beliefs

  • The Bible is the Word of God

  • There is one true God who exists in three persons: God the Father, Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit

  • God created all things for His glory

  • Men and women were originally created in the image of God without sin

  • Man rebelled against God, causing sin and death to enter the world

  • All humans are now born completely sinful

  • Jesus Christ came to Earth to reveal God and redeem sinful man

  • Salvation is from God’s grace alone, through Christ’s blood alone, by The Holy Spirit’s work alone.

  • At conversion, The Holy Spirit indwells believers and gives spiritual gifts to them for the glory of God

  • The Church is the community of Christians for all time who have been loved and saved by Jesus to serve Him by making disciples of all nations

  • The two church ordinances are believer’s baptism and communion

  • Jesus is returning to establish His kingdom on Earth

  • Heaven is the eternal reality for those who surrender to Christ; Hell is the eternal reality for those who reject Christ

  • There is one true and living God; He is infinite, eternal, almighty and perfect in holiness, truth, and love. In the unity of the Godhead, there are three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, co-existent, co-equal and co-eternal. one triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is the foundation of Christian faith, doctrine, and life.

    (Deuteronomy 6:4; Ephesians 4:4–6; Ii Corinthians 13:14)

  • We believe the bible to be the inspired and infallible word of God. The 39 books of the old testament and 27 books of the new testament are the final authority for all Christian living, doctrine, preaching, and teaching. The bible is God’s revelation about Himself, the sinfulness of man, and salvation through Jesus Christ. Being given by God, the bible is both fully and verbally inspired by Him and infallible and inerrant in the original writings. The scriptures should be read and studied by believers, both privately and corporately, in order to fully mature in the grace and knowledge of God.

    (II Timothy 3:14–16; I Peter 1:20–21)

  • Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, is the eternal word made flesh, supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He is perfect in nature, teaching and obedience. He is fully God and fully man. He is the only savior for the sins of the world, having shed His blood in a vicarious death on calvary’s cross.

    On the cross, He displayed the love of God, atoned for sin, satisfied the wrath of God, and conquered over satan. Having provided atonement for sinners, He rose bodily from the grave on the third day and ascended into heaven to the right hand of God the Father 40 days later, where He now intercedes for His people and rules as Lord over all. He is the head of His body, the church, and should be adored, loved, served and obeyed by all.

    (John 1:1–2; Colossians 1:15–20; Isaiah 53:1–12; I John 2:2; Romans 5:6–11)

  • The Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Through the proclamation of the gospel, He convicts and calls men to repent of their sins, believe the gospel, and confess Jesus Christ as Lord.

    He regenerates the human heart and indwells every believer, guiding them in all truth. He leads the church into a right understanding and rich application of the truth of God’s word. His ultimate work is to glorify Jesus Christ. He is to be respected, honored and worshiped as God, the third person of the trinity.

    (John 14:16–17, 16:7–11; Ephesians 1:13–14; Ezekiel 36:25–27; I Corinthians 12:7–11)

  • Jesus Christ is the gospel. The good news is revealed in Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. Christ’s death is the heart of the gospel, His resurrection the power of the gospel, and His ascension the glory of the gospel. Christ went to the cross in the place of the sinful believer and died in our place for our sin.

    Christ’s death satisfies the demands of God’s holy justice, appeases His holy wrath, demonstrates His mysterious love, and reveals his amazing grace. Salvation is found for sinful humanity in no one else but Jesus Christ. The church’s responsibility is to sincerely preach this gospel to all men in all nations in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God.

    (I Corinthians 15:1–6; John 3:14–17; Romans 3:21–26)

  • God made man – male and female – in His own image without sin. Tempted by satan, man rebelled against God. This rebellion brought sin into the world; as a result, all humans are born sinful. Sin affects every part of a person: soul, mind, emotions, and body.

    Without the drawing and conviction of the Holy Spirit, a person will remain in his or her sinfulness. salvation is only possible when a person, by the conviction of the Spirit, repents of sin, believes the gospel, and confesses Jesus Christ as savior and Lord.

    (Genesis 3:1–19, 6:5; Romans 3:9–18, 5:12–14)

  • God’s salvation, by way of Jesus Christ, is only effectual to those who genuinely repent of their sins and by God’s grace, put saving faith in Christ. Repentance is turning from sinful self-government, and faith is turning to Jesus Christ, surrendering to His Lordship.

    While neither repentance nor faith save, they are God’s commanded conditions and responses for men to be saved. Biblical repentance is characterized by a changed life, and saving faith is evidenced by a growth in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, a love for God, and the assurance of salvation by the witness of the Holy Spirit.

    God is the one who calls humanity to faith and repentance. Upon conversion, the Holy Spirit unites the believer to Jesus Christ where the believer is the regenerated, redeemed, justified, and empowered.

