Church and Family Life

We seek your prayers and your financial support to achieve these means and ends.

Scott Brown
Director of the NCFIC

God

There is one living and true God who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all His attributes. He is eternally existing in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, these three being coequal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections.

Scripture

The Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are the inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings. The Bible is the complete revelation of God’s will for the salvation of man and the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and life. The Scriptures are a unified whole. The Old and New Testaments must each be understood in light of the other.

Creation

God created the world and all things out of nothing by His powerful Word, planned all things by His wisdom, and controls all things by His sovereign power — all for His own glory. Mankind, and all life on earth, did not evolve but was created by a direct act of God.

Man

Man was created in the image of God, male and female, to have fellowship with Him and to glorify and serve Him by multiplying godly offspring, taking dominion over the earth, and reflecting his holy character.

Sin

By Adam’s willful sin all mankind came under God’s wrath and condemnation, were separated from God, and became spiritually dead and therefore unable to please God or merit salvation.

God’s Plan of Salvation

Jesus Christ became the representative of His people, taking their sins upon Himself, having offered Himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile them to God. All who were chosen in Christ from eternity past are born again by the Holy Spirit, respond from their new hearts with repentance and faith in Jesus, are justified on the basis of the shed blood of Christ, become children of God, and are indwelt, sanctified, and sealed by the Holy Spirit until they are glorified at Christ’s return.

Christ

Jesus Christ is true God and true man, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He died on the cross a sacrifice for the sins of His people. He arose bodily from the dead and ascended into heaven where, at the right hand of the Father, He is now interceding for His church and ruling all things on her behalf.

The Covenant of Grace

All of history after man’s fall into sin is a progressive outworking of God’s covenant of grace. Beginning with the first promise to Adam after the fall and continuing throughout history to the end of the ages, God orders all things in view of his single purpose of redeeming a people to Himself through Christ.

Salvation by Grace, Through Faith, Unto Good Works

Salvation is totally by God’s grace, an unmerited gift to the believer. This gift is received by faith alone, apart from any works of the believer. True faith is always accompanied by repentance and a determination to follow Jesus in a life of obedience and good works.

The Church

There is one universal church of which Christ is the Head, made up of true believers in all places and in all times. The visible local church is the ordinary means of the spread of God’s kingdom and the building up of God’s people in Christ. The primary means by which God extends His grace are the Word, the sacraments, and prayer. The marks of a true church are the proclamation of the whole revelation of God in Scripture, the biblical administration of the sacraments, the exercise of biblical government and discipline, the edifying use of the spiritual gifts given to the members of the body, and a manifestation of unity and love among the members.

The Ordinances

Christ has ordained two sacraments for the church in the present age: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They are not means of salvation. They are signs and seals of the covenant of grace and are properly given to every member of the visible church.

Last Things

Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly at the end of the age. The righteous and the unrighteous will be resurrected to face final judgment. The righteous will enjoy eternal blessedness in heaven, and the unrighteous will suffer eternal punishment in hell.

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Download the PDF

The church and the family are the two institutions that God has created for the spread of His gospel of grace and the discipleship of His people. This implies that these two institutions are the most important institutions on earth.

The NCFIC Declaration attempts to draw biblical conclusions about the integration and interaction of these two God-ordained institutions in the hope of seeing biblical reform in our day. It defines and discusses the various roles and responsibilities of churches, families, and individuals for the glory of God.

We pray that the Lord will use this declaration to help His churches to remember and recover the Biblically defined complementary roles of church and family and to reform them accordingly. This includes exposing the errors of families that neglect or minimize the crucial role of the local church, as well as the errors of churches that neglect or minimize their responsibility to teach biblical manhood, womanhood, and family life.

The Bible paints a picture in which churches, individuals, and families are integrated, not segregated. This stands in sharp contrast to modern churches that fragment families, as well as to families that neglect or reject the authority of Christ’s churches, which is prevalent today. Therefore, this declaration defines and defends the importance of age-integration as a biblical model of church life to the glory of Christ, the good of His people, and the reform of His blood-bought churches.

We are praying that the 21st century church will see more of church integrated families and family integrated churches that fully embrace the Biblical doctrines that define them and beautify them.