Statement of Faith
THE SCRIPTURES
We believe that God by the Holy Spirit inspired all the words of the Bible without error in the original writings. The Bible therefore constitutes the only infallible, sufficient, and authoritative rule of faith and practice for us and all those who belong to the body of Christ. We accept the Bible, including the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, as the written Word of God. We joyfully receive Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God and the Bible as the essential, sound, and relevant record of God’s self-disclosure to mankind.
GOD
We believe that there is but one living and true God, perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
JESUS
We believe in the full deity of Christ, His virgin birth, His real humanity, His sinless life, His substitutionary death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension into heaven, His present ministry as high priest and His future personal return to this earth.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the full deity of the Holy Spirit, who convicts sinners and regenerates those who believe in Christ. He also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, and empowers believers for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption. We believe that every believer is indwelt and baptized by the Spirit at the time of salvation. We believe being filled with the Spirit for walking in the Spirit is living in the conscious presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, letting His mind, through the Word, dominate everything that we think and do. We believe the Holy Spirit administers spiritual gifts to the church and He is sovereign in bestowing all of the gifts for the refining of the saints.
HUMAN
We believe that God created all things as described in Genesis. We believe that the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, sinned against God and brought spiritual death to all humankind. We all therefore stand condemned, making new birth absolutely necessary for all. In accordance with the Genesis narrative, we unapologetically adhere to biblical teaching on marriage, instituted before sin entered the world, as the union of one man and one woman.
SALVATION
We believe that salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ, the merit of His shed blood, and not on the basis of human merit or works. God gives eternal life to those who repent of their sins, and put their faith in Christ alone, justifying them instantaneously by the blood of Christ and imputing His righteousness to them.
THE CHURCH
We believe in the universal church to which all believers belong. We believe in the importance of the local church, which is made up of believers who gather for worship, fellowship, and teaching. We believe in the responsibility of the church to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ, preaching the gospel to all nations. THE FUTURE – We believe in the eternal existence of the soul, resurrection of the body, eternal blessedness of believers, and eternal punishment of unbelievers.
Revised: Fall 2022