Our Distinctives

We are united in submission to the inspired and inerrant Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which are the only authoritative rule of faith and practice given by Christ to His church. We are united in the belief that the only infallible rule for the interpretation of Scripture is Scripture itself.

We are united in our belief that God justifies sinners at conversion by grace alone, through faith alone apart from works, in Christ alone, and that this faith itself is the gift of God; that believers’ sins are imputed to Christ, and the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed to them; that believers are acceptable to God not on account of the worthiness of their faith or any righteousness of their own, but because only the righteousness of Christ constitutes their righteousness before God, both now and at the Last Judgment, and it cannot be received or applied to them any other way than by believing on Christ.

We are united in our belief that the Covenant of Grace is the Gospel (Ephesians 1-2) and that the sacraments are only symbols (that is, signs and seals) of the Gospel.

We are united in our conviction that the Gospel should be fervently proclaimed in preaching to the end that souls may be saved, congregations established, Christians built up in our most holy faith, backsliders reclaimed, and the careless warned.

We are united in doctrine, each minister and elder of the church subscribing to grammatical-historical principles for the interpretation of Scripture, and subscribing, without equivocation, to the plain and normal meaning of the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms.

We are united in requiring each ordained minister and officer of the church to annually renew his commitment to these principles publicly; we are united in accountability to Christ the Head of the Church and in commitment to one another in maintaining doctrinal integrity.

We are committed to the doctrine of creation of the heavens and earth in six literal, 24-hour days. Scripture is its own interpreter, and its words have meaning in context. The meaning of the word translated "day" in the Genesis creation record is clear from the context and from its usage elsewhere in Scripture. But the Orthodox Presbyterian church, for example, has adopted what it calls a "hermeneutic of trust" where it is permissible to say that the "day" of Genesis chapter one is anything from a literal day to billions of years — as long as a minister says that he subscribes to the doctrine of "creation in the space of six days" contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

This is a prescription for doctrinal anarchy. The words of the Bible give meaning to church doctrinal standards, not vice versa. If the creation 'day' means anything men want, then they can say the same about other words of Scripture that define doctrine such as regeneration, justification, and sanctification. Any doctrine of the Bible becomes fair game for revision according to human standards. By God's grace, we desire to stand for doctrinal integrity from the beginning of the Bible onward.

We are united in our commitment to evangelism and missions at home and around the world, with special emphasis on the involvement of local ERPC congregations in these endeavors.

We are united in maintaining reverence and a godly and dignified structure in worship, based upon the regulative principle, as taught in the Bible and affirmed in the Westminster Confession of Faith. We will neither mandate nor prohibit the exclusive use of the Psalms in worship; this decision will be left to the judgment of individual congregations.

We are united in our belief that the Scriptures teach that the true Church of Jesus Christ bears these three marks: 1.) the faithful proclamation of the one true Gospel, 2.) the faithful administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and 3.) the faithful administration of godly discipline.

We are united in the conviction that the association of local congregations within the presbyterian form of government is a voluntary relationship, based upon love and mutual confidence under the authority of the Word of God and the headship of Jesus Christ, and is never to be maintained through force or coercion. We are further united in the belief that local congregations delegate limited powers to the wider assemblies (presbyteries and synods) of the church through its Constitution, and that all powers not specifically granted to those assemblies are reserved to the local congregations.

ERPC pastors will be under the oversight of their presbyteries but will be members of the local church. Ruling elders and deacons will only be ordained to their offices once, but they will be subject to re-election by their congregations every three years, and may only serve two consecutive three-year terms without taking at least a one-year sabbatical from active service.

Presbyteries and the ERPC General Synod will only be permitted to form ad hoc committees, that is, for a specific stated purpose, to be achieved within a stated period of time. Standing committees will be specifically prohibited. The purpose of this is to maintain simplicity and accessibility in church government by avoiding the growth of standing bureaucracies and complex organizational structures.

The Constitution of the Evangelical Reformed Presbyterian Church will consist of the following: