In unity with the historic Christian church, we believe and confess the Apostles’, Nicene, and Chalcedonian Creeds as accurate representations of Scripture’s teaching.
River Valley Church’s Complete Statement of Faith reflects what distinguishes River Valley Church
from other churches who would affirm the basic doctrines in our Essential Statement of Faith.
The Complete Statement of Faith is the foundational guide for all instruction, teaching, leadership, and preaching at River Valley Church.
All elders believe, teach, and affirm the entirety of the Complete Statement of Faith, and they govern the church accordingly.
We do not expect all members to embrace all aspects of the Complete Statement of Faith, but members should expect that the
Complete Statement of Faith will be maintained in all ministry environments at River Valley Church, and members may not teach contrary to it.
The basic doctrines within River Valley Church’s ESSENTIAL STATEMENT OF FAITH
represent what we believe to be core elements of biblical teaching.
We expect all members of River Valley Church to affirm these doctrines.
ESSENTIAL STATEMENT OF FAITH
I. GOD
We believe there is only one God, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit. The Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son.
II. SCRIPTURE
We believe the Bible—made up of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments—is the verbally inspired Word of God, utterly authoritative, and without error in the original writings.
III. CREATION
We believe our Triune God created the world, and all that is in it, unspoiled by sin, and that everything that he had made was very good.
IV. HUMANITY
We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image.
V. SIN
We believe that Adam, tempted by Satan, sinned by disobeying God and as a result of his sin, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being (e.g., physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually) and condemned finally and irrevocably to death—apart from God’s own gracious intervention.
VI. JESUS CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, became human: fully God and fully human, one Person in two natures. We believe that he was born of the virgin Mary, lived a perfect and sinless life, was crucified, died, was buried, rose bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven where he is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising in heaven and on earth all of God’s sovereign authority. We believe that Jesus Christ lived as our representative and died as our substitute to pay the penalty for our sin.
VII. SALVATION
We believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It is the free gift of God given to spiritually dead sinners who, through regeneration by the Holy Spirit, repent of their sins and trust in Christ alone for their salvation.
VIII. THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Holy Spirit indwells, guides, instructs, equips, revives, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
IX. THE CHURCH
We believe that the universal church is the body of Christ, manifest in local churches of which Christ is the only Head. The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances—baptism and the Lord’s Supper, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her love of God, and by her members’ love for one another and for the world.
X. THE RETURN OF CHRIST & THE RESURRECTION
We believe in the personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ to judge the world and consummate his kingdom. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just (to eternal blessedness) and the unjust (to eternal punishment).
XI. HUMAN SEXUALITY & MARRIAGE
We believe God immutably creates each person as male or female. Rejecting one’s biological sex rejects God’s created design. We believe God designed marriage as a unique conjugal relationship joining one man and one woman in a single, exclusive, life-long union. God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman joined in marriage. We believe all forms of sexual immorality are sinful and offensive to God.
XII. SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE
We believe God endows all human life with inherent dignity at every stage of development, and it must be respected and protected from conception to natural death. Thus, the unjustified, intentional taking of human life before or after birth is sinful and offensive to God.