What We Believe

Our Mission

Hopewell seeks to proclaim Christ as Savior and “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12-13)

Hopewell Beliefs

As a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Hopewell Presbyterian Church is a confessional church, fully committed to living out in today’s context the rich theology, piety, and practice of the historic Christian faith recovered at the Protestant Reformation, and best summarized in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

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Our Beliefs

The Bible

We believe that the Bible is the written word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error in the original manuscripts. The Bible is the revelation of God’s truth and is infallible and authoritative in all matters of faith and practice.

The Trinity

We believe in the Holy Trinity. There is one God, infinite and unchanging, who exists eternally in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Man and Sin

We believe that all people are sinners by nature, are guilty in God’s sight, and are totally unable to save themselves from God’s displeasure. His free grace alone provides a way of salvation.

Election

We believe that this salvation is the work of God alone. He sovereignly chooses whom He will save. We believe that His choice is based solely on His grace, not on any merit found in his people, their foreseen faith, or their religious activity.

Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, who through His perfect obedience and sacrificial death as the representative and substitute of his people, atoned for the sins of all who would trust in Him alone for salvation.

Justification

We believe that the only way to acceptance with God is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. The Shorter Catechism states:

“Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”

God’s Covenant Promises

We believe that God is gracious and faithful to His people not simply as individuals but as families in successive generations according to His covenant promises.

The Church

We believe that the church is the covenant community of God and the sphere within which the grace of God is available to all, through the preaching and teaching of the Bible, and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Outside the church there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.

The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells God’s people and enables them to trust Christ and follow Him. Faith is the gracious gift of God.

Perseverance of the Saints

We believe that having come to saving faith in Christ, believers can never be lost, but persevere to the end, being kept by the power of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This perseverance is both the responsibility of every believer, and the infallible promise of God to all his people.

The Return of Christ

We believe that Jesus will return at the last day, bodily and visibly, to judge all mankind and to receive His people to Himself.

Living the Christian Life

We believe that all aspects of our lives are to be lived to the glory of God under the Lordship of Jesus Christ as we wait for the day of his glorious appearing.

Denominational Beliefs

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The Westminster Confession of Faith

When the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was formed in 1788, it adopted (with minor revisions) the Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms (1647), as its secondary standards (the Bible itself being the only infallible rule of faith and practice). Officers in the Presbyterian Church in America take a vow to “sincerely receive and adopt” these confessional documents “as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.”

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