Statement of faith – what do we believe?
 

This is not meant to be a comprehensive explanation of everything we believe; however this snapshot will briefly explain our general beliefs and alignment with the scriptures on the essentials of the faith.

• The 66 books of the Bible are the written Word of God. The Bible is divinely inspired and inerrant throughout. Its assertions are factually true in all the original autographs and it is the supreme authority for doctrine, reproof, correction and for instruction in righteousness.

• The final guide to the interpretation of Scripture is Scripture itself.

• We affirm the existence of a triune God or one God in three distinct persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is self-existent, eternal, unchanging, omnipotent, omnipresent, holy, righteous, and loving. God created the universe from nothing and He rules over all His creation sovereignly including both human and spiritual beings.

• Jesus Christ is God, the living Word, who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. Hence, He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in one person forever.

• Jesus lived a sinless life and voluntarily atoned for the sins of men by dying on the cross as their substitute, thus satisfying divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust in Him alone.

• He rose from the dead in the same body in which He lived and died. He ascended bodily into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only mediator between God and man, continually makes intercession for His own.

• Man was created in the image of God. He sinned by disobeying God; thus, he was alienated from his Creator.

• Man is born with a sin nature – or a propensity to sin. Our works can never merit salvation but we receive salvation as a free gift by faith in Christ. Man is reconciled to God by faith in Christ and is born anew into His kingdom by regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit by baptism.

• The salvation of man is wholly a work of God's free grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness or religious ceremony. Christ was credited with man’s sin and therefore God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justified them in His sight.

• The first command a believer must submit to obey is publicly identifying oneself with Christ by baptism. Baptism is an outward testimony of an inward surrender and must follow a profession of faith.

• The Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to men. He convicts and draws sinners to Christ, imparts new life to them, continually indwells them from the moment of spiritual birth and seals them until the day of redemption. God’s Holy Spirit works within the believer to produce Christ-like characteristics (fruits of the Spirit) and to conform each believer to the image of Christ.

• Every believer is called to live  in the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us so that each believer will not fulfill the lust of the flesh but will bear fruit to the glory of God.

• Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, which is composed of all believers, living and dead, who have been joined to Him through saving faith.

• God admonishes His people to assemble together regularly for worship, for participation in ordinances, for edification through the Scriptures and for mutual encouragement.

• At physical death the believer enters immediately into eternal, conscious fellowship with the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting glory and blessing.

• At physical death the unbeliever enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting judgment and condemnation.

• Jesus Christ will come again to the earth - personally, visibly and bodily - to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ commanded all believers to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to disciple men of every nation. Each believer plays a role in reaching the world and ministering as part of the body of Christ.

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