Statement of Faith

Our system of doctrine is the Reformed faith, which is set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. This system of doctrine is summarized in the following paragraphs derived from our Westminster Standards.

Holy Scripture – The Bible, having been inspired by God, is entirely trustworthy and without error in its original manuscripts. As the only source of God’s special revelation to the church today, the Bible is the only infallible rule for faith and practice.

God – God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. There is but one true and living God, but there are three persons in the Godhead: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Creation – God spoke the heavens and the earth into existence out of nothing. God fashioned the world by the power of His spoken word, in accordance with infinite wisdom and as a demonstration of His almighty power, in the space of six days.

Man – God created man male and female, after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures. Man was created by God as very good and sinless, and yet capable of falling into sin.

The Fall – The first man Adam served as the federal representative of mankind. When Adam fell into sin, the guilt of his sin was imputed (reckoned) to all who descend from him by natural generation, and his corrupt nature was inherited by them as well. Man, therefore, is defiled with sin in all the parts and faculties of soul and body. He is by nature at enmity with God, under the curse of God, and unable to save himself.

Jesus – The divine Son of God took to Himself in His incarnation a true body and a reasonable soul. He is both fully God and fully man. The divine and human natures coexist in Jesus without mixture, confusion, separation, or division. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life and died for sinners on the cross at Calvary. He was raised from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Salvation – Sinners are forgiven for all of their sins and declared to be righteous in the sight of God (justified) by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. This saving faith is always accompanied by repentance unto life. Both faith and repentance unto life are conveyed to God’s elect as a free gift of His grace and are the result of the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration. Regeneration, therefore, precedes faith.

The Church – The invisible church consists of all the elect of God. The visible church (or the church from our perspective) consists of all those who profess the faith along with their children. Christ has given to His church two sacraments – the sacrament of baptism (which is administered to those who profess the faith and their children) and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

Our beliefs are best summarized in the Westminster Confession of Faith , the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the statement published at http://www.pcanet.org/general/beliefs.htm and the statement which follows below.

Reformation Wall in Geneva, Switzerland

The Reformers, left to right: William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and John Knox

What We Believe

Redemptive in Focus

North Fort Myers Presbyterian Church is redemptive in focus. This simply means that we are passionate about God’s work of redemption proclaimed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ours is a church full of sinful people who have been redeemed by our Savior who paid the ultimate price to redeem us from the death penalty that our sins deserved. Jesus said that his express purpose in coming was to "give his life as a ransom for many," (Matt. 20:28) and by God’s grace, we are among "the many" he has redeemed. Because we are the redeemed of the Lord, we understand that our lives are no longer our own, but that we have been bought with a price. Therefore, we desire to live for the Savior who bought us. Our desire is simply to glorify the God who redeemed us in the way we worship, in the way we live, and in sharing this good news of redemption with others.

Protestant in Foundation

North Fort Myers Presbyterian Church is Protestant in foundation. As a church we enthusiastically affirm those truths recovered in the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These truths were set forth in five Latin phrases (or slogans) commonly referred to as the five Solas of the Protestant Reformation. Sola is simply a Latin term meaning "alone" or "only." These Solas distinguished the teaching of Protestants from the Roman Catholic Church, and at North Fort Myers Presbyterian Church, we believe that these five phrases continue to be a good and faithful summary of the teaching of Scripture. Thus, we affirm that salvation is Sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone"), Solus Christus ("by Christ alone"), Sola gratia ("by Grace alone"), Sola fide ("by Faith alone"), and Soli Deo Gloria ("for God’s glory alone").

Sola Scriptura – We believe in the sole authority of God’s word. God alone is the Lord of the conscience, and His word alone is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice. All opinions, doctrines and traditions of men must be tested against the standard of God’s Word.

Solus Christus – We believe that Jesus Christ is "the only mediator between God and man," (1 Tim. 1:5) and that "there is no other name under heaven that has been given by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). Only Jesus can save sinful man from the wrath of almighty God by having endured that wrath Himself. Only Jesus can reconcile us to God. Only Jesus can make us sons of God, heirs with Him. Only Jesus Christ can deliver us from the guilt and power of sin by offering Himself as a perfect and spotless sacrifice to God in our place.

Sola Gratia – We believe that we are saved by grace alone. We are not saved because of the good things we do. Our works do not contribute anything to our justification and standing before God. We are saved by grace to do the good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:8 – 10), but these good works are the necessary fruit of trees made good. God’s love is unconditional and His grace is sovereignly and freely given to those whom He has chosen.

Sola Fide – We believe that the grace of God and Jesus Christ himself are received by faith alone. We are justified ("accounted right with God") by grace alone through faith alone. By faith, the sinner trusts in and rests upon the Lord Jesus Christ as He is offered in the Gospel (Gal. 2:15-16). By faith, the sinner receives the atoning power of Christ’s blood, the righteousness and merits of Christ, which is the basis for God to forgive the sinner and pronounce him righteous in the eyes of God (Romans 3:21 – 26). This faith is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8) and is the only instrument in justification. Nevertheless, faith is never alone in the one who believes, but it is accompanied by all other saving graces (Gal. 5:6, James 2:14 – 26).

Soli Deo Gloria – We believe that all things, including our salvation, are accomplished for the glory of God alone. God does not need anything. He has created all things in order to manifest His glory. In the works of creation, providence and redemption, God does all things for the demonstration of His glory. God’s glory is the chief end for which man was created so that whatsoever we do, we do to the glory of God, that His name might be honored and revered.

Reformed in Substance

North Fort Myers Presbyterian Church is a church that is Reformed in substance. Our doctrine, our worship and our lives are governed by this distinctive commitment to the Sovereignty of God over all of life. When we speak of God’s sovereignty over all of life, we do not exclude salvation itself. God, and God alone, not only accomplishes salvation, but determines who will be saved. Thus, salvation is "the gift of God and not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Eph. 2:8-9) These truths have been set forth in another five propositions commonly called "the doctrines of grace”, or the “five points of Calvinism”. Like the five Solas of the Reformation, we believe that the five points of Calvinism continue to be a good and faithful summary of the teaching of Scripture. Therefore, we affirm the doctrines of Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and the Perseverance of the saints (T.U.L.I.P.).

Total Depravity – We believe that man is totally depraved. This means that all of man’s faculties (the totality of his being) were corrupted in the fall, leaving mankind dead in their sins and depraved by nature (Eph. 2:1-3; Rom. 3:10-12).

Unconditional Election – We believe that God’s determination (or election) of who will be saved is not based upon (or conditioned by) anything in man or anything that he has done, but only upon the sovereign determination "of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will" (John 17:6-10; Eph. 1:4-11; Rom. 9:6-24).

Limited Atonement – We believe that Christ’s death makes a real atonement for all those whom he intends to save. By the term "limited atonement" we do not mean that the death of Christ is at all limited in its efficacy. The adjective "limited" refers only to the extent of God’s purpose in redemption. We may speak of this as "particular redemption" meaning that the death of Christ does not merely make salvation possible, but actually accomplishes redemption for God’s elect. It is only because the atonement is limited in this respect that it can be called powerful or effectual in any respect (John 10:11, 14-18, 24-29; Rom. 5:8-9).

Irresistible Grace – We believe that God irresistibly and effectually makes his elect ready and willing to embrace Jesus Christ as he is offered to them in the gospel. God does not save men against their wills, but changes their wills so that they desire to be saved (Eph. 2:5; John 3:3-8; Titus 3:5).

Perseverance of the Saints – We believe that God enables His Saints to persevere in their faith unto salvation. This does not mean that believers never struggle in faith, nor does it mean that all who profess faith actually have true faith. It simply means that everyone who receives God’s gift of saving faith will persevere in that faith until the end (1 Peter 1:5; John 6:47; 10:27-30).

Covenantal in Perspective

North Fort Myers Presbyterian Church is a church that is covenantal in perspective. We believe that every person has a relationship with God. It may be a good relationship or it may be a broken relationship, but everyone relates to God in some way. The Bible calls this way of relating to our Creator a "covenant". The Scriptures teach that because of the sin of Adam (the father of the entire human race) all of humanity lives under a broken covenant of works with their Creator and deserves the curse given by God at Adam’s disobedience (Gen. 3:17-19). The curse of this covenant is physical and spiritual death. But the Scriptures also teach that God did not leave all mankind in this cursed state of sin and misery. He established a covenant of grace with his people, the church, and promises eternal life to all who trust in him for salvation. God accomplished this redemption by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, who unlike the first Adam, was perfectly obedient to his Father and thus earned eternal life (the blessing of the covenant) for all who would trust in him. Even though this covenant has been administered in different ways at different times, this covenant of grace is the way that Christ has always related to his people in every age of history.

This overarching biblical perspective shapes everything that we do as a church, from the way we worship (i.e. – children and adults together as one big covenantal family) to the reason we baptize our children. The Bible teaches that our children are part of the covenant community, so they receive baptism, which is the sign of the covenant. Baptism does not automatically save our children, but marks them as the heirs of the promises of the covenant when they put their faith in the good news that it preaches to them.

Confessional in Commitment

North Fort Myers Presbyterian Church is a church committed to its confessions of faith. We enthusiastically subscribe to the system of doctrine contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith, together with its Larger and Shorter Catechisms. The Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice, and is therefore our primary standard. Nevertheless, we believe that our secondary standards are a good and faithful summary of the Scriptures, and are therefore useful as tools for promoting and preserving the faith, as well as providing a common basis for fellowship.

Presbyterian in Polity

North Fort Myers Presbyterian Church is Presbyterian in its form of church government (or polity), where each local church is ruled by elders elected from among the men of the congregation. This group of elders is called a Session (The word "session" means "those who are seated"), and they are charged by Christ to provide oversight and care for his people at the local church level. Elders from each of the Sessions in a particular region come together to form a higher church court, called the Presbytery (The word "Presbytery" means "the elders"). The Presbytery is charged by Christ with overseeing and caring for all of the churches in its region. Finally, elders from each of these Presbyteries come together to form the highest court of the church, the General Assembly. This Presbyterian version of the Supreme Court is charged with overseeing and caring for all of the churches in a denomination, in our case the Presbyterian Church in America. These bodies are called "courts" because Christ has given them his own authority to make judgments concerning the doctrine and discipline of the church (Matthew 16:18-19; 18:18-20; 1 Cor. 5:4).