What we believe.
At Revive Church, our faith is deeply rooted in the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the timeless truths of the Word of God. We believe that a strong, shared understanding of doctrine is essential for fostering a vibrant and unified community of believers. Our doctrine provides a foundation for our faith, guiding our worship, our practices, and our daily lives.
In this section, you'll find a comprehensive overview of the core beliefs that define who we are and what we stand for. From our belief about God and in the Trinity to our commitment to living out the teachings of Christ in our everyday lives, each doctrine reflects our dedication to an integrated and authentic expression of Christian faith.
Join us as we explore the profound truths of our faith, grounded in Scripture and affirmed by centuries of Christian tradition. Whether you are new to our community or a long-time member, we invite you to deepen your understanding of our beliefs and be inspired to grow in your relationship with God.
The Scriptures
We hold the Bible as the inspired, infallible, and authoritative Word of God, essential for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. We teach that the Word of God is an objective, propositional revelation, verbally inspired in every word, absolutely inerrant in the original documents, infallible, and God-breathed. God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order and has supremely revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of his Son, the incarnate Word. Moreover, this God who speaks by his Spirit has graciously disclosed himself in human words: we believe that God has inspired the words preserved in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which are both record and means of His saving work in the world. These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, which is utterly authoritative and without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do, and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks. We confess that both our mortality and our sinfulness inhibit the possibility of knowing God’s truth completely, but we affirm that, enlightened by the Spirit of God, we can know God’s revealed truth truly. The Bible is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises. As God’s people hear, believe, and do the Word, they are equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel. This Word yields to us the True Story of the whole world. 1 Corinthians 2:7-14 // 2 Peter 1:20-21 // 1 Thessalonians 2:13 // 1 Corinthians 2:13 // 2 Timothy 3:16 // Genesis 1:31 // Exodus 31:17 // Matthew 5:18, 24:35 // John 10:35; 16:12-13; 17:17 // 1 Corinthians 2:13 // 2 Timothy 3:15-17 // Hebrews 4:12 // 2 Peter 1:20-21 // 1 John 1:1–2
The Trinity
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three distinct persons who are coequal, coeternal, and consubstantial: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one another. These three persons are not separate gods, but one God in essence and nature. Each Person of the Trinity has unique attributes and roles, yet they are united in their divine substance and purpose. This doctrine emphasizes the mystery and complexity of God's nature, affirming both the unity and the diversity within the Godhead. This one true and living God is infinitely perfect both in his love and in his holiness. He is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and adoration. Immortal and eternal, he perfectly and exhaustively knows the end from the beginning, sustains and sovereignly rules over all things, and providentially brings about his eternal good purposes to redeem a people for himself and restore his fallen creation, to the praise of his glorious grace. Deuteronomy 6:4 // Matthew 3:16–17 // Matthew 28:19 // 1 Peter 1:1–2 // John 10:29–30 // 2 Corinthians 13:14 // Genesis 1:26
The Father
Creator of heaven and earth, who initiates and sustains all of creation. We believe that God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, orders and disposes all things according to His own purpose and grace. He is the creator of all things. As the only absolute and omnipotent ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption. His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. As Creator, He is Father to all men, but He is Spiritual Father only to believers. He has decreed for His own glory all things that come to pass. He continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events. In His sovereignty, He is neither author nor approver of sin, nor does He abridge the accountability of moral, intelligent creatures. He has graciously chosen from eternity past those whom He would have as His own; He saves from sin all those who come to Him through Jesus Christ; He adopts as His own all those who come to Him, and He becomes, upon adoption, Father to His own. Psalm 145:8-9; 1 Corinthians 8:6 // Genesis 1:1-31 // Ephesians 3:9 // Psalm 103:19 // Romans 11:36 // Ephesians 4:6 // Ephesians 1:11 // Romans 8:14 // 2 Corinthians 6:18 // 1 Chronicles 29:11 // Habakkuk 1:13 // John 8:38-47 // 1 Peter 1:17 // Ephesians 1:4-6 // John 1:12 // Romans 8:15 // Galatians 4:5 // Hebrews 12:5-9
Humanity
We believe God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God himself declared to be very good, serving as God’s agents and representatives to care for, manage, cultivate, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life. In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways. Genesis 1:27–28 // Genesis 2:18–23 // 1 Corinthians 11:11–12
The Fall of Man
We need to be reconciled with God. We believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness—for himself and all his progeny—by rebelling against God through Satan’s temptation. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being (e.g., physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, relationally, spiritually) and condemned finally and irrevocably to death—apart from God’s own gracious intervention. The supreme need of all human beings is to be reconciled to the God under whose just and holy wrath we stand; the only hope of all human beings is the undeserved love of this same God, who alone can rescue us and restore us to himself. Humanity’s rebellion does not only affect humanity; it disintegrated the whole of creation and subjected it to futility. Sin now is contained within the mores and structures of both biology and society. While the creational structures of the world remain fundamentally good, the distorting power of sin means they have been radically misdirected. Genesis 3:1–7 // Romans 5:12, 19 // Romans 8:20–22
Jesus
