The following affirmation of faith is intended to indicate where McMaster Divinity College stands in relation to the central doctrines of the Christian faith.
I. God
We affirm: that God is an eternal reality apart from the desires and yearnings of human beings; that the triune God alone is creator, redeemer and sustainer, Lord of history to whom we as creatures address our hope for unity and meaning in our lives; that God’s grace, power and saving activity have been made known to us in the life, death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ; and that the Holy Spirit testifies in our hearts and minds through the Creation, experience and the Scriptures of the existence of God, and of his love for the world. We have come to know God through the divine initiative seen in the lives of faithful persons like Abraham, Sarah, Jeremiah, Mary and Jesus. God’s continuing grace calls forth our thanksgiving and praise which we are bound to offer in Christian worship and in service to our fellow beings.
II. Jesus Christ
We affirm: that Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, is the Son of God, fully God and fully human, and is the complete revelation of God, the one mediator between God and humankind; that Jesus Christ, through his earthly life and mission, his sacrificial death and triumphal resurrection, saves us from sin and separation from God and gives us new and eternal life; that Jesus Christ restores us to full fellowship with God and creates the possibility for healed relationships with other persons and with the whole of God’s creation; and that Jesus Christ calls us to a life of obedient discipleship as we patiently await his own coming in power and glory to judge the world and to establish the kingdom of God.
III. Scripture
We affirm: that the Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, have been given to us by the inspiration of God as the standard for Christian faith, life and teaching; that the Scriptures, though written by human hands, are the Word of God, uniquely authoritative, revealing to us the will of God in Jesus Christ, the living Word; that, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the study of the Scriptures, their setting, their languages and their message, employing the finest tools and minds, is honouring to God and leads us to the deeper truths of his Word; and that our task is to apply our hearts, our minds and our skills to the understanding of the Scriptures and to the proclamation of their message to our age.
IV. The Church
We affirm: that the church is the living body of Christ (Christ is its head, the one in whom and through whom the church exists. He alone is king, by whom the people of God are delivered from darkness. He alone is priest, by whom the people of God are redeemed and nourished. He alone is prophet who calls us to service in the world); that the ancient marks of the church are the qualities we seek for the church-unity, holiness, universality and apostolicity (by the power of the Holy Spirit we offer ourselves for the encouragement of the unity of the church, for the nurture of holiness in the lives of its members, for the extension of the church throughout the world and for becoming true successors of the apostles); that the church exists to worship God and to witness for him in the world, identifying itself with the needs of men and women in every dimension of their experience (the inspiration of our mission is Jesus Christ, crucified and risen); that we seek to bring people into communion with God through repentance and faith leading to baptism, to discipleship, and to anticipation of the coming new age when the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdom of God and of his Christ-the day of which the Lord’s Supper is a sign.