The Bible
We believe that God is a speaking God and has graciously revealed himself not only through His Son, but also in human writings (Hebrews 1:1-4). We believe that these writings, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament, are the works of men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that their focus is Jesus Christ (Luke 24:27; 1 Peter 1:10-12), that the original copies were without error, and that they are the supreme authority in all matters of faith and practice (2
Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:19-20).
The Trinity
We believe in one God (Deuteronomy 6:1; Romans 3:30), eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one another (Matthew 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 1:1-3; 17:1-5; Ephesians 1:3-14; 4:4-6). This one true and living God is infinitely perfect in his love, holiness, wisdom, and power. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, visible and invisible, and is therefore our rightful Master, worthy of our
utmost love and obedience.
God the Father
We believe in God, the Father, the supreme Ruler of all and the Designer of our redemption. We believe that His mission is to magnify the riches of His mercy by redeeming the brokenness and sin of a fallen human race and a cursed world through Jesus Christ (John 3:16; Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14).
Jesus Christ
We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, sent by the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary. We believe that Christ was as human as you or I and as much God as the Father (Philippians 2:5-8; John 1:1-4; Hebrews 1:1-4; Colossians 1:15-20). We believe Jesus was perfectly obedient to the Father (John 5:19; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5), that He was the Spirit-anointed Messiah (i.e. the Christ), and that His life and teachings are the supreme revelation of God to us (Hebrews 1:1-4). We believe in his substitutionary atoning death (Isaiah 53:4-12), his bodily resurrection (John 20:27; 1 Corinthians 15), his ascension into heaven (Acts 1:9-11), his continual prayers for his people Hebrews 7:25), his right to be King over all things (Philippians 2:9-11), and his personal, visible return to the earth Hebrews 9:28; Revelation 22:20).
Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit, sent from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 14:15-17; 16:7-11), and to apply the saving work of Jesus by regenerating, sanctifying, empowering, teaching, and gifting all who believe in Him (John 3:5-8; 15:12-15; Romans 8:1-17; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11). We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ and is the present evidence of their future hope (1 Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians
1:13-14).
Humanity
We believe that God created humanity in his own glorious image to be the kings and queens of the earth (Genesis 1:26-28) to care for, cultivate, and govern the creation in loving obedience to Him. God created his image male and female endowing each with equal dignity and access to Him. Furthermore, he made man and woman to complement one another in a one-flesh union, marriage, which is the only holy pattern of sexual relations, and which is a precious institution as
it serves as a portrait of Christ’s union with his Bride, the Church (Ephesians 5:22-33). We further believe that Adam, by his willing disobedience to God, disfigured the image of God in himself and for all his decedents (Romans 5:12), and that as a result all persons possess God’s image but in a corrupted and distorted form. This means that each person is a sinner who value the things of this world more than the God who created them (Romans 1:22-23; 3:23; Ephesians
2:1-3), and that all humanity, having failed to submit to God’s rightful rule and to give Him the glory He deserves, are now under God’s just condemnation (John 3:18; Romans 1:18).
Redemption
We joyfully believe that because of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, that because He took our sin and gives us his righteousness, that because He bore our curses and gives us his rightful blessings, we may, through faith in Him, be forgiven, delivered from sin and condemnation, reconciled to God, and adopted as His sons (Romans 5:6-11; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13-14; 4:4-7).
Repentance and Faith
We believe that God freely grants redemption to all who repent of their sin and trust in Christ (Romans 10:9-10). We further believe that this repentance and faith are both our responsibility as well as the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, who by deeply convincing us of our guilt, danger, and helplessness brings us to trust in Jesus alone for our salvation, not in any good deed we may perform or any virtue we may possess, but only in the virtue of Jesus’ obedience, sufferings, and victory (1 Corinthians 1:26-31; 12:3; Ephesians 2:8-10).
New Humanity
We believe that through the work of Christ and the power of the Spirit God is creating a new humanity, the foretaste of His New Creation to be fully revealed in the new age (Romans 6:1-11; 8:18-25; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 3:1-4). We believe that all who repent of their sin and trust in Christ are “born again” or regenerated by the Spirit into this new life and identity (John 3:5-8). The Holy Spirit as the agent of this new life makes believers participants in the divine nature, renews them into image of Christ, teaches them Jesus’ commands, enables them to progressively put their sin to death, and empowers them to trust, love and obey God (2 Peter 1:3-4; Romans 8:9:17; 28-29; John 14:25; Galatians 5:16-25). Furthermore, we believe that once the Spirit begins his good work He will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. That is, all true believers will endure in faith until the end (Philippians 1:6).
The Church
We believe that the universal church is manifest in local churches of which Christ is the only Head; thus each “local church” is, in fact, the church, the household of God, the body of Christ, the apple of God’s eye, graven on Jesus’ hands, to whom He has pledged Himself forever (Ephesians 1:22-23; ; 2:18-22; 1 Peter 2:4-10). The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her love for God, her members’ love for one another, and her love for the world (Matthew 18:15-20; 28:18-20; John 13:34-35; 1 John 4:1-12). We further believe that the church is the communal dwelling place of God’s Spirit and the continuing witness to God in the world serving as a sign of God’s future new creation when a glorified humanity will live in perfect adoration of God and
service to one another (John 17:20-26; Romans 8:23; 2 Corinthians 2:14-16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15).
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. We believe that baptism is the immersion in water of a believer in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in order to identify with the crucified, buried, and risen Jesus, to signal the burial of the old self with Christ in His death as well as resurrection into His life, and to be marked as members of God’s new covenant community (Matthew 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; Romans 6:3-4). We believe that in partaking of the Lord’s Supper we commemorate Jesus’ dying love, proclaim His death until He returns, participate in the blessings of Christ’s broken body and shed blood, renew our participation in the new covenant, demonstrate our united love as the body of Christ, and anticipate Jesus’ return when He will make all things new (Matthew 26:26-29; 1 Corinthians 10:14-22; 11:17-34).
The World To Come
We believe in the imminent, personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ when he will rout all the forces of darkness, exercise his role as the ultimate Judge, and establish His kingdom forever (Matthew 25:31-34; Acts 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Timothy 4:1; Revelation 19:11-21; 22:7, 12, 20). We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust—the unjust to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in hell, and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of God, in the new heavens and new earth (Daniel 12:2; John 5:25-29). On that day the church will be presented as faultless before God by the obedience, suffering, and triumph of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-27). Evil shall be purged, death shall be slain, and all foes of God banished forever (Isaiah 25:6-9; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; 2 Peter 3:10;
Revelation 20:7-15; 21:8, 27). God will dwell among us, and we shall see Christ as He is (Revelation 21:1-7; 1 John 3:2). We shall live before God as a glorified humanity eternally captivated by the nearness of His inexpressible holiness and glory. God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28; Ephesians 1:10; Philippians 3:20-21; Revelation 22:1-5).