SVRPC is committed to the historic Christian faith. We believe that the Bible is God’s inerrant and inspired Word, which God, Who is Truth Itself, has graciously authored for the Church as a revelation of Himself, and as her only rule of faith and obedience.
This Word principally teaches what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
We believe that God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
Further, this one God has made Himself known as three distinct Persons, the Father (neither begotten, nor proceeding), the Son (eternally begotten of the Father), and the Holy Ghost (proceeding from the Father and the Son).
We believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. The Father, in His infinite mercy, has chosen a people in Christ Jesus, sent His Son and His Spirit to accomplish their salvation, adopted His people as heirs of His Testament of Grace, chastens and instructs His people, and fulfills in them every good thing He has promised.
The Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, was, in time, for us men and for our salvation, conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, took flesh of her substance, having a true body and a reasonable soul, suffered under Pontius Pilate in that same body and soul, died in our place on the cross, was buried, and rose again the third day for our justification. He ascended into heaven, and was seated at the right hand of God the Father. He will come again with power and great glory as the judge of the living and the dead at the last day. Of His government, and of the increase of His kingdom, there will be no end.
The Holy Ghost is the down-payment of the full inheritance in God’s Testament. The Spirit washes and renews those dead in trespasses and sins, enlightening their minds in the knowledge of Christ, convicting them of their sin and misery, renewing their wills, and enabling the elect to embrace the promise of the gospel, freely made to them in God’s Testament. This same Spirit, as the Power of God, keeps the elect unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last day, and provides to His people the faith by which this promise is embraced as His gift.
This Triune (Three-in-One) God has all authority over all mankind, as their Creator. Further, over those who profess the truth faith, God possesses a special right as their Redeemer and Savior. Those who own Christ as Lord (“Christians”) are therefore bound twice to the Almighty authority of God.
We believe that the second principal teaching of Scripture is “what duty God requires of man.” We are bound to personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience to God’s holy laws. We are bound to obey these laws in the motives for which we act, in the manner in which we do the act, and in the matter or substance of the action itself. Moreover, we are bound to obey such laws in our inward thoughts and affections, in our words, and in our deeds.
This duty required of us in summed up in the Two Great Commandments, namely, to love the Lord our God will all our heart, soul, strength, and mind; and to love our neighbor as ourselves. These two are further explained by the Two Tables of the Ten Commandments, the first Four Commandments containing our duty to God directly, and the last Six our duty to God indirectly through our neighbor.
This is our duty to God as creatures (sometimes called “the law of Nature”), which is reinforced by the work of redemption, giving Christians a greater responsibility of obedience to God’s laws.
Due to the depth of our depravity, and remaining corruption in true believers, even after being regenerated by the Holy Ghost, these laws of God continue to show us our need for the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Moreover, as we grow in sanctification, these laws show us what works please God, which our new hearts desire to do for God’s glory, our neighbor’s edification, and our own blessing.
Further, we believe that these laws form a perfect standard for which the natural institutions of the family and the commonwealth have been ordained by God. We believe that the grace of the gospel does not abrogate nature, or natural institutions such as the family or the commonwealth, but rather establishes them in their proper jurisdictions, giving them light in place of their darkness, and clarity in place of the natural obscurity of the law of Nature in a fallen world.
As positive precepts added to the law of Nature, God has chosen from time to time to appoint specific precepts to regulate our conduct and worship. Within the Reformation inaugurated by Christ Jesus (from the ceremonies of the Old Dispensation), such positive precepts for worship include the means of grace, such as the preaching, reading, and hearing of Scripture, prayer, singing of Psalms, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Table. Since God alone has sufficient wisdom and authority to appoint positive precepts for worship, we are opposed to any imposition in the worship of God by mere human authority, whether of private spirits, ancient teachers of the church, traditions of men, or ecclesiastical councils. Our only sufficient guide in worship is the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, as He has revealed His will to us in Scripture.
We believe that in the preaching and reading of the Word, we are to limit ourselves to the 66 canonical books of the Old and New Testaments; and in singing, to the 150 Psalms, Hymns, and Songs inspired by the Holy Ghost, the “Psalms of David;” and in the manner of prayer, to that form commonly known as “the Lord’s Prayer,” and in the matter of prayer, to the entire Word of God in Scripture, and any lawful requests and thanksgivings in our personal lives which relate to those two divinely inspired sources.
We believe that the Christian religion is established to free “slaves to Satan” from the bondage of sin and death, through the obedience and death of Jesus Christ. Further, we believe that Christ has purchased our freedom from the yoke of the ceremonies of the Mosaic law, and the “rudiments of the world,” such as man-made precepts respecting faith, life, and worship. We assert the freedom of Christian men to be judged in spiritual matters only by the standard of Scripture, and not by the arbitrary whims of otherwise well-meaning brothers and sisters in Christ, or heathens from the outside.