Statement of Faith

Briercrest Christian Academy, College and Seminary holds to the following set of beliefs and objectives:

We embrace the revelation given by God in the Christian Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We likewise appreciate the faith that is taught in the Scriptures and summarized in such orthodox statements of the whole Christian church as the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. We understand our own faith in continuity with the Protestant confessions of the Reformation and the Evangelical awakenings in subsequent centuries. We affirm our own heritage since the 1930s within the global, interdenominational Evangelical movement. Our own community therefore reflects a range of Evangelical traditions, denominations, mission societies, and other associations. In continuity with our previous statements of faith and with the beliefs of Evangelical Christians throughout the world, we affirm and have based the statements to follow on national and international Evangelical movements such as the World Evangelical Alliance and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. We regard the doctrines to follow as essential to the understanding and proclamation of the Gospel and to Christian life and practice. We believe in:

  • The Holy Scriptures as originally given by God, divinely inspired, infallible, entirely trustworthy, and the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
  • One God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Our Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, His virgin birth, His sinless human life, His divine miracles, His vicarious and atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension, His mediatorial work, and His personal return in power and glory.
  • The Salvation of lost and sinful humanity possible only through the merits of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ received by faith apart from works, and as characterized by regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
  • The Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the believer is enabled to live a holy life, to witness and work for the Lord Jesus Christ.
  • The Unity of the Spirit of all true believers, the Church, the Body of Christ.
  • The Resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.

Moreover, we strive to reflect this Gospel in our life together. We share the ideals of movements such as the Lausanne Covenant (1974) regarding the authority of Scripture, the priority of evangelism, the need for Christian social responsibility and personal holiness, the costliness and urgency of world mission, and the importance of theological education.

Briercrest Guiding Principles

Moreover, because of our commitment to Christ and our particular identity as an educational community, we affirm the following guiding principles as central to our life together:

  • We view learning and the pursuit of truth as a Christian calling.
  • We believe that life is sacred; people have worth because they are created in God’s image, male and female.*
  • We believe that our relationships should reflect our connection in the body of Christ.
  • We believe our minds and bodies should be used in God-honouring ways.
  • We believe that marriage is a covenant instituted by God to be marked by a loving, lifelong
  • union of one man and one woman for the purpose of bringing glory to God.*
  • We view sexual intimacy as one of God’s good gifts, to be enjoyed exclusively in the context of
  • the covenant of marriage to the exclusion of all others.*
  • We value the wise stewardship of resources.
  • We believe that maturity calls for us to exercise discretion in our behaviours.
  • We believe that everyone should be treated with equal respect and care.

 

*For further explanation please refer to Briercrest Statement on Marriage, Human Sexuality and Gender