Green Run is a Reformed Baptist Church. We hold to the 1689 London Baptist Confession as our confession and believe it to be the best summary of Scripture. Below is a summary of some of the core doctrines of the Christian faith that agree with the Confession.
THE SCRIPTURES: We believe the Holy Scriptures to be the inerrant, infallible, sufficient, authoritative word of God, and the only certain rule pertaining to faith and obedience. The 66 books of the Old and New Testament are God's words dictated to man by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These faithful men wrote with their own languages and mental faculties, but every word written is exactly what God inspired them to write.
GOD: There is one God, who is eternal, infinite and perfect in all His attributes. He is the maker of Heaven and earth and all that it contains. He is sovereign over all creatures and events and alone deserves all praise, honor, and glory.
THE TRINITY: There is one God who eternally exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are one in essence and being, equal in power and glory, possessing the same divine titles, attributes, and divine will.
PROVIDENCE: God from eternity, decrees all things that come to pass, and sustains, directs, and governs all events, and creatures and all their actions; yet God does so in a way that He is not the author of sin, but uses the sinful actions of men in a sinless way to accomplish all His will.
ELECTION: Before the foundation of the world, God chose in Christ, a certain number of people who would be saved; not because of any good in them, but because of His great love. Those who God elected are called, justified and will be glorified. All others were passed over, being left to their own sin.
CREATION: In six literal 24 hour days, God created the heavens and the earth. Scripture teaches that on the sixth day God created a literal Adam from the dust of the earth and He created Eve from his side.
THE FALL OF MAN: God created man upright and free from a sin nature. God also wrote His law on man's heart, promising life if man obeyed and death if man disobeyed. Through the temptation of Satan, and Adam listening to the voice of his wife, man eventually fell into sin, eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, plunging the world into sin. Man no longer had a will that was capable of obeying God, but one that was enslaved to sin and dead in sin. Everyone born in Adam receives this sin nature, having every part of them corrupted with sin. Due to this corruption, man is unable and unwilling to come to God, and therefore under His wrath and curse.
SALVATION: Before the foundation of the world, the Father in perfect agreement with the Son, planned to send the Son into the world to save His people from their sins. In the fullness of time the Son added to Himself a human nature. As truly God and truly man, Christ accomplished what Adam failed to do by perfectly obeying the law of God. He then went to the cross as man's perfect substitute and died for the sins of everyone who God chose to save. Jesus died, was buried, and resurrected from the dead on the third day. He then ascended and now sits at the right hand of God forever making intercession for His people as their mediator. All those who have trusted in Christ alone apart from any work, are saved. Because salvation is a complete work of God, a believer can never lose their salvation, but will persevere until the end by God's power.
REGENERATION: Regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit absent of any cooperation of man. In regeneration the Spirit changes a sinner’s heart, making alive those who were dead in their sins. Once the heart of stone is replaced by a heart of flesh, that sinner is no longer a slave of sin but a slave of Christ and are able to receive the gift of repentance and faith. Unless regeneration occurs, it is impossible for man to come to God because they are hostile to Him.
REPENTANCE: Repentance is a gift of God occurring after regeneration, in which the Holy Spirit makes a one aware of the evil of their sin and convicts them it. They begin to hate the sin they once loved, and upon godly sorrow turn from sin and to God. After repenting unto salvation, they continue to live a life of repentance, not in order to obtain or keep their salvation, but as a result of them being saved.
FAITH: Faith is the other side of the coin of repentance, also occurring after regeneration. By God's grace, the believer places their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, believing all that God has revealed in His word.
JUSTIFICATION: Justification is God legally declaring sinners as righteous. Because of Christ's righteous life and death on the cross on their behalf, believers are forgiven of their sins and no longer counted guilty of their past, present or future sins. They are covered by the righteousness of Christ, receiving it as a righteousness of their own.
SANCTIFICATION: Sanctification is a monergistic work of the Holy Spirit, in which He conforms believers to image of Christ until they are glorified. Though a believer will never be void of sin in this life, they will not practice a life of sin and will continue to grow in Christlikeness until the day of redemption.
THE CHURCH: The Universal Church consists of all true believers in Christ, who is the head of the Church. Those comprised of the Universal Church (all true believers), will live out the realities of the Christian faith in a local church. The local church consists of a body of believers, who devote themselves to one another in service to Christ and edify the body through their gifts given by the Holy Spirit. A local church must consist of Elders and Deacons, the reading and preaching of the word, singing to one another, serving one another, church discipline, and the ordinances of the Lord's Supper and Baptism.
Cessationism. God was pleased to distribute the sign gifts (the gift of prophecy, speaking in tongues, the interpretation of tongues, and healings) to the Apostles and other set apart men to authenticate the message they preached. Since the purpose of these gifts have been fulfilled God no longer distributes them to men.
BAPTISM: Baptism is one of two ordinances (sacraments) instituted by the Lord Jesus and is to be practiced until His return. Only those who have professed faith in Christ are to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as a sign of their union with Him in His death and resurrection. Believers are to be immersed into water, symbolizing the forgiveness of sins being buried with Christ, and then raised from the water as sign of our newness of life in which we are to walk.
THE LORD’S SUPPER: The Lord’s Supper is the second ordinance (sacrament) of the Lord Jesus, instituted on the night He was betrayed. The Supper is exclusively for believers in Christ, taken in remembrance of Christ's death on our behalf, until the end of the age. The elements used to for the Lord's Supper are unleavened bread and wine as instituted by Christ, and observed as often as the church comes together, so to confirm our faith through self-examination, receive spiritual nourishment, and participate in the benefits of Christ's atoning death.
THE LORD’S DAY: The Lord’s Day also known as the Christian Sabbath, is set apart as holy to the Lord. Believers are to set their affairs in order beforehand, in order to rest from work and recreation, filling their time worshiping with the gathered body and performing acts of mercy and duties of necessity.
SECOND COMING: The Second Coming consists of the future glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ to gather His people to Himself. At His coming, the dead in Christ will rise first, and believers who are alive at the time will then be caught up with the Lord in the air to reign with Him forever in the new heavens and new earth. The dead who are not in Christ will also be raised to be judged and go to everlasting judgement.