Doctrinal Statement

Introduction to Doctrinal Statement

It has been the tradition of the church to hand down sound doctrine (accurate teaching about what the Bible says) from generation to generation (Romans 6:17, 2 Timothy 1:13, 2 Timothy 2:2, Titus 1:9, 1 Corinthians 11:23, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8). This has often been done through the formulation of statements that summarize the essential teachings of the Bible. The church is under constant attack by the enemy who wants to distort saving truth (1 Tim 4:1). This attack is repeatedly leveled at the identity of Christ or what he accomplished on the cross. Because one must believe the teaching of the gospel in order to be saved (2 Thess 1:8, 1 Peter 4:17, Romans 10:16, John 14:23-24), we want to be clear on what we believe and teach - not only with the essentials of salvation, but with all those teachings that are given in Scripture for life and godliness.

Though there are many excellent statements throughout history which have been a foundation of teaching and global Christian unity down through the years, it is important that each generation articulate these truths from Scripture to be on guard against the inventions of the Devil and the threat of false teaching that the church faces today through the sprit of the Anti-Christ at work in the world (1 John 4:3). This was the Biblical church’s response to false teaching (Gal 1:6-9. Gal 5:2-4,1 John 4:2, 2 John 1:6-7, 1 Corinthians 12:3, 1 John 2:23, 1 John 5:1), and our response today. These statements have no authority of their own but are only authoritative to the degree that they accurately represent what Scripture teaches.

One such important series of statements was written from 1978-1986. These statements were drafted and signed by 250-300 Evangelical Scholars with the purpose of defending the church against a wind of weakening trust in the accuracy and source of the Scriptures that has been blowing through the Church for decades. Their words are needed even more today than they were then. There are three statements:

Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (October 26-28, 1978)

Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics (November 10-13, 1982)

Chicago Statement on Biblical Application (December 10-13, 1986)

Though these statements were not written to be a doctrinal statement of a local church, they fit that purpose well because of their clarity and because they allow a local congregation to identify with the faith of a larger group of believers, testifying to the unity of the faith of Bible-believing Christians. In order to make them a comprehensive statement for our congregation, we have added to them statements pertaining to the specifics of the Sacraments or Ordinances of the Church, Sanctification in the believer, and the Return of Christ.

What follows are excerpts from those statements which together with HCC's additions form our doctrinal statement. However, we hold to everything said in each of the complete statements and encourage reading those full statements at the links above.

Taken from the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy

A Short Statement on Scripture

• God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God's witness to Himself.
• Holy Scripture, being God's own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God's instruction, in all that it affirms: obeyed, as God's command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God's pledge, in all that it promises.
• The Holy Spirit, Scripture's divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.
• Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God's acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God's saving grace in individual lives.
• The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible's own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.

Taken from the Chicago Statement on Biblical Application

The Living God

• WE AFFIRM that the one true and living God is the creator and sustainer of all things.
• WE AFFIRM that this God can be known through His revelation of Himself in His inerrant written Word.
• WE AFFIRM that this one God exists eternally in three persons, Father, Son, andHoly Spirit, each of whom is fully God.
• WE AFFIRM that this living, acting, speaking God entered into history through the Son Jesus Christ to bring salvation to the human race.
• WE AFFIRM that the revealed character and will of God are the foundation of all morality.
• WE DENY that the human language of Scripture is inadequate to inform us who God is or what He is like.
• WE DENY that the doctrine of the Trinity is a contradiction or is based upon an unacceptable ontology.
• WE DENY that the notion of God should be accommodated tomodern thought which has no place for the concepts of sin and salvation.

