What We Believe
At Highland Park, we categorize truth into four distinct aspects.
Non-Negotiable Truth:
Issues to which Scripture speaks clearly. These areas make up the “core” beliefs of Christianity.
Negotiable truth:
Issues to which scripture speaks, yet leaves room for diversity among believers.
Personal Conviction:
Individual beliefs derived from Scripture and from conscience, which often determine perspective and conduct on certain issues.
Personal Preferences:
Individual Opinions influenced by background, age, experience and culture.
These Aspects can be summarized in three succinct statements:
1. In non-negotiable areas, we have unity.
2. In negotiable areas, we have liberty.
3. In all areas, we have clarity.
Non-Negotiable Truths
The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the record of God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, and therefore it is wholly without error. It reveals the depths of God’s love and principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. It is sufficient as our only infallible rule of faith and practice.
(1 Corinthians 2:7-14; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Matthew 5:18, 24:35; John 10:35; Hebrews 4:12; Psalm 119:89)
God
There is only one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Rule of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence and obedience. The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
(Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5-7; 1 Corinthians 8:4; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Timothy 2:4)
Man
Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning, man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice, man sinner against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan, man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence, whereby all men inherited a sin nature and an environment inclined toward sin, and as soon as they are capable of moral action became transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring a man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every man possesses dignity and is worth of respect and Christian love.
(Genesis 2:7, 15-25; James 3:0; John 3:36; Romans 3:23, 6:23; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 John 1:8)
Salvation
Salvation involved the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense, salvation includes regeneration, repentance and faith, sanctification, and glorification.
Resurrection
There will be a final resurrection for all men, the just and unjust. Those who surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ during this life will be raised to everlasting life in Heaven, but those who did not surrender their lives to Jesus Christ in this life will be raised to everlasting condemnation in Hell.
(Acts 24:15; Hebrews 9:27; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; Revelation 20:15, 21:8)