What We Believe

At Advent Houston, we believe that God graciously invites us to participate in what He has been doing and is doing throughout the generations and all across His creation.

Our Beliefs

At Advent Houston, we believe that God graciously invites us to participate in what He has been doing and is doing throughout the generations and all across His creation. We make up only a small number of the millions and millions of Christians all over the world and throughout time. We are who we are because of God's grace in all times and places, and because of faithful men and women who have gone before us in embracing and embodying the scriptures as they have extended their faith across time, cultures, and challenges. Like them we embrace Biblical and historic Christianity as expressed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and as summarized in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds.  
  
While we want to acknowledge our participation in the big "C" Church throughout the centuries and the world, we also hold particular beliefs and convictions within that larger Church family. As a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, we trace our roots through the Reformed Protestant tradition, affirming the five tenets of the Protestant Reformation: Scripture alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and to God alone be the glory. Our doctrinal beliefs are further explained and summarized in the Westminster Confession of Faith, a reformed confession drawn up in 1646 as an attempt to unify Great Britain's Anglican and Presbyterian churches. We embrace this confession, and we delight in our denominational affiliation. As a member in the PCA, we have regional accountability and support as well as partnership in mission both at home and abroad. 

Creeds of the Church

THE NICENE CREED 

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.
 
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. 

THE APOSTLES' CREED 

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.  

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell*; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic** Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN.
  
* Christ's 'descent into hell' occurred in His death and burial, the Father's wrath toward sin being poured out on him in our place, so we would never have to taste His wrath.
** By 'catholic,' we mean the universal church made up of all Christians who are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.