APLINGTON EVANGELICAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
AI summary — doctrinal positions on this page are inferred by AI from this church's own public statements and may be inaccurate.
Inherited from denomination
What Evangelical Presbyterian Church teaches
Positions bound by the denomination's confessional standards. This is what the tradition teaches; whether this specific congregation publicly holds each is a separate question — see Statements below.
Confessional standard: Westminster Confession of Faith · Westminster Larger Catechism · Westminster Shorter Catechism
Affirms
- Infant BaptismstandardWestminster XXVIII; Book of Concord SC IV; Council of Trent Session VII; Wesleyan Articles Art. XVII
- Marriage as one man and one womanstandardGenesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4–6; historic universal Christian teaching.
- Permissibility of divorce and remarriageweakMatthew 19:9 (adultery ground); 1 Corinthians 7:15 (abandonment ground). Practice varies.
Denies
- Apostolic SuccessionweakCongregational and presbyterian polity reject the necessity of tactile episcopal succession.
- Assumption of MaryweakUniversal Protestant rejection — not attested in Scripture; not received as dogma.
- Homosexual practice and biblical sexual ethicsstandardRomans 1:26–27; 1 Corinthians 6:9–10; historic universal Christian teaching.
- Immaculate ConceptionstandardUniversal Protestant + Orthodox rejection. Orthodox reject on the grounds that they hold prepurification at the Annunciation, not conception.
- Perpetual Virginity of MaryweakNatural reading of Matthew 13:55–56 (brothers of Jesus); typical modern Baptist / evangelical position.
- TransubstantiationstandardOrthodox reject the Aristotelian metaphysics; Lutherans use 'sacramental union'; 39 Articles Art. XXVIII rejects explicitly; Reformed/Baptist reject substance-change.
- Women in pastoral / ordained officestandard1 Timothy 2:12; 1 Corinthians 14:34; historic apostolic practice.
Wrestles with
- Believer's BaptismweakPaedobaptist bodies practice adult baptism on credible profession where infant baptism was omitted, but do not consider it normative.
- Pacifism vs. just-warweakDefault just-war framework — usually unwritten. Inheriting at weak confidence.
- Real PresenceweakCalvin's spiritual presence (genuinely present but not physically) is neither strong affirm nor deny; Anglican/Methodist typically hold a receptionist view.
- TheotokosweakConfessionally valid title (Ephesus is a received council) but not used devotionally; retained in liturgy where liturgy is retained.
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