What We Believe
Christ is the center of all we are and do.
1. Man's primary purpose is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. (Genesis 1:27; 1 Corinthians 10:31)
2. The only authority for knowing, glorifying and enjoying God is the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, which is the inspired and inerrant Word of God.
3. There is only one God, eternally existing in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
4. All people since the Fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, are born sinners, separated from God, naturally objects of His wrath, and unable to save themselves.
5. God mercifully did not leave mankind in this condition. Instead, out of His infinite love and grace, God the Father, before time began, chose a people that He predestined to save from their sins and to give eternal life by the Covenant of Grace through Christ. This choice was made out of His mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in any of the elect, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes for their selection.
(Genesis 15, 17:1-7; Romans 3:20-21, 4:1-25, 8:3, 9:11, 13,16,18; Galatians 3:15-23; Ephesians 1:4-7, 2:8-10)
6. Jesus Christ, who is the eternal and perfect Son of God and who became a complete human being at His virgin birth, is the only Savior of these people. The benefits of the salvation accomplished by Christ are infinite in value, but focused in purpose and effect entirely upon those chosen by the Father.
(Luke 1:27, 31, 35; John 1:1-4, 14, 6:63-65, 10:26, 14:6, 17:9; Acts 4:12; Romans 8:28-30; 1 Timothy 2:5)
7. The Holy Spirit gives their hearts the ability to spiritually and savingly understand the things of God. He does this by taking away their heart of stone, and giving to them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and, by His almighty power, giving them new desires and longings for that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.
(Ezekiel 36:26; John 6:37, 44-45, 15:26; Romans 8:30; 1 Corinthians 2:10-14; Titus 3:5)
8. God's people are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. God's people, having been saved by grace through this faith, continue by the grace of God to exhibit holiness, good works and service to the glory of God as evidence of the reality of that saving faith in Christ.
9. The Holy Spirit empowers a Christian to neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but to persevere in faith in Christ until the end of life, where at death, their soul is made perfect and passes immediately into the presence of God.
(John 10:28-29; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:6-7)
10. Baptism is properly administered to those who trust in Jesus Christ, and to their children, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
11. Jesus Christ will return to earth, visibly and bodily, to judge both the living and the dead.
12. The Church's mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ by proclaiming the Good News of eternal life in Jesus Christ, which must be proclaimed to the entire world before Jesus Christ returns to establish His eternal Kingdom in the New Heavens and the New Earth.
Cypress Ridge is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America.