WHAT WE BELIEVE
WE CONFESS SCRIPTURE, THE ECUMENICAL CREEDS, AND THE REFORMED CONFESSIONS
Christ Reformed DC is a confessional church, founded on the Scriptures alone. We believe the teaching of the Bible is faithfully summarized in the ecumenical creeds and our Reformed Confessions: The Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, and Canons of Dort. We celebrate our confessions, together called “The Three Forms of Unity,” and we look to them as a source of comfort, guidance, and strength. They also serve as a guide and a tool for the instruction of both adults and youth.
“We believe that this Holy Scripture contains the will of God completely and that everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it.”
SCRIPTURE
The Scriptures are wholly sufficient, and we read them in community with the church through the ages. At the heart of our view of the Bible is the belief that God has spoken. And not only that he has spoken but he has spoken to all humanity in his law and his gospel. These are both contained in the Old and New testaments (Romans 15:4, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4). We confess that Jesus is God’s word (Hebrews 1:1-3). We believe the Bible is God’s word to you, and to all in the world (Matthew 28:18-20). We look to the Scriptures as God’s word as the only rule for faith and practice.
ECUMENICAL CREEDS
We cherish and voluntarily submit to the ancient creeds and confessions of the Church as faithful summaries of God’s word and the church’s reflection on it. Our minister and all our officers are sworn to uphold these confessions, and all our members agree to them as a faithful summary of Scripture in their membership vows. We regularly recite our creeds and confessions together in public worship and teach from them weekly in our catechetical service. These Ecumenical Creeds we take as a faithful statement of the catholic faith confessed by all Christians everywhere, especially describing the nature and acts of the triune God, whose name we take in our baptism and the glorious mystery of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
REFORMED CONFESSIONS
We are a Protestant Church in the Dutch Reformed tradition and therefore confess the “Three Forms of Unity.” These three confessional documents from the Reformation era serve both as a standard for what we believe, a norm to be upheld by office bearers, and as a tool for the instruction of adults and youth. We regularly teach the Heidelberg Catechism in particular in our catechism services on the Lord’s Day. As a confessionally Reformed church, these Ecumenical Creeds and Reformed Confessions are embraced by all our leadership and celebrated in our worship.