The Savior and His Work

• WE AFFIRM that Jesus Christ is true God, begotten from the Father from all eternity, and also true man, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
• WE AFFIRM that the indivisible union of full deity with full humanity in the one person of Jesus Christ is essential for His saving work.
• WE AFFIRM that Jesus Christ,through His vicarious suffering, death, and resurrection, is the only Savior and Redeemer of the world.
• WE AFFIRM that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
• WE AFFIRM that Jesus Christ, as revealed in Scripture, is the supreme model of the godly life that is ours in and through Him.
• WE DENY that Scripture warrants any proclamation or offer of salvation except on the basis of the saving work of the crucified and risen Christ.
• WE DENY that those who die without Christ can be saved in the life tocome.
• WE DENY that persons capable of rational choice can be saved without personal faith in the biblical Christ.
• WE DENY that presenting Jesus Christ as a moral example without reference to His deity and substitutionary atonement does justice to the teaching of Scripture.
• WE DENY that a proper understanding of the love and justice of God warrants the hope of universal salvation.

The Holy Spirit and His Work

• WE AFFIRM that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Triune Godhead and that His work is essential for the salvation of sinners.
• WE AFFIRM that true and saving knowledgeof God is given by the Spirit of God as He authenticates and illuminates the Word of canonical Scripture, of which He is the primary author.
• WE AFFIRM that the Holy Spirit guides the people of God, giving them wisdom to apply Scripture to modemissues and everyday life.
• WE AFFIRM that the church's vitality in worship and fellowship, its faithfulness in confession, its fruitfulness in witness, and its power in mission, depend directly on the power of the Holy Spirit.
• WE DENY that any view that disputes the essential tripersonality of the one God is compatible with the gospel.
• WE DENY that any person can say from the heart that Jesus is Lord apart from the Holy Spirit.
• WE DENY that the Holy Spirit, since the apostolic age, has ever given, or does now give, new normative revelation to the church.
• WE DENY that the name of renewal should be given to any movement in the church that does not involve a deepened sense of God's judgment and mercy in Christ.

The Church and Its Mission

• WE AFFIRM that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives the Bible its canonical authority, and the role of the church was and is to recognizeand affirm this authority.
• WE AFFIRM that Christ the Lord has established His church on earth and rules it by His Word and Spirit.
• WE AFFIRM that the church is apostolic as it receives and is established upon the doctrine of the apostles recorded in Scripture and continues to proclaim the apostolic gospel.
• WE AFFIRM that identifying marks of local churches are faithful confession and proclamation of the Word of God, and responsible administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
• WE AFFIRM that churches are subject to the Word of Christ in their order as in their doctrine.
• WE AFFIRM that in addition to their commitment to a local church, Christians may properly involve themselves in parachurch organizations for specialized ministry.
• WE AFFIRM that Christ calls the church to serve Him by its worship, nurture, and witness as His people in the world.
• WE AFFIRM that Christ sends the church into the whole world to summon sinful humanity to faith, repentance, and righteousness.
• WE AFFIRM that the unity and clarity of Scripture encourage us to seek to resolve doctrinal differences among Christians, and so to manifest the oneness of the church in Christ.
• WE DENY that the church can grant canonical authority to Scripture.
• WE DENY that the church is constituted by the will and traditionsof men.
• WE DENY that the church can bind the conscience apart from the Word of God.
• WE DENY that the church can free itself from the authority of the written Word of God and still exercise valid discipline in Christ's name.
• WE DENY that the church can accommodate itself to the demands of a particular culture if those demands conflict with scriptural revelation, or if they restrain the liberty of Christian conscience.
• WE DENY that differing cultural situations invalidate the biblical principle of male-female equality or the biblical requirements for their roles in the church.

