What We Believe
We affirm The Apostles’ Creed and A Brief Statement of Faith as faithful articulations of our beliefs, as well as a Statement of Faith produced by a small group of elders and approved by the Session in October 2016. If you have any questions, please contact our pastors.
The Apostle’s Creed (traditional)
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
he descended into hell;
the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic Church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.
Amen.
A Brief Statement of Faith
Presbyterian Church (USA)
In life and in death we belong to God.
Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit,
we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel,
whom alone we worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ,
fully human, fully God.
Jesus proclaimed the reign of God:
preaching good news to the poor
and release to the captives,
teaching by word and deed
and blessing the children,
healing the sick
and binding up the brokenhearted,
eating with outcasts,
forgiving sinners,
and calling all to repent and believe the gospel.
Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition,
Jesus was crucified,
suffering the depths of human pain
and giving his life for the sins of the world.
God raised this Jesus from the dead,
vindicating his sinless life,
breaking the power of sin and evil,
delivering us from death to life eternal.
We trust in God,
whom Jesus called Abba, Father.
In sovereign love God created the world good
and makes everyone equally in God’s image,
male and female, of every race and people,
to live as one community.
But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator.
Ignoring God’s commandments.
we violate the image of God in others and ourselves,
accept lies as truth,
exploit neighbor and nature,
and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.
We deserve God’s condemnation.
Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation.
In everlasting love,
the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people
to bless all families of the earth.
Hearing their cry,
God delivered the children of Israel
from the house of bondage.
Loving us still,
God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant.
Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child,
like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home,
God is faithful still.
We trust in God the Holy Spirit
everywhere the giver and renewer of life.
The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith,
sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor,
and binds us together with all believers
in the one body of Christ, the Church.
The same Spirit
who inspired the prophets and apostles
rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture,
engages us through the Word proclaimed,
claims us in the waters of baptism,
feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation,
and calls women and men to all ministries of the Church.
In a broken and fearful world
the Spirit gives us courage
to pray without ceasing,
to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior,
to unmask idolatries in Church and culture,
to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,
and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.
In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit,
we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks
and to live holy and joyful lives,
even as we watch for God’s new heaven and new earth,
praying, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
With believers in every time and place,
we rejoice that nothing in life or in death
can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen
Japanese Presbyterian Church of Seattle
Statement of Faith
(Approved by the Session, October 2016)
There is only one God, creator of all things, who exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Each human life is created to glorify and enjoy God forever.
Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, is both truly God and truly human.
Jesus inaugurated the kingdom of God on earth, preaching good news to the poor, setting free the oppressed, giving sight to the blind, healing the sick and the broken-hearted, eating with outcasts, and forgiving sinners.
Jesus lived a sinless life and died on the cross in our place as an atoning sacrifice for sins.
God raised Jesus from the dead in bodily form. Jesus ascended to heaven and will return to earth to judge the living and the dead.
To sin is to rebel against God. All people are created in the image of God, but because of sin, we incurred physical death and spiritual death, which is separation from God.
All of life is touched by sin, but no part is out of reach of the grace of God.
Salvation is wholly dependent upon God’s love and free grace through Jesus, not because of any merit on our part. All who receive Jesus by faith as Lord and Savior are born again, forgiven, and become children of God and are raised to eternal life. All who do not receive him remain separated from him eternally.
The Holy Spirit continues the work of Jesus by generating faith in God, living in us, instructing and empowering us to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.
The Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, is the inspired Word of God. It gives living voice to God’s truth in a way that is uniquely authoritative. It is never failing and always effective in matters of faith and life.
Jesus teaches us that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
God’s grace is extended in many ways, including through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
The Church is the community of all followers of Jesus. Our church gathers for the worship of God, for edification, for prayer and for fellowship. Filled with the Holy Spirit, God sends us out into the world so others may know the life found in Jesus Christ.
For more information on these and other important historic confessions of the church, please see the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Book of Confessions.
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