What We Believe
The Triune God
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – equal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections. This one true and living God is perfect both in His love and holiness and is the Creator of all things worthy to receive all glory and praise.
The Bible
We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament (sixty six books in all) to be the verbally inspired Word of God, completely authoritative and without error in its original writings, infallible, God breathed, and sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do.
The Sinfulness of Man
We believe that man was created in the image of God, but that through Adam’s sin, that image was distorted and the human race fell. All human beings have inherited this sinful nature and have become alienated from God. Man is totally depraved and unable, of himself, to remedy his lost condition.
The Redemption of Christ
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son became man: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human, one Person in two natures. The man Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man. We believe that Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as our representative and substitute. Through the Cross he canceled sin, propitiated God, and by bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all those who believe. By His literal, physical resurrection the Lord Jesus broke the power of death and defeated Satan, and brought eternal life to all His people. We believe that He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God the Father, exercising in heaven and on earth all of God’s sovereignty, and is our High Priest, Advocate, and Intercessor.
The Gospel
We believe the Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ – God’s wisdom and utter foolishness to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved. This good news centers on the Cross and Resurrection. If Christ is not proclaimed and His death and resurrection are not central, the Gospel is not proclaimed. The Gospel message is that Jesus Christ ‘died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.’ This good news is biblical, theological, historical, and intensely personal.
Salvation
We believe that salvation is the gift of God given to man by grace and received by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins.
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment and by His powerful and mysterious work regenerates spiritually dead sinners awakening them to repentance and faith. He baptizes all believers into union with the Lord Jesus and into the Body of Christ, indwelling, guiding, instructing, equipping, empowering, and sealing them unto the day of redemption. It is also through the Spirit that believers receive His sovereignly distributed gifts. It is the privilege and responsibility of every believer to minister according to the gift(s) and grace of God that is given to him.
The Church
We believe that the church is the body and bride of Christ, made of born again persons. The church is to be distinguished by the gospel message, the sacred ordinances (Baptism and Communion), mission, and above all, love for God, love for one another, and love for the world. The church is the corporate dwelling place of God’s Spirit and the continuing witness to God in the world.
The Restoration of All Things
We believe in the glorious and bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ to come judge the living and the dead, and consummate His kingdom. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and unjust – the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of God, in the new heaven and new earth; and the unjust to judgment and eternal punishment in hell. On that day the church will be presented blameless before God by the obedience, suffering and triumph of Christ – all sin and its effects will be banished forever. God will be all in all and everything will be to the praise of his glorious grace.