Our Faith:

New Hope Church is Historically Rooted:

            While N.H.P.C. is a relatively new congregation, our beliefs are anything but new — in fact, they are ancient!  We believe that the historic Christian faith — redemptive history communicated in the Holy Scriptures — is both completely true and powerfully life changing.  We are officially committed to those ancient statements of the Christian faith known as the “ecumenical confessions”—

The Apostles’ Creed

          “I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried;  He descended into hell;  the third day He rose again from the dead;  He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right-hand of God the Father Almighty;  from there he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.  Amen.”

The Nicene Creed

          We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

          And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;

          By whom all things were made;  who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man;

          And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;  He suffered and was buried;  and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father;  and He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead;  whose kingdom shall have no end.

          And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son;  Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified;  who spoke by the prophets;  and we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church;  we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;  and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.  Amen

The Athanasian Creed

Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic faith.  Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally.

Now this is the catholic faith:  That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity, neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence.  For the person of the Father is a distinct person, the person of the Son is another, and that of the Holy Spirit still another.  But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.  What quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has.  The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated.  The Father is immeasurable, the Son is immeasurable, the Holy Spirit is immeasurable.  The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Spirit is eternal.  And yet there are not three eternal beings;  there is but one eternal being.  So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings; there is but one uncreated and immeasurable being.  Similarly, the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty.  Yet there are not three almighty beings;  there is but one almighty being.

Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God.  Yet there are not three gods;  there is but one God.  Thus the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord.  Yet there are not three lords;  there is but one Lord.  Just as Christian truth compels us to confess each person individually as both God and Lord, so catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords.

The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten from anyone.  The Son was neither made nor created;  he was begotten from the Father alone.  The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten;  he proceeds from the Father and the Son. Accordingly there is one Father, not three fathers;  there is one Son, not three sons;  there is one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits.  Nothing in this trinity is before or after, nothing is greater or smaller;  in their entirety the three persons are coeternal and coequal with each other.  So in everything, as was said earlier, we must worship their trinity in their unity and their unity in their trinity.  Anyone then who desires to be saved should think thus about the trinity.  But it is necessary for eternal salvation that one also believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully. 

Now this is the true faith:  That we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and human, equally.  He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time;  and he is human from the essence of his mother, born in time;  completely God, completely human, with a rational soul and human flesh;  equal to the Father as regards divinity, less than the Father as regards humanity.  Although he is God and human, yet Christ is not two, but one.  He is one, however, not by his divinity being turned into flesh, but by God's taking humanity to himself.  He is one, certainly not by the blending of his essence, but by the unity of his person.  For just as one human is both rational soul and flesh, so too the one Christ is both God and human. 

He suffered for our salvation;  he descended to hell;  he arose from the dead;  he ascended to heaven;  he is seated at the Father's right hand;  from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.  At his coming all people will arise bodily and give an accounting of their own deeds.  Those who have done good will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.  This is the catholic faith:  one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully.

            At New Hope Church we are also officially committed to what is known as the Reformed theological tradition through our subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, documents produced in the 17th century at Westminster Abbey in London.*

·         http://www.pcanet.org/general/cof_preface.htm for the Westminster     Confession of Faith,

·         http://www.opc.org/lc.html for The Larger Catechism,

·         http://www.opc.org/sc.html for The Shorter Catechism).

·         http://www.pcanet.org/BCO/ for the PCA Book of Church Order.