Contents

  1. Historical Note
  2. Confession of Faith

Historical Note

The Free Church of Geneva seceded from the established Church of the city of Calvin, and issued in 1848 the following Confession of Faith. It fairly represents the doctrinal position of other Free Churches which have been organized in Switzerland and France in opposition to the degenerate Reformed State Churches. It exhibits the Calvinism of the nineteenth century—a Calvinism moderated, simplified, and separated from connection with the civil government.

The French text is taken from the Notice Historique sur l’église évangélique libre de Genève par E. Guers, Genève, 1875, pp. 86–90. It is also found, together with a Presbyterian constitution and a hymn-book, in Église évangélique a Genève; Recueil de Cantiques pour les assemblées de culte, etc. Genève and Lyon, 1864.

The English translation was prepared for this work by my friend, Professor Elie Charlier, of New York.

Philip Schaff

Confession of Faith

  1. We believe that the Holy Scriptures are entirely inspired of God in all their parts, and that they are the only and infallible Rule of Faith.
  2. We receive as canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament, all the books which have been transmitted to us, under that title, by the universal consent of the Jewish people, to whom the oracles of God were confided under the guidance of Jehovah; and we receive equally as canonical Scriptures of the New Testament, all the books which, under the guidance of the same Providence, have been transmitted to us as such by the universal consent of the Churches of the Christian world.
  3. We worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, one only God in three persons, the Creator and Preserver of all things.
  4. We believe that the first man, Adam, was created, after the image of God, perfectly just and holy; but that, tempted by Satan, he fell, and that, from that time, human nature has been entirely corrupt; so that all men are born sinners, unable to do good before God, inclined to evil, bringing condemnation and death on themselves by a just judgment.
  5. We believe that the Word, which was of all eternity with God, and which was God, was made flesh, and that, alone among men, Jesus, a second Adam, born from a virgin by the power of the Most High, has been able to obey God in a perfect way.
  6. We believe that Jesus, the Christ, God and man in one, only Mediator between God and men, died in our place as an expiatory victim, that he rose from the dead, and that, having ascended into glory, he intercedes for us before God, at the same time dwelling with us by the Holy Ghost.
  7. We believe that no man can enter into the kingdom of heaven unless he has felt in his soul, through the virtue of the Holy Ghost, the supernatural change which, in the Holy Scriptures, is called new birth, regeneration, conversion, passing from death to life.
  8. We believe that we are justified before God, not by righteous works which we may accomplish, but only by grace and through faith in Christ, whose righteousness is ascribed to us. On that account we are assured that in Him we have eternal life, and that no one can pluck us out of his hand.
  9. We believe that without sanctification no man will see the Lord, and that, ransomed at a great price, we must glorify him by our works. And although the battle between the Spirit and the flesh exists unto the end, still we are not discouraged, but, having received a new will, we work for our sanctification in the fear of the Lord.
  10. We believe that the beginning and the end of our salvation, our new birth, faith, sanctification, and perseverance are a gratuitous gift of the divine mercy; the true believer having been elected in Christ before the foundation of the world, according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, in the sanctification of the Holy Ghost, to obey Jesus Christ and to be bathed in his blood.
  11. We believe that God, who so loved the world that he gave his only Son, now orders every man, in every place, to be converted; that every one is responsible for his sins and his unbelief; that Jesus repels none who go to him; and that every sinner who sincerely appeals to him will be saved.
  12. We believe that the Holy Ghost applies to the chosen ones, by means of the Word, the salvation which the Father has destined for them and which the Son has bought, so that, uniting them to Jesus by faith, he dwells in them, delivers them from the sway of sin, makes them understand the Scriptures, consoles them and seals them for the day of redemption.
  13. We expect from heaven our Saviour Jesus Christ, who will change our body of humiliation and make it conform to his own body of glory; and we believe that, in that day, the dead who are in Christ, coming out from their tombs at his voice, and the faithful then living on the earth, all transformed through his power, will be taken up together into the clouds to meet him, and that thus we shall always be with our Saviour.
  14. We believe that there will be a resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just; that God has decided upon a day in which he shall judge the whole world by the man chosen for that purpose; that the unjust will go to everlasting punishment, while the just will rejoice in life everlasting.
  15. We believe that individual churches, established in different places, composed more or less of converted and unconverted persons, must make themselves known to the world by the confession of their hope, the acts of their worship, and the works of their charity. But we also believe that, above all these individual churches which have been, are, and will be, there exists before God a holy universal Church, composed of all the redeemed ones, forming one invisible body of which Jesus Christ is the head, and whose members will be entirely known only at the last day.
  16. We believe that the Saviour has instituted Baptism and the Lord's Supper as symbols and pledges of the salvation which he has acquired for us: Baptism, which is the sign of the purification by the blood and spirit of Jesus Christ; the Eucharist, in which we receive by faith his body and his blood, and announce his death until his coming.
  17. We declare that, while wishing before God to maintain among ourselves the sound preaching of all these truths, we receive as brethren all such as, in any place whatsoever, pray to Jesus Christ as their only Saviour and their God; we wish to love them, and to learn from our Lord to give them on all occasions tokens of the bonds which unite us all together in Him for eternity.