We believe that, in love for us and in obedience to his Father, the eternal Son became human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being, one Person in two natures. The man Jesus, the promised Messiah (Savior-King) of Israel, was conceived through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the virgin Mary. He perfectly obeyed his heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. As our Mediator, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising in heaven and on earth all of God’s sovereignty, and is our High Priest and righteous Advocate. We believe that by his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute. He did this so that in him we might become the righteousness of God: on the cross he canceled sin, appeased God’s wrath, and, by bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all those who believe. By his resurrection Christ Jesus was proved righteous by his Father, broke the power of death and defeated Satan who once had power over it, and brought everlasting life to all his people; by his ascension he has been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for us to be with him. We believe that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. No human being can ever boast before him. John 1:14 // Matthew 1:18 // 2 Corinthians 5:21 // 1 Timothy 2:5 // Matthew 28:18 // John 14:1–3
Salvation
We believe that salvation is a gift from God, received by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again for our justification. We believe that salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ, the merit of His shed blood, and not on the basis of human merit or works. We believe that Christ, by his obedience and death, fully released the debt of all those who are justified. By his sacrifice, he bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins, making a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf. By his perfect obedience he satisfied the just demands of God for us, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. Christ was freely given by the Father for us, and his obedience and punishment were accepted in place of our own. This justification is solely of grace in order that God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. We believe that a passion for personal and public obedience flows from this free justification. Romans 3:21–31 // Titus 2:11–14 // 2 Corinthians 5:21 // Genesis 15:6
Regeneration
We believe that regeneration is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit by which the divine nature and divine life are given. It is instantaneous and is accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word of God, when the repentant sinner, as enabled by the Holy Spirit, responds in faith to the divine provision of salvation. Genuine regeneration is manifested by fruits worthy of repentance as demonstrated in righteous attitudes and conduct. Good works will be its proper evidence and fruit, and will be experienced to the extent that the believer submits to the control of the Holy Spirit in his life through faithful obedience to the Word of God. This obedience causes the believer to be increasingly conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such a conformity is climaxed in the believer’s glorification at Christ’s coming. John 3:3-7 // Titus 3:5 // John 5:24 // 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 // Ephesians 5:17-21 // Galatians 5:22-25 // Ephesians 5:17-21 // Philippians 2:12b // Colossians 3:16 // 2 Peter 1:4-10 // 2 Corinthians 3:18 // Romans 8:17; 2 Peter 1:4 // 1 John 3:2-3
The Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit is a divine person, eternal, underived, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity including intellect, emotions, will, eternality, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, and truthfulness. In all the divine attributes He is coequal and consubstantial with the Father and the Son. We believe that salvation, attested in all Scripture and secured by Jesus Christ, is applied to his people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ and, as the “other” Advocate, is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and by his powerful and mysterious work gives new life to spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith, and in him they are baptized into union with the Lord Jesus, such that they are justified before God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. By the Spirit’s agency, believers are renewed, sanctified, and adopted into God’s family; they participate in the divine nature and receive his sovereignly distributed gifts. The Holy Spirit is himself the down payment of the promised inheritance, and in this age indwells, guides, instructs, equips, revives, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service. 1 Corinthians 2:10-13 // Ezekiel 36:25–27 // Psalm 139:7-10 // Isaiah 40:13-14 // John 14:16–17 // 1 Corinthians 12:1–11 // Ephesians 4:30 // Hebrews 9:14 // John 16:13 // Romans 15:13 // Matthew 28:19 // Acts 5:3-4; 28:25-26 // 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 // 2 Corinthians 13:14 // Jeremiah 31:31-34 // Hebrews 10:15-17
The Church
We believe the church is a local expression of the Body of Christ, called to worship God, serve the community, and spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It is an indigenous congregation of believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the church is the fulfillment of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission to 'Go into all the world and ... make disciples of all nations. We believe the universal church, also known as the wider body of Christ is manifest in local churches of which Christ is the only Head; thus each "local church" is, in fact, the church, the household of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and foundation of the truth. The church is the body of Christ, the apple of his eye, graven on his hands, and he has pledged himself to her forever. The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her love for God, her members’ love for one another, and for the world. Crucially, this gospel we cherish has both personal and corporate dimensions, neither of which may properly be overlooked. We believe in the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism is the outward sign of what God has already done in the individual's life and is a public testimony that the person now belongs to Christ. It is identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus and is done in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Lord's Supper is a commemoration of the death of the Lord and is done in remembrance of Him until He comes again; it is a sign of our participation in Him. We believe in the bodily, personal, second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the saints, the millennium and the final judgment. The final judgment will determine the eternal status of both the saints and the unbelievers, determined by their relationship to Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:14-16, 19-22 // Matthew 28:18–20 // John 13:34 // Matthew 16:1-19; 22:34-40; 28:19-20 // Acts 2:41-42,47 // Ephesians 3:8-11, 21 // Colossians 1:18 // 1 Peter 5:1-4 // Revelation 21: 2-3
We hope this exploration of our doctrine and beliefs will not only inform but also inspire you to live out your faith with conviction and compassion. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about the foundation of our faith community.
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