BELIEFS

What we believe at Hope Church about Jesus, the Bible, and the Church

GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT

 We are part of a historic non-denominational effort to restore the church to its simple faith and practice of the first century. Our congregation is one of nearly 6000 independent churches in the United States who have chosen to avoid denominational structures and control, and work to be the church that God intended us to be.

The “Restoration Movement” Christian Churches have sought to emphasize …

  • No Book But The Bible;seeking to use only the Bible as our guide for understanding God, and his will for us.
  • No Creed But Christ;focusing on the only creedal [affirmation] statement authorized by Christ, drawn from Matthew 16:16, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.”
  • No Name But The Divine;honoring the early church and following their example, we choose to simply call ourselves “Christian”.

We do not consider ourselves to be the only Christians, but to be Christians only. As a movement we have adopted the old unity motto:

“In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, love”.

This realizes that we need to agree on some basic doctrinal issues [such as God’s New Testament plan of salvation], yet allow freedom of opinion on non-essential issues, and yet still care about each other