WHAT WE BELIEVE
1. The Trinity: God is
We believe in one God, in being and essence, eternally existing as three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, each of whom is fully God.
We believe in one God, in being and essence, eternally existing as three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, each of whom is fully God. Each person has precisely the same nature and attributes and is worthy of precisely the same worship, honor and praise. The entire Christian faith is bound together with the confession of God’s Trinitarian nature (Matt. 28:18-20).
We believe in God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth. We believe in the Son, God from God, eternally begotten but not made, who in history assumed to Himself a human nature for the sake of our salvation (John 1:14; Heb. 1:3). He is fully God and fully man. Through Him, all things came into being and were created. He was before all things, and in Him, all things hold together by the word of His power (Col.1:15-20). He suffered, died, was buried, resurrected, ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father until He returns for the final judgment and consummation of the Kingdom. We believe in the Holy Spirit who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son and is sent by the Father and Son to give new life (John 15:26-27). The Holy Spirit unites believers to Jesus Christ in faith, brings about the new birth and dwells within the regenerate (Eph. 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit has come to glorify the Son who, in turn, came to glorify the Father. He will lead the Church into a right understanding and rich application of the truth of God’s Word. He is to be respected, honored and worshiped as God, the third person of the Trinity.
The triune God, Father, Son and Spirit, is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible. As the immortal and eternal Creator, He sovereignly rules over all of His creation (Ps. 24:1).
2. The Bible: God Speaks
The Bible is the authoritative Word of God and is inerrant in the original writings.
We believe the Bible, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are the inspired Word of God and are therefore without error in their original writings. These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, which is utterly authoritative and free from error. The Scripture is sufficient for all that God requires for us to believe and do and is therefore to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises (Is. 40:6-8). As God’s people hear, believe and obey the Word, they are equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel (Rom. 10:14-17).
Distinctive || Inerrancy
The Bible, being God’s inspired and authoritative Word, is God’s witness of Himself to humanity. It is therefore free from falsehood and error. We confess that when all the facts are known, and when the Bible is properly interpreted, the original autographs of the Bible will be shown to be completely true in all that they affirm.
3. The Creation of Humanity: God Creates
We believe that all humanity is created in the image of God and possess intrinsic dignity and worth.
God made humanity—male and female—in His own image (Gen. 1:27-30). Set apart as His image bearers, every human being is sacred. All men and all women, bearing the image of God, are meant to represent God in His creation (1 Cor. 10:31). God declares the created order to be very good, distinguishing men and women as His agents to care for, manage and govern over it. They enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union in the covenant of marriage that establishes the only God-ordained pattern of sexual relations for men and women. In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways.
Distinctive || Complementarianism
Men and women are absolutely equal in essence, dignity and value but are distinct by divine design. As part of God’s good created order, men and women are to have different yet complementary roles and responsibilities in the home and church. As it relates to the church, men and women are both expected to lead; however, the office of elder or pastor is reserved for qualified men (1 Tim. 3; Titus 1).
Distinctive || Marriage
We believe that God has designed marriage to be a covenantal and lifelong union of one man and one woman, as husband and wife, and is meant to signify the covenant love between Christ and his bride the church. We believe that God has revealed to humanity that homosexuality, polygamous, or polyamorous relationship are sinful in his sight.
4. The Fall and Sin: God Judges
Humanity is dead in sin and incapable of believing the Gospel for salvation, apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit
We believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness—for himself and all his offspring—by falling into sin through Satan’s temptation. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being (e.g., physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually) and condemned finally and irrevocably to death—apart from God’s own gracious intervention. Humanity is dead in sin and incapable of believing the Gospel for salvation, apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. As a result of the fall humanity has inherited a sin nature that is hostile to God and does not submit to God’s law (Romans 8:7). The human will is enslaved to the nature of sin. We believe that there is no one good enough or righteous enough to get to heaven (Romans 3:10-12). The supreme need of all human beings is to be reconciled to the God under whose just and holy wrath we stand; the only hope of all human beings is the undeserved love of this same God, who alone can rescue us and restore us to himself.
5. The Plan of Salvation: God Predestines
We believe that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, according to Scripture alone.
We believe that from all eternity God determined in grace to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation, and to this end foreknew them and chose them. We believe that God justifies and sanctifies those who by grace have faith in Jesus, and that he will one day glorify them—all to the praise of his glorious grace. In love God commands and implores all people to repent and believe, having set his saving love on those he has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their Redeemer.
Distinctive || Sovereignty of God in Salvation
The salvation of humanity is fundamentally the work of God. Before the foundation of the world, God elected His people, setting His affection and grace upon them (Rom. 8:29-30). In love God predestined His people for adoption (Eph. 1:4-6). Faith is a gift of grace that is given by the mercy and pleasure of God, so that no one may boast. Apart from the intervention of God, humanity cannot choose of his own accord to worship God and pursue righteousness (Rom. 3; Eph. 2:1-3). God’s sovereignty in salvation is comprehensive: from first to last, all of salvation is the work of God. We believe in the reformed doctrines of grace: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement (also known as particular redemption or definite atonement), irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. We believe that all five of the doctrines of grace are derived directly from the Scriptures and that the acronym TULIP accurately describes the Bible’s teaching on soteriology—the doctrine of salvation.
