When we look into our world, one of the most obvious conclusions you will arrive at is that it is tribalistic at its core. The human form is desperate to find a nesting ground for the soul. The easiest route, apart from Christ, is to find it in race, politics, class, age, gender, nation, moral ideals, and, of course, religion. However, apart from Christ, each of these serves as terrible gods, leading to massive division and schisms among the people. These schisms riddle society with anger, drawing unnecessary lines in the sand and disunity with neighbors.

Unfortunately, the Church has also been infiltrated with such schisms. From denominational differences in theology to the application of ministry philosophy, the Protestant Church has suffered at the hands of those whose purpose has drifted from its core principle of making fully devoted followers of Christ. That these fractures exist is deeply grievous, especially in light of Jesus’ prayer “that they may be one” (John 17:11). Yet, while we mourn these schisms, we also see great hope in this present moment. Not every difference in tradition or doctrine needs to divide us. Our Reformation forebears fought fiercely for “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), striving to reclaim the gospel some were “so quickly abandoning” (Gal. 1:6). It is our hope that the unity to which the Reformers aspired may be increasingly realized as today’s “mere” Protestants, like Richard Baxter’s and C. S. Lewis’s “mere Christians,” joyfully link arms to bear united witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Since the inception of Providence, our aim has always been unity. This goal of unity, though, was never at the expense of orthodoxy, but rather to platform it. When it came to what we believe as a church, we wanted to preserve what was not only essential for Bible-believing Christians to believe, but also to rally around what the Protestant Church has always affirmed since the beginning of the Reformation. Our desire is to stand clear, bold, and united upon the plain teachings of Bible, holding all else with humility and charity, that fellowship may not be broken by lesser matters, as has too often plagued many congregations.

Therefore, this statement of faith is a banner of unity raised high. Within these pages lies not only our pledge of allegiance to the truth, but also our tether to the historic Protestant Church, grounded in the gospel of Christ, which alone is the power of God unto salvation.

In the Year of Our Lord, 2025,

PCC Council of Elders

Kort Marley, Cory Elder, Ty Gaston, Erik Ripley, David Lopez, & Eric Rokohl

That there is one God, infinitely great and good, the creator and sustainer of all things visible and invisible, the one true source of light and life, who has life in himself and lives eternally in glorious light and sovereign love in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14) – co-equal in nature, majesty, and glory. Everything God does in creating, sustaining, judging, and redeeming the world reflects who God is, the one whose perfections, including love, holiness, knowledge, wisdom, power, and righteousness, have been revealed in the history of salvation. God has freely purposed from before the foundation of the world to elect and form a people for himself to be his treasured possession (Deut. 7:6), to the praise of his glory (Eph. 1:3-14).

That God has spoken and continues to speak in and through Scripture, the only infallible and sufficiently clear rule and authority for Christian faith, thought, and life (sola scriptura). Scripture is God’s inspired and illuminating Word in the words of his servants (Psa. 119:105), the prophets and apostles, a gracious self communication of God’s own light and life, a means of grace for growing in knowledge and holiness. The Bible is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it commands, trusted in all that it promises, and revered in all that it reveals (2 Tim 3:16).

That God communicates his goodness to all creatures, but in particular to human beings, whom he has made in his own image, both male and female (Gen. 1:26-27), and accordingly that all men, women, and children have been graciously bestowed with inherent dignity (rights) and creaturely vocation (responsibilities).

That the original goodness of creation and the human creature has been corrupted by sin, namely, the self-defeating choice of the first human beings to deny the Creator and the created order by going their own way, breaking God’s law for life (Rom. 3:23). Through disobedience to the law-giver, Adam and Eve incurred disorder instead of order (Rom. 8:20-21), divine condemnation instead of approval, and death instead of life for themselves and their descendants (Psa. 51:5; Rom. 5:12-20).

That Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God become human for us and our salvation (John 3:17), the only Mediator (solus Christus) between God and humanity (1 Tim. 2:5), born of the virgin Mary, the Son of David and servant of the house of Israel (Rom. 1:3; 15:8), one person with two natures, truly God and truly man. He lived a fully human life, having entered into the disorder and brokenness of fallen existence, yet without sin, and in his words, deeds, attitude, and suffering embodied the free and loving communication of God’s own light (truth) and life (salvation).

That God who is rich in mercy towards the undeserving has made gracious provision for human wrongdoing, corruption, and guilt, provisionally and typologically through Israel’s Temple and sin offerings, then definitively and gloriously in the gift of Jesus’ once-for-all sufficient and perfect sacrificial death on the cross (Rom. 6:10; 1 Pet. 3:18) in the temple of his human flesh (Heb. 10:11- 12). By his death in our stead, he revealed God’s love and upheld God’s justice, removing our guilt, vanquishing the powers that held us captive, and reconciling us to God (Isa. 53:4-6; 2 Cor. 5:21; Col. 2:14-15). It is wholly by grace (sola gratia), not our own works or merits, that we have been forgiven; it is wholly by Jesus’ shed blood, not by our own sweat and tears, that we have been cleansed.

