What We Believe

Believing that God has spoken to us through His living Word – the Bible – as the testimony to
His only Son, Jesus Christ, the following is an affirmation of those biblical truths on
which we stand firm as one body.

There is only one true and living God who is Creator of all things and reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. ʉ۬He is holy and perfect in all His ways and is worthy of worship, love and obedience.
(Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 1:9-11)

The Bible is God’s Holy Word, divinely inspired without error and is the sole authority for life and faith. 

(Deuteronomy 4:1-2; Psalm 119:105; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)

God the Father reigns with sovereign wisdom, justice and unfailing love over all creation and history.  He is the Father of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ and Father of all believers, who are those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
(1 Chronicles 29:10; John 3:16; Romans 8:14-15)

Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin.  He lived a sinless life as both totally God and totally man, died for our sin on a cross, was buried, arose bodily from the grave on the third day, and ascended into Heaven.  He reigns and intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father and will return one day to judge the world and consummate His redemptive mission.  He is Savior and Lord to all who put their faith in Him for salvation from sin.  â€¨
(Matthew 1:18-23; John 1:1-18, 29; Philippians 2:5-11)

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God who inspired the writing of the Scripture and enables people to understand it.  He always exalts Christ.  He convicts people of sin, calls them to the Savior and does the work of making them new creations in Christ. When a person comes to Christ in faith, the Holy Spirit baptizes them into the body of Christ.  He makes believers holy, comforts them, and gives them spiritual gifts to serve and build up the church.  He also empowers all believers to be witnesses of the saving power of Jesus Christ throughout the earth. 
(John 14: 16-17;John 16: 7-14; Acts 1:8)

God created man in His own image, both male and female.  God and man had perfect fellowship until Satan tempted man, and man chose to disobey and rebel against God.  Man’s rebellion and disobedience against God is called sin.  All mankind is sinful by nature.  Sin separates man from fellowship with God, because God is holy and hates sin.  God judges sin and all sin must be punished, and the punishment for sin is death. 

(Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 3; Romans 5:12; Psalm 99:9; Psalm 45:7; Romans 6:23)

Man is securely and eternally saved by God's grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and His shed blood is the only remission for sin.  A personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and eternal life in Heaven, and, apart from a personal faith in Him, man is doomed to eternal damnation in hell.
(John 3:15-16, 10:27-29, 14:6; Romans 8:34-39, 10:9-10; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Hebrews 9:22, 27-28)

The church is all believers who have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, gathering together locally as bodies of baptized believers under the lordship of Jesus Christ.  The church glorifies God by uniting to corporately worship God, encourage and edify one another, disciple believers toward maturity, minister to those in need, and carry the gospel to the ends of the earth through local, national and international missions.  â€¨
(Acts 2:41-47; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Ephesians 1: 22-23)

There are two pictorial ordinances in the Lord Jesus’ church:  Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
 
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.  It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead.  Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership.
         
The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s perfect sacrificial Lamb, and anticipate His second coming.
(Matthew 3:13-17; 26: 26-30; 28: 19-20; Mark 1:9-11; 14: 22-26; Luke 3: 21-22; 22: 19-20; John 3: 23; Acts 2: 41-42; 8: 35-39; 16: 30-33; 20:7; Romans 6: 3-5; 1 Corinthians 10: 16, 21; 11: 23-29; Colossians 2:12)

Marriage is the first institution God created and ordained in human society.  It is God’s plan for marriage to be a holy union of one biological man and one biological woman in an exclusive life-long covenant love relationship.  Marriage reflects the relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church.  Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. 

(Genesis 2: 15-25; Ephesians 5: 21-6:4; Psalm 127: 3-5)