What We Believe

---

As a body, we at Westbrooke believe that it is important to agree on a core set of beliefs that have been clearly stated in Scripture and that are essential to our faith. These core beliefs form our Statement of Faith, which is articulated below.

2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21

We believe Scripture (the Old and New Testaments of the Bible) is:

• God’s complete revelation, inspired through the mouth of His prophets.
• Authoritative in all it says, and sufficient for our lives.
• Inerrant in the original writing.

Matthew 28:19-20, John 1:1-4; Acts 5:3-4

We believe God is the eternal, holy, Triune God – one nature, three persons – each person equally and fully divine. Each with distinct, but complementary roles. 

God the Father

• Sovereign over His creation.
• Sovereign over redemption.

God the Son (Jesus Christ)

• Fully God and fully man.
• Born of a virgin into this world.
• Sinless and perfect.
• Bore our sins once for all.
• Died and Has Risen – overcoming sin and death.
• The Mediator between God and man.

God the Holy Spirit

• Glorifies Jesus Christ in all He does.
• Convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgment.
• Sanctifies, seals and indwells believers.
• Instructs, guides, and comforts.
• Empowers and enables.

Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 3:10-19; Romans 1:18, 32

• Created in the image of God.
• Fallen and depraved in Adam and by choice.
• Alienated and separated from God by sin.
• Unable in any fashion to save himself – utterly in need of salvation.

Romans 8:37-39; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 12:13

• Only comes through the complete payment of our sins through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf.
• Is by grace through repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ.
• Through this we are declared righteous and adopted into God’s family.

Ephesians 1:22-23; Acts 2:42-46; 1 Corinthians 14:26; Matthew 28:18-20

Through salvation we are placed into the Church, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Head. The Church:

• Gathers to worship and be taught God’s Word.
• Goes out to serve as God’s hands and feet.
• Models Jesus.
• Observes the ordinances of believer’s baptism and communion.

The Church’s mission is to make disciples – locally and throughout the world. This is the privilege and duty of a believer. It is God’s redemptive plan, and is our calling as Christians.

Genesis 2:18-25, Hebrews 13:4, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female, and that these two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. We believe that God created marriage to be exclusively the union of one man and one woman, and that intimate sexual activity is to occur exclusively within that union. 

*We affirm that those born with a physical disorder of sex development are created in the image of God and have dignity and worth equal to all other image-bearers. They are acknowledged by the Lord Jesus in His words about “eunuchs that were born that way from their mother’s womb”. With all others they are welcome as faithful followers of Jesus Christ and should embrace their biological sex insofar as it may be known. We deny that ambiguities related to a person’s biological sex render one incapable of living a fruitful life in joyful obedience to Christ. (Source: The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. “Nashville Statement.” 2017, Article 6, https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement. Accessed 15 Jan 2020)

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Acts 1:3, 9; Hebrews 7:25-26

• We look forward to the glorious, visible return of Jesus Christ.
• We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost.
• We believe that the saved are raised to eternal life and joy in the new heaven and new earth in the manifested presence of God, and that the lost are raised to judgment and eternal hell.