Additional Statements of Hudson Christian Church

Hudson Christian Church Statement on Baptism

• WE AFFIRM that baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the sign and seal of the new covenant and the outward confirmation of an inward reality.
• WE DENY that baptism is the cause of entrance into the new covenant.
• WE AFFIRM that baptism is properly administered by immersion to willing individuals who comprehend and believe the gospel of grace and have repented of their sin, confessing Christ as Lord and Savior.
• WE DENY that those who practice another mode of baptism other than immersion following confession are barred from salvation, that they are any less brothers and sisters in Christ, or that there is more than one baptism in Christ.
• WE AFFIRM that baptism is a symbol of the cleansing from sin accomplished by Christ’s blood, of death to self, sin and unbelief and rebirth to a new, eternal, and God-fearing life, and expresses union with Christ in his death and resurrection.
• WE DENY that regeneration or the remission of sins happens through or at the time of baptism, nor can such beliefs be held without serious distortion to the doctrines of salvation.
• WE AFFIRM that baptism is more than an empty symbol ormere object lesson of salvation, but is a supernatural means of the working of grace by the Holy Spirit within the believer towards sanctification and the strengthening of their faith, serving as a fountain of hope in the reality of their cleansing and regeneration by the Holy Spirit that their conscience might be more ably defended against the accusations of the Accuser of the Brethren.
• WE DENY that baptism can be rightly separated from conversion without detriment to the convert’s conscience and testimony, or that the genuine conversion of those who will not submit to baptism shouldn’t be called into question.

Hudson Christian Church Statement on The Lord's Supper

• WE AFFIRM the observance of the Lord’s Supper as a visible testimony to outsiders, the local assembly, and our own consciences of our union with Christ and his body, the church, and a proclamation of Christ’s saving work in death.
• WE DENY that the Lord’s Supper may be persistently neglected without calling into question the reality of that union.
• WE AFFIRM that the Lord’s Supper is rightly administered in the context of the assembly of believers as a weekly seal upon the reception of the Word of God preached, that receiving the Body of Christ as bread figures living by the words of the Bread of Life; even as Christ said his food was to do the will of the Father, and that man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
• WE DENY that those congregations that share in the Lord’s Supper at different intervals sin against any express command of Christ.
• WE AFFIRM that by sharing in the body andblood of Christ (represented by the bread and the cup) we confess our need of the atoning work of Christ on the Cross, our confident faith that his death has purchased our pardon, and that there is no life, no salvation, outside of the provision of Christ’s sacrifice.
• WE DENY that Christ is physically present in the elements, or that elements are changed in any way when consecrated, or that Christ is again sacrificed for us through the communion service.
• WE AFFIRM that the Lord’s Supper is a true spiritual exercise of faith whereby our spirit is nourished by Christ, that it is a means of multiplied grace which edifies the believer by bringing conviction of the serious weight of sin in remembranceof Christ’s sacrifice, stirring a deeper hatred of sin and love of righteousness, comforting our consciences that our sins are purged by Christ’s once and perfect sacrifice, and assuring us of our identity as saints and children of God welcomed into his presence.
• WE DENY that the Lord’s supper is a mere object lesson or purely rational reminder of the historical fact of Christ’s death, that there is no supernatural spiritual benefit to those who partake of the Lord’s Supper or serious consequence for those who partake in an unworthy manner by harboring sin in their hearts, neglecting to be reconciled to a brother or sister in Christ, or promoting division, inequality, or selfish ambition in the church.
• WE AFFIRM that it is the local congregation’s responsibility to withhold the Lord’s Supper from those professing believers who are unrepentant, before the elders and the assembly, of confronted sin as a testimony to them that as they are not rightly aligned to the fellowship of believers, so they should not consider themselves to be rightly aligned to Christ. In so doing, we proclaim to the world that the Church hasan outside and an inside, and whoever does not enter and abide by repentance and faith in Christ’s sacrifice is excluded from salvation.
• WE DENY that engaging in such church discipline is a loveless or condemning act, but may serve the ex-communicated individual in awakening him to the seriousness of his condition, lead to the destruction of his fleshly attachment to sin, and humble his heart before Christ in repentance that he might be restored and saved on the day of Christ.

