Scripture and Revelation

I believe in a God of revelation, a God who is not distant but is living and active in the world. I believe God is revealed in many ways including church tradition, reason, and the activity of the Holy Spirit. However, I believe God is only completely revealed through the person of Jesus Christ, the Word of God and the true image of the invisible God. I believe in the Bible, Holy Scripture, as testimony to Jesus.

I believe that all Scripture is inspired by God through the Holy Spirit for instruction in salvation and training in righteousness. I accept the Scriptures as an authoritative witness to the Word of God and as the fully reliable and trustworthy standard for Christian faith and life. I seek to understand and interpret Scripture in harmony with Jesus Christ as I am led by the Holy Spirit in the church.

I believe that God was at work through the centuries in the process by which the books of the Old and New Testaments were inspired and written. Through the Holy Spirit, God moved human witnesses to write what is needed for salvation, for guidance in faith and life, and for devotion to God.

God has spoken in many and various ways through the prophets and apostles. God has spoken above all in the living Word who became flesh and revealed the truth of God faithfully and without deception. I also acknowledge the Scripture as the fully reliable and trustworthy Word of God written in human language. We believe that God continues to speak through the living Word and written Scriptures. Because Jesus Christ is the Word become flesh, Scripture as a whole has its center and fulfillment in him.

I acknowledge the Scripture as the authoritative source and standard for preaching and teaching about faith and life, for distinguishing truth from error, for discerning between good and evil, and for guiding prayer and worship. Other claims on our understanding of Christian faith and life, such as tradition, culture, experience, and reason need to be tested and corrected by the light of Holy Scripture.

The Bible is the essential book of the church. Through the Bible, the Holy Spirit nurtures the obedience of faith to Jesus Christ and guides the church in shaping its teaching, witnessing, and worship. I commit myself to persist and delight in reading, studying, and meditating on the Scriptures. I participate in the church's task of interpreting the Bible and of discerning what God is saying in our time by examining all things in the light of Scripture. Insights and understandings which we bring to the interpretation of the Scripture are to be tested in the faith community.