About us
We are a reformed baptist confessional church plant in Dryden Ontario. Our aim is to become a confessional, gospel preaching, bible believing, God-honouring church. 1 Timothy 3:15 says that a church is the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, composed of living stones (1 Peter 2:5) built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and Christ as the chief cornerstone and head of the church (Ephesians 2:19-22).
We embrace the five solas of the protestant reformation as well as calvinistic soteriology, attributing the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners.
We hold to a covenant theology framework and method of interpretation, seeing the bible as a unified whole with the outworking of God’s monergistic plan of redemption.
We embrace the regulative principle of worship as an important biblical legacy of puritanism in reforming and purifying worship of God acceptably and on his terms, with reverence and godly fear. Corporate worship includes reading the Word, praying the Word, singing the Word, preaching the Word, and seeing the Word in the sacraments.
Reformational
Scripture Alone - The Bible, as a final and closed standard of truth, is the only infallible, sufficient, and clear authority for governing all matters of faith.
Christ Alone - Jesus Christ alone is the sole mediator between God and man.
Grace Alone - Grace alone is the ground of justification and salvation with no reference to human will or human works.
Faith Alone - We can not be justified before God by our works, but by faith alone.
Glory to God Alone - The purpose of creation and redemption is to bring all blessing, glory, honour, and praise to God alone.
Calvinistic
Total Depravity - Every part of fallen man is corrupted by sin.
Unconditional Election - God’s redeeming of sinners is based on the purpose of his own will and not works nor foreseen faith.
Limited / Definite Atonement - Christ made full payment for the sins of God’s elect with his once for all suffering and death on the cross.
Irresistible Grace - All who are drawn and effectually called by God are efficaciously regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
Perseverance of the Saints - Those who are justified before God will be glorified. He is faithful to complete what he began.
Covenantal
Unity of the Bible - Many parts yet one message.
Christ-centered interpretation - Jesus’ person, work and kingdom is the theme of the Bible.
Law / Gospel distinction - Law commands and condemns. Gospel saves.
One way of salvation - Christ has saved all the elect throughout all the ages.
Optimistic view of history - Jesus Christ is now King ruling over all. He will soon come again.
[1] Pastor David Charles, Five Points of Reformed Baptist Churches.
Purity of Worship
Regulative Principle of Worship - the acceptable way to worship the true God is instituted by him, and it is delimited by his own revealed will. Thus, he may not be worshipped according to human imagination or inventions or the suggestions of Satan, nor through any visible representations, nor in any other way that is not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.
Lord’s Day Christian Sabbath - From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ the appointed day was the last day of the week. After the resurrection of Christ it was changed to the first day of the week, which is called the Lord’s Day. This day is to be kept to the end of the age as the Christian Sabbath, since the observance of the last day of the week has been abolished.
Prioritize Family Worship, Catechesis, and Godly Living to the Glory of God - Under the gospel, neither prayer nor any other part of religious worship is now restricted to or made more acceptable by the place where it is done or toward which it is directed. Instead, God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth—daily in each family and privately by each individual.
[2] Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 22
Trinitarian
Nicene Creed
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Us men: means all people.
Christian: the ancient text reads “catholic,” meaning the whole Church as it confesses the wholeness of Christian doctrine.
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Chalcedonian Definition
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all unite in teaching that we should confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This same one is perfect in deity, and the same one is perfect in humanity; the same one is true God and true man, comprising a rational soul and a body. He is of the same essence (homousios) as the Father according to his deity, and the same one is of the same essence (homousios) with us according to his humanity, like us in all things except sin. He was begotten before the ages from the Father according to his deity, but in the last days for us and our salvation, the same one was born of the Virgin Mary, the bearer of God (Theotokos), according to his humanity. He is one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, and Only Begotten, who is made known in two natures (physeis) united unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably. The distinction between the natures (physeis) is not at all destroyed because of the union, but rather the property of each nature (physis) is preserved and concurs together into one person (prosopon) and subsistence (hypostasis). He is not separated or divided into two persons (prosopa), but he is one and the same Son, the Only Begotten, God the Logos, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the way the prophets spoke of him from the beginning, and Jesus Christ himself instructed us, and the Council of the fathers has handed the faith down to us.
[3] Translation by Donald Fairbairn, Credo Magazine
199 Hoey Rd, Dryden, ON P8N 3G2, Canada