Hudson Christian Church Statement on Sanctification

• WE AFFIRM that sanctification is properly a work of God by Grace through the agency of the Holy Spirit effected by the instruction and conviction of the Word so that our will is to obey God and our desire is realized by his power.
• WE DENY that the believer is merely passive in this role or that progress will be made apart from strenuous labor, striving, and effort on the believer’s part in cooperation with what God is accomplishing in them.
• WE AFFIRM that sanctification is perfectly accomplished positionally upon conversion, guaranteed eschatologically in both soul and body, and effected progressively (though not always steadily) throughout the believer’s life.
• WE DENY that sinless perfection, even of known sins, is experienced in this life.
• WE AFFIRM that evident progress in the renewal of an individual’s affections, thoughts, speech, and actions is a useful test of genuine conversion andprovides a subjective sense of assurance of salvation through the benefit of a clean conscience.
• WE DENY that progress in sanctification contributes to one’s salvation in any way or that failure to progress at any point constitutes a loss of salvation.
• WE AFFIRM that upon rebirth the believer is a new creature and is no longer a slave to sin, yet indwelling sin remains as a fleshly inclination and impulse towards sin and must be put to death by the Spirit, acting in faith, through the believer’s God-steered will.
• WE DENY that the believer ever sins of necessity, or that any blame for remaining sin can be attributed to God for withholding his grace to overcome temptation.
• WE AFFIRM that among the human means of sanctification are the study and application of Scripture, prayer for deliverance from the power of sin, and the various graces of congregational fellowship; participation in communion, confession of sins one to another, exhortation, rebuke, and church discipline.
• WE DENY that the human means of sanctification can ever accomplish true growth in righteousness apart from God’s active working in and through them by his grace.

Hudson Christian Church Statement on Last Things

• WE AFFIRM that upon death the spirits of those who are in Christ are separated from their bodies, perfected, and are consciously in the presence of Christ in sweet fellowship awaiting Christ’s return to earth for the resurrection of their bodies, while the spirits of those who are without Christ are consciously held in punishment awaiting the final judgment.
• WE DENY that the souls of those who have died are unconscious, that there is any suffering or temporal punishment to purge sins and render believers holy and fit to enter into God’s presence upon death, or that there is further opportunity for repentance or salvation for those who are outside of Christ.
• WE AFFIRM that in the time that the Father has appointed, Christ will visibly, bodily, and gloriously return to the earth, that the dead in Christ will accompany him and be raised in their new bodies, that those in Christ who are living upon the earth will be translated into eternal glorious bodies.
• WE DENY that the dead in Christ are currently bodily present in heaven enjoying their promised reward, or that any testimony or vision that purports to have witnessed such a condition of the saintsis a true testimony.
• WE AFFIRM that following the resurrection of the wicked and the righteous, all will stand before Christ in judgment, the redeemed to receive their commendation and eternal reward, the wicked to be consigned to eternal conscious suffering, banished forever from the presence of God along withSatan and the demonic host.
• WE DENY that the eternal destruction of the wicked refers to annihilation (end of existence) for the bodies or souls of the damned.
• WE AFFIRM that at the consummation of all things the present creation will be destroyed and a new heaven and earth will be established where the saints will live and reign with Christ forever in perfection of joy and love, eternally absent of evil, sin, pain, and death, and where all the new creation eternally praises God in the glory of his presence and fellowship.
• WE DENY that the exclusion of those whom we have loved in this life, or the memory of sin, pain, loss, evil, or our failures in our Christian walk, will in any way shadow or temper our everlasting joy.
• WE AFFIRM that the various views concerning the millennium and rapture of the church have Scriptural merit and can each be held by faithful students of the Bible who have cometo disparate positions.
• WE DENY that disagreement over these views breaks fellowship or that that dogmatic certainty regarding events, timings, or the interpretation of eschatological prophecies (other than those truths affirmed above) is necessary or warranted, or that any of the major views, when rightly applied, leads to godless living or a lack of preparedness for Christ’s return.
• WE AFFIRM that the current primary applications of Scripture pertaining to Christ’s return are watchfulness, readiness of heart and action, yearning for Christ’s return, diligence in service to the Lord, and the putting away of sin.
• WE DENY that pre-occupation with signs and events is a healthy focus or right application of end-times texts.