About

Distinctives

1. Reformed: We believe in and contend for the faith once delivered (Jude 3), as rediscovered and reengaged in the Sixteenth Century Reformation. These beliefs can be summarized by the 5 Solae: Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Soli Deo Gloria; and TULIP: Total Depravity of man, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Preservation of the Saints. Above and beyond the recommitment to this core belief system, the reformation of worship, family, work, culture, the state, and all of life are all part and parcel of our lifeblood.
2. Confessional: Our summary of faith is the historic confession of the Westminster Assembly ratified in 1647. We also freely enjoy, employ, recite, and consult the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Definition of Chalcedon, the Athanasian Creed, the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dordt, and all Westminster Standards.
3. Regulative Principle of Worship: The regulative principle of worship means that worship is dictated by the standards of Scripture alone. God seeks to be worshiped according to His desires, plans, and pleasures. Therefore, He alone has the right to inform us how He ought to be worshiped, and He preserves us from introducing imaginative methods that please man. While we recognize that there are lateral freedoms within this form of worship, all proper worship must be Biblically-based.
4. Family Integration: We firmly believe that the family is God’s first social structure and is instituted by God partially as a microcosm of the family of God. We also believe that the biblical model of worship is not age-segregated any more than it is class, gender, or race-segregated (Gal 3.28). Therefore, we gather together mindfully as a church family of families in corporate worship.
5. Covenant Renewal Worship: The biblical pattern of the covenant of the Old Testament and the life of Christ Himself is to move through a sequential series of events, which informs the design of our worship pattern. These elements include: Call to Worship, Confession and Cleansing of Sin, Consecration through the Word, Communion with Christ, and the Commission to the Congregation.
6. Covenantal in Both Sacraments: We believe that the covenant of communal entrance in the Old Testament was circumcision, which has been replaced by baptism in the New Testament. We further believe that Passover was a covenantal meal for the entire family in the OT and has been redefined by Christ Himself as communion, and is also for the entire baptized family of God. The covenantal participation in both sacraments for the entire household is encouraged, but ultimately at the discretion of the respective heads of household.
7. Eschatological Optimistic Activism: We believe in the triumph of Christ as King over the whole earth through the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit working through the courageous obedience of the Church. We come to this position through the thematic consistency of the Whole Counsel of God pointing to the knowledge of the Lord spreading across the face of the earth like the waters cover the seas (Isa 9.11; Hab 2.14), and the permeation of the gospel until all the nations are discipled unto obedience to Christ (Matt 28.18-20). We live what we pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is often summed up as Postmillennialism.
8. Presuppositonal Apologetics and Cultural Insurgency: Since we have eschatological confidence, hope, and optimism, we are commanded to engage the culture with our end goal set on the transformation of the family, church, culture, and the nations toward discipleship. In many cases this may require that we exercise counter-cultural means to these Christian cultural ends, as we are actively living out the Christian culture and raising our families and future generations to strengthen them in the culture of the Lord (Eph 6.4). Our approach is presuppositional; we believe that God has revealed Himself primarily in His Word, which we apply to all of life and godliness, and which is the only standard for a viable and consistent worldview. We seek out Scripture until our Biblical knowledge becomes our common sense.
9. Universal Church Union: While the truth of the unity of the universal church—spanning both time and space—does not depend upon anyone’s belief in this truth in order to be truth, Remnant Church consciously embraces universal church unity as the will of Christ as He prayed for it in His High Priestly prayer (Jn 17). We want to be open for inter-church fellowship, participating in common Kingdom culture, shoulder-to-shoulder counter-cultural fighting, and co-laboring on the broader mission of Christ in building Christendom.