What We Believe

Hopebeyond exists to help people discover Jesus, grow in their faith through God's Word, and connect with Christians and churches around them. Everything we share is intended to point people toward Jesus Christ and encourage a deeper relationship with Him.

Rather than promoting one Christian tradition or denomination over another, we seek to focus on the historic Christian faith, placing Jesus, the Bible, and the work of the Holy Spirit at the center.

These are the core beliefs that guide what we believe and share:

  • We believe in the one and only God that exists eternally in three distinct persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which are all distinct yet equal with each other. God is infinitely loving, holy, powerful, and all-knowing. God created everything out of nothing, sustains His creation, and sovereignly rules over it.

  • We believe that God created humanity, male and female, in His image and likeness. Every person possesses inherent dignity and worth as God's image-bearer and was created to know, worship, and enjoy Him. Humanity was created good, but entirely dependent upon God for life and righteousness.

  • We believe that through the disobedience of Adam, sin entered the world, bringing guilt, corruption, death, and separation from God. As a result, all people inherit a sinful nature, are sinners, and thus totally depraved. Apart from God's grace, humanity is spiritually dead and unable to reconcile itself to God.

  • We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, fully God and fully man. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, He lived a sinless life in perfect obedience to the Father. Through His substitutionary death on the cross, He bore the penalty for sin and satisfied God's righteous judgment. He rose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, and now reigns at the Father's right hand as the only Mediator between God and humanity. He will return personally and visibly to judge the living and the dead and to establish the fullness of His kingdom.

  • We believe that sinners are justified by God's grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Justification is God's gracious declaration that believers are righteous on the basis of Christ's perfect obedience and atoning sacrifice, apart from any works or merit of their own. Good works are the necessary fruit of genuine faith but are never the basis of salvation.

  • We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Holy Trinity, fully God, equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son, who inspired the Holy Scriptures and applies the redeeming work of Christ to His people. He regenerates, indwells, sanctifies, and seals every believer, equipping the Church with spiritual gifts and empowering God's people for holy living, faithful service, and the glory of Christ.

  • We believe that the Bible, consisting of the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, is the Word of God, which is divinely inspired, inerrant, and authoritative. Scripture is the final and sufficient authority for faith and practice, revealing God's character, His plan of redemption, and His will for His people.

The Historic Creeds

Additionally, throughout history Christians have summarized the core teachings of Scripture in statements of faith known as the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.

The Apostles' Creed developed over the first few centuries of the Church, while the Nicene Creed was written in AD 325 and expanded in AD 381. These creeds were not written to replace Scripture, but to summarize the essential truths of the Christian faith that believers have affirmed for nearly two thousand years.

We believe these creeds provide a helpful summary of the foundational beliefs shared by Christians around the world.

  • I believe in God, the Father almighty,
          creator of heaven and earth.

    I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
          who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
          and born of the virgin Mary.
          He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
          was crucified, died, and was buried;
          he descended to hell.
          The third day he rose again from the dead.
          He ascended to heaven
          and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
          From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

    I believe in the Holy Spirit,
          the holy catholic* church,
          the communion of saints,
          the forgiveness of sins,
          the resurrection of the body,
          and the life everlasting. Amen.

    *referring to the universal Christian church

  • Fully developed by around the 8th century AD, the Apostle’s Creed outlines several unifying beliefs of Christians. The first part expresses belief in God the Father as ultimate creator. The next affirms belief in the miraculous birth, sinless life, death by crucifixion, burial, descent to hell, resurrection to life, and ascent to heaven of the only Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. The final section expresses belief in the Holy Spirit, the universal church, forgiveness of sins, resurrection, and eternal life.

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

    And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
          the only Son of God,
          begotten from the Father before all ages,
               God from God,
               Light from Light,
               true God from true God,
          begotten, not made;
          of the same essence as the Father.
          Through him all things were made.
          For us and for our salvation
               he came down from heaven;
               he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,
               and was made human.
               He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
               he suffered and was buried.
               The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.
               He ascended to heaven
               and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
               He will come again with glory
               to judge the living and the dead.
               His kingdom will never end.

    And we believe in the Holy Spirit,
          the Lord, the giver of life.
          He proceeds from the Father and the Son*,
          and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
          He spoke through the prophets.
          We believe in one holy catholic** and apostolic church.
          We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
          We look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
          and to life in the world to come. Amen.

    *Eastern Orthodox traditions do not have “and the Son” in this line

    **referring to the universal Christian church

  • Originally adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD (and modified in 381 AD at the Council of Constantinople), the Nicene Creed expands on and continues to affirm beliefs laid out in the much shorter Apostle’s Creed. The Nicene Creed summarizes the nature of the Trinity, in that God eternally exists as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that are all equal and one in essence yet distinct in person. The Creed emphasizes Jesus as having the same essence of and eternally proceeding from the Father, and being truly God. In Western Christianity, the Creed says the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son while Eastern traditions hold that the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone.