What We Believe

The Bible

We believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God. Inspiration is God’s superintending of human authors by using their own individual personalities, they composed and recorded without error His revelation to man in the original autographs. All Scriptures are authoritative and without error in any category of knowledge, including science and history, and are of supreme and final authority in all matters about which they speak. The Scriptures are to be interpreted in a literal and normal way. This means to consider history, grammar, context, and harmony with other Scriptures as guidelines for interpretation. We believe that the Holy Spirit guides the believer to understand the Bible.

(Matthew 5:18; John 10:35; II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:20-21; Revelation 22:18-19)

The Trinity

We believe there is one living Triune God, an infinite Spirit who is the Maker and Supreme Ruler of the universe. The Scriptures reveal Him to be holy, sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, immutable, and full of: love, justice, goodness, mercy, and truth. One God, in the unity of the Godhead, three eternal and coequal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three are the same in substance, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections; but distinct in subsistence, and executing different but harmonious functions.

(Mark 12:29; John 4:24; Matt. 3:16-17 and 28:19; II Cor. 13:14)

Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ is the pre-existent and eternal Son of God who became man in order to reveal God and redeem man. He was supernaturally conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. The Lord Jesus combined full and undiminished deity with true and perfect humanity to become the God-man. Christ died on the cross as a substitute for sinful man, was buried, arose bodily from the tomb, ascended into heaven where He ministers on the behalf of saints, and someday will come again for His own.

(John 1:18 and 8:58; Matt. 1:23; Col. 1:15-17; I Tim. 1:15 and 3:16)

Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity who convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. He regenerates believers in Christ, baptizes them into the church, the body of Christ, indwells them permanently, seals them unto the day of redemption, bestows spiritual gifts upon each one, and fills those yielded to Him.

(John 3:8, 14:16, 15:26-27, 16:7-15; I Corinthians 12:4-11, 13; Ephesians 4:30, 5:18)

Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit….”

Creation

We believe that the Triune God, according to His sovereign Will and for His own glory, created the heavens and the earth without the use of pre-existent material. All living things came into being by a direct creative act of God and have an existence distinct from Him and always dependent on Him.

(Gen. 2:4; Prov. 16:4; Acts 17:24; Col. 1:16-17)

Man

We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God in a state of innocence. Through deliberate disobedience, man fell from his sinless state and as a consequence, lost his fellowship with God and became subject to spiritual and physical death.

(Gen. 1:26-27 and 3:24; Rom. 5:12; Eph. 2:1-3).

Marriage

We believe that God has established marriage as a lifelong, exclusive relationship between one man and one woman and that all intimate sexual activity outside the marriage relationship, whether heterosexual, homosexual, or otherwise, is sin.

(Gen. 2:24-25; Ex. 20:14, 17, 22:19; Lev. 18:22-23, 20:13, 15-16; Matt. 19:4-6, 9; Rom. 1:18-31; I Cor. 6:9-10, 15-20; I Tim. 1:8-11; Jude 7).

We believe that God created the human race male and female and that all conduct with the intent to adopt a gender other than one’s birth gender is sin.

(Gen. 1:27; Deut. 22:5).

Sin

We believe that sin is anything contrary to the character of God. Every man is alienated from God because of his sin. Each person born into the world is separated from God and completely incapable of meriting salvation and avoiding the judgment of God. The sin nature is never eradicated and it remains until the end of life. However, God has made provision for forgiveness of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ.

(Rom. 3:10, 23 and 6:23; Eph. 4:18; I John 1:8-10; Gal. 5:16-17)

Salvation

We believe that salvation is a gift of God in grace and is received by man through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

(John 1:12; Ephesians 1:7, 2:8)

The Church

We believe that the Church is the universal bride and body of Christ. This body is composed of all “born again” believers in Christ regardless of denominational affiliation or church membership.

(I Corinthians 12:4-27; Ephesians 1:22, 5:23-30)

We believe that the local church is an assembly of professed believers in Jesus Christ who have the privilege and responsibility to voluntarily join together in one locality for the purpose of equipping each believer to be obedient to God through vital, personal and corporate experiences: with Him, in His Word, with one another, and in evangelism.

We believe the local church is God’s primary means of leading people to Christ and presenting each believer mature in Christ.

(Matthew 16:18-19, 28:18-20; Acts 2:37-47)

We believe that the Lord Jesus instituted the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper to be observed by all believers until His return.

(Matthew 28:19-20; I Corinthians 11:23-26)