What We Believe

HOPE ASSEMBLY holds its Biblical faith in clear and definite form. We gladly receive the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds common to all true Christians. We also adhere to the classic doctrinal statements framed by the Particular or Calvinistic Baptists of the English Puritan Reformation: the Second London Confession of Faith 1689, the Orthodox Catechism of Hercules Collins 1680, drawn from the Heidelberg Catechism, and Keach's Catechism 1693.

Here are some of these great truths of Scripture in brief:
  • The Bible: God's Inspired, Inerrant Word
  • God: one living, Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – Creator and King of all
  • Man: created in God's image, fallen in sin; helpless to turn back to God in his own strength
  • Christ Jesus: His Deity and Humanity; His Virgin Birth; His sinless life and atoning death; the Blood of His cross; His bodily resurrection and return
  • Salvation: God's electing love; the gift of the Holy Spirit; the New Birth; Justification by grace alone; Repentance and Faith; the New Life in Christ; God's keeping power
  • Church: a local community of baptized believers; each Church self-governing; Pastors, Elders, and Deacons in every Church; fellowship among local Churches; preaching the Gospel at home and abroad
  • Last Things: after death, Heaven or Hell; the personal, visible Second Coming of Christ; the Resurrection both of the righteous and wicked at the Judgment Day; Eternal Punishment and Eternal Life

This we teach today — for people today!

Our Church Covenant

IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST,
THE ONLY KING AND HEAD OF THE CHURCH,
AMEN.

We solemnly declare that by the grace of the Spirit of God, we are believers in the Lord Jesus. On personal profession of repentance toward God, faith in Jesus Christ, and obedience to the truth in the Spirit, we have been immersed in water in the Name of the Triune God.
We now covenant to walk together in Christian fellowship as members of this local Church.
We receive the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the written Word of God, inspired, infallible and inerrant; and we submit to the Scriptures as our only Rule of Christian faith and practice.
We adhere to the Christian creeds, the Confessions, Catechisms and Discipline of this Church as reliable summaries of Bible truth; and we recognize these as the Church's Standards of Doctrine.
We accept the Constitution and Rules of the Church for the good order of our life and work together.

By this Covenant we promise:
  • faithfully to assemble on the Lord's Day and in the week for worship, instruction, fellowship and prayer
  • frequently to observe the Ordinances of Christ
  • zealously to promote the spread of the Gospel in all lands
  • cheerfully to sustain its ministry by our Tithes and Offerings
We further engage:
  • to study and obey the Holy Scriptures
  • to maintain personal and family worship
  • to devote our time, treasure and talent to the work of the Church as God enables
  • to love and watch over each other in the Lord
  • to cultivate courtesy, sympathy, candour and kindness in our speech and actions as brethren
  • to adorn the Gospel in all our conduct
  • to confess Christ boldly before all
In this Covenant, we freely submit:
  • to the oversight of our Pastor, Elders and Deacons
  • and to the lawful Discipline of our Brethren in Christ.
And so we witness to it before the Lord and His People.