet real way. In partaking, the individual receives and applies by faith Christ crucified, and all the benefits of His death, as a means of constant spiritual renewal (Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:14-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-29).

  • We believe that Jesus will return, bodily and visibly, to judge all humankind and to receive His people to Himself. He will restore all of creation and finally defeat sin, Satan and death forever (1 Corinthians 15:50-56, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Revelation 1:7, Revelation 22:1-5).