Statement Of Faith
Welcome to A Family Devoted where we think critically, discern biblically, and glorify God in all we do. We are here to encourage and strengthen families with a Biblical worldview so that they can do the same.
What We Believe...
The Bible:
The Bible, in its entirety, is the infallible, inerrant, immutable, and inspired Word of God. The Word of God is Truth and cannot lie. The Holy Scriptures are God-breathed, penned by holy men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit; they are wholly sufficient, reliable, and authoritative, and they are the absolute standard for faith, sanctification, and the conduct for all believers.¹
The Bible is absolutely necessary to know the will of God as it is the means by which He has chosen to reveal Himself to us, as the former ways by which He revealed Himself have ceased.²
Nothing is to ever be added to or taken away from the revealed Word of God, either by new revelations of the Spirit or by human traditions, or by man’s philosophies.
It is our responsibility to search the scriptures to learn all that they teach, to obey their commands, and to conform to their requirements in all areas of life.³
¹ 2 Timothy 3:14-17; Matthew 5:18; John 17:17; Numbers 23:19; Romans 15:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 6:18; 2 Peter 1:19-21
² Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 John 5:6-10; 1 Corinthians 2:9-13
³ Deuteronomy 4:2; Psalm 119:89; Proverbs 30:5-6; Galatians 1:8-9
The Trinity:
We believe in the one true God, eternally existing in unity as three distinct persons — The Father, the Son who is Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. These three co-equal and co-eternal persons make up the Godhead and are the same in substance, equal in power and glory.¹
¹Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 3:16-17, 28:18-20; 1 Corinthians 8:4; Psalm 90:2; John 14:16-17, 23, 26, 15:26
God:
God is a spirit, eternal and self-existent. He is invisible, without body, parts, or changeable passions. He alone is immortal, immutable, incomprehensible, immense, infinite in every way, almighty, absolutely holy, and perfect.¹ He is sovereign, the great “I AM THAT I AM” or Yahweh. He is complete and perfect in all of His attributes. He is the creator and sustainer of all creation. He is unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, righteousness, justice, goodness, or truth. He is fully omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent; not given to learning or “openness.” God is love.²
¹John 4:24, 5:26; 1 Timothy 1:17; Deuteronomy 4:15-16, 7:9; Habakkuk 3:4; Malachi 3:6; 1 Kings 8:27; Jeremiah 23:23; Genesis 17:1; Isaiah 6:3; Psalm 18:30, 24:8, 145:8; Matthew 5:48; Romans 9:15-16; 2 Timothy 2:13; Hebrews 6:18; Revelation 4:8
²Genesis 1, 2; Numbers 6:24-26; Exodus 3:14; Deuteronomy 32:4; Job 11:7-11; Psalm 33:6, 90:1-2, 135:5-7, 139:7-10, 147:5; Proverbs 16:4; Matthew 5:45; Colossians 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:15-16; Isaiah 42:5, 46:9-10, 64:8; Romans 11:33; 1 John 4:7-8
Jesus Christ the Son:
Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man, He is the Word who became flesh, miraculously conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary. He has two natures, the human and the divine, which is inseparably united in one divine person without confusion, mixture, separation, or division forever.¹
He lived a perfectly sinless life among us fulfilling all the requirements of God’s Law. He was betrayed, beaten, crucified, and died, was buried in a tomb, and rose from the dead on the third day. He ascended to heaven where He is now seated at the right hand of the Father. He is the only mediator between God and man, the only way to the Father. He continually makes intercession on behalf of His elect. He will return again in all of His glory to judge both the living and the dead.²
Through His sinless life and voluntary sacrifice, He paid the ultimate atonement for the sins of man by dying on a Roman cross as their substitute, satisfying God’s divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all of those who would trust in Him alone for their justification.³
¹John 1:1-14; Isaiah 7:14; Is. 53; Matthew 1:18-21; Luke 1:26-35; John 6:37-38, 8:28-29, 36, 53-59, 10:14-18, 20:19-20;
²Mt. 26:47-28:20; Mark 14:43-16:20; Luke 22:47-24:53; John 18:1-20:31; Acts 1:9-11; 2 Timothy 4:1; Titus 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation 1:7, 20:11-15, 22:12
³ Romans 8:33-34; 1 Corinthians 15:1-34; Ephesians 1:4-14; Colossians 1:12-23, 3:1; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 1:1-3, 4:15, 7:15-25, 10:11-18; 1 Peter 3:18-22; 1 John 2:1-2
The Holy Spirit:
The Holy Spirit is of one substance with the Father and the Son, the third Person of the Triune God. He eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son and has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Jesus to men. He convicts and draws sinners to Jesus, imparting new life to them affecting their regeneration monergistically and operating in their sanctification synergistically.
He continually indwells the believer from the moment of spiritual rebirth and seals them until the day of redemption. His fullness, power, and control are appropriated in the believer’s life by faith alone.¹
There is one baptism in the Holy Spirit accomplished at salvation, whereby the believer is justified, identified with Christ, and is permanently and completely indwelt by His Spirit. There is no second act of grace or special anointing for the releasing of gifts or new revelation.²
¹Genesis 1:1-2; Isaiah 48:16; Matthew 28:19; John 14:16-17, 23-26, 15:26, 16:7-11, 13-15; Acts 2:1-4; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 2:10-12; 1 John 2:20
²Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 1:8-9; Ephesians 2:18-22, 4:4, 30, 5:18; 1 John 2:27
Doctrine of Man:
Man was created in the image of God, both male and female.¹ Through man’s sin and disobedience he was alienated from his Creator. The fall of Adam brought all mankind under divine condemnation.²
Man is now born with a sinful nature, and spiritually dead in his trespasses and sin. The heart of man is desperately wicked, totally depraved, utterly corrupt, and unable to please a Holy God. Every man is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. He has no possible means of salvation by himself through good works.³
¹Genesis 1:26-28, 2:7, 18-25, 5:1-2, 9:6; Job 31:15, 33:4; Psalm 100:3, 119:73; Isaiah 45:12, 64:8; Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6; Acts 17:26
²Gen. 3:6, 16-20, 22-24; Isaiah 53:6; Ecclesiastes 7:29; 1 Corinthians 15:22; 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 John 5:19
³Genesis 6:5, 8:21; Job 4:17; Psalm 51:5, 58:3; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 1:18-32, 3:23, 2:14-15, 5:12, 17-19; 1 Cor. 2:14; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:3, 8-9; Titus 3:5; 1 John 3:4
Atonement:
Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, atonement was necessary in order for man to be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ made the complete and perfect atonement for all His elect through His substitutionary sacrifice on the cross securing a full redemption for all who repent of their sins and trust in Christ alone for their salvation. He took upon Himself the guilt, weight, and punishment for sin, and His perfect righteousness is imputed to all believers, this is the Great Exchange.
Salvation is wholly a work of God’s free grace, it is not the result, in whole or in part, of human works, or goodness, or religious ceremony. The assurance of justification is produced by the witness of the Holy Spirit, who confirms in the believer the testimony of God by His written word. This is the good news of the Gospel.²
¹Mark 1:15; John 3:13-18, 36, 5:24; Romans 3:23-24, 4:16-25; Galatians 3:22-27; Ephesians 2:1-7; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 5:5-10, 7:-28, 9:11-28, 10:11-14
²Jn. 1:11-13, 14:16-17; Rom. 3:20-28, 8:16-18; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2:8-10, 22, 4:30; Titus 3:4-7; Hebrews 10:15-23; 1 John 5:11-13
The Christian Life:
The moral law (the Ten Commandments) perfectly reflects the unchangeable character of God and forever binding all people, believers as well as unbelievers.
