Our Beliefs
We at Bethany Christian Reformed Church call ourselves Christian because we confess that we belong to Jesus Christ and want to be his disciples. Furthermore, we call ourselves Reformed because we’re part of this historic branch of Christ’s church. The distinctive teachings of the Reformed community emphasize that our God reigns over everything, yet he calls us into relationship with Him to show the world who He is and what His kingdom is like. As you can imagine, there are a lot of unique convictions that accompany that, so below you will find a link to the New City Catechism, which while lengthy, best outlines from the Bible a summary of what we believe.
The New City Catechism is based on and adapted from Calvin’s Geneva Catechism, the Westminster Shorter and Larger catechisms, and especially the Heidelberg Catechism. If this seems foreign or strange to you, don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds.
Today many churches and Christian organizations publish “statements of faith” that outline their beliefs. But in the past, it was expected that documents of this nature would be less informative and more developmental. Thus they were written in the form of questions and answers and were called catechisms (from the Greek katechein, which means “to teach orally or to instruct by word of mouth”).
In the case of our catechism, it is separated into three distinct parts so as to give you the clearest understanding of where it's headed:
Part 1: God, creation and fall, law (twenty questions)
Part 2: Christ, redemption, grace (fifteen questions)
Part 3: Spirit, restoration, growing in grace (seventeen questions)
Take a look and let us know if you have any questions along the way.