That the gospel is the good news that the triune God has poured out his grace in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that through his work we might have peace with God (Rom. 5:1). Jesus lived in perfect obedience yet suffered everything sinners deserved so that sinners would not have to pursue a righteousness of their own, relying on their own works, but rather through trust in him as the fulfillment of God’s promises could be justified by faith alone (sola fide) in order to become fellow heirs with him. Christ died in the place of sinners, absorbing the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23), so that those who entrust themselves to him also die with him to the power, penalty, and (eventually) practice of sin. Christ was raised the firstborn of a renewed and restored creation, so that those whom the Spirit unites to him in faith are raised up and created a new humanity in him (Eph. 2:15). Renewed in God’s image, they are thereby enabled to live out his life in them. One with Christ and made alive in him who is the only ground of salvation, sinners are reconciled with God – justified, adopted, sanctified, and eventually glorified children of the promise.

That the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, the unseen yet active personal presence of God in the world, who unites believers to Christ, regenerating and making them new creatures (Tit. 3:5) with hearts oriented to the light and life of the kingdom of God and to peace and justice on earth. The Spirit indwells those whom he makes alive with Christ, through faith incorporates them into the body of Christ, and conforms them to the image of Christ so that they may glorify him as they grow in knowledge, wisdom, and love into mature sainthood, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). The Spirit is the light of truth and fire of love who continues to sanctify the peopleof God, prompting them to repentance and faith, diversifying their gifts, directing their witness, and empowering their discipleship.

God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society (Gen 2:18-24). It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.

Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime (Matt 19:4-6). It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church (Eph 5:25-32) and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship (Gen 2:18), the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards (1 Cor 7:3-5), and the means for procreation of the human race (Gen 1:28).

The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image (Gen 1:26-27). The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people (Hos 2:16-20). A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church (Eph 5:25). He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family (1 Tim 5:8). A wife is to submit herself graciously to the headship of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ (Eph 5:22-24). She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him (Gal 3:28), has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband (Eph 5:33) and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation (Titus 2:4-5).

Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord (Ps 139:13-16; Ps 127:3). Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage (Deut 6:6-9). Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth (Prov 22:6). Children are to honor and obey their parents (Eph 6:1-3).

That the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church is God’s new society, the first fruit of the new creation, the whole company of the redeemed through the ages, of which Christ is Lord and head. The truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is the church’s firm foundation (Matt. 16:16-18; 1 Cor. 3:11). The local church is both embassy and parable of the kingdom of heaven, an earthly place where his will is done and he is now present, existing visibly everywhere two or three gather in his name to proclaim and spread the gospel in word and works of love, and by obeying the Lord’s command to baptize disciples (Matt. 28:19) and celebrate the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:19).

That these two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which some among us call “sacraments,” are bound to the Word by the Spirit as visible words proclaiming the promise of the gospel, and thus become places where recipients encounter the Word again. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper communicate life in Christ to the faithful, confirming them in their assurance that Christ, the gift of God for the people of God, is indeed “for us and our salvation" and nurturing them in their faith.Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are physical focal points for key Reformation insights: the gifts of God (sola gratia) and the faith that grasps their promise (sola fide). They are tangible expressions of the gospel insofar as they vividly depict our dying, rising, and incorporation into Jesus’ body (“one bread...one body”– 1 Cor. 10:16-17), truly presenting Christ and the reconciliation he achieved on the cross. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper strengthen the faithful by visibly recalling, proclaiming, and sealing the gracious promise of forgiveness of sins and communion with God and one another through the peace-making blood of Christ (1 Cor. 11:26; Col. 1:20).

That through participating in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as well as prayer, the ministry of the Word, and other forms of corporate worship, we grow into our new reality as God’s people, a holy nation (1 Pet. 2:9, 10), called to put on Christ through his indwelling Spirit. It is through the Spirit’s enlivening power that we live in imitation of Christ as his disciples, individually and corporately, a royal priesthood that proclaims his excellent deeds and offers our bodies as spiritual sacrifices in right worship of God and sacrificial service to the world through works of love, compassion for the poor, and justice for the oppressed, always, everywhere and to everyone bearing wise witness to the way, truth, and life of Jesus Christ.

That in God’s own time and way, the bodily risen and ascended Christ will visibly return to consummate God’s purpose for the whole cosmos through his victory over death and the devil (1 Cor. 15:26). He will judge the world, consigning any who persist in unbelief to an everlasting fate apart from him, where his life and light are no more. Yet he will prepare his people as a bride for the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9), giving rest to restless hearts and life to glorified bodies (1 Cor. 15:42-44; Phil. 3:21) as they exult in joyful fellowship with their Lord and delight in the new heaven and the new earth (Rev. 21:1-2). There they shall reign with him (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 22:5) and see him face to face (1 Cor. 13:12; Rev. 22:4), forever rapt in wonder, love, and praise.