    (Mark 1:14–15; John 3:18–21; Acts 17:30–31, 26:19–20)

  • The Holy Spirit abides in every true believer in Christ to mold them into the image of Christ. The sanctification process takes place by the Spirit’s leading and the believer’s obedience. As we are taught and led by the Spirit, we grow in the knowledge of the Lord, obeying His commandments and endeavoring to be salt and light in the world that all people may see his work in us and glorify our Father who is in heaven. By the promise of the Holy Spirit and His work in every believer, we know that we are eternally secure, for the Lord will sustain and finish His work in us.

    (I Thessalonians 4:1–8, 5:23–24; Romans 8:29; Philippians 1:6; Titus 2:11–15)

  • The Holy Spirit empowers believers for Christian witness and service. The Spirit’s power is freely available to all who believe in Jesus Christ, thereby enabling them to be used effectively for the kingdom of God in ministry and mission. The Holy Spirit desires to continually control and fill each believer with His power to be a witness for Christ, and He imparts His supernatural gifts for the edification of the body and the work of ministry throughout the world.

    (Acts 1:8; Luke 24:48; I Corinthians 2:1–5; II Timothy 1:6–7; Ephesians 5:18)

  • God, by His word and spirit, creates the church, calling sinful men out of the whole human race into the fellowship of Christ’s body. By the same word and spirit, He guides and preserves that new redeemed humanity. The church is not a religious institution or denomination but rather made up of those who have become genuine followers of Jesus Christ and have personally appropriated the gospel. While all those saved for all time make up the universal church, God has also called believers in particular places to form local churches for the physical embodiment of the church on earth.

    The church exists to worship and glorify God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to serve Him by faithfully doing His will in the Earth. All members of the church universal are to be vitally connected and committed to a local church. In this context, they are to live in this present world as the people of God, demonstrating the reality of the kingdom of God, manifesting the purity of the life of God, and living solely for the glory of God. Believers are to use the gifts the Holy Spirit has given in order to build up the church and preach the gospel, ministering and making disciples throughout the world.

    (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22–23; Acts 2:42–47; I Peter 2:9–10; Matthew 28:18–20)

  • Christian baptism is a symbolic practice of the church in which believers in Jesus are immersed in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This initial act of obedience serves as the believer’s public profession of faith in Jesus and is an outward symbol of the believers’ forgiveness of sin and new life in Jesus Christ. The act of baptism should closely follow faith and repentance.

    Communion is an act of worship and obedience whereby believers, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, remember the death of the Jesus and anticipate His second coming. Baptism and the communion are significant expressions of salvation, worship, and submission to God for the believer.

    (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)

  • Heaven is a real place of eternal blessedness prepared by God for those who have been saved by grace through the shed blood of Christ. Hell is a real place of eternal suffering for those whose names are not written in the book of life. There is no intermediate state in which the unsaved can atone for his own sins.

    (John 14:1–6; Revelation 7:13–17; 20:11–15; 21:22–27; 2 Corinthians 5:1–10; Luke 16:19–31)

  • We believe in the personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to Earth and the establishment of His kingdom. We believe in the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, the eternal bliss of the righteous, and the eternal punishment of the unredeemed.

    (Matthew 16:27; Mark 14:62; John 14:3; Acts 1:11; Philippians 3:20; I Thessalonians 4:15; II Timothy 4:1; Titus 2:13; I Corinthians 15: II Thessalonians 1:7–10; Revelation 20:4–6, 11–15)

  • God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between cChrist and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.

    The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.

    Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.

    (Genesis 1:26–28; 2:15–25; 3:1–20; Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 6:4–9; Joshua 24:15; 1 Samuel 1:26–28; Psalms 51:5; 78:1–8; 127; 128; 139:13–16; Proverbs1:8; 5:15–20; 6:20–22; 12:4; 13:24; 14:1; 17:6; 18:22; 22:6,15; 23:13–14; 24:3; 29:15,17; 31:10–31; Ecclesiastes 4:9–12; 9:9; Malachi 2:14–16; Matthew 5:31–32; 18:2–5; 19:3–9; Mark 10:6–12; Romans 1:18–32; 1 Corinthians 7:1–16; Ephesians 5:21–33; 6:1–4; Colossians 3:18–21; 1 Timothy 5:8,14; 2 Timothy 1:3–5; Titus 2:3–5; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Peter 3:1–7)

  • God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His word or not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others.

    Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion.

    A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.

    (Genesis 1:27; 2:7; Matthew 6:6–7,24; 16:26; 22:21; John 8:36; Acts 4:19–20; Romans 6:1–2; 13:1–7; Galatians 5:1,13; Philippians 3:20; 1 Timothy 2:1–2; James 4:12; 1 Peter 2:12–17; 3:11–17; 4:12–19)