Distinctives

Sola Union is covenantally entered into with the elders of a local church body that can align with the following five distinctives:

WE ARE EVANGELICAL

The term evangelical derives from the Greek word euangelion meaning “Gospel” or “good news.” This good news is that Jesus Christ the Son of God lived a sinless life, died for our sins, was raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, and now is reigning as King. Through His finished work on our behalf, He purchased the Church, redeeming the saints throughout the centuries. Therefore, as people of the evangel, that is, the Gospel, we are rightly called Evangelicals. Our heritage bears this name out as we celebrate the proclamation and the mission of the Evangelical Revivals of earlier centuries. While some talk as if we ought to jettison the term due to its being politicized in certain circles, we want to not only reclaim it, but apply it to all of life. The Gospel is not just the atonement of Christ delivering of sinners, but also the enthronement of the risen Christ, and His reign over all the earth. His Kingdom is advancing, His glory is increasing, and His Church is being built, living stone by living stone. This has infinitely far-reaching implications.

WE ARE COUNTERCULTURAL

When the Church accommodates itself to the world, our witness weakens. Becoming like the world to win the world is a fool’s strategy and a futile endeavour.

We ought to fight the temptation of thinking that our effectiveness on mission increases to the degree that we can impress the intellectual and cultural elites of our day. We ought to shun the approach which seeks to gain a seat at the proverbial table, even if it means compromise.

For the glory of God, supremacy of Christ, truthfulness of Scripture, and purity of the Church, we endeavour by God’s grace to hold the line. We will not bow to statism, pluralism, Marxism, feminism, transgenderism, or any of the other anti-Biblical isms that characterize our current cultural climate. We are driven not by cultural relevance, but by covenantal faithfulness. We seek to build communities marked by truth, love, and holy joy—where men and women flourish as image-bearers of God, families grow strong in the light of Christ, and communities are blessed.

WE ARE REFORMATIONAL

Tracing our roots to the recovery of biblical truth during the Protestant Reformation, we identify with its chief principles of the Five Solas, expressed in the following Latin slogans: Sola Gratia (Grace Alone), Sola Fide (Faith Alone), Solus Christus (Christ Alone), Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (God’s Glory Alone).

Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)

We affirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by His grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

Sola Fide (Faith Alone)

We affirm that justification is realized when we place our faith in Christ alone to save us from our sins. In justification Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God's perfect justice.

Solus Christus (Christ Alone)

We affirm that our salvation is accomplished by the work of Christ on our behalf. His sinless life, substitutionary death, and bodily resurrection are alone sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father. There is no other Saviour.

Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)

We affirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behaviour must be measured.

Soli Deo Gloria (God's Glory Alone)

We affirm that because our salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, God alone gets all the glory. We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God, and for His glory alone.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, we will always endeavour to live in light of these truths… Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as He is revealed in the Scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone.

WE ARE CONFESSIONAL

Our faith is not new, but ancient. We do not stand alone, but confess the Christian faith passed down throughout the whole history of the Church of Jesus Christ. Our word “creed” comes from the Latin word credo, “I believe.” A creed is typically a short statement of faith. The creeds of the early Church, including the Apostles’ Creed (developed during the first four centuries AD), the Nicene Creed (AD 325), and the Athanasian Creed (around AD 428), have been widely accepted across the ages by multiple church traditions. In them, the ancient Church responded to some of the great heresies of the Christian religion, and clarified confessional Christian orthodoxy. Our noun “confession” comes from the Latin verb confiteor, “to confess.” The greatest confessions came out of the Protestant Reformation. For those congregations and denominations that still believe God’s Word as it was understood in the ancient Church and in the Reformation, the creeds and confessions are the living voice of the Church’s understanding of God’s Word on the most important issues of Christian doctrine and living. They are never to be seen as a substitute for Scripture or as having authority over Scripture. Rather, they help Christians make sense of the Bible by highlighting what is important and summarizing its essential message. In an age of individualistic faith and skeletal creeds where doctrine is watered down to the lowest common denominator, the rich tradition of corporate creeds and confessions helps to keep us grounded in the Truth, and provides us with a vital link to the Church of ages past and the saints throughout the centuries.

We believe and joyfully affirm:

Ancient Creeds

Apostles’ Creed

Nicene Creed

Athanasian Creed

Reformed Confessions

The Three Forms of Unity (Canons of Dort, Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism)

The Westminster Confession of Faith

The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith

We are rooted in the heritage of the Reformed tradition, agreeing to pursue like-mindedness and unity across areas in the aforementioned confessions where some slight dissimilarities arise. “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”

WE ARE FAMILIAL

The Church is a Family comprised of families, a Household comprised of households (Eph. 2:19, 1 Tim. 3:4-5,15). As such, in the overlap between the home and the local church, we exhort and encourage fathers as heads of their households to regularly lead their wives and children in family worship (Deut. 6:6-7, Eph. 6:4). Similarly, (as what happens at home leads into the service on Sundays), when we all gather for worship on the Lord’s Day to receive from our Heavenly Father, our desire is that all be present; the men alongside the women; the old alongside the young.

The New Testament assumes that children are in the worship service and addresses them directly in the letters that are to be read publicly during the corporate gathering: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20). The Old Testament gives us more than several examples of whole families being present for public convocations during the early days of Israel’s history (Exodus 35:1; Deuteronomy 31:11-13; Joshua 8:35).

We delight in all of the shuffles, squeaks, and noises that come with children in the assembly—they are a blessing, not a curse! (Matthew 19:14).

“We are not our own: let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours. We are God’s: let us therefore live for Him and die for Him. We are God’s: let His wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions. We are God’s: let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward Him as our only lawful goal.”

~John Calvin~