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HOFCC Core Beliefs
Friday, 21 July 2006
Article Index
The Essential Reforms of HOFCC
Reform #1: "Reformed in Doctrine"
Reform #2: "Exemplary in Leadership"
Reform #3: "We Are Responsible in Our Liberty"
Reform #4: Charismatic in Ministry
Reform #5: Spirit and Truth in Worship
Reform #6: "Evangelical in Mission"
Reform #7: "Devoted to Ministry Hospitality"
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Reform #1: "Reformed in Doctrine"

Part 1: The Great "Alones"

This means that we embrace the great biblical truths restored by God through the church reformers during the Protestant Reformation in the 15th and 16th centuries. Martin Luther, John Calvin and others risked their lives to confront the Roman Catholic Church of their day with the following Latin rallying cries:
  1. "Sola Scriptura!" - Scripture alone is the basis of authority in true Christianity. Church tradition must yield to the clear teachings of the Bible.
  2. "Solus Christus" - Christ alone is the Mediator between God and man. We do not require "Priests," or "Mary" or "the Saints" to represent us to God.
  3. "Sola Gratia" - We are saved by God’s grace alone, and not on the basis of any worthiness latent or foreseen in ourselves. Salvation is an undeserved gift.
  4. "Sola Fide" - We are justified before God by faith alone and not by any religious works on our part. The good works that we do in the obedience of faith in Christ are done, not in order to save ourselves, but rather because He has saved us.
  5. "Soli Deo Gloria" - Our salvation is for the glory of God alone, and not in any way for our own glory. We can boast only in what Christ has done for us.
In the midst of great official and social persecution these truths were proclaimed and restored. The result was unstopping of the well of salvation, but the stream of Bible teaching that resulted quickly divided into the Lutheran Church under Martin Luther in Germany and the Reformed Churches under the leadership of John Calvin in Geneva. Today we honor both of these great men. But upon close examination of Scripture we find that we agree with the Reformed Churches on the nature of the Lord’s Supper (i.e. it is neither transubstantiation nor consubstantiation). We also find that we disagree with both Calvin and Luther on the question of baptism. We are therefore "reformed baptists" who practice "believers baptism" by immersion. At HOFCC we are making every effort to walk in the light of "Sola Scriptura" and "Solus Christus." To be reformed in doctrine is an ongoing process.

Part 2: The Sovereign Grace of God

In light of this, "Reformed in Doctrine" basically means that we rejoice in the sovereign grace of God in our salvation. However, in doing so, we do not deny human responsibility before God. In this as in many other bareas of doctrine, there is "a ditch on both sides of the road." Arminianism on the left exalts man’s responsibility to the point that it loses sight of the sovereignty of God. By their distorted view it is man’s decision or action that is ultimately decisive in salvation. Hyper-calvinism, the ditch on the right, exalts the sovereignty of God to the point that it loses sight of man’s responsibility to trust and obey God. By their equally distorted view God’s choices and saving actions are somehow separated from the need for a human response. The former leads to man-centeredness while the latter leads to fatalism. We believe that both are equally wrong!

The truth of biblical Christianity is that "He saved us!"(Titus 3:5). He chose us. He redeemed us. He called us. He granted salvation to us. And He preserves us for eternal glory. We contribute nothing to our salvation but the sin that God so graciously forgives. Our necessarry responses to God’s saving iniatitive is to believe the good news, to repent of our sins, to receive Christ as Lord, to trust in His life and death alone for our salvation, to obey Him in everything and to persevere in our faith in Him to the end of our lives. All of our necessarry responses are made possible only because God has taken the decisive a ction to save us by sovereign grace alone. We do these things, not in order to be saved, but because, by His grace, we are saved. We can boast only in what He has done for us and through us.

Part 3: The Five Points of Calvinism

The five basic "doctrines of grace" are often referred to as "the Five Points of Calvinism." In fact these five points are merely restatements of the New Testament teachings of Paul, Peter, John and Christ Himself on how God has saved us. They were compiled originally in response to the Remonstrance of the Arminians at the Synod of Dort in 1618. But rather than use the famous "TULIP" acronym of classic Calvinism, we prefer to use the acronym, "TIP UP." This rearranges the five points in the order in which we become aware of them as children of God rather than in chronological order in redemptive history. It also allows us to use terms that more accurately represent each doctrine in the issues it addresses. (For Scripture support for each point, see Bible Doctrine by W. Grudem, p. 273-347).

Total Depravity - Apart from God’s gracious initiative we are all dead in our sins. Every aspect of our nature, including our will, is disabled and helpless. Though we are free to make real moral choices, all of our decisions are determined by our fallen nature, and so we cannot choose to do right for the right reasons. We can choose only how we will sin next. In such a fallen condition we cannot save ourselves. When, by God’s grace we are saved, it was only because "He saved us!"

Invincible Grace - The Holy Spirit effectively calls and draws all those whom God has chosen to save. He does so by means of the Gospel proclaimed and patiently prayerfully explained. When He does so, we may resist Him for a time, but God graciously and invincibly overwhelms our opposition by granting to us regeneration. This spiritual new birth enables us by God’s grace to respond with repentance for our sins and saving faith toward God. All our resistance melts away in the face of such grace. "He saved us!"

Particular Redemption - Christ died to save all those whom His Father had given to Him from before the world began. The atonement provided by Jesus Christ was unlimited in its effectiveness, but it was focused by God’s sovereign grace on those particular people throughout all ages whom God had chosen to save. Because of our total helplessness in sin, no one could be saved apart from God's gracious iniative. Christ died in order to save some, but not all from the wrath that we all deserve. Some will be saved from every tongue and tribe and nation and far more will be saved by God's sovereign grace than could ever have been saved by any other way. Christ did not die to give us merely an opportunity to save ourselves, "He saved us!"

Unconditional Election - Because all have sinned, all people deserve only eternal death. But God the Father has chosen to save many undeserving sinners in spite of their sins. Not because of any merits He foresaw in us, but rather to display the greatness of His own grace and mercy. His choices were expressions of sovereign grace, not of justice or of moral obligation. Those whom God saves are recipients of His mercy. Their only qualification is their helplessness and undeservedness. God's criteria of whom to choose is based solely on how to most glorify His own name. We are saved for the praise of His glory and the highest praise we can offer to God is to acknowlege that "He saved us!"

Perseverance of the Saints - All whom God has chosen to save will come to saving faith in Christ and as such they will persevere in their faith to the very end and be saved. Christ purchased this perseverance for His people at the cross along with every other blessing. The evidence of God’s grace enabling us to persevere in our faith, even in the face of severe testing, gives us hope and assurance that we are truly saved. The Bible knows nothing of the modern "fire insurance" mentality that is often referred to as "once saved always saved." Only those of us who currently show evidence of God’s grace, by currently walking in the obedience of a biblical faith that works actively through love, bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, delighting in God and laying up for ourselves treasure in heaven by laying our lives down in our love for one another, have a biblical basis for saying "He saved us!" The assurance of our salvation rests in the current evidences of God's grace in our lives.

The Elders of HOFCC are united in our belief that these five truths provide the clearest and most biblical explaination of how and why God saves His people.