What We Believe

Lux Vita Caritas means Light, Life, Love. This page says plainly what we believe and why, so that you know who is speaking to you. We hold these convictions firmly and we offer them gently.

Our foundation

We are Christians in the Reformed and Anglican tradition. Our teaching is guided by the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (the Church of England, 1571) and the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646). We receive these as faithful summaries of the Bible, and never as a replacement for it. The Bible is the final authority; the confessions serve it.

What we believe

1. The Bible

The Old and New Testaments are the inspired, trustworthy Word of God, and they contain everything necessary for salvation and for life. (Article 6; Westminster Confession, ch. 1)

2. One God in three Persons

There is one living and true God, eternally Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Article 1; WCF ch. 2)

3. Humanity and sin

We were made in God's image, and we have all fallen. Sin is more than mistakes: it is a turning away from God that we cannot undo ourselves. (Article 9; WCF chs. 6 and 9)

4. Jesus Christ

Jesus is fully God and fully man, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, truly risen from the dead, ascended, and coming again to judge the living and the dead. He is the only Mediator between God and humanity. (Articles 2 to 4 and 18; WCF ch. 8)

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6 (ESV)

5. Salvation by grace alone

We are forgiven and made right with God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Good works do not earn salvation; they are its fruit. (Articles 11 to 13; WCF chs. 11 and 16)

6. The Church and the sacraments

Christ gave his church the preaching of the gospel and two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. (Articles 19 and 25; WCF chs. 27 to 29)

7. The last things

Christ will return in glory. There will be a resurrection and a final judgment, a new creation, and eternal life for all who trust in him. (Article 4; WCF chs. 32 and 33)

How we hold these beliefs

Truth and love belong together. We want to speak "the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15), to listen before we answer, to represent other views fairly, and to treat every person as made in God's image.

Read the sources

The Thirty-Nine Articles and the Westminster Confession are in the public domain and are easy to find online. We encourage you to read them for yourself and, above all, to read the Gospel of John.

Start here