Colorado Reformed Baptist Churches
Journey’s End is produced by the Reformed Baptist churches of Denver. Our churches are part of an association of churches called the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America (ARBCA). http://www.arbca.com/. Most people have never heard of “Reformed Baptists,” and many who have think it is a contradiction in terms. So what is a Reformed Baptist?
Let’s look at the two parts of the name. First, we are Reformed. Historically, the Reformed are one of the two main branches of the Protestant Reformation (the other being Lutheran). This wonderful movement in Christian history was an attempt to reform the western Roman church, as it sought to bring her back to a more biblical form of Christianity.
Along these lines, they developed catch phrases that are still prized today for their succinctness and clarity. These refer to our ultimate authority in matters of faith and practice (Scripture Alone), to God’s work in Salvation (Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and Christ Alone), and finally to the sole Being deserving of all praise and honor (to God Alone be the Glory).
Reformed Christians are also deeply rooted in the historic Christian faith as expressed in the ecumenical early creeds such as the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds. This means that we desire to be orthodox Christians, holding to “the faith once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3) as true Christians always have. We have no desire to depart from that which Christians have always held true and dear.
Reformed Christians are also confessional. Confessions of faith are larger, more developed “creeds” that we choose to subscribe to in order to give us a defined unity on issues that go beyond the more basic creeds. We believe our common convictions actually create unity, as opposed to letting everyone believe whatever they want, which brings chaos. All of the early Reformed and Lutheran Christians developed confessions of faith that are still in use to this day.
Distinctives that all Reformed Christians hold in common include the belief in the absolute sovereignty of God over the affairs of the earth, including human salvation. This includes a belief that human beings are not basically good, but are instead deeply stained by sin, unwilling to ever turn to God unless he first regenerates their hearts. We hold to a form of worship that is regulated by the Scripture. We believe that the object of worship is our holy God who have so graciously saved us, and that therefore he has the right to be worshiped as he wants to be worshiped, and not necessarily as we feel he should be worshiped. We believe strongly in the power of the means of grace to save and to sanctify God’s people. Rather than our works or pious mystical devotion, these are the works of God expressing his goodwill towards us in very common and earthy ways, especially the word rightly preached and the sacraments (baptism and the Lord ’s Supper) rightly administered. Finally, the term “Reformed” especially refers to a way of reading the Scripture as a basic unity with Christ as the center of all of redemptive history. This is commonly referred to as covenant theology.
The other part of our name is “Baptist.” This is where other Reformed Christians often think we are a walking contradiction, because most Reformed Christians are infant Baptists. The vast majority of “Baptists” during the Reformation were actually non-confessional schismatics, that have little in common with us. Our view of professing believer’s baptism stems from our covenant theology, belief in the basic unity of Scripture, and the climactic inauguration of the covenant of grace in Jesus Christ.
We warmly invite you to look into the things we believe for yourself by investigating our confession of faith: the 1689 London Baptist Confession, a document that has much in common with other Protestant confessions; and if you are searching for a local community of believers that wants to take God’s word seriously and God’s worship in a more biblical and historical way, to visit our churches and spend some time getting to know us. We know that such places of worship are increasingly difficult to find. But they are still out there, helping each other reach journey’s end.
We have two churches serving the greater Denver area. Both are relatively young works. Feel free to visit our websites for more information on us.
North Denver (Boulder) – Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado
South Denver (Highlands Ranch) – Reformation Baptist Church