6. The Gospel: God Saves
This good news is a message that is centrally focused upon Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection.
The Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. This good news is a message that is centrally focused upon Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection. The Gospel is not about receiving health, wealth, or prosperity. Nor is it about earning our salvation by works or good deeds. The Gospel is that Christ lived a sinless life, died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins to reconcile us back to God, and by his resurrection we are promised eternal life with him in heaven. By his sacrifice, he bore in our due punishment for sins, making a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf. The gospel is a collection of historical events. We believe the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to anyone who believes. We believe that when the Gospel is believed, individuals are born again and adopted into God’s family.
7. The Justification of Sinners: God Justifies
By faith in Christ, sinners are declared righteous before God on the basis of Christ’s perfect obedience.
We believe that Christ, by his obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all those who are justified. By his sacrifice, he bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins, making a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf. By his perfect obedience he satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. Inasmuch as Christ was given by the Father for us, and his obedience and punishment were accepted in place of our own, freely and not for anything in us, this justification is solely of free grace, in order that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. We believe that a zeal for personal and public obedience flows from this free justification.
8. The Church: God’s People
We believe that the Church is the body of Christ sent into the world to glorify God.
God, by His Word and Spirit, creates the Church, calling sinful humanity into the fellowship of Christ’s body (1 Cor. 12:12-31). By the same Word and Spirit, He guides and preserves that newly redeemed humanity. The Church is made up of those who have become genuine followers of Jesus Christ and have personally appropriated the gospel. The Church exists to worship and glorify God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The ministry of the Church is an extension of the ministry of Jesus in the power of the Spirit.
The ultimate mission of the Church is to bring glory to God by making disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). The Church is called to make disciples through worship, prayer, teaching of the Word, observance of the ordinances, fellowship, the exercise of our gifts and talents, and the proclamation of the gospel both in our community and throughout the world.
Distinctive || Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The gifts of the Holy Spirit that we see on display in the New Testament are still active within the life of the church. These gifts did not end with the close of the New Testament or the death of the last apostle (1 Cor. 12:1-11).
9. The Ordinances: God’s Order
Water baptism is a visual and symbolic demonstration of a person’s union with Christ in the likeness of His death and resurrection. Communion is the breaking of Christ’s body and the shedding of His blood on our behalf.
We believe there are two ordinances of the Church. One is that of believer’s baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the other is the Lord’s Supper.
Water baptism is only intended for those who have received the saving benefits of Christ through the new birth of the Holy Spirit. In obedience to Christ’s command and as a testimony to God, the Church, oneself and the world, believers are baptized by water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Water baptism is a visual and symbolic demonstration of a person’s union with Christ in the likeness of His death and resurrection. It signifies that a former way of life has been put to death and vividly depicts the release from the mastery of Satan, sin and death.
As with water baptism, the Lord’s Supper is to be observed only by those who have become genuine followers of Christ. This ordinance symbolizes the breaking of Christ’s body and the shedding of His blood on our behalf and is to be observed repeatedly throughout the Christian life as a sign of continued participation in the atoning benefits of Christ’s death. As we come to the table with an attitude of faith and self-examination, we remember and proclaim the death of Christ, receive spiritual nourishment for our souls and signify our unity with other members of Christ’s body.
Distinctive || Baptism by Immersion
The precedent we find in the New Testament is baptism following conversion by immersion into water. Baptism by immersion is meant to symbolically depict the believer’s real union to Christ in His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:1-14).
Distinctive || Communion with Wine
At The Reborn Church of Phoenix we provide an option to drink wine, as well as grape juice. In the New Testament we know that Jesus’ first miracle was changing water into wine at the wedding at Cana (John 2:1–11). And our Lord Himself not only drank wine (Luke 7:34), but He said He would also drink it in heaven with us (Matthew 26:29). Additionally, the apostle Paul instructed Timothy to use wine instead of “only water” so as to make his stomach better (1 Timothy 5:23). It is important to note, that historically the church has always used wine for the Lord’s Supper. Grape Juice wasn’t invented until 1869. Additionally, the frequency with which we see the use of wine all through the Bible, it is equally clear that drunkenness is never acceptable. Nevertheless, we are convicted by Scripture that wine is a gift that God has given to use in worship of him and never to be used in drunkenness.
10. The Resurrection and Restoration: God Restores
We believe that Jesus Christ is returning to the world in the future to judge the living and the dead.
The consummation of all things includes the future, physical, visible, personal and glorious return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead and the glorification of those alive in Christ, the judgment of the just and the unjust, and the fulfillment of Christ’s kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth. In the consummation, Satan, with his hosts and all those outside Christ, is finally separated from the benevolent presence of God, enduring eternal punishment (Rev. 20:7-15), but the righteous, in glorious bodies, will live and reign with Him forever, serving Him and giving Him unending praise and glory. Then the eager expectation of creation will be fulfilled, and the whole earth shall proclaim the glory of God, who makes all things new (Rev. 21:1-5).