Reformed Heritage

In our doctrinal teaching, we stand firmly in the tradition of the Protestant Reformation.
We believe that the Protestant Reformation was a revival of biblical theology headed by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and the other great Reformers. The general body of our doctrinal teaching is from the “Reformed” perspective. As John H. Leith has noted in his Creeds of the Churches, The designation “Reformed” refers to those Reformation churches that have their source in the work of Zwingli and Calvin (p. 127).

Therefore, if one were to inquire as to the roots of our theology in the Protestant Reformation in particular, we would reply that , in general, we feel more related to the expression of faith set forth in the Belgic Confession (1561); the Heidelberg Catechism (1563); the Canons of Dordt (1618), and the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647). However, we would not endorse every aspect of these confessions.

We would be in agreement with the general thinking of the Reformers themselves regarding creeds, as Leith has described it: Reformed Protestantism has been prolific in the production of creeds. The great variety of Reformed confessions is not simply an accident of history and geography but is rooted in Reformed theology, which was vigorously opposed to all idolatry, including the idolatry of creeds. All creeds are subordinate to the Word of God, and no one creed can presume to be ‘the’ creed. Hence the Reformed theologians found safety in numbers (p. 127).

Some of the outstanding individuals who would be especially representative of our general theological persuasion would include: (the Puritan writers of the 1600’s & 1700’s), William Guthrie, Joseph Alleine, Richard Baxter, John Owen, Stephen Charnock, Thomas Goodwin, Thomas Watson, Thomas Manton, John Bunyan (who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress), and Johnathan Edwards; (as well as others who followed in the same tradition), George Whitefield, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Bishop J.C. Ryle, William Wilberforce, John Gil, Dr. Benjamin B. Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, Charles Hodge, John Murray, Louis Berkhof, J.I. Packer, John R.W. Stott, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, R.C. Sproul, Dr. D. James Kennedy, Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and many others.