The Reformed Faith
Presbyterians call their Christian convictions the Reformed Faith. We call our faith "Reformed" because of the Protestant Reformation. During the medieval era the Christian Church became more and more distorted. Truths taught in the Bible were obscured. Ideas and practices without biblical warrant came to prominence. This led to a movement by Christians to reform the faith and practice of the medieval Church. It is from this effort at reform that our name comes: the Reformed Faith.

Basics of the Reformed Faith
The Reformed Faith is, first of all, a turning away from all forms of self-help salvation in order to find God's true salvation in Jesus Christ alone. We believe that Jesus Christ is the only and all-sufficient savior of God's people. Christians do not need to add their good works, their religious efforts, or anything else to the work of Jesus Christ.

It is also a recognition that it is the Holy Spirit who alone joins and unites us to Christ in heaven. It is by the Spirit of God (not our own efforts) that we are born anew. The Spirit of God renews our minds and remolds our wills enabling us to believe in Jesus Christ, and keeping us in that faith all our lives.

The Reformed Faith is a return to the Bible as the standard for the faith and practice of the Church. By the Bible we test what is good in the practices of the Church. By the Bible we judge what to believe and what not to believe. The whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, is the Word of God and relevant to the Christian. Its grand theme is Jesus Christ. All of it instructs us about how to live as Christians.

To ourselves we say that the Reformed Faith is merely the Christian Faith without compromise. We do not deny that there are other Christians besides Reformed Christians. There are Fundamentalist Christians, Pentecostal Christians, Orthodox Christians, and etc. But we do believe that the Reformed Faith is the most consistently biblical and the most truly catholic (belonging to the whole church) expression of Christianity.

Excerpts from "What is the Reformed Faith" Jack Kineer: Read more papers by Dr. Kineer.

The Westminster Confession of Faith
We believe that the purest expressions of scriptural doctrine are found in the Calvinistic creeds, particularly the Westminster Confession of Faith with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms.

• We believe in the Trinity. There is one God who exists eternally in three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
   
• We believe that the Bible is the written Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error in the original manuscripts. The Bible is our infallible and divine authority in all matters of faith and life.
   
• We believe that all men are sinners and are totally unable to save themselves or even to cooperate with God in efforts to earn their salvation.
   
• We believe that salvation is by the sole action of God, who sovereignly chooses out of the fallen race of mankind those whom He will save. God alone saves the people whom He draws to Jesus by His Holy Spirit. He convinces them of their sin and enlightens them so that they repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as He is offered in the Gospel. Because God alone knows who are His, we call on people everywhere to repent and to trust in Jesus Christ.
   
• We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, who became man and lived and died and rose again to atone for the sins of those who trust Him alone for their salvation. Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man.
   
• We believe that God's Holy Spirit gives Christians the daily strength and wisdom that they need to walk according to His will and to grow in holiness.
   
• We believe that Jesus Christ shall return personally, visibly, and bodily to judge all mankind and to receive His people unto Himself