WE BELIEVE IN THE INERRANCY OF SCRIPTURE
The Holy Bible has God for its author, was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction.
All Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us. Scripture is the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.
All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT GOD
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, and Ruler of the universe.
God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures.
The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
GOD THE FATHER
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace.
He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all mankind.
GOD THE SON
Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, the Creator and Sustainer of heaven and earth, and the Head of the church.
Jesus is the eternal Son of God who became man, without ceasing to be God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God, fulfill prophecy, and redeem sinful man.
Jesus accomplished our redemption through His substitutionary sacrifice on the cross, His burial, and His bodily resurrection.
Our redemption and salvation are guaranteed by Jesus’s literal and physical resurrection from the dead and that He is the only means of salvation.
GOD THE SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is a fully divine person who convicts men of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
Through illumination He enables people to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts mankind of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls people to the Savior, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration, He fills every believer and joins them to the Body of Christ.
The Holy Spirit dwells in all who believe in Jesus. From the moment of belief in the Son, the Spirit baptizes believers into the body, seals them for salvation, regenerates them to new life, bestows spiritual gifts on each one, and is fully present to continually guide His own.
He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT MANKIND
Mankind is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. but with equal personal dignity and value.
We believe man was created innocent and, in the image, and likeness of God, but that man sinned, bringing both physical and spiritual death to himself and his posterity, inheriting a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. As a result, man can do nothing to merit God’s favor, and is in need of salvation.
We believe that God loves and pursues mankind despite our rebellion. He offers forgiveness, healing and abundant life to anyone who turns to Him in humility and repentance.
WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT SALVATION
We believe salvation is a sovereign gift of God and is received by man through personal faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sin. Man is justified by grace through faith apart from works.
Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation and that no one is saved apart from a conscious and personal decision to trust in Christ as his or her one and only Savior. We believe all true believers of God are kept secure in Christ forever.
Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus.
Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God.
Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.
Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.
Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.
WE PRACTICE TWO ORDINANCES:
BAPTISM:
Baptism is an outward expression (a picture or symbol) of what has taken place in the salvation of a believer. The “old life” is buried, sins repented of and forgiven; and the “new life” is raised in obedience and followship to Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).
The Order: Baptism takes place after one has professed their faith in Christ.
The Mode: Baptism comes from the word “baptizo” – which means to dip under or immerse. Hence, we believe baptism by total immersion is the Biblical mode of baptism that we adhere to. Immersion is also the example found in the Scripture, including Jesus’ baptism.
THE LORD’S SUPPER
The Lord’s Supper is a perpetual reminder of “the Lord’s death until He comes” and the anticipation of His Second Coming (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Every Christian who has professed and received Jesus Christ as their Savior can participate in the Lord’s Supper.
WE BELIEVE IN THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
We believe in the future, visible, and bodily return of Jesus Christ to the earth, commonly called the Second Coming, to rule the nations and establish His kingdom on earth.
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness.
The unrighteous will be committed to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