Believers are called to live in the power of the indwelling Spirit that they will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh but will bear fruit in keeping with repentance to the glory of God.¹
It is the will of the Lord that believers publicly affirm their commitment to Him and their identity with Him by being faithful members of a local church, submitting to the leadership of their pastors and elders, and through obedience to the Lord’s command to be baptized in water as an outward expression of their faith. It is also within the fellowship of the local church by which they can partake in the Lord’s Table among fellow disciples of Christ. These ordinances have no bearing on one’s salvation, but they are acts of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.²
Believers have also been commissioned by the Lord Jesus to proclaim the Gospel throughout all the earth and to make disciples of all nations. There is no greater place to begin to fulfill this great commission than within the home, worshiping together as a family, reading the Word of God, teaching and discipling our children how to worship, pray, and walk humbly with their God. It is the parents’ responsibility to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and regular Family Worship should be a staple in the home of every believer.³
¹Exodus 20:1-17; Mathew 3:8, 22:36-40; John 15:16; Romans 1:18-23, 2:15, 12:1-2, 13:9; Galatians 5:16-26; Ephesians 2:8-10, 4:1-7; Philippians 2:3-4; Colossians 1:10-12; James 1:21-22, 2:14-18
²Acts 8:36-39; 1 Corinthians 11:23-29; Hebrews 10:25; 1 Peter 3:21; 1 Timothy 5:17-19; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:5
³Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Joshua 24:15; Mt. 28:18-20; Ephesians 6:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12; 1 Tim. 2:1:5; 2 Tim. 3:14-15
Marriage and Family:
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
Marriage is sanctioned by God and has only one meaning: it is the uniting of one genetic male with one genetic female in covenant communion for a lifetime as delineated in Scripture. This is God’s unique gift which He instituted on the sixth day of creation determining it to be, “very good.” The marriage union between one husband and one wife is typological of the union between the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride, the church. Marriage provides the framework for intimate companionship, the channel for sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means of procreation.¹
The husband and wife are equal before God both being bearers of His image, yet having unique roles and functions within the family. The husband is to be the priest of the home and to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He is responsible as the head of the house to provide for, protect, and lead his family. The wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband just as the church is to submit to the leadership of Christ. She has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
Children are a blessing from the Lord, a precious gift entrusted to their parents at the time of conception. Just as they were made male and female in the beginning, God in His sovereignty continues to create both male and female today; just as God is without sin and cannot err one cannot be mistakenly “assigned” the wrong gender at birth, rather they are born exactly as the sovereign Creator has willed. It is blasphemy to assume that a righteous God can make a mistake with His creation. Any attempt to alter or change one’s genetic sex, or any disagreement with one’s genetic sex, is to call God a liar, it is sinful and offensive to God. Parents are to model the pattern of biblical marriage for their children, teaching them spiritual and moral values, lovingly discipling them, and guiding them to make wise decisions based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.²
God intended in His created order for sexual intimacy to occur within the confines of the biblical marriage covenant He established and ordained in the beginning between one genetic male and one genetic female. Therefore any form of sexual deviancy outside of God’s created order, whether being: adultery, fornication outside of marriage, homosexuality, bisexuality, incest, polygamy, bestiality, or the use of pornography, is a sin against a Holy God.³
¹Genesis 1:27-28, 2:18-25; Isaiah 54:5; Malachi 2:13-16; Matthew 19:3-12; 1 Corinthians 7:1-5, 10-11; 2 Cor. 11:2;; Revelation 19:6-10
²Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Peter 3:1-7; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalm 113:9, 127:3-5; Proverbs 22:6, 15; 2 Timothy 3:14-15; Exodus 20:12; Proverbs 1:8-9; Ephesians 6:1-4; Colossians 3:20
³Gen. 19:5-13, 26:8-10; Ex. 20:14; Leviticus 18:1-30; Romans 1:18-32, 7:2; 1 Cor. 5:1-2, 6:9-20; Eph. 5:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:2-8; Hebrews 13:4