Monroe

Monroe Presbyterian Church is a Reformed Church that subscribes to the doctrinal standards of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

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What does it mean that Monroe Presbyterian Church is a Reformed Church?

The Reformed church is a tradition within Protestant Christianity that dates back to the 16th century.  Its most notable founding father was a theologian and pastor named John Calvin whose ideas spread from Geneva, Switzerland throughout Europe.

The heirs of this tradition include the Puritans in England, the Huegenots in France, the Covenanters in Scotland, and the Presbyterians in America.  Great men such as John Knox, John Owen, John Newton, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge, and Richard Dabney are among its many distinquished sons.

The excellence of the Reformed tradition lies in its unflinching commitment to Scripture in all of life.  Over the centuries, the Reformed faith has produced a grand library of solid theological and devotional works, a wonderful collection of Christ-exalting hymns, an army of self-sacrificing pastors and missionaries, and some of the most holy and loving Christian people that the world has ever known.

With the arrival of Modernism in the West, the Reformed faith and its Calvinist theology slowly began to fall out of favor, but as Christians today begin to grow weary of consumer-driven religion's empty show, many are turning again to the Reformed faith in an effort to recover the pure doctrine and sincere piety that prevailed in better days.

Monroe Presbyterian Church is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America, the largest Reformed denomination in the United States today.

What is the Westminster Confession of Faith?

In the 17^th century, the Puritans gained control of the Parliament in England and assembled a council of church leaders to frame a Reformed confession of faith for the Church of England. The result of their labors became known as the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms.

From that time forward, the Westminster Confession of Faith has been recognized as the most precise and complete expression of Reformed theology in existence.

At Monroe Presbyterian Church, we have adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechism as our own doctrinal standard. In keeping with the Reformed tradition, we believe that it is the most faithful articulation of true Christian doctrine ever produced by man.

The Westminster Confession of Faith is not our Bible, but it is a reliable guide in our study of the Bible, and we are committed to upholding this system of theology in all of our teaching and preaching.

If you desire to understand our beliefs at MPC, we strongly encourage you to read through the Westminster Confession of Faith. However, for your convenience, we have listed some important highlights below:

• We believe that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God unto His Church, our only rule of faith and practice.
• We believe that there is one God who exists eternally in three distinct persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—and that each of these persons is fully God.
• We believe that God, for the glory of His sovereign mercy, before the foundation of the world, chose and predestined some men to salvation and eternal life by Jesus Christ on the basis of His free and unconditional grace alone; all others God determined to pass by for salvation, leaving them to suffer the just punishment for their sins.
• We believe that God created all things of nothing by the word of His power in the space of six days.

• We believe that in Adam under the Covenant of Works, all mankind fell into a state of sin and misery, and lost all ability to will or do anything good toward their own salvation.

• We believe that after man's fall into sin, God entered into a  Covenant of Grace, wherein He freely offers sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all of those who are ordained unto eternal life His Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe.
• We believe that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, was in time conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary and became man; so that in Him are now joined two distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, in one person forever.
• We believe that Jesus Christ, being without sin, offered Himself as a sacrifice for the transgressions of His elect people, bearing their guilt in His own body at the cross, and by His death satisfying the wrath and justice of God in their stead.
• We believe that Jesus was resurrected bodily and triumphantly  from the grave three days after His death; and now, having been given all authority in heaven and earth, Jesus has ascended into heaven awaiting that day when He shall return to judge the world in righteousness.
• We believe that God does in time effectually call His elect people by His Word and Spirit, drawing them irresistible to Christ through faith, yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.
• We believe that God’s elect are justified by His grace alone through faith alone on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone.
• We believe that personal holiness and good works, while not the ground of our justification before God, are the necessary fruits and evidence of a true, Spirit-born faith.
• We believe that all those whom God has accepted in Christ, effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved.
• We believe that under the Gospel, the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments continues to be a perfect rule of righteousness to direct God's people in the way of holiness according to the will of God.
• We believe that God is not to be worshiped in any way not appointed in Scripture.
• We believe that the first day of the week is to be set apart as a Christian Sabbath, a day of holy rest and joyful worship. 
• We believe that the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are, by the blessing of Christ, effectual means of saving grace to all who partake of them in faith.
• We believe that all professing Christians, as well as their children, should receive the covenant sign of baptism.
• We believe that there is a future day appointed in which their will be a general resurrection of the dead, and God will judge the world in righteousness by His Son Jesus Christ. In that day, those found in Christ shall be openly acknowledge and acquitted for His sake, and they shall enter into the eternal blessedness of God in heaven, to the praise of the glory of His mercy and grace. But the wicked, being found without Christ in their rebellion and sin, will be sentenced to the punishment of eternal damnation, to the praise of the glory of God’s inscrutible